NEW YEAR’S EVE RADIO IN A PARKING LOT

HOW A STRONG ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BRIGHTENED A YOUNG JOCK’S LONELY NIGHT

This is a personal story. I include it here because it shows how a top salesperson should relate not only to a strong client but to an air personality as well. It’s about a cold New Year’s Eve in a Midwest capital city. Yours truly was on the air, doing the ubiquitous end-of-year countdown show. Nothing unusual about that except for the locale: I was broadcasting from a converted camping trailer in an office building’s parking lot.

Here’s why: The station where I was night jock and weekend play-by-play announcer had been sold. It planned to move into new digs in a nice downtown office building and the remodeling had been underway for some weeks when it became clear that we would have to vacate the old building – owned by our former partner, a TV station – before the studio suite in the new place would be finished. What to do? Borrow a remote trailer from a sister station in another market, tow it up to our city, plop it into a corner of the parking lot and wire that baby up.

Welcome To Radio Siberia

The little vehicle was nothing more than a camping trailer that had been gutted and re-purposed for remote broadcasts. I think our new sister station had used it for week-long broadcasts from its state fair. The door opened into a room that housed the remote equipment rack and a counter where the newscaster did his reports.

Across the glass from him was the microscopic control room. To enter, you had to open a door, ease in, then shut it carefully. No visitors, either: there was room for exactly one person. This little studio, which was modestly soundproofed, sported a five-pot Gates Ambassador control board, two Gates turntables and an ITC three-deck cart machine.

Everything else happened across the windy parking lot, inside the building. The newsroom was up and running. A make-shift production room was in there, too, along with executive and sales offices. And the restrooms.

We rarely received visitors in our little corner of Siberia. A news dude would trudge out once an hour and the chief engineer, a young wire-twister who didn’t trust any announcer for any  reason, peered in from time to time to see if we were still on the air. Otherwise, it was actually rather peaceful.  Except when the winter wind gusted across the open parking lot, which made the trailer rock a little. That was solved early on by anchoring it to the pavement with guys.

Now you have the picture.

The AE, The Veep and the GOOD Stuff

And so we come to this particular New Year’s Eve. I had the 8-1 shift, the top-hits-of-the-year countdown show.  The whole thing had been sold to a single sponsor, a major national convenience store chain. That in itself was a terrific idea. First, the time was hardly premium for most advertisers. Second, only the chain’s numerous metro locations would be open for New Year’s revelers to grab last-minute supplies of beer and snacks.

That’s still a great idea for a New Year’s countdown show sponsorship package.

Here’s where the really important part of this little tale occurs. I was well into the show when the trailer’s door swung open. Since it was always locked for security reasons, this had to be a station employee with a key. Sure enough, in climbed one of our top account executives – and he had a big grin on his face. I squeezed out of the little control room to say hello and he said, “Doug, I have someone I want you to meet.” And he introduced me to another smiling soul, who proved to be the Regional Vice President of the convenience store chain!

I thought it was pretty cool that the two of them, who surely had other things to do on New Year’s Eve, had taken the time to stop by and swap howdies. But then it got even better: the VP and the AE began to bring in bag after bag after bag of stuff from the sponsor's stores: chips, dip, candy, frozen pizza, toilet paper, even loaves of bread and – BEER!

It was all for the staff working on New Year’s Eve during the countdown show. Which meant one news guy and me. He and I later divvied up the goods (I managed to abscond with all the beer) and I happily went home to my apartment in the wee hours for my own little New Year’s party.

The point of this little remembrance is to illustrate how a top salesperson should work with customers. In this case, the AE could have just had some goodies delivered. (Many wouldn't have bothered even with that.) Instead, he had formed such a good relationship with the regional VP that they decided to bring the viands in person. This strengthened their already strong relationship and, of course, it meant the world to a poorly-paid 22-year-old marooned in a trailer in a windy parking lot on New Year’s Eve.

Next time there’s even a question about whether a salesperson should show up at a remote, client event or special program, pull this out as an example of how radio relationships ought to be. And have a wonderful, meaningful, joyous and profitable New Year!

MONDAY: The first Monday Sales Blast of the New Year!

IS SPORTS TALK A THROWAWAY FORMAT IN YOUR CLUSTER?

HOW TO AVOID GIVING UP ON A SIGNAL AND JUST TURNING UP THE SATELLITE FADER

It’s a familiar scenario. You run a cluster; in there somewhere is that lower-powered AM at 13-something on the dial. It’s problem? Transmitter’s on but ain’t nobody home. Its format and/or signal cannot compete for audience or revenue. So you make the decision: Flip the switch and take that sad little tea kettle all-sports. Presto: No jocks, no local hosts, maybe no program director. Just 24/7 sports yak from the network. Excellent – except that you may be throwing away a valuable radio station.

