Fundamentals – Not So Much

Been listening to a lot of local radio and noticing that format basics are no longer required and, in fact, are almost a luxury now?  

The simplest radio 101 communication fundamentals just don’t fit into the schedule of announcers voice tracking way too many stations at once, and there just isn’t time to be aware of their landscape market to market.  At least that’s what one might surmise.  

I think it really comes down to management just settling for less because our jobs and perspectives are just so different now in this consolidated less is more world.  If we programmers don’t require more from the staff, of course they will do less and only a precious few will go the extra mile to separate themselves from the crowd on-air.  It has always been that way and that’s why the hiring process can seem so long and tedious as the search for the one in a million self motivated communicator becomes a real challenge.  But it doesn’t stop at hiring the right person.

I remember when we first heard Bobby Bones and could immediately tell he would do any amount of work and prep to win.  It showed in every facet of this show; every character, every bit, every element.  After meeting him, we came to learn that Tommy Austin had created an atmosphere in which people wanted to learn more, experiment more broadly and achieve greater success.  I think the real key to Bobby and Tommy was allowing a talent to fail on occasion as a bit went flat or too long, or a character just didn’t gel in the show.  Failures didn’t require a huge postmortem but did require a thoughtful consideration of what worked and what didn’t, so the mistake wouldn’t be repeated and the show would be better for the experience.   

Allowing missteps when training racehorses is not something that comes naturally, but you have to let them breathe and assess the track occasionally to know how best to attack it and their competition.

How much time do you spend working with your talent on growth and learning the fundamentals?  How do you handle failures?  Do you allow enough room for not just chomping at the bit, but to open up and flat out run…or does that require too much maintenance?  

Pick some format basics and make them fundamental building blocks and lets get back to teaching, grooming, and fostering talent which is prerequisite to growing audience.  Just ask Tommy and Bobby.  

 

Garry Leigh

Who Cares

Our radio industry seems to have had the passion squeezed completely out of it as the commercial investment companies have squeezed into it.  Why did the investors show up in the first place?  Because the product people had created such compelling entertainment that our margins were topping 50 and 60 percent.  So who wouldn’t want into that kind of business plan and then want to squeeze a few more percent out?  In the process they squeezed most of the product people out and with them went the those most passionate about the product and left a lot of great sales people with nothing very creative to sell.  That leaves the investors holding a rather smelly bag and resultant ratings have been nothing to write home about as our stations have become a pasteurized homogenous tangible dated product.

Ownership and investors need to do a deep gut check on the product side, much as CBS has, and get some passion back into the equation.  Let’s get the hallways humming again and try some new concepts. Yes, many will fail and that will lead to many more successes.  Entertainment is a continuously evolving process and every day is a new one.  Maybe this blog post from Mediapost today will add a little inspiration.    Garry Leigh at Snafu Consulting

Last week Max wrote “You’re Nothing Without A Link.”Dwight Zahringer wrote in response, “Well, I am glad to see that mainstream media is finally getting it to a certain point. I’m happy to read this article but also shake my head on why these simple tactics take so long to get embedded in the brain of media professionals. I work with so many agencies- people with large professional degrees that their parents paid a lot of money for and they never learned basic common knowledge that they must evolve with media. SEO is basic and if you write for a living then realize this simple statement, ‘Content is King, Links are Queen.’ Without content there is nothing for search engines to grab and without links there is no way for them to find content. Keep up the education. Bite small and chew, then swallow.

Friday, May 2, 2008  Why Passion Matters By Max Kalehoff  In a hyper-competitive market, competence is expected and only flawless execution is tolerable. But that’s no longer enough. Today, the ultimate competitive advantage is passion.When passion lets loose, you drive focus, cultivate mastery, leverage spontaneity, foster creativity, build intuition and live toward mission. The dots connect. Clarity emerges. Your own bar of excellence sets higher, and you become infatuated with exceeding it. The result is accelerated and extended value creation that otherwise would never have been possible. Think of the places in your business where the presence of passion really matters — making you stand out beyond the rest, or sink into mediocrity. It’s about approaching things with the utmost thought and care, versus doing anything less. In my experience, there are a few places in business especially sensitive to passion:    Listening and understanding your customers and the market.  Innovating based on your market insight and intuition.  Building your product with quality and speed.  Ensuring the highest aesthetic and usability.  Refining your product over and over and over again, until it’s better and better and better.  Paying attention to all the details and signals that comprise the experience.  Inspiring your employees, customers, investors and other stakeholders.  Engaging and collaborating with customers.  Fixing things quickly when they go wrong — and then making them far better.  Using your product yourself and recommending it to friends because you truly believe it’s the best.Businesses with passion tend to excel in these areas, while businesses that don’t tend to just get by or break. I know — this is all obvious. But the irony is that most businesses and brands I encounter come up short. It’s probably because passion is not something that can be bought, outsourced or faked. Rather, the presence of passion has more to do with an authentic and fierce desire for your product to really change the game. Of course, it also has a huge amount to do with the CEO and leadership. It has to do with hiring and grooming an employee base that is culturally aligned and motivated with a real stake in the outcome. Same for investors, advisors, customers and partners. Who’s doing it right? We can all name some of the mega-brands that veer toward passion, like Apple, Google and JetBlue. But passion is equally important in smaller businesses, and perhaps more attainable and prevalent. In my life, some examples include instant-messaging aggregator Meebo and microblog platform Twitter. On a micro scale, there’s my barber Alberto at Astor Hair, the many local farmers at New York’s Green Markets, the Little Mexican Café near my home and, of course, my son’s nanny, Aliana. Does your business and product embody passion? If not, it’s probably at risk of being displaced by one that does.