Finally, Something GREAT On "TV"

Up to now, Arbitron's YouTube video page has had such riveting topics as: 

• PPM Analysis Tool Shortcuts
• How to pull Scarborough for Programmers

 .. and any video which starts with a full-screen shot of 44-year radio vet Miami-based Bob McKay, you know, is not going to be the next Pixar blockbuster.

Finally, there's something there really worth watching and sharing with your sellers and clients, Country Radio Today (click to see the video highlights from the 2011 edition of Arbitron's Radio Today - view the entire Radio Today report (pdf) here.

Country Listeners Seem To Love Analog Radio In Their Cars

VIP Research and Mark Ramsey reported yesterday that while roughly one-third of 12+ consumers "would listen less to local radio if access to stations on the Internet was as easy to use as your radio...,“ 75.24% of respondents who listen to country music radio claim they would tune in just as much to “my local radio stations” (if offered the technology), a higher percentage than the other 17 format listeners included in the research.

The survey asked 2,000 radio listeners covering 22 markets, “If tomorrow you could get Internet access from the dashboard of your car and you could listen to thousands of radio stations from all over the world through an Internet receiver on your dash as easy to use as your radio, would you (a) Listen less to my local radio stations as I explore new ones online, or (b) Listen just as much to my local radio stations no matter what’s online.”

Fewer than half (48%) of of the country listeners (second only to 46% of classical fans, the group which was the least so inclined) want in-car Internet radio.

Would they rather have a radio in their portable mp3 player, iPod or an in-car Internet radio?

Again, (analog) FM wins (in the portable players, please).

The country radio consumers (38%) were second only to (40%) alternative listeners as the most likely to want a radio in their iPod/mp3 player.

The telephone survey of 2,141 adults was conducted August 10-25 and has a margin of error of +/- 2.0% at the 95% confidence level.

Country Music Is Authentic, Relatable, Emotional. Country Radio?

In recent weeks TV news branding consultant Graeme Newell has been writing about the specific differences between a slogan and a brand as well as effective and ineffective brands.

On one hand, he's only talking about "news."

On the other, he's talking about US too!

With that in mind, I asked Reel World’s Craig Wallace to create a list of the phrases their writers and singers have been successfully cramming onto the notes of one of their hottest country packages right now.

• "The Best Variety Of Country"
• "Today's Best Country"
• "Today's Hot New Country"
• "Continuous Hot Country Favorites"
• "Today's Best And Most Country"
• "More Continuous Country"
• "Number One For Country"
• "Today's Country And Your All-Time Favorites"
• "Your Country Station"

...and "(city)'s Best Country" and "(city)'s Country Station."

Is this really everything we want our brands to stand for?

Yikes! I Am A "Celebrity"? (blush)

Notice: when you pick up the phone and CelebrityAccess MediaWire's Larry LeBlanc is on the line, get ready for a Vulcan mind-meld. He dug up info about me that I had forgotten and asks great questions (click that link to read a lot more about me than you ever wanted or needed to know):

LL: You have seen a lot of changes in radio over four decades.

JA: It’s a completely different business in every way.

LL: Country radio ain’t our grandparent’s format anymore?

JA: Country is a format where, every 7 or 8 years, there’s a new set of younger artists that come in. Randy Houser is the George Jones of today. There’s a lot of others as well, but the format doesn’t stay the same. Hank Thompson saw that more clearly than George Jones did. There are certainly a lot of artists that have a lot of sour grapes as (the format) moved away from them. George is certainly one of those who went through a tough time. In any pop music form, you have to be pretty adaptable, and be a pretty good marketer. You have to listen to where the audience is going and try to be where they are. Some artists will do that while others couldn’t care less where the audience is, “This is me. You can kiss my ass if you don’t like it.”

LL: Many people say that today’s country sounds like bad ‘70s pop.