There are many more stations in most markets than can ever hope to be competitive. The audience pie is sliced thin, which makes mining for revenue tougher than ever. Radio station owners and managers feel that to survive and thrive, they must concentrate their resources on their major players: the FM music stations and, occasionally, AM talk monsters that pay the bills. What to do with the “leftovers”, the anemic little stations that were included in the deals that brought the bigger, better signals into the group?

“Niche formats” are often the answer. These include Hispanic, religion, bartered programming – and all-sports. Some broadcasters decry the all-sports format but they miss an important point: It works because it provides its listeners with EXACTLY what they want to hear: all sports and access to important guests. Some listeners can actually get on the air on these national shows, which puts them on the same footing as any other listener, regardless of market size.

The major all-sports radio networks (ESPN Radio, Sporting News Radio, Fox and the others) provide solid, big-time programming at all hours of the day and night. What they DON’T provide is the only thing that truly keeps radio local, the one thing listeners can’t find on TV sports shows and the Internet, either: LOCAL CONTENT.

Addressing The Local Content Challenge

Fine, you say, that’s why we have these two funny guys in the afternoon. One goes by his first two initials and the other is called The Coach. They talk about the local stuff after Cowherd or Patrick or Rome or the others. So. Local.

Please.

Isn’t anything other than sports going on in your market? Do you seriously believe you will build an audience of any size that will attract significant revenue by talking only about point spreads on NFL games and what LeBron could have been thinking?

Or do you just want some reason to justify the transmitter's electricity bill?

The challenge is that you jumped into all-sports in order to save money. How can you provide local content without going back to a full staff again and embarking on that vicious cycle of too-much-expense and too-little-revenue?

You already have a terrific set of resources in place to help: the other stations in your group.

Rallying the Reinforcements

Let’s start with local news. You do have at least one person among your “brands” covering local news, don’t you? No, not the “giggle girl” who updates us on traffic and celebrity gossip on the morning show. An actual news person. No? Then it’s time to draft a voice from your roster to take care of news on the sports station.

That’s because the predominantly male, 35+ demographic of your all-sports audience lives in the real world of housing issues, unemployment, taxes, health matters and crime. They don’t just tune in the six o’clock TV news to watch the sports segment. They watch the whole banana. Which makes it absurd to think that just because they want to whine about Brett Favre doesn’t mean they don’t care what happens at city hall or who shot a cop on the west side last night.

And no, your local sports updates don’t count as news. They’re scores. News is news and there’s somewhere to insert it, even if only in one-minute blurbs.

Also somewhere in your jolly band of jocks is a DJ who loves sports, is incredibly knowledgeable about local sports issues and would be a great addition to your lineup, even in short segments. If you’re really lucky, that person might even be one of your female personalities.

Don’t Walk Away From Your Sports Station – Jump In!

When you add local elements such as real news and participation by personalities from your other stations, you vastly increase not only the value of your all-sports station to listeners but to advertisers. That’s because your salespeople now have something to sell that’s local and involved. Which is far more attractive to advertisers’ messages than national sports blab with a few local score and story updates.

Wouldn’t it be cool if, in 2011, your sales force could get away from calling only on sports bars and car dealers and be able to walk into almost any client or prospect with compelling reasons to buy your plucky little all-sports AM?

Why yes. I believe it would.

FRIDAY: A New Year’s Eve when a radio account executive and his client made a big difference to a lonely late-night DJ.

PROGRAMMING QUALITY CONTROL vs. NIT-PICKING

WHEN TO LET THE P.D. RUN THE SHOW – AND WHEN YOU HAVE TO STEP IN

I well remember the first time I was accused by a program director of meddling with his air staff. This was at a station in a large market that was at a solid signal disadvantage and really struggling to assert itself in an overcrowded band. Because of this situation, I was constantly on the hunt for any competitive edge, however small.

One day, while returning to the station in my car, I noticed our staion's audio was distorted. One thing we had invested in was good signal processing gear so this had my hackles up right away. Before calling the chief engineer, I went straight to the control room, which had a window facing a hallway. Looking in, I immediately saw the problem: our midday air talent was pegging the VU meter needles way over on the right. I’m a former major market announcer, too, and I know my way around audio processing. I hustled into the control room, pointed out the error and the talent immediately cranked down the pot. I also asked her to please keep the monitors turned up so she could hear what she was putting out.

Of course, I received the old excuse of the non-technically blessed: “The processing gear will correct any level discrepancies. Right?”

Wrong. It’s garbage-in/garbage out. No processor can smooth out a really distorted signal. All any processor can do with junk like that is make it louder.

The upshot of this little incident was a fractious PD upbraiding me for meddling with his air talent. I held my tongue and did not inform him that, in fact, since I was the general manger, she was actually my air talent. What I said was that her show belonged to all our listeners. Thus she was actually their air talent. And as such, she was responsible for producing a clean, listenable stream of audio deliciousness. Not distorted (and highly processed) trash!

