A memo, a few PD meetings and a well-organized media push gives us the impression CBS Radio President Dan Mason has bigger things in mind than just announcing a song title and artist name a few times a day. Could Mason be trying to lead an entire industry in a new direction? Following Mason's recent meeting with a music executive, the CBS media department has been working on all cylinders marketing the "Mason Memo." The easy part was getting it in the radio trades. However, it's been circulating around the Internet via social media, blogs and was even in the New York Times. Yesterday CBS trotted out Director of Programming Greg Strassell (see next story) to discuss details about how CBS is implementing its new programming rules. The changes are pretty simple. Music stations are going to go back to announcing an artists name and the title of a song. Not all songs but certainly more than what listeners have been accustomed to hearing.
Last night Radio Ink spoke with legendary radio programmer Lee Abrams. Among many accomplishments, Abrams invented and built Album Rock, the first successful FM format. He also designed numerous other highly successful radio formats including the first Eclectic Rock format at San Francisco?s KFOG; the first FM Urban/Dance format at New York?s WKTU, the first New Adult Contemporary format among others. In addition, he created the original blueprint for the NBC Source Radio Network. We wanted to get Abrams opinion on the "Mason Memo" and his thoughts on where this is going.
RI: Do you think Dan Mason is trying to change an entire industry with this organized push?
I hope not, because a memo isn't going to do it. To me radio is out of sync with 21st Century America content wise. Radio is Mitch Miller and the America wants Elvis...or Bobby Vee and the America wants The Beatles...or Poison and America wants Nirvana. You get the idea. Dramatic and noticeable evolution. I commend him for stepping out, but it's such a small point, it's not going to make any difference on the street, just like an App, a Facebook page or a new slogan isn't going to drive any significant movement in an era where evolution isn't a luxury it's a necessity. Something America WANTS but radio isn't delivering nearly to it's potential. We need to address and execute on intelligent but sweeping re-thinking, cultural change and execution, more than worrying about announcing titles.
RI: What is your opinion on whether or not Radio should be doing more song/title announcing?
Music has become a commodity at radio and the lack of song/title mentions is symptomatic of a much greater self inflicted problem at music radio. While the golden days where radio was relatively uncontested in the music space are over, there are some things that are timelessly important in a competitive music scenario. Musical credibility is earned and announcing song titles is just one minor component in embracing the artists and songs a station plays. Listen to a successful music station in the 60's and you'll hear the instinctive celebration and embracing of songs they played. Not every song as some are pretty obvious, but the "spirit" of the musical presentation was electric and exciting. Can't go back to that 'sound' but sure can re-interpret that spirit for 2011. As much as the 'underground dj's' caused great format adherance pains in the early days of FM, at least they had musical passion---something missing and replaced by rocket science. Somewhere between that intense passion and science, lies the zone of musical cred and a magnetic musical relationship with the public.
RI: How did the industry get away from doing it? It seems so simple. Who determined it was something the listeners did not want?
Again, a symptom of radio's creative coma. Leaders are looking for consolidation and digital answers which while important, are masking the true growth inhibitor---stations that simply don't connect with listeners beyond utility. Generating fans and not users. The presentation of music is on autopilot. An afterthought. Just the fact that Dan's comments are gaining such attention is frightening. It has never been more important for radio to go into creative over drive and that includes the total capture of the artists they focus on. The entire mind set of the radio industry has been in a denial driven self congratulatory state for awhile now, and especially in terms of music presentation. The level of clever, intelligent and hyper competitive thinking in terms of what comes out of the speakers would make a Storz or McLendon roll in their grave (if people dont know who those guys are---that's a problem in itself). Radio is in my DNA, I love it as most of your readers do, but if you really love it--get IN the fight on the most basic playing field---What comes out of the speakers. If Thar's brilliant, everything else from digital to NTR will flow from that and issues like song announcing will be irrelevent factors in the bigger picture of CREATING brilliant radio that ins in sync with the potential of this century. And---it isn't expensive. It's a mind not a money thing.
RI: Why not do it for every song when the jock comes back on?
Some songs need it...others don't. Some formats are foreground, some are environmental. The better idea is to blow up the playbook and redesign stations for the 2011 realities. Even successful stations should go through a "creative audit" as if they are REALLY successful, a re-think can only make them more so as they are operating from a position of strength. It's not just the song announce issue, it's EVERY element of how a station presents music in the new era.
RI: Can Mason's idea lead an entire industry to change?