JA: I think there’s truth in that. That’s Kenny Chesney’s music you just described. But, there’s more than that going on (in country). That is only part of the mix. It’s always been like that. You would have said the same thing about Stonewall Jackson’s “Waterloo” or Pat Boone (in the ‘50s). Country music has always been watered down chicken rock, to some degree, but that is only part of it. There was George Jones and Johnny Paycheck years ago, and that (traditional country style) still exists today with an artist like Jamie Johnson. (Country is) not just one thing. It’s a variety of sounds that is more inclusive than most people think it is.

There’s a mix of sounds in country today. Have you heard Jamie Johnson? Oh, my goodness. He and Montgomery Gentry are in the mix. At the same station, they will add Taylor Swift. So I think that there is always a balance. There’s that sort of rock sound that today’s boomers like from when they were kids—that’s part of a country mix—and, yet, the more acoustic, natural and authentic sound is also part of it as well.

LL: Will there ever be an oldies country format playing those ‘50s and ‘60s vintage country hits?

JA: No I don’t think so. I think it will always be a variety.

LL: The Classic Country format comes the closest to being an oldies’ format.

JA: Classic Country has always been there, and continues to be there. We have some Classic Country stations that are #1 or #2 in their markets. A new Classic Country station just signed on in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago. The definition of Classic Country has changed. Country Classic today starts at about 1993 where at one time it was the ‘50s and ‘60s.

I think what keeps country (radio) from fragmenting, is that the older folks who like country seem to like the new music too. They like the older music, but they don’t dislike the new music. That’s true today.

CRS-40 Rewind - It's Not A Target Demo: It's A Family Reunion

This Country Radio Seminar-2009 panel started as "The Marince Family Reunion," as ARB exec Gary Marince revealed that he turns 54 this year and his daughter Sarah is 18 and shared a video of their personal perspectives on the country music brand story. For Gary, it goes back three decades, whereas Sarah is working on a career in music today, has a MySpace page to share her music, inspired by Taylor Swift.

(click here to read the recap of) The fast-moving and entertaining panel discussed the issues surrounding the question of whether one format is wide and deep enough to encompass their tastes with two researchers, the consultant who helped create "Hank" in multiple markets and two experienced programmers who have faced various flanking attacks in markets with huge country shares.

Somebody's Got To Do It

Ask yourself: how many businesses do you know...

1. Consciously put a 41-year-old man in a radio studio with no further supervision;
2. Surrounded by songs 13-year-olds adore;
3. Provide him with 5 incoming telephone lines so these nubile pubescent and hormonally active fans can call in and privately speak with the 41-year-old;
4. Who they think he is 19 thanks to the radio station’s brilliant marketing department and Photoshop?

About.com's Corey Deitz claims it's satire, but his latest article in this series rings of a lot more truth than humor (click to read it)

Big Format, Big Problems?

A&O's 2009 White Paper (click for pdf) addresses our pride in the good things about the Country Radio format and also our concerns today.

We'd love to get your take on our viewpoint!

Things We Love/Hate About Country

Tom Taylor at Radio-Info is putting together a special feature for their CRS-40 issue. He's asking lots of folks two questions, and here are my responses, to get the discussion started:

* 40 Things We Love About Country
How accessible and radio-friendly the artists are.
The incredible broad demographic reach.
The core values of country fans.

* Tough love – 40 Things Country Radio (or Country Music) Needs
If it hopes to grow with 20-39, it simply must expand beyond America's Southeast in its content. The fact that Kid Rock was able to successfully sing about Northern Michigan is a hopeful sign.
We need a fashionable Hispanic female and an Asian male to release a wonderful song duet which becomes a big hit. We need a Hispanic country superstar or two, yet sadly the chances of that getting played are about as good as the core welcoming back the Dixie Chicks.

I hope this generates lots of comments! And, Tom, thank you for opening this thread which is sure to get folks talkin' and thinkin'.

