"Gut Wrenching"

A&O&B works with all parties involved in yesterday's huge transactions and so all of us have been busy counselling buyers, sellers, executives, employees, all longtime coworkers at broadcast groups, radio stations and networks we have come to love and admire.

Mergers and acquisitions require adaptability and change.  Mark L. Feldman and Michael F. Spratt wrote the book on the subject back in 1998. 

"Increasingly, the companies that win are those that learn faster, act quicker and adapt sooner. They will compress time by making and executing early, informed decisions about economic value creation, ruthless prioritization and focused resource allocation. They will use these decisions to take early firm stands on management deployment, organization structure and culture. Their actions will increasingly be linked to long-term, sustained economic value creation."

As someone who manages or works for one of those companies, you know intellectually the truth of of that paragraph, yet your individual needs and fears add relationships and emotion to the personal calculus which can work against getting what needs doing done.

I have another time-tested book I recommend that everyone read at least once a year which helps me with that process.  @ParachuteGuy Richard Nelson Bolles is now semi-retired, but his work goes on as the need is greater than ever.

Recent graduate of Villanova Law School Andrew Dellaripa blogs that it's important to be cautious about giving advice in situations like this:  "Good advice sticks to your very soul. The kind of advice Obi-Wan’s ghost gives.  Bad advice, though, is outdated, archaic clichés pulled from large-font posters of cats in baskets."

So, I'll go light on advice for you except to suggest that this weekend is a great time to think about your own personal goals, abilities and career.

The clearer you are on what makes you succeed the better communicator you'll be when that new leader you'll be working for begins opening up about your new role.

If you need a mentor to help with this process please reach out to any of the A&O&B team.

Your success is our success.

You Go, Beau!

In the early 80's, I was PD at KMPS/Seattle and he was GM for what even way back then was clearly "Seattle's Best Rock," KISW.  The instant I heard his radio station I knew that this guy Beau Phillips was someone special and as I got to know his people my admiration grew.  He inspired them.  He challenged them.  He and his team created great radio.

Not surprisingly, Beau has been involved with some of the most impressive media launches and campaigns over the three decades since that time.

His Dial Global Networks exit interview with Radio Ink Magazine contains wisdom which will sustain his many industry fans (of which I am a big one) for a long time to come:

- Build a lasting brand. Radio jukeboxes can’t compete against stations who create an emotional bond with listeners. Engage listeners and create loyalty through clever personalities, topical and timely info, and music discovery.
- Stop trying to outsmart PPM.
- Invest in personalities. They are our biggest competitive advantage. Not one station in the Top 50 markets wins with “more music” in AM Drive.
- Focus on adding great content. Too much attention is being paid to eliminating anything that listeners might tune OUT. But not enough effort is made to add exciting content to encourage tune IN. The game is all about creating more listening “instances."
- Realize that you can’t "cut to success." Now that broadcasters are running lean operations, it’s time for Act II -- Growing The Stations. Look to brilliant stations like WTOP, KISW, and WBEB as your beacon. Successful companies know the winning formula is People, Product, Promotion, Profit…in that order. The shrink and starve approach just can’t sustain. You can’t, and will drive yourself crazy trying.

Take and live by this advice, radio, and your future will be very bright.  His own life example offers ample proof of that.

Thank you, Beau.  Best wishes on your next conquest!

We'll all be watching you very closely to see what inspires you and where you'll devote your endless energy and creativity next.

Six Million Divided by ONE

It has been fun to watch the impact that the arrival of John Paul at Senior Director of Country Programming joining longtime Denver programmer John St. John and the team at Dial-Global/Denver just after the first of the year.

When the staff at DG wants to talk to the boss, all they need to do is yell “hey, John.” I received a note from both of them this morning, making an impressive announcement:

Dial Global now supplies American Forces Radio with their Mainstream Country 24/7 format and rebroadcasts it over their worldwide network.

In addition to our network of over 200 radio stations in the United States that carry us through Dial Global Radio Networks, we are now heard in 188 countries around the world wherever there are military installations, bases, offices, etc. We are heard in every United States Embassy and Consulate around the world. We are also heard on 37 ships at sea, including all aircraft carriers.

In addition, some of the installations broadcast us terrestrially so surrounding English speaking civilian support personnel and the native civilian population can listen.

The conservative estimate is that the audience of Mainstream Country on the American Forces Radio Network is over three million per week. That doesn’t include the domestic cumes of nearly three million, making Dial Global’s Mainstream Country format the most listened to country outlet, not only in the United States, but around the world with a total weekly cume around six million.

Paul tells me that they are starting to get requests from oversees, Birthday wishes and e-mails from all over the world.

“We are making overnights a little more important (since it's midday is the Middle East). Being extreamly topical and throwing in the more songs like "Angel Flight", "Arlington", etc. Many people are getting their "pop culture/Nashville news/things happening at home" from us in real time. Memorial Day we are planning on doing military greetings all weekend. We have to be careful because we can't really promote this on the air. Local affiliates don't care and don't want us to promote it. We can't sell the numbers (since AFR covers our spots with messages). It's a HUGE benefit for Nashville and country music. They get their music and artists exposed to millions oversees.”