What I should have done, of course, was immediately call the P.D. from my car, explain the situation and ask him to step into the control room and apply verbal nudging (or thrashing) as required.

On another occasion, I did step in directly to deal with a developing on-air train wreck because it was potentially catastrophic for the whole organization. A talk show host was vilifying a local politico for some real or imagined villainy. He had gone on about this dastardly character for at least twenty minutes and was being not only entertaining but inventive.

Until...

He went overboard so suddenly and disturbingly that direct action was required. Raking politicians over the coals has a long and glorious history on talk radio. I have no problem with it. In fact, I often enjoy it. But this host suddenly veered away from the common weal and jumped on the politician’s personal life. He attacked the guy’s wife, who was not in politics, and even suggested other kids beat up the politician’s kids at school. Then he suggested a boycott of his business, which was a prominent local appliance store chain.

A swirling vortex of people and office supplies probably trailed in my wake as I flew from my office to the air corridor. I did have the presence of mind to enquire after the location of the program director. He had left for lunch. Alright then...

I walked into the control room, reached over the board op’s shoulder toward the pot for the talk host’s microphone and punched OFF. I then pointed to the computer screen containing the program log and said, “That stopset. Right now.” To the slack-jawed producer, I said “Backup show. You’ve got three minutes”. She went scrambling for the backup show we kept on file for each of our personalities, some evergreen programming with undated general content. At the end of the set, that’s what listeners heard. Of course it was jarring. But it dammed the flood in time, I hoped, to save our business.

It did. I suspended the talk host on the spot. The politician certainly did take offense at what had been said and I had to publicly apologize on behalf of the station. (Ever have to do that? It’s lots of fun.) The program director, who hadn’t been listening during a peaceful lunch, strolled back to work and into a maelstrom. He was a good guy who had worked hard to establish that particular host in our market and I felt bad for him.

Lessons For Radio Managers About Intervening In Programming

Here’s my take-away from these and similar incidents, which could happen to any radio station manager any day:

1. Even in small markets, let your department heads run their departments for routine events

2. Recognize the difference between fine-tuning your product and the headlight of an oncoming train

3. Never – NEVER – hesitate to take the helm yourself and give it a good spin when the ship is seriously in danger of slamming into the rocks

In the end, they are your air talent, your department heads, your listeners – and your FCC license – and you are responsible for protecting all of them.

THURSDAY:  Is Sports Talk A Throwaway Format At Your Station?

INTRODUCING THE MINI-SALES MEETING

WHY SHORTER, SMALLER SALES MEETINGS RATCHET UP PRODUCTIVITY

If you’re a fan of the traditional, Old School, Hour-Or-More-Long weekly sales meeting, you’re going to have to swallow hard on this one. I’m about to share with you a way of looking at sales meetings that may be outside your comfort zone. I’m going to introduce you to the concept of the mini-sales meeting. If you implement it soon and stick to it religiously, there’s a good chance it will significantly ramp up the productivity of your sales force.

I think we can all agree on one thing: No salesperson likes sales meetings. And with good reason: they’re generally a waste of time and resources. As often as not, they’re also poorly planned, raggedly executed and deal with things that really have no business being discussed in front of everyone.

Notorious Sales Meeting Time-Wasters

Such as these usual suspects. How many of them have you trotted out at a recent sales meeting?

• Comparisons of individual sales performance – I’ll talk about this in a future blog but this Old School tactic motivates nobody except the one or two hotshots who are already atop the sales performance chart

• Rah-rah motivation – If you need to do this then, my friend, you have hired the wrong salespeople in the first place!

• Routine housekeeping – Even five minutes spent on this at a sales meeting means your sales force could have been on the street five minutes sooner

The Only Two Reasons To Have Sales Meetings

If you’re going to force everyone into a room once a week, you had better make it worth their time.  Only two things do that because they’re the only two that will make money for everyone in the room:

1. Brainstorming

2. Focused training

For example:

Brainstorming  This is NOT a general all-ideas-on-the-table bull session! If you know what makes a productive sales meeting, you know that planning is critical. So when it comes time to brainstorm, by all means include everyone but keep everyone on topic.

One good brainstorming topic is problem clients and prospects.

Here, you don’t do the old-fashioned circle-the-table and see who everyone is calling on this week. No value to that. What you do is ask each person to come prepared to discuss – in sixty seconds or less – a particular challenge that’s ahead of them in the coming week. This could be a cranky client who never seems satisfied, a hard-to-pin-down prospect or an advertiser who’s looking for a new idea that just hasn’t popped up so far. Ask for ideas, suggestions, past histories. Let everyone contribute but limit the discussion of each of these topics to five minutes or less.

Another way the group mentality can light up a sales meeting is solving a problem the whole station faces. Perhaps this has to do with branding or audience perception. Maybe ratings have dumped and advertisers need to be convinced to stay the course. The group brain is a great resource on topics like these – if it’s driven by you to stay on the subject.

