A “Job” That Gets Done Whether There’s A Person Doing It Or Not

It used to be that owners with just one or two radio stations billing less than a million dollars annually simply couldn’t afford a full time Production/Creative Director.

A good thing about the clustering of stations that began in the mid-90’s is that now even those stations have at least one person in the position.  Of course, that one individual is now charged with overseeing all of the production and writing - both imaging and commercials - for as many radio stations as humanly possible.

Wouldn't you know?

The job is not quite programming and not quite sales.  Responsibilities fall into both departments and that normally means that sales work that immediately drives money gets top priority and the majority of time, while branding the radio stations gets done as time permits.

Many of the production directors I have worked with tend to do the commercial work from 9 to 5 and save the station imaging for their evening and weekend hours in a home studio.

I’m not recommending a change in this, since the spots need to be great.  If clients don’t get results, they won’t be back.  Meanwhile, the typical Brand Manager/Programmer knows that great imaging can be extremely time-consuming and even though there isn’t a direct line from it to the top line of the station budget the creativity, localism and freshness of production pieces can make or break the ratings trends.

Cumulus VP Mike McVay puts it this way:  “The Sales Manager probably wants you, The Production Director, to be the in-house advertising agency, with the creative copywriting skills of an Addy-winning agency copywriter, the marketing sense of a behavioral psychologist, the engineering skills of a Hollywood record producer and the voicing ability to play many characters (sometimes in the same spot) with a voice that commands attention.” 

Sales wants you to crank out more compelling sales ideas at this level than anyone can possibly use, most of them good ones, turning them out under constant and impossible deadlines.

Programming asks for the same thing in spades, hoping for at least one or two new pieces of imaging every day as well.

You serve multiple masters and being a great Production/Creative Director means that you savor this pressure, know how to constantly juggle priorities set by others and yourself and take great pride in producing technically and creatively excellent work.

McVay taught me (and his many client stations over the years) that the Golden Rule of Production Director success is “figuring out what the other people want and instinctively knowing how best to give it them with a smile.”

Directing Traffic

If you build and maintain daily logs scheduling everything on your radio station other than music, I’d say that you and your station's music director are the "de facto" programmer and sales manager.

Most sales directors “get” this and the most skilled among them work hard to make the traffic person feel like they work for sales.

A great seller can close a deal, a terrific SM can manage the rate the client agrees to pay, BUT no money comes in until the spot runs, the account gets billed and the money collected.  The traffic department is the place where that all starts.  For this reason, it’s a rare radio station where sales doesn’t meet with traffic multiple times daily.

Meanwhile, I am constantly amazed by how distant many otherwise excellent Programmers/Brand Managers keep their traffic director.

Maintaining/helping programmers police and project commercial unit limits, balance and flow of commercial matter - that makes up at least 25% of every hour of programming - and accurately hitting financial goals impact everyone's pay checks.

It’s my experience that the majority of traffic people understand this and love being recruited as an ally of programming management.  They need backing and support in their attempts to keep a great radio station in balance.

Of course, they’ll get it from the Market Manager and Sales Management.

Can they expect it from the Programmer too?

I hope so.

The Hardest Jobs

Two jobs at any radio station require the folks assigned to them to be more efficient and diplomatic than almost any others.

They both fall into a gray area, not quite sales, not quite programming, not quite management with responsibilities which fall into all departments, even public affairs, community involvement and creative.

Traffic and production.

It takes a very special person to handle the all of the responsibilities they are expected to deal with every day from people skills, working to deadlines, honesty, judgment, organization, prioritization, just to name a few.

A bad fit in either role can quickly jeopardize a station’s ability to hit goals.

If you are a General Manager, Program Director or Sales Manager, here’s a reminder to "hug" your creative director and traffic person on a regular basis.

They can make you better at your job or undermine you.

If You Don’t Have A Producer, You Do Have One: YOU

If you have a producer, ask yourself if she helps you do better shows or is just a go-fer.  If it’s the latter, you might actually be more effective without one.