(How Country Wins Or Loses At) The Radio Game

Reid Morgan, Pattison Radio Group/Lethbridge Director of Programming for CHLB-FM and CJBZ-FM, writes: "Driving back from lunch I punched through the five major stations we compete with. (CKVN excluded) Country 95 was playing a new Can Con song, Roadhammers/Homegrown and B 93 was playing a recurrent song Jordin Sparks/One Step at a Time.

Here's the game: the other three stations, Rock 106, The River and The Lounge were playing..

Abba / Dancing Queen
John Melencamp / Hurt So Good
Pat Benetar / Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Try to match the song to the station! (Of course, depending on when you happen to listen, you might hear any of those songs on any of them.)

The point is, country and CHR are the only ones doing anything unique, the other three can be completely interchangeable and IMHO the musical identities have become blurred. I also think this opens great opportunities for us, but, of course, in the battle for the strongest song at this moment C95, admittedly, would not come out on top. While country needs to work on our song power and familiarity to keep cumes up, the formats around us seem to be creating loyalty, music differentiation and TSL problems for themselves."

Thanks, Reid. Great points. And, as if to underscore your perspective, I drove into another client market last evening and heard Joni Mitchell/Big Yellow Taxi on a station which calls itself "classic rock."

Country Is Again America's Most-Programmed Music Format

As someone who got into the format in the mid-1970's when the CMA published an annual station tally that numbered in the hundreds not the thousands and all of the attendees at the annual CRS thirty years ago could easily fit into one rather small Airport Hilton banquet room, I have never taken this annual format census for granted.

In 1998, M Street Publications took over the job, tallying 2,368 country stations. Last year, the number was 2,028 - out of a total of 10,843 licensed radio stations - after peaking in 2003 (2,088) and 2004 (2.047).

They now report that there are 2,024 American Country stations as of the end of November, 74% of which are on FM. Country is on more HD side channels than any other format today (84 HD2, 1 HD3).

A Thing Of Beauty: Country's Broad Demographic Profile

Spend some time with the just-released RAB Radio Marketing Guide. You'll feel very good about our format and our medium today.



Source: Mediamark Research & Intelligence LLC, Doublebase 2008 Adults 18+ Country Format Audience Distribution by Age Cell – Total Week Cume

Generation X: Coming of Age Online

Born between 1965 and 1981, Generation X is no longer the grungy, ripped-jeans kids Time magazine first described in 1990. Gen Xers are now in their peak years of product and service consumption, and they view electronic media as a primary tool for conducting research and accomplishing a vast array of every day tasks.

EMarketer's new Generation X report analyzes the attitudes and behaviors of the first generation to reach maturity sitting in front of computer screens while talking on mobile phones.

According to US Census Bureau statistics, 83.8 million people were in the 25-to-44-year-old Gen X age bracket as of July 2007. And, even to a greater degree than the baby boomers that preceded them, Generation Xers have embraced technology. For information on everything from parenting to consumer products, they go online. For them the Internet, along with mobile phones and PDAs, is a convenient way to shop, bank and network with peers.

Unfortunately, Gen X presents unprecedented challenges to marketers. The media they use is fragmented. They embrace a wider range of lifestyles than previous generations. And, weaned on MTV and cable television, they are largely immune to traditional advertising.

Country radio is fortunate, at least. that we can watch younger-targeted radio formats over the next three to five years and learn from mistakes they make, but one thing is certain: we won't be doing things the same way in ten years .. or we'll be only a 50+ format!

Fortunately, there are many examples of successful country stations which have found that they can use core values univerals to do well across the demographic spectrum of the family reunion that is the country target audience, from teens to seniors.

(Still) More Ingredients Of A Great Country Radio Station (III)

My first and second nomination lists of things I love hearing on country's perennial award-winners, have stimulated even more:

* At the start of each hour of the morning show (5:59 and 6:59), they immediately promote to 6:20 and 7:20 am with a specific reason to listen an extra quarter hour.