Focused training

You don’t need to do formal sales training at every sales meeting. It does need to happen from time to time and only you – and your sales force – can determine when that time is.

Just remember what successful sports team coaches know about training:

• Focus each session on one item – and only one
• Practice repetitively until everyone is on board
• Involve more experienced players as mentors
• Point out to all how valuable this particular training is (in other words, how much money they can make!)

Apart from these two items, take five minutes each week with each individual salesperson to cover the performance and housekeeping issues that used to waste everyone’s time at a full weekly meeting.

Then turn ‘em loose to go sell something!

WEDNESDAY: Programing Quality Control vs. Nit-Picking

KEEP WAVERING ADVERTISERS ON THE AIR

HERE’S A SHORT LIST OF GREAT REASONS TO KEEP ADVERTISING NOW

What can your salespeople say right now to customers who may be wavering about advertising in the coming weeks? Stay the course and let the others fall behind. Sure, the economy is iffy right now. But local businesses  that maintain and even increase radio buys when their competitors are cutting back often outpace what used to be stiff competition and grab new market share – in any size market.

Get these five key messages across to any advertisers who are on the fence about being on your stations in the first quarter:

FIVE COMPELLING REASONS TO KEEP ADVERTISING

            1.  Advertising has always worked well during recessionary times. You can go back as far as the 1989-1991 recession for some stunning examples of companies that kept advertising – in many cases, increasing their ad budgets – and did much better than companies that didn’t. During that economic downturn, for example, Pizza Hut pumped up its sales 61% and Taco Bell’s sales were up 40%. When many beer brands cut way back on advertising, Coors and Bud Light kept their heads, spent more and each experienced double-digit sales hikes. How about Kraft salad dressing? Figuring more people were going to eat at home, Kraft pumped up its ad budget and catapulted its sales 70 percent.

            Obviously, these are national brands. Does this same thinking make a difference to a small business, even a one-person operation? Sure. Because the logic is the same: Let the competition panic and apply a slash-and-burn approach to advertising; local businesses that survive and thrive keep advertising – and do more of it.

           

2. When the competition cuts back, your message booms through.  Gee, fewer ads from your competitors? That’s…too…bad. Where their commercials used to run regularly on radio only yours are heard now. Where they might even have outspent you, you’re now running ads more frequently. They’re on the sidelines – you’re carrying the ball. It’s a simple sports metaphor but it exactly describes your forward-thinking business activity and their wait-it-out-and-hope-for-the-best thinking.

            3. Advertising reassures your customers, both old and new. Every day it seems we hear of a well-known company or product or brand simply disappearing. It’s happened in your area. Businesses that might have been around for generations had to fold their tents and slip away into the economic night. Not you, though. Sure, you’ve had to keep a firm grip on expenses and rethink almost everything you do. But by keeping your message on the air you’re saying to your customers and prospects, ”I’m here today. I’ll be in business tomorrow. Come to me and I will absolutely be here to take care of you”. Confidence has an enormous impact on buying decisions when money is tight. Your continued advertising campaign tells people they can rely on you, no matter what happens to those other guys.

            4. Consistency creates familiarity. Hit-and-miss never works in advertising. Never has, never will. That’s Advertising 101 and has been for a couple of centuries. Now, though, there’s a new urgency that speaks in favor of consistently putting your message out there. With the broad range of choices assailing your customers’ eyes and ears today it’s more important than ever to realize one thing: attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. 

Your advertising needs to be available to those over-stimulated eyes and ears all the time. 

            5. Community involvement strengthens your message.  Sponsor whatever you can: basketball games, concerts, community celebrations. Everyone needs money, especially when the economy is rocky, and civic sponsorships are generally very reasonably priced. When you associate your name with something that’s important in your trading area you not only project a caring image but create enormous good will with the sponsoring organization. You didn’t give up – you contributed.

Suggest to your customers that they contribute their time as well as their money. That doubles the value to both their businesses and the people and events they help.

MONDAY SALES BLAST: WHEN CLIENTS WANT TO CUT BACK

HERE’S WHAT YOUR SALESPEOPLE CAN SAY TO SKITTISH RETAILERS

With the economy still in a shambles, even stalwart retailers who kept advertising when others cut back or gave up entirely are fidgeting. Maybe with holiday advertising dealt with, they think, the first quarter might be a good time to rein in the old ad budget and hunker down until things get better. What can your salespeople say to counter this pervasive thinking? It’s all about expenses versus investments.

 I’ll give you my take in a moment; first, here’s what one of America’s great ad men has to say:

            "All great enterprises move forward in a recession

             and the weaklings move backward.

            The dumbbells cut back on advertising.

            The smart people don't."

                      -- Ed McCabe, Advertising Agency Founder

That’s one way of putting it, although I’ve never found that calling my clients dumbbells was particularly profitable. What your salespeople can say to customers and prospects who are wavering about spending money on radio advertising in the new year is this:

“There’s good news: you can entice customers to come to you and take action right now.”