The whole "announce the songs" thing is microscopic in importance. An inside the industry thing. I seriously doubt a single listener will notice. It's going to take a lot more than a memo from a respected group head to drive any change that is noticeable to the public. Just as it has historically, it's going to take a few breakthrough concepts not memos. The radio CULTURE is part of the issue too. Adverse to embracing the art of radio which as in "theater of the mind" is perhaps the greatest advantage radio has...or had. It's not arts and crafts...it's the quest to take people places as only radio can. If a film can...why not radio?
RI: How many spots should a music station be playing every hour?
It depends, but more important is that spot load isn't the problem. It's the lack of MAGIC between the spots. The whole vibe of what a station does. Its passion, character and muscle. Spots keep the lights on...but low spot loads are over rated unless of course you ran 8 and everyone else ran 18. But when most stations run about the same number, it borders on irrelevant in the big picture.
RI: Are we killing ourselves with the unentertaining chatter and long stopsets?
That doesn't help. In fact I often wonder if DJ's aren't, with a few exceptions, a relic of the past. At XM was had a "Classic Rock" channel with NO DJ's---just amazing production, killer songs (and not the standard tested library) and a few features that magnified certain artists and genres. The experts said you HAD to have DJ's, but what can a DJ possibly say about a Beatles or Pink Floyd song that is even remotely interesting. But again---it's not ONE thing that can kill anything---it's addressing every aspect of a stations' character from music to how the receptionist answers the phone. I think evaluating the function of the DJ in 2011 is a worthwhile excerise as it hasn't been thought through in decades. Maybe DJ's or the 'DJ style' is more annoying than compelling? Maybe...maybe not--but THOSE are the level of questions that need to be asked and acted on.
RI: Do you think online services are playing a role in how radio is starting to think?
No. We are at the most important crossroads in media history. The Apple/Google era, yet radio seems happy to live within its own 90's rooted walls. Radio remains omnipresent and a potential culture mover, but just not seeing the kind of 21st century creative content swagger it's going to take to be the soundtrack of America throughout the century. If anything, maybe Dan's letter will stir some thinking and that's a start. But this is serious stuff...there's a media WAR out there and it's going to take more than a memo, some slogans and a cool App to win it. THAT is what's exciting about the future of radio.
(6/2/2011 1:55:23 PM)
Great blueprint for how to become a consultant or better yet 'guru' or 'minister of innovation'. All questions--no answers. In the same paragragh he harkens back to the glory days of 60's radio then suggests DJ's are obsolete. Even more hilarious is the notion that XM's production was/is 'amazing'. Radio has been evolving and reinventing itself for decades and will continue to do so while reaching 90+ percent of the population each week through whatever means technology provides the marketplace. The most compelling content in media today continues to be Radio even as watered down as consolidation has rendered it. Radio was doing 'reality'
way before Survivor. Here in market 261 where everyone wears 11 different hats we still take time every day to ask "how can we do this different/better/cooler". The idea that Radio pros are simply blobs sitting in the middle of the road waiting to be run over by advancing technology is a farce. We ARE the digital revolution because our reach and content are unmatched and columns such as this one are read,debated and acted on by some of the brightest minds in entertainment today.
(6/2/2011 1:38:07 PM)
Enjoyed the interview.
Because it's so much easier to point to problems than it is to identify specific solutions, I commend Dan Mason for the step he's taken. Maybe it's small in the scheme of things, but bless him for doing SOMETHING, right?
Re: spot loads, Lee said, "...spot load isn't the problem. It's the lack of MAGIC between the spots." I'd add that the spots themselves too often lack luster, let alone "magic." This, too, is something we can fix--if we choose to.
(6/2/2011 9:59:14 AM)
Lee hits the nail on the head - radio is suffering from a creative gap. The goal of most stations is to make sure the trains are running on time. Never mind that radio is supposed to be an experience. Announcing title and artist is the least of radio's issues. Radio has lost the understanding that it is about companionship. It was social but has ceded that ground. Music radio does need to re-invent itself but that would require risks. And, while risks do lead to rewards they can also fail.
(6/2/2011 6:12:03 AM)
I'm reading the arguments and one theme constantly runs through my head, "There's an App for That."
Originally radio was the App for everything, and as technologies change so does the application. Many would say radio is dying or is dead, like some failed Angry Birds knock off, in truth the original application of radio is far from dead, but in some cases very much forgotten, the ability to be local, and give that personality nothing else can.
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20 years ago The Pulse Magazine changed its name to Radio Ink. Bill Clark was featured on our first cover. We've interviewed every successful air-talent, powerful executive and cutting-edge innovator the radio industry had to offer over the past two decades. Our November 21st issue includes 16 pages of comments from today's leaders, including Hogan, Bob Pittman, Dan Mason, Tim Westergren, Peter Smyth, Elvis Duran and many others who detail how the audio landscape will look over the next several years. 
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