* At 7:50, they do a powerful, compelling, content-driven, listener-relevant reason to take the station to work.

* They establish strong 'reason to listen' benchmarks in the 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm hours with fixed-time appointments to listen regularly, featuring powerful pay-offs to heavy users of the station. These are reinforced both on the air and in interactive media, online and text.

* They don't rely on radio-talk crutches like double time sells (analog and digital), say (time) "now," (temp) "outside," or use back announce audience-losers like "before that, we started off with, the latest from." PPM is powerfully demonstrating that radio "announcers" have conditioned listeners that commercials are coming and it's time to tune out unless the voice is a unique character the listener considers a "brand," who engages in emotion-sharing and story-telling first and foremost, with something important to say.

* No mixed messages, cynical attitude, dirty stuff. Funny, entertaining, bright, warm, friendly attitude.

So, what ARE you hearing right now that you like?

Ingredients Of A Great Country Radio Station (Part One)

* A powerful, memorable brand.

* Very clear and simple positioning, such as: Today's Country; Country Favorites; Continuous Country; Classic Country; Real Country Variety (pick ONE); etc. The actual highly divisible music balance and flow in every ten minute time period delivers on it, proves it's true.

* Everybody has a fun-sounding, character-building nickname, including the weather personality. No nicknames for news people! Characters are defined by the local, relevant content they briefly convey.

* Two ongoing simultaneous contests which become famous, one to promote TSL (i.e. Double Your Paycheck, Triple Your Pay, Live Life Free, Count the Country Favorites) and one to promote cume (for example, Country Cruiser/Super Stickers, free donuts/coffee at remote location all morning until 9).

* Fewer, if any, 'newscasts.' Instead, lots of service elements - staff meteorologist, traffic reporter. Fresh story selection, avoiding the sense that "the same stories are repeated all morning". A good news teaser that SAYS this clearly: "coming up, stories we've haven't covered yet (headline)..."

What are you hearing right now that you like?

A Vacation Reply Made Me Cry

A&O emails daily prep ideas to all of our clients, and at this time of the year one of the prices we pay for that is a string of repetitive vacation replies, like...

Hi... I'm out of the office until Monday July 21st. I'll get back to you then.
-- Chris Coburn, Assistant Program Director/Afternoon Drive
New Country 93.7 JRfm Vancouver

and..

I'm currently out of the office and will return Monday July 21st. If you're emailing on music we'll be freezing the playlist through July 28th, 2008.
-- Rick Taylor, MD-APD-Midday, KUPL, Portland

then, came this one from Kimo Jenson, afternoon guy at KSON, San Diego:

Sorry I'm out of the office till July 21 helping fight fires in Goleta.
have a great week

After reading that one, Kimo, you can be sure I will. I absolutely will... thanks to folks like you.

If You're Going To Buy A Segment, Why Not Buy A Big One?

The new media cheerleaders are always worth reading, of course, since radio does such a great job driving new media usage, so I read with interest this Media Post item: Segment Driven Target Marketing Facilitated by Online Advertising.

Two thoughts:

1. Radio has been specializing in market segmentation forever.
2. Country radio reaches (40+ million adults across North America every single week, as I read BBM, Media Audit and Arbitron (Download Radio Today 2008 Edition) national data) a huge and affluent segment very efficiently.

Or, as SCBA Exec Director Mary Beth Garber puts it:

"Radio reaches 92 million more people each week than Google reaches in a month."

In fact, Radio reaches 44 million more people each week in the U.S. than the entire Internet reaches in a month. According to ComScore's May 2008 ratings, 143,389,000 people logged into Google in the month of May, and 190,858,000 logged onto the internet in the U.S.

According to Radar, Radio reaches more than 235 million listeners over the course of the week per the Radar ‘97 June 2008 Radio Listening Estimates.

Did you Radio today? Nearly all of your customers did.

