Your New Fall Season

The news Friday that ABC-TV has renewed "Nashville" for a third season with a full run of 22 episodes hopefully comes as a reminder that summer is the perfect time of year to plan for "what's new" in the coming year on your show and radio station.

Rayna Jaymes (as the show's website points out) "suddenly discovers her passion for the business is not enough to compete with the new generation of talent lighting up the charts. She's forced to accept the harsh reality that she’ll have to start over and reinvent herself if she plans on being relevant."

Political Scientist Charles A. Murray chose this graduation season to release his new book citing the film 'Groundhog Day' as another reminder of the need to constantly evolve even as life seems to be an exercise in repetitive experiences.

"Without the slightest bit of preaching, the movie shows the bumpy, unplanned evolution of his protagonist from a jerk to a fully realized human being—a person who has learned to experience deep, lasting and justified satisfaction with life even though he has only one day to work with."  He writes "You could learn the same truths by studying Aristotle's 'Ethics' carefully, but watching "Groundhog Day" repeatedly is a lot more fun."

There's a lot of what we all do on radio every day that seems to mirror Bill Murray's life in the movie.  Same things, same times, day after day.

If you are bored with what you do, the audience most likely is too.

The coming summer vacation time of year for both you and your listener is the perfect time to learn a lesson from what works for television.  Think through all of the things you want to keep next year as well as potential new aspects in your character, personalities, benchmarks.

Be sure that as your listener matures and grows, you're doing so as well.

What are your strengths? 
What would you like to change? 

It's  time to review what you've been doing and ask what you need to reinvent, replace and yet remain as strong as in the past.

Attack yourself!  Find and correct your own weaknesses. If you were a new morning show coming into the market what would your strategy be to beat our current/past show?

What weaknesses would you exploit? What are the weaknesses in your show’s strengths?  Each player needs to have their role definitions re-evaluated. 

Study all show benchmarks and regular features. Put all of them - as talent coach Randy Lane and his team routinely suggests - in one of three categories:


• Perfect as is
• Needs improving
• Discontinue

It’s not enough to be the best today; you have to be famous too. Look for ways to generate media press and talk in the market by making this an agenda point in the planning sessions as you "launch your new fall season!"

Chuck Buell

He is a headline selection this month on the largest radio show aircheck archive around, ReelRadio.com.

• The ridiculously talented Bobby Ocean spotlights one of Chuck's old radio shows from 1970 WLS (click Bobby Ocean's Aircheck Channel CB WLS Edition.mp3 to listen to a segment).
• Here's the 2013 Chuck Buell, with work that is still totally "precise, personable, powerful" and yet clearly updated for today's culture and target listener.

 Chuck Buell, for 45 years adapting his content and style, a perfect role model for talent wanting to remain relevant decade after decade.

Here's To The Survivors

Novels have been written about sinking ships and the ramifications of powerful Captains' fateful decisions on what to save and what to toss overboard.

The turbulent economic seas of the past two decades in the radio business are replete with stories of stations and companies which crashed after executives under horrific pressures made sad decisions about people (dead weight? powerful fuel? ballast?).

That's why yesterday's Access Atlanta tribute by writer Rodney Ho to an impressive list of that city's long-lasting voices who still remain on the air after a decade or more is essential reading.

Most radio personalities are really only known to the folks who use one station or format.

What's important to success is the depth of awareness and loyalty from that group of listeners.  Occasionally, there is a person on one station with an opportunity to really break out and totally impact the entire market.  That kind of person is rare these days, given the fact that most listeners use between three and seven radio stations.

Getting on that radar requires exceptional abilities as well as extremely broad appeal.

"I’ve been blessed to work with some very talented programmers through the years.  I always try to put the listener first and think like (what I believe) the audience is thinking.  I’m imagining I’m with the listener in his car and what would be informative and entertaining, and try to come up with ways to relate and interact with him without being annoying in our hellacious Atlanta traffic.  The listener is my ultimate boss, so if I’m not connecting with him I fail.  I believe consistency has been important to my success, as well. I show up for work every day and on-time, and I work hard.  That may sound silly, but you don’t realize how many people aren’t consistent. I also enjoy my co-workers. Then, of course, there are always the elements of luck and timing, and I believe I’ve had my share of those!"  -- Kaedy Kiely

Thanks to Ho for spotlighting Atlanta's survivors of 2013 - Kaedy, Cadillac Jack. Jenn Hobby. Capt. Herb Emory, Scott Slade, Clark Howard, Mark Arum, Kirk Mellish, John Kincade, Buck Belue, Chuck Oliver, Matt Chernoff, Christopher Rude, Dallas McCade, Kevin Avery, Taylor Scott, Parks Stamper, Art Terrell, Silas “SiMan” Alexander, Jordan Graye, Ryan Cameron, Greg Talmadge, Melissa Carter, Steve Goss, Lois Reitzes, The Regular Guys’ Larry Wachs and Eric Von Haessler, Axel Lowe, “Southside” Steve Rickman, Bert Weiss and Jeff Dauler, Rob Stadler and Mike Bell.

Every city has them, deserving more recognition for their daily toil than they receive.

This week at The Conclave in Minneapolis let's all toast as many of them as possible, paying close attention to the life lessons they have to offer.