When's The Last Time You Evoked An Emotion In The "Red?"

Billboard Top 40 Editor Mike Stern at A&O&B's Pre-CRS client seminar at the Country Music Hall Of Fame encouraging us to broaden the range of emotional content on our radio stations:

“Be a friend and a companion. Be a filter, give them something they can steal to use themselves, and focus on things that make you react.”

A&O&B Client Seminar 2013 Quotes

Thanks to Country Aircheck for being on hand for our event and for taking such copious notes:  "Beyond revealing their annual (client only ppt) Roadmap Study, the Albright & O’Malley & Brenner Pre-CRS Client Seminar touched on everything from being active, engaged and relevant with your audience via social media, digital tools and station branding, to tips for talent and what Gen Y will mean to our industry in the coming years."

• Of 6,272 Country P1 participants from 50 markets in the U.S. and Canada, 70% report being satisfied with the format. Of those who aren’t, song-repetition and commercials were top reasons. Country listeners are increasingly tech savvy, with 75% reporting using some sort of social media every day (up from 66% last year), and 31% report having an internet connection of some sort in their cars.
   
• Rick Barker says stations too often use digital tools to “push” information to the audience without “engaging” them. “You have to offer value,” he says. Among his examples: teaming with new artists you can’t yet include in your playlist who are willing to offer free song downloads via the station website and social media. Attached sponsorships can help drive NTR.
   
• “Content is key,” says Mike Stern. “Be a friend and a companion. Be a filter, give them something they can steal to use themselves, and focus on things that make you react.”
   
• Steve Zielonka encourages programmers to “always be collecting data (ABCD)” and use it to engage the audience. “You can’t just send out irrelevant information anymore. They’ll delete you, they’ll mark you as spam and they’ll block you. There are always negative consequences.” Use your tools to conduct surveys, for example. “Ask, ‘Are you a Toby Keith fan? Here’s a chance for you to sing on stage with him.’ Then follow-up with other Toby Keith-related
  contests. When you send a targeted email, you’ll see your open rates double and triple.”
  
  
• Newcap Radio VP/Programming and Brand Like A Rockstar author Steve Jones says, “Brands are feelings that live in the heart of the customer. Jimmy Buffett’s biggest song wasn’t that big of a hit. ‘Margaritaville’ peaked at No. 7. But at his shows, people are painting their bodies, getting drunk and having a great time because he sells the experience of being a beach-bum.” Make it a point to understand your enemy and let them help define your brand. “Walmart’s slogan ‘Save Money, Live Better’ makes it all about saving money,” Jones explains. “Then Target comes in with ‘Expect More, Pay Less,’ basically saying, ‘You’re above that crap they’re selling at Walmart.’”
       
• Grab a (client only) copy of "The Gen X Versus Gen Y Conflict" (pdf) my presentation about the population shift ahead of us. Gen Y is estimated at 78 million, much larger than the 40-50 million-strong Gen X preceding it, and it sees the world quite differently. It’s a group that Country programmers will need to adjust to."

Any Article That Includes Gregg Swedburg Is Worth A Read

.. even if it quotes me quite a lot too. (click to read it)

“There are no free passes for these artists. If an artist makes a truly awesome song as good as the stuff that got him here then we play it,” says Gregg Swedburg, program director of KEEY/Minneapolis. “But every time I play a mediocre song from an established artist it means I’m not playing somebody new who has a great song.”

With new talent constantly emerging, programmers must decide which older singers to let go as their fans age out of the station’s target.

That challenge has been around at least since I took mt first country programming job in 1973.

When I took over I was greeted by a ton of calls asking, ‘Where is Stonewall Jackson or Jack Green.’ At the time country was crossing over with artists like Buck Owens and Glenn Campbell so the older acts of the '50s and '60s were no longer being played.

Similar cycles repeated approximately every 10 years until 1989 when a group of new artists including Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, George Strait, and Alan Jackson burst onto the scene, pushing country radio’s popularity to new heights.

But now the fans who championed the class of 1989 are 20 years older and the question of when those artists should move along, like Stonewall Jackson did in the early '70s, is looming large.

They’ve lasted longer than any group in the history of country that I’ve been aware of.

The key to it all, and what makes country also different from other formats, is that country radio isn’t about artists, it’s about songs.

Any artist can have a hit if they pick a great song. That’s what’s cool about country.

Many thanks to Chicago-based Media Life writer Mike Stern for helping us tell the country story so lucidly.