OK Twister Tragedy: ANOTHER Robo-Radio Fail

Applause to local Oklahoma stations that sprang-into action.
It was reliance, by radio elsewhere, on robotic programming, that again devalued AM/FM as First Informer.
Remember how automated music stations no-showed the deaths of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston?
Read: When “the most-destructive tornado in world history” struck, one of Talk Radio’s big must-carry shows struck-out.

Best promo I’ve heard in a month…

“I wrote this after reading about the wildfires in Southern California.”
Nick Michaels crafts imaging for 100.3FM The Sound in Los Angeles, which simply thanks neighbors for being…neighbors.

Read: About YOUR Station’s Promos: “Blah, blah, blah?

Is your station habit? Or caricature?

Read: Why sweating-the-small-stuff IS worth the effort.

Boston Bombing: How Radio Helped…or Hurt

Especially after last week, Talk Radio should heed the words of a media giant we now mourn.
“They want to trust whatever voices they’re listening to.”

RIP Al Neuharth, who re-invented the only medium older than radio.
Allen H. Neuharth was the Gannett chairman who founded USA TODAY, and later helped create a The Newseum, the museum of news, which warrants adding an entire day to your next trip to Washington. His 1989 autobiography “Confessions of an S.O.B.” is still canny advice.

Al was a bigger-than-life figure, always influential, often controversial. He died Friday at his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida, 89.

The corporate culture he created boldly, sometimes extravagantly, demanded curiosity about how media need to evolve, to remain relevant.

“The fact that there is more hunger for news and information and entertainment and advertising than ever before, everywhere in the world, creates greater opportunities if we’re smart-enough to deliver it in the way that the consumer wants it…now, today…not how they wanted to get it 10 years ago or 20 years ago or even 2 or 3 years ago.”

Radio stations now “get” evolve-or-die. And some are LOTS better than others at publishing-beyond-the-transmitter. But that’s just plumbing.

Last week, Twitter seemed the medium of choice for many, and legacy media occasionally stumbled, disseminating misinformation as cable channels tripped-over-each-other. When radio parroted the-very-latest, it too had to back-peddle.

In a fast-breaking story, misinformation happens.
Disinformation is a nail in Talk Radio’s coffin.
Last week — during the Boston crisis — my report in Talkers and Radio-Info applauded how radio stepped-up…and I singled out a hurtful Talk Radio sideshow. As the week wore on, others, including the format’s biggest voices, joined the conspiracy clown show, even as facts debunked what Talk Radio was asking listeners to believe. I hope Al wasn’t listening.

Don’t wonder why Twitter is “the wire,” if we give people reason to trust each other more then they trust us.

2013 NAB Show: “Doesn’t feel like 2009″

Couldn’t be in Las Vegas for the 2013 NAB Show and RAIN Summit West?

Here are my notes.

REEE-JECTED by Talkers magazine…

Could Rush save radio again?
Several seemingly unrelated radio industry news items these past several days suggest an opportunity.
Exclusive: Read my provocative opinion piece here.

Comment, from a rock-ribbed righty owner of a Limbaugh-affiliated station:
“That Talkers rejected this is, in and of itself, the essence of the problem.”

My reply:
Talkers’ mission is to report the 7 news items I triangulated.
My what-if is a digest of those items.
Any credible trade publication risks confusing its readers with hypotheticals which could be misconstrued as news.

Pie Chart Pie-in-the-Face

Still presuming presume habitual AM/FM use?
Reporting what-should-be-sobering USA Touchpoints data, Inside Radio spins: “Only TV captures
more time spent with media.” [Click graphic to enlarge.]

What to do? The best radio you can!
First things first: Stop scaring-off (or boring) listeners you still have.
Matter, to people who matter most.
Talk Radio: MULTIPLY weekend revenue & swap antique programming for a digital revenue opportunity.
Not a talker? You can still play, IF you Do Both Kinds of “Radio.”
And SELL, baybee, SELL.
Most important of all? The Meaty Monthly Must-Read