The Twittersphere was a twitter when Grammy fave, Adele, thanked radio for playing her records. Whoo-hoo! Radio usually gets kicked around at the Grammys as the brass advances their royalty agenda or radio is just ignored. Country artists have traditionally thanked Radio at award shows as Country still plays a somewhat diminished role in artist and music discovery. In more recent years, we have abdicated our long held discovery role to TV, satellite and on-line.
I was a programmer, and I generally had a pretty tight place list. I shared the long held philosophy of tighter is better. It was easy to hold that line when broadcast Radio was the only game in town. While we are not the only game in town, we are frankly the best equipped in the current day landscape to lead the way on music discovery. I am not proposing that we go crazy. I am proposing that we take a different approach. We need to call on our greatest strength. That strength is the presentation of a curated experience with an audience who has some real loyalty to our stations.
When the 99.5 The WOLF was signed on in Dallas the station championed a hand full of artists and made them important to our audience. Pat Green, Dixie Chicks and Jack Ingram were brought front and center. We introduced them to our listeners. We were passionate about the music and the WOLF listener responded.
The amount of musical talent out there today is stunning. The discovery process on TV is running full tilt. If every radio station found just a couple of artists that they truly thought would speak to their audience and committed to make them ?important? to their audience, Radio could make a difference and our time honored role as a musical discovery medium could be be preserved. There is more corporate influence in playlists today than since the days of Bill Drake. I don?t believe for a second that there will be a wholesale change, but if individual stations made ?Discovery? a goal. Artists, Stations and, most importantly, our listeners would all WIN.
Dan Halyburton is EVP McVay Cook and Associates and can be reached at 214-707-7237. Follow Dan @danhalyburton. E-mal Dan at dan@halyburton.com
(2/18/2012 12:30:27 AM)
Sure wouldn't hurt, Dan. At least I have no objection to the introduction of "new blood", so to speak.
However, with sphincters tight enough to support a suspension bridge, corporate and other Programmers have only the playlists as their last defense and element-of control.
Considering how Talent is still being strapped to a gurney and wheeled out hollering, there is little else left to confuse the little buggers.
But, at least you're talking about it.
Add a Comment | View All Comments Send This Story To A Friend
