Metheny Touts 'Less Is More' At NAB

Phyllis Stark at Billboard reports that Clear Channel/Cleveland's Kevin Metheney was a passionate advocate for his company’s “Less Is More” (LIM) clutter reduction strategy at a Sept. 23 session focused on the topic at the National Assn. of Broadcasters Radio Show.

When Jefferson-Pilot/Denver’s Cat Collins asked whether CC stations will drop a scheduled promo if they have an opportunity to add spots, Metheney said no.

“We’re not fooling around with this,” he said of LIM. “We’re living this every day.” Ultimately, Metheney said, LIM has turned out to be about much more than simply reducing spot load. “It has focused us very much on leaving no moment unwasted.”

LIM, he said, has forced CC programmers to “be more careful about what we do and to be careful about every word,” that goes on the air. Radio is better served, Metheney said, by focusing on one message at a time. In the course of implementing LIM, he said, “we’ve become better practitioners of our craft.”

Metheney also spoke about the quality of the spots, noting, “Crappy commercials drive people away.” He also said radio sellers are not effectively working with clients on “outcome-based” spot development.

It continues to amaze me that as I travel North America listening to the radio many operators seem to think that Clear Channel's couragous initiatives have nothing to do with them.

In case you or your owner happens to be one of them, let me connect the dots for you: 1,200+ radio stations doing something simply cannot be ignored by the rest of us.

If five or six (or more) other stations in town increase their time spent listening, that has the potential to increase average persons using radio even if their cume doesn't go up at all.

And, if PUR increases .. as has happened in many markets over the last few months .. and your average quarter hour audience stays the same, your SHARE of audience will go down. By ignoring change, you are not staying the same, you are moving backward.