“You can tell them what you want them to do and why what you have to offer is  better than that stuff your competitors try to palm off.”

“You can trumpet the many ways your customers and prospects can benefit by doing business with you – price, quality, customer service, convenience, the skill and caring you and your employees bring to work every day, your unbeatable experience and reputation.”

“No matter what economic conditions apply, you can do every one of those things every single day. You can not only survive but thrive. You can, as the song says, live, love, laugh and be happy.”

Unless you cut your advertising budget.

That’s the key: eliminate expenses. Don’t eliminate investments.

EXPENSES vs. INVESTMENTS

Investments can be defined as “money that is invested with the expectation of a profit”. Based on that sound logic, it’s easy for your customers to determine the checks they write that will never, except in the loosest definition, bring any financial return.

When the economy belches, however, they may have to lay off unproductive or excess personnel, close branch locations or tighten inventory.

All of those items are expenses.

Make sure your salespeople engage their customers about the items in their accounts payable lists that count as investments, items that are absolutely necessary for their businesses to survive and thrive. These include:

·        their primary business location

·        inventory  that is attractive and will definitely sell

·        furnishings that make the business function

·        valuable, productive employees – and

·        ADVERTISING

None of the other four ingredients works if no one knows who your clients

are, where to find them, what they provide better than anyone else or what’s compelling and newsworthy about their businesses.

That’s what advertising is for.

There has never been a more compelling moment for radio salespeople to reinforce the idea that advertising is an important business investment. As you send your warriors out during this busy pre-Christmas week, make sure they’re focused on first and second quarter business but also on keeping your customers zeroed in on advertising as an investment.

TUESDAY:  Continuing this vital end-of-year topic, I’ll reveal Five Compelling Reasons Why Your Retail Customers Should Keep Advertising.

PLANNING PROMOTIONS: THE FIRST QUESTIONS YOU MUST ANSWER

ONCE YOU’VE ANSWERED THESE, EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST LOGISTICS

As you and your staff plan ahead for Q1 and Q2 promotions, your calendar may already contain several dates. Some of those promotions will be on-air, others will involve remotes. Whatever – and wherever – they are, of all the questions that will need to be answered there is one that is make-or-break: Does this benefit the station? The answer may not be as obvious as it seems.

First, let’s define benefit.

If you’re strapped for cash and a client offers $10,000 (or even $1,000) for a promotion or remote, I’m sure you’ll say “You bet, it’s good for the station”. Revenue is a powerful driver. Sometimes, though, it can drive you straight into the ditch if bad publicity ensues or it sends listeners stampeding for the exits.

Many radio veterans remember the hysterical 1978 episode of TV’s WKRP In Cincinnati in which actor Gordon Jump, playing the station’s GM Arthur Carlson, is convinced to drop live turkeys from a helicopter as a Thanksgiving promotion. The result: pure carnage.

I can still hear Richard Sanders as News Director Les Nessman doing his best Herb Morrison impression during the climactic remote:

            Oh my God, Johnny, they're turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this?

            Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just

            went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity!

            The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not

            since the Hindenburg tragedy has there been anything like this!

That promotion-from-hell led to one of TV’s most memorable lines as an appalled Arthur Carlson said, “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly”.

Allow me a fast sprint through Weak Pun Land to say that a turkey of a promotion will gobble up both listener and sponsor good will and can knock the stuffing out of ratings.

I had to. I’m sorry.

7 Ways To Determine Whether A Radio Promotion or Remote Is A Real Benefit

But if you can afford to be even a little choosy in the promotions and remotes your PD and salespeople dream up, ask them a few pertinent questions in advance. This isn’t about how the event should be done – that’s logistics – but whether it makes sense in the first place.

Questions such as:

1. Does this idea work with our format?

2. Does it appeal to our P1 listeners or could it drive them away?

3. Is there a good chance it will attract new listeners who will at least sample our stations?

4. If you’re in a rated market, can this be done fast-and-tight, the way Arbitron’s PPM likes it (see my Tuesday and Wednesday columns)?

5. Will it get us some good promo for the stations as well as for the sponsor?

6. Who’s paying for this, anyway, and does that make sense?

7. Is it fun?

I’m always amazed at radio station promotions and remotes that just seem to be there to generate a few bucks and nothing else. Radio should always serve up fun content. If we can’t at least do that, listeners might as well head over to the Internet and just load up songs.

Determining whether a promotion and/or remote is truly good for your stations begins with zeroing in on the benefits it provides. This is the first step. If you green light the event, then you can work out the gritty details.

But first make sure that green light isn’t just reflecting the color of money.