A great producer adds value to everything by..

• Understanding the roles and character of every member of the team.
• Maintains and actively programs your monthly, weekly and daily planners
• Is a constant content hunter, looking for stories that fit the values of the team and the listener
• Reads voraciously
• Keeps a large “rolodex” address book with contact info for anyone who might suddenly be good to place on air immediately and maintains good relationships so that when something happens right now they line up the best ‘gets’
• Uses streaming recorder to monitor and edit down the radio stations and personalities who create content that might be adaptable to your situation
• Writes well, producing bits and promos that are so good they make it to the air
• “Gets” PR and knows who in local media can get you publicity, creates press releases that get you in print, online and on TV whenever you do something noteworthy
• Updates the appearance schedule, maximizing every out-of-station event
• Keeps a diary of the best ideas that occur during brainstorming sessions, on air or anytime a great concept surfaces

A rookie mistake is to hire a potential producer who wants to be a morning personality and not making it clear that their job is to help the existing characters be better by directing them productively not to compete for mic time with them.  Make it clear that you'll mentor and help with their personal goal, but for now their job is to make you shine.

It’s a full time job, but if no one else is doing it and there’s no budget for this position, it’s important to bake these tasks into your personal prep and self-promotion.

Sharpening The Soundtrack Of Your Show

Not every personality needs to use beat beds behind everything, of course, (especially if someone else you compete with is already famous for using them), but for me the production elements of any radio show can be an important asset/tie-breaker.

I think beds and sounders still can add sparkle, keep elements moving forward, and add consistency. Even "background" listeners will reach for the dial and turn it up when they hear a familiar bed for something they are interested in such as news, weather, traffic, etc.

Yes, I know that 'authenticity' is a key value right now. So, there is no law which states that every personality has to put music behind everything, but for me, separate beds should also be used for each regular "feature" or "contest."

I think they really add to the personality of the bit when chosen carefully. Although brevity should be a priority at all times make sure your beds are long enough for their purpose. Few things sound as bad as a bed that runs out in the middle of a bit.

Now, how do you feel about it?

“I Had A Dream” Too

Martin Luther King Day and Barack Obama’s Inauguration have combined to create some wonderful radio moments over the last 24 hours with stations, listeners and personalities getting involved and also helping out community service projects.

It makes you proud to be a part of this engaging, involving business.

To underscore the vitality and importance of what we do to me personally, on Sunday and Monday I drove the nearly radio free zone that is the Northern California and Southern Oregon coasts, beautiful and sunny on these two January days. However, the absence of much choice on the dial made me realize how much I miss radio. To compensate, I pulled out the last six months’ Radio and Production Magazine CD’s.

Jerry Vigil’s print publication is always creatively inspiring, from Z-100 New York production guru Dave Foxx’s writing, the RAP interview and the other idea-starters and technical reviews, but the absolute best thing in the magazine each issue is the CD with at least 30 promos and commercials, shared by creative producers from Los Angeles to Kentville, Nova Scotia.

However, perhaps listening to six of them back to back was just too much of a concentrated dose of radio self-promotion at one time.

I just woke up in the middle of the night, realizing that I just had a horrible nightmare: I just dreamed that all 30 of the RapMag CD cuts were ... 30 different promos, from 30 different stations, all promoting their new Ryan Seacrest midday show!

That's when I turned over and went back to sleep to the relaxing sound of Pacific surf.

Dave Foxx, Z100, New York's Brandmeister

Dave did this presentation on how he imprints Z-100's key images as integral to the brand at the European NAB a year ago. Am I the last person in the world to have found out about this terrific training video for production people?

Z-100, of course, no longer does those Power intros, they no longer call themselves #1 in their position and NAB Europe is meeting again for another year in Barcelona right now, but if you haven't seen it either, I promise you it's still worth the ten minutes' time and a trip to YouTube to watch and listen to! Foxx's advice and the way he communicates it is still state of the art.