I have worked with John Paul since he first started in radio in his hometown of Kelso-Longview and was trained/mentored by the venerable San Francisco, Seattle and Portland vet Bill Dodd, while he was working with GM Jeff Silver and now PD Wendy Lynn at WYRK/Buffalo and then KUPL/Portland and I can testify that he has a positive impact where ever he works, so there’s one thing I know for sure: he has his personalities talking to those six million sets of ears around the world ONE PERSON at a time.

No matter how big your cume becomes, they still experience it in first and second person singular, one at a time.

R&R Probes Country Radio's Disappearing "Live And Local" Daypart

R. J. Curtis: There's all sorts of scuttlebutt out there about the phasing out of live/local programming in evenings in radio. Nights are tough for country stations targeting adult audiences who watch TV, tend to the family and spend time on the Internet in the evening among other things. Additionally for the most part, don't most country stations get their main productivity 6a-7p?

Jaye Albright: By and large, ratings - when it comes to diaries at least - are a 6 am to 7 pm game. At least two thirds of all quarter hours come from those hours. Even the most successful country station is only going to get perhaps 35% of its cume to listen to evenings and weekends. However, since 40% of country diaries give country 73% of our quarter hours, it's heavy users/core listeners who are spending time listening to those fringe dayparts, so paying short shrift to them can result in a loss of a lot of P-1 time spent listening if the programming on nights and weekends is not very competitive.

RJ: So in addition to that question ... - Is country -- a "high touch" format -- endangering itself if it too begins phasing out live & local evening shows?

JA: I firmly believe that country is a high-touch format. Listeners expect to be able to interact and contribute content to the country station they are most loyal to. Country radio, you might say, was the original social network, going back the five decades of its history as a radio format. However, just because that is true, does not necessarily mean that great interactive, content-driven syndicated or out of market talent can't provide everything core listeners want and need. WGAR, Cleveland, listeners relate to Michael J. Fox in midday even though he does that show from WPOC, Baltimore, because he's entertaining and relevant. There are many other voice tracked and syndicated air personalities whose rating performance says that it's quite possible to beat 'live and local' air talent if you understand what listeners come to your station expecting and deliver it with passion. A crutchy, cliched local jock starting phone calls with the same phrases air personalities have been using with request calls since a phone line was first put into a control room, like "hi, who is this, what can I play for you, I'll try to get that one on for you, thanks for calling, where are you calling from..." may be in a room in the local market, but is too self-involved and is largely irrelevant to listeners and will get beaten by more creative, fun, well-edited listener voices telling relevant stories.

RJ: Are the choices for evening programming strong enough: Lia, Whitney, GAC ... and soon, a CMT generated evening show?

JA: It will be interesting to see as these new offerings come online. It's safe to say that Lia and Blair Garner definitely are more than "strong enough." They've been time-tested in all size markets and in very competitive battles and have proven that their personal brands generate strong usage and consistent ratings. The others, I would say, are too new and not yet on enough stations, given the wobbles that sample issues create in night and weekend shares, that it's a bit early to judge yet.

RJ: While Big D & Bubba are making inroads for a nationally syndicated AM show, it's never really been pursued ... are nights better suited to this?

JA: I do not think it's a daypart thing. Great talent, entertaining and relatable content beats boring, unprepared talent with nothing to say every time. For example, I think the new "Shawn Parr's #1 Show" from Friday nights on KKGO, Los Angeles, which is being produced by Dees Entertainment is going to do well as it rolls out across the country in competition with countdowns and classic country shows for many reasons, not the least of which are Shawn's a great radio entertainer whose like-ability is viral, plus every single song during the entire three hours is a proven hit at a time when the first two hours of most countdown shows are playing 20-25 songs that are never going to be hits and country from more than 15 years ago appeals to a very small segment of the country audience today. That's a strategic advantage, totally unrelated to whether a show is live, local or not. Programming on competing stations can't stay the same in the wake of a development like that. Programmers are going to want that show on their stations, not against them.

RJ: Finally, with a tough evening listening environment .... should we care if 7-Mid local programming goes away?

JA: I think we should, but not for the reasons implicit in your questions. I hate to see another training ground for future talent disappear. Country music is extremely hot with Gen Y right now and we need to find and train 20-something personalities if we hope to stay in touch with their lives and values. I wish some of these new programming options featured young guys as well as females, and they had more of a listener focus instead of being so Nashville-centric at a time when secondary and tertiary artists aren't gaining very much traction with the radio audience. There are really only ten or fewer artists listeners care enough about right now to listen to for very long. Interviews with no-name Nashville insiders and songwriters have very limited appeal. CMT's Brian Phillips obviously understands this, given the cable channel's weakest and strongest-rated shows, so it will be interesting to see what CMT rolls out for radio.

It's quite rational at a time of job cuts throughout our entire economy and extremely uncertain short and medium term economic realities for radio owners of all sizes to be more frugal, preserve cash and batten down the hatches during stormy financial seas. This means that it's probably a good time to be launching new syndicated daypart options as long as they meet listener needs and increase efficiency. However, it's still true that the best content wins.

Thanks for askin', RJ. I'll be very interested to see what others think!