The New Radio Station Is A TV Station. - Walter Sabo

In the early 7039s all the local TV kid39s shows were cancelled along with the dance entertainment and cooking shows because it became clear that animation from Japan and offnetwork re runs were cheaper and less troublesome than dealing with local production issues Local production costs also increased as unions came knocking TV stations took their remaining resources and poured them into newsDARK AFTER 10 AM EVERYWHEREIn small and medium markets many radio stations are already quotdarkquot after 8 or 10 AM and this trend will continue The position of quotprogram directorquot at a local TV station was eliminated or mutated in quotprogram and promotion directorquot or quotprogram and research directorquot as it is at Fox OampampO39s As more radio stations air programming from outside sources the job of program director will progressively evolve to include other skills Clear Channel has already told their program directors that they must generate revenueThe reality is that total radio revenues are down 5 BILLION dollars in the past 5 years They will be down 14 this year vs last yearOperators who have made aggressive cost cuts based on this reality are not evil they have done what is necessary to stay on the air Don39t blame Radio39s sales effort Blame the toad bastards who ran Lehman Brothers who began the collapse of the economy in 2008IT39S THE RETAIL ECONOMYRadio revenue is 100 dependent upon the retail economy In your city there is block after block of empty storefronts The retail economy remains in a dustbowl Depression As long as there is no commercial credit and no retail growth there will be no radio sales growth STOP wasting your time on daily pacing reports never useful even in the best of times and recognize that the profound change in radio management was not deregulation but the economic collapse of 2008To THRIVE resources should be deployed without romance to the past and that is what Cumulus and Clear Channel are doingYES RADIO MUST BE HYPER LOCAL TO THRIVEamp8226 Regardless of format smart money will flow to a station39s capabilities to cover local news and events in a manner appropriate to the format39s audience During hurricane Sandy for example Program Director Sharon Dastur at Z100 turned the station into a brilliant mirror of the informational needs of New Yorkers Z100 was BY FAR the best radio news source in the cityA long history of syndicated hits from Paul Harvey to American Top 40 repeatedly proves that radio listeners want top notch entertainment regardless of the source But the only reason radio has a reason to exist today is with hyperlocal content between the songs or between syndicated shows Otherwise it39s an iPod WITH commercialsMUSIC SELECTION ADOPTS REAL TIMEamp8226 Social media is more than LIKES It will now be the driver for music selection If a station sticks to traditional methods of music selectionwaiting for the labels to push a songnot only will stations miss hits they risk airing songs too late For example CUPS BY ANNA KENDRICK was an Internet hit 6 months ago Amazingly the label is running ads in the trades supporting CUPS now The song is from the movie PITCH PERFECT which was released 6 months ago Anna performed the song on David Letterman 6 months ago It was an online video phenomenon 6 months ago Why is it being quotworkedquot nowSocial media no longer simply introduces and makes a song familiar to the audience If a station waits 6 months to add an online hit social media may have BURNED it out to the audienceWalter Sabo is the Chairman of Sabo Media a company that offers executiveondemand services He has worked onsite to build out new digital content platforms such as SiriusXM His team was the first to discover the marketing clout of web stars Internet organic video producers They founded OMMA award winning HITVIEWS The company placed brands such as CBS TiVo and Mountain Dew inside UGC In FM broadcasting he is a leader in the profitable sector of FM Talk and held executive positions at NBC and ABC Radio He can be reached at waltersabomediacomRead all Walter39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Sabo StrategiesCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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The New Radio Station Is A TV Station. - Walter Sabo

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