PPM RE-BAKES THE FORMAT PIE

PPM UPDATE, PART 2: RATINGS METHODOLOGY CREATES COSMIC SHIFTS IN HOW WE PROGRAM AN HOUR

An hour of almost any radio format is beginning to look a lot different than it has for the past sixty years. That’s because Arbitron’s PPM is revealing facts about how listeners use radio that would have astonished most programmers even a few years ago. The challenge for radio station managers and program directors alike isn’t to understand what’s being revealed but to make changes in format metrics that may be uncomfortable.

What we’re learning creates something of an Alice In Wonderland riddle: In which direction do a clock’s hands turn?

Well, duh, you might say: Clockwise.

Well, duh, the clock might answer: Not if you’re the clock.

In other words, some long-sacred – and previously obvious –  basics of the hourly program clock and its pie-shaped elements need searching and immediate updating.

Don’t Load Up the First Quarter-Hour

If your program director or consultant still insists on stuffing the first fifteen minutes  with the hottest songs and best promos, it’s time to bring up what PPM is reporting: listening is actually spread evenly throughout the hour. The glass-is-half-full view of this is that you actually have more opportunities to appeal to listeners and anchor your P1 listeners; the reverse, of course, is that you also have more chances to drive them away.

But wait, the good old ARB paper diaries indicated the first quarter-hour was the big palooka. Yes but they were based on recall. PPM captures it all. The paper diaries were wrong.

7:20 AM: Ah, the Good Old Days (Last Year)

Remember when twenty minutes past seven was the apex of morning drive? The big listening appointment that everything led up to? That’s when you welcomed the celebrity guest, gave away the money, made the big announcement. Ah, yes: 7:20 AM.

So last year.

A big revelation of PPM measurement is that cume has doubled. That’s not a ground-swell of new listeners, just a new way of measuring what was already there. Which means your station should be making listening appointments all day long. They don’t have to be for money or big prizes, just for unique, compelling content that only you can provide.

Giant Nuggets Mined From the PPM Numbers

Several other major revelations are coming out of the PPM reports. Radio station managers need to be aware of every one of them because this is too important a sea change to be left to program directors and consultants.

Here’s what we’re discovering from PPM that we didn’t necessarily know before:

• Cume is up and TSL is down – formats that benefit from cume seem to be doing better, although this is still in flux

• Monday is a big day – the paper diaries indicated it was Thursday but now there’s no need to hold off important programming or content until the week is well along

• More segues aren’t necessarily the answer for music stations – too many long sets without announcer input that really connects with listeners (which is not reading liners) can drive the strays straight to talk radio or satellite/Internet music providers

• Content separates your stations from everyone else – including the above-mentioned non-broadcast interlopers

Still In Flux

Plenty of questions remain. A big one concerns stopsets, how long they should be and where in various hours they should appear. A number of stations are already tinkering with their format clocks on this element alone. More time with the technology and its results will produce more precise answers.

By the way, PPM isn’t going away. Arbitron is once again alone in the big league of American radio radio audience measurement after Neilsen – stung by the defections of Clear Channel and Cumulus back to Arbitron – announced Monday that it is exiting the radio business in North America.

THURSDAY: Don't even think about planning Q1 and Q2 promotions and remotes until you do this!

PPM’s LESSON FOR TALENT: GET TO THE POINT!

IN AN ELECTRONIC RATINGS WORLD, THE DAYS OF LEISURELY CHAT ARE OVER

As Arbitron continues to roll out its Portable People Meter (PPM) wireless radio ratings technology we’re learning a few key lessons about how listeners respond to what they hear – and what makes them vote with their feet. Today, in Part One of a two-part look at what we’re gleaning from PPM ratings, a dramatic new truth for talent in all formats: Don’t dawdle – get on with it.

While Top 40 programmers have preached short-and-snappy for decades, PPM makes talent who get even a little too chatty pay a stiff price: less cume. And make no mistake, it’s a cume world now. No more diary-based recall methodology. The PPM simply sits there and logs what’s being listened to. As a radio station manager that means your stations – the only brands you have to sell – had better not be wasting listeners’ time.

Talk Radio The Doesn’t Blow Hot Air

This is especially true for talk radio, both issues-oriented and sports. Many a talk show host has grown up professionally listening to the kings of talk radio but that isn’t always good. The long-winded hour opens (or teases or churns) practiced by some of the most famous yakkers in radio became Old School the day the first PPMs powered up. Now, it's not only antiquated to cruise through a ten- to twenty-minute show or hour open, it's deadly.

Many program directors and programming consultants are now urging talk hosts to trim their opens and get into the meat of their shows many minutes sooner than they used to. It’s an issue for every talk host but especially so in sports talk. The nature of the format is changing from a-bunch-of-guys-yucking-it-up-at-a-sports-bar to serious discussion and creative entertainment. It’s no longer enough to have photographic memories for sports stuff; now sports talk talent must not only draw listeners in but entice them to stay throughout each hour.