Your Recommended Hourly Requirement

Last Sunday, I flew into Calgary to get ready for a week of focus groups with listeners in several Alberta cities. Once in the rental car, I started listening to radio at about 3:00 pm and didn't stop scanning around the AM and FM dials until my head hit the pillow at 11:00 pm.

Eight hours of intensive listening to all of the radio stations I could pull in from across the mountain west.

One station - and, I'm proud to say that it was a country station - stood out and I kept coming back to it: Today's Country: Country 105 FM Radio Calgary

Why?

Sunday afternoon and evening radio at every radio station but that one was nothing but segued songs followed by jingles and pre-produced sweepers followed by more songs, but no sense that the station knew that it was a very stormy Sunday afternoon in tornado season.

Meanwhile, Country 105 clearly had a live presence on the air (he could actually have been voice tracked for all I know), who was talking about what I was experiencing as I drove through sheets of rain, saw cars pulling off the highway because of the poor visibility and needed accurate weather and traffic information. He was telling the titles and artists of every song he played, talking about things going on town today and how they were being impacted by the scattered storms mixed with sunshine and sharing his perspective on all of it.

The rest of the radio I heard was doing segue serenade, which was the last thing I needed from the radio, since I had my Ipod with me, a CD player in the car and my MacBook Pro with internet access as I drove thanks to my Rogers/ATT/Sierra Wireless connection.

Hey, radio: you know it's true. We've gotten lazy. We've gained weight. We're out of shape. We're not in the best of health.

It's time to commit to getting back onto serving up a healthy diet of what listeners come to radio for beyond imaging and songs.

Each morning, just to make sure that I get all the vitamins I need, I take a multi-vitamin which contains all the minimum daily requirements for good health. It doesn't guarantee I'll stay healthy, but it sure improves my odds of doing so.

The formats and the people we put on our radio stations need to do the same thing, to be sure that every hour, every day, 24/7, we are offering a balanced menu of elements which will nurture a local relationship with our heaviest users, the people who come to us as night and on weekends (ultra core listeners, go give us more than two thirds of total hours!) by giving them what they expect when they turn on the radio, in every quarter hour.

Jaye's recommended dosage of crucial hourly requirements (take one each in order to enhance the realness and entertainment value of every quarter hour, and call me in the morning):

( ) Fresh weather update, if not a full forecast, at least a reference to what it's like outside right now
( ) Community involvement - what the station is doing to create community and make life better locally today
( ) Backsells of title and artist at least every other song without crutches and cliches by relating to the artists and music
( ) Teasing upcoming songs, artists and station benchmarks
( ) Music image-builder promo
( ) Real listener voices, talking about local places and how they use the station
( ) Topical content, what's the local buzz today?
( ) Personal relating, personality personna-building based on authenticity, not just standard DJ verbiage
( ) Freshly updated, creative, unique morning show (reason to listener tomorrow) promos (more than one to rotate, so I don't hear the same one hour after hour)
( ) Your superstar artists endorsing your station in fun, original ways
( ) Pop culture references to what's hot with your core listener right now
( ) Jingles and sweepers are a little like vitamins A & E. They are vital and most stations require them once or twice a quarter hour, but too much of them can do more harm than good.

Listen to your station late tonight, before the morning show starts at 4:30 am tomorrow, and on the weekend. Can you check off every one of those elements in every single hour?

It's called divisibility. If you don't deliver on the minimum daily requirements in every quarter hour of your broadcast day, you're going to increase your odds of your brands getting very sick.

Judging from what I heard last Sunday afternoon in Alberta, the vast majority of us are already in need of a doctor. And, SOON.

