11-5-13
Citing a Barron's article about the possibility of decades of stagnant economic growth ("Slowing to a Crawl"), Saga Communications CEO Ed Christian said, "If we accept the reality that we are crawling, we need to adapt what we do." Christian said radio needs to rebuild its image in order to remain healthy in a slow-growth world. His point: radio needs to focus more on its product and take care of the people who produce that product. "We can't clone a plant. Our business is about our people. We need to get our product right. You can treat people with respect and make money. You can do both, even in a 2 percent world."
Christian mentioned Lew Dickey's quote from the Cumulus earnings call last month. Dickey said radio is experiencing a bit of a renaissance with advertisers. Christian said, "That would be good but we have to rectify our current problems and set goals. A great deal is our own internal understanding." Christian also mentioned the Radio Ink DASH conference in Detroit held last month. "It was well attended. The takeaways were that people want a radio in their car and people like radio." He said in the long run people must like, trust, and respect radio. It takes people doing great jobs proving we are part of the community.
To Christian's point about future economic growth, later this month at Radio Ink's Forecast 2014 in New York City, analysts and financial experts will give their predictions about the economy and the revenue outlook for radio. One of those speakers will be Marci Ryvicker from Wells Fargo who's projecting 1 percent radio revenue growth in 2014, which she says is conservative. Drew Marcus of Sugarloaf Rock Capital will also be part of Forecast. He predicts radio will have a somewhat flatfish year, before the positive impact of political. And, Managing Director of Providence Equity Capital Markets Blair Faulstich adds, "I think there is a dysfunction in Washington that is going to kind of persist. I would say radio is going to mirror that. I think we are going to see muted overall growth in the radio business. I think it is a low, single-digit type of growth environment for radio."
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(MANAGERS PERSEPCTIVE)
In my opinion, any chance for radio to bounce back has very little to do with image repair. It has to do with customer change and getting the customer what they want...on their terms. Want an example? Walk into McDonald's and try to order a quarter ponder with cheese. You can do it, but it takes a lot of work just to find it. That's because McDonald's adapted to their customers and used product diversification to grow their business. They invested in new products and they rebuilt their stores...because that what the customer wanted.
I don't recall seeing Ed or anyone else from SGA at the Dash conference. Granted it was a grand total of 45 minutes from Grosse Pointe farms to metro airport, (insert snark SFX here;) but I was there and I recall a lot more than "they like radio and they want a radio in their car". What I heard is "when we didn't have a choice, we were forced to sit through our unprepared DJ's, your 8 unit greedy ass stop sets and your crappy production. But now we have lots of options, so thanks, but no thanks"
When the only choice was burgers at McDonalds, I ate the damn hamburger...but I didn't like it. I want a salad and a smoothie and you damn well better have a smoothie....cause you competitor next door does"
All opinions are offered by long-time, well-known radio industry General Managers and Market Managers who are readers of Radio Ink Magazine and radioink.com. If you'd like to offer your perspective on a future story, contact Ed Ryan at edryantheeditor@radioink.com)
(11/6/2013 5:34:35 AM)
The Dickeys and the Pittmans of the world ARE the problem with radio today. Carbon copy non-local radio with the 8 minute stop-sets ARE the problem...but they wonder why no growth and nobody listens to corporate run radio.
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