For issues-oriented talk, talent has to have a clear road map not only of the hour ahead but of every minute in that hour. Yes, flexibility to jump on a story or ride a particularly juicy call a little longer are still important. But one of PPM’s crucial lessons is that programmers’ long-time habits of loading up the first quarter-hour are wrong: listeners stay aboard fairly evenly – and desert just as evenly – throughout the hour. Thus the need to get into compelling subject matter fast and keep it moving.

Why This Isn’t Just The Program Director’s Issue

As a radio station manager, you’re responsible for every aspect of operations, from sales through to the transmitter and beyond. But your key responsibility is to drive revenue. To do that, you must oversee your programming knowledgably. Which means you don’t get to say, “PPM? That’s the PD’s problem”.

Sorry, Big Cheese, but it’s yours, too. If you don’t understand the rapidly unfolding new world of PPM you run the risk of losing significant ratings because you thought everything was running fine, just like it did in the paper diary days.

With every market that goes on-line with PPM (or achieves “currency” with it, to use Arbitron’s phraseology) and with each fresh ratings report, more useful – in fact, fascinating – lessons are becoming available about how listeners use radio right now. Only by staying current with these new developments can a radio station manager hope to be able to work with program directors and consultants to survive and thrive in the brave new universe of PPM ratings.

Wednesday: In Part Two of our PPM update, a look at how the new ratings tech is dramatically changing what we thought we knew about programming.

EMPOWERING YOUNGER SALESPEOPLE

DRIVING REVENUE BY UNDERSTANDING TODAY’S YOUNG SALESPEOPLE

Many young radio account executives quit or get fired long before there’s a reasonable expectation that they will succeed. This is often because of some radio station managers' outdated views about how young people are wired in the 21^st century. The best way to empower younger sellers is to understand who they are and why they do what they do. This will be different. It won’t kill you. It won’t even seriously injure you.

If you want to hire young people and keep them you have to adapt to the way they think.. Here are some ways.

Knowing that they’re not shy about changing jobs based on money – don’t pay them straight commission or some other insultingly low “entry level” compensation. If you want them to act like adults, pay them adult wages. Of course, you’re going to compensate them based on performance but don’t price them into the revolving door the moment they’re hired.

Knowing that they’re social and peer-oriented – use this to your advantage. Start them out calling on people close to their own age, if possible. Let them establish business relationships that are comfortable for them now because, guess what? This generation isn’t going away. If you’re going for long-term growth, you’d better be able to get these people off to the right start. You’ll need to work with any of them who don’t know how to write proposals and leave phone messages in a businesslike way but, hey, we also know that they absorb education well!

Knowing that they work well together – why not let them work on projects together, perhaps mentored by an older sales person who gets what they’re about? Loyalty to the group is a big deal to these young lions. You can use that to keep them interested and valuable.

Knowing that technology is practically bred into them – listen to them when they have ideas (which they will) about how your systems could work better. And don’t shoot down ideas that aren’t practical or that you don’t understand. They’ll appreciate your consideration even if you don’t adopt their ideas. (Plus, what they suggest that doesn’t work might get your brain working on a variation that does. You’ll share the credit, right?)

Knowing that they need personal attention – give it to them. Spread it around, too, so your older sellers won’t feel left out. Some of them would rather just be left alone but that leaves more time for the ones who need some quality time from you. Praise them for work well done and reward them when it’s appropriate. And keep in mind that they not only want this but expect it in a relationship of any kind.

Clearly, communication is the key to managing and retaining younger sales people. In chapter 16 (Dialing In Goals And Expectations) we’ll look at how precisely describing what you want and carefully listening to what they want is a tremendous factor in keeping this generation away from the revolving door.

As Generation X becomes a more mature slice of the employment pie, the so-called Millennials hit the work force. What do they want? I read the results of a survey taken by that iconic bastion of pop music, MTV. It listed friends, family, technology and health as things that are most important to this group. No, this doesn’t foretell a return to the Fifties with iPods added. It’s just the normal swing in values from one generation to the next. Understand it – and profit from it.

This article contains information form my new book, The Zero Turnover Sales Force: How To Drive Revenue BY Keeping Your Sales Team Intact. Grab your copy at your local Barnes & Noble or Borders or, if they’re sold out,  at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Zero+Turnover+Sales+Force&x=20&y=15

EARLY CHRISTMAS FROM ARBITRON: RADIO AUDIENCE IS UP

MORE DIVERSITY, AFFLUENCE, EDUCATION – AND TEENS!

The Greek Chorus of naysayers that has been intoning the erosion of radio will get a collective muzzling next week from Arbitron. Its soon-to-be-released RADAR 107 National Radio Listening Report not only shows that radio listening is actually up – 3,300,000 more overall weekly listeners 12+ than last year – but that, far from deserting radio, younger listeners are turning to it in large numbers.

And for those who sell radio advertising, there’s money all the way through the new nationwide listening survey.

RADAR 107, a year-long measuring stick of network radio listening, covers 54 individual radio networks and calls itself “the standard currency for national network radio ratings”. Since so many stations now rely on networks like Westwood One, Dial Global, American Urban Radio, Premiere and the rest for all or part of their daily programming, this is an important – and uplifting – study.