I Never Thought I'd Say I Was Glad Country Had A Weak Qualitative Profile In Something

.. but now I do. The country format's qualitative is generally something we're proud to tout to prospects. Whether you look at Media Audit, Scarborough or BBM RTS data, country radio listeners have great indexes, compared to average radio users, in household income, working women, vehicles in the driveway, tendency to own their home, active and involved family values attributes, travel, milk, beer, wine consumption, etc, etc ad infinitum. Just please don't ask about education level. That's a qualitative measure - number of years in school - where country normally doesn't do as well when compared to national averages.

Thank goodness!

No doubt the latest trend spotted by Edison Research President Larry Rosin will eventually catch up with US too, but it would be MY guess based on the above that we're going to be helped by it in the short term, before it ultimately takes a toll on us too, unless radio - country radio too of course - as a whole addresses the problem.

An Open Letter To Saul Levine

Hey, Saul...

I'll bet a lot of us felt the same way when we saw R.J. Curtis' R&R item today:

At Long Last, Our National Nightmare Is Over: You know, the one that's been eating away at all of us since Wednesday, when we found out Todd Baker, former afternoon personality at Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters' KKGO/Los Angeles, announced he'd landed a morning gig that would involve howling but he couldn't say just where? Today, the other paw dropped, and it turns out Baker is headed to Huntsville, Ala., for wakeups at Cumulus' WWFF (93.3 the Wolf). In giving us the rest of the story, Baker enthused, "I can't wait to bring personality morning radio to the Huntsville country audience," and he vowed "not to play the same 30 songs over and over!" Baker will launch his show as a solo act, but will search for a sidekick while on-air, auditioning "everyone interested, from housewives to rocket scientists." Baker says even trained professionals will be considered by contacting morningshow@933wolf.com.

When's the last time that a Los Angeles air personality quit to move to Hunstville so that he could make more money? I know that you have built your stations to what they are today by being extremely frugal, but aren't you billing enough now to get the best air personalities in the country format nationally on your air staff and then keep them longterm?

The more you put into country as a format, the more you'll get out of it, I promise.

Your friend,

-Jaye

"How Does It Feel?"

For two hours Tuesday night, I went to heaven. Being inducted into the Country Radio Hall Of Fame, simply for doing what I love and have wanted to do for the last 50 years has to be called one of the highlights of my life.

It was especially gratifying to have three generations of my immediate family on hand to witness the love and affection shower on all five of us who were fortunate enough to be given the honor from the almost one thousand radio people and one thousand music business people gathered for the annual Country Radio Seminar at the Nashville Convention Center.

Now, as I walk the halls of the annual meeting, everyone is asking "How did it feel?" and of course the answer is "Reinforcing, wonderful. "

For a couple hours the other night I was given the opportunity to listen as folks said very kind things about me, my career and it was an amazing personal reminder of what a great people business this is in spite of all the negatives that seem to surround us in the daily blog posts.

Radio still reaches more than nine out of ten people over the age of 12 every single week and my fellow honorees Bob Robbins, Bill Cody, Mike Owens, Bobby Kraig, the CRS promotion and humanitarian award winners are a great reminder of the difference we make every day in the lives of our local communities.

I am lucky to have attended some 35 of the 39 Country Radio Seminars and even luckier to have had an employer either pay my way or at least give me the time off without having to take vacation time to do so for more than half of them. But, the other half have been at my own expense, sometimes even using personal vacation days, so I have little patience with people who tell me they can't come to CRS to better themselves personally just because their employer won't pay for it.

As a result of attending this "annual class reunion" of the best and the smartest in the country radio and music business, I have received considerably more back from the cost in money and time than I put in. This is a wonderful community, as I discovered again this week.

If your company doesn't have the budget for a CRS registration, pay for it yourself (the 2009 meeting is only 51 weeks away). You'll learn, you'll meet artists and you'll build great relationships with an extended family that will remain a part of your life for decades. It's a wonderful, supportive community, and it's constantly inviting you to join it. Do it, even if you have to pay for it yourself and take time off to attend annually. I am living proof of what happens when you do that.

So, how does it feel?

Simply great.

I strongly recommend the experience to you too.