Let’s jump into the advance numbers. Don’t worry, the water’s fine. Really fine.

The Kids Are More Than Alright

Particularly gratifying to those of us who never bought the argument that radio has become too un-hip for younger listeners in the iPod Era is this little gem from the Report:

            Teens aged 12 to 17 continue to embrace radio broadcasts with

            an average weekly increase of 365,000 versus last year’s report.

There’s also great news for stations that want to embrace young Hispanics:

            More Hispanic Teens aged 12 to 17 are tuning in to radio versus

            the same period a year ago. This demographic group increased

            (by) 177,000 average...listeners a week, year over year.

The growing number of Hispanic Teens in the radio universe can only be a strong signal that radio continues to offer something for everyone.

Strength in the 12-17 demo is far more important than it used to be. Where even an enormous teen audience was once thought fit only to be sold acne medication and Coca-Cola, that bunch is now far more affluent. And, of course, the habit of regularly listening to radio continues after the teen years.

Diversity Continues Strong

I’ve seen the advance numbers and they’re impressive. RADAR 107, which will be released December 13^th, shows radio’s array of formats appeals to a strongly diverse spectrum of Black and Hispanic listeners.

The categories of Black and Hispanic Adults 18-49 produced the most impressive gains against last year’s numbers, up 165,000 Black listeners and a whopping 834,000 Hispanic listeners.

Overall, the RADAR Report says that radio reaches 93 percent of Black and 95% of Hispanic listeners 12+ on a weekly basis.

Radio Reaches Educated, Upscale Adults

Radio’s favorite “money demographics” are healthy, too. Consider what the new Arbitron report says about these advertiser must-haves:

• College grads 18-49:  radio delivers 96 percent

• Adults 18+ with household incomes of $75,000 per year or better: radio reaches 95 percent

• And radio reaches, on an average week, a supremely bankable 96 percent of 25-54 adults who are college graduates and have household incomes of at least $50,000

RADAR (Radio’s All Dimension Audience Research) 107 includes data from 40 Arbitron PPM markets on a September-to-September year.

Here’s the bottom line we should all take from numbers like these:

Radio’s audience is not only growing – it’s doing so hand-in-hand with new technology.

Stop worrying. Go sell something!

MONDAY SALES BLAST: REAL-WORLD SALES GOALS

UNREALISTIC SALES GOALS LEAD TO SALES FORCE TURNOVER

We’re at that time when sales projections are being put together for the next month, quarter and calendar year. These numbers can cause all kinds of problems and misunderstandings between station ownership, management and the sales force so I’d like to share some information from my new book, The Zero Turnover Sales Force: How To Increase Revenue By Keeping Your Sales Force Intact. (Available at your local Barnes & Noble and Borders or, if they’re sold out, from Amazon in hard cover or Kindle versions.)

(End of cheap plug. I thank you.)

Sales budget numbers come from somewhere but sales people are often mystified as to where this might be. The source doesn’t always seem to reside within our solar system. So much frustration and unhappiness are created by wildly unrealistic monthly and quarterly sales budgets that some sales executives say it’s a significant cause of turnover.

Here’s the truth about unrealistic sales goals: they’re not goals, they’re wishes.

They’re the numbers that corporate wishes would come flying onto its books. They’re the numbers that their lenders and stockholders and partners wish would happen. If you look up synonyms for wish you’ll find entries such as dream, desire, crave and pine for.

Nowhere will you find doable.

           

You have to stand your ground on sales goals. It’s unfair of the higher-ups to foist unrealistic numbers on you and it’s wrong for you to hammer your sales people to attain them. That will only lead to complaining, frustration – and resignations.

Or to the ultimate indignity: being fired for not hitting numbers that are completely unrealistic in the first place.

Sure, be aggressive with your projections when it makes sense. But tell your bosses in no uncertain terms that you and your sales force know the market, you know what you’re doing and what you’re capable of. One job of a radio station manager in a corporate environment is to be a bulwark between the insatiable appetites of directors, shareholders and financial partners and your revenue producers.

To build a Zero Turnover Sales Force, the numbers have to come from this planet.

When you talk numbers with your sales people, be explicit about what you expect. Some sales executives like to use percentages and ratios to create sales goals. This often leads to misunderstandings. For instance, you might want a new sales person to write fifteen percent more new business each of the next three months. Fifteen percent of what? The current billing on that account? The budget for that sales person? The total number of accounts? The amount of new business contacts? The fillings in your teeth – what?

Better to specify a monetary figure. Translate that fifteen percent into a figure, write it down and have your sales person sign off on it. Now there’s no question about whether that goal gets hit: the numbers will be there or they won’t.

Every business needs sales goals. But make sure they’re attainable, mutually understood, real-world goals and not just another wish on Santa’s list.