4th Annual High School Radio Day Next Week

4-14-15

Where are the next generations of broadcasters coming from? Quite possibly they are currently in a high school radio course. On April 22, the 4th Annual High School Radio Day celebration will be taking place. The annual event was created to help raise awareness of the dwindling number of high school radio stations and salute the ones who are still teaching our youth about radio.

High School Radio Day Founder Pete Bowers estimates that there are only about 200 high schools in the nation with either a terrestrial FM radio station or an online station. Said Bowers: "The number of terrestrial stations is dropping but the number of online stations is increasing, with some of those applying for LPFM construction permits. That's why we need to unite on High School Radio Day and make the public aware of what we do, how we do it, and the service we provide our communities."

High School Radio Day in 2012 was created after College Radio Day launched in 2011. Although College Radio Day did allow high school stations to register, organizers felt that high school stations should have their own day. More information about the event can be found at HighSchoolRadioDay.com.

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Newhouse School to Host Audio Summit

9-14-13

The event will be held September 27 in New York City and will feature some of Radio's top executives including CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason (pictured), Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan, Galaxy CEO Ed Levine, CBS Radio Executive VP Chris Oliviero, Greater Media's Buzz Knight and WBLS GM Deon Livingston. The free event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Syracuse University's Lubin House, 11 E 61st St., New York.

Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham said, ?Given the seismic shifts in radio and newer audio platforms, much attention is being paid to the medium?s future. It is crucial that we understand where the industry is headed so we can appropriately prepare our students. We want to hear from thought leaders in management, programming and other key areas so we can get a better handle on best practices in radio moving forward.?

For more information, contact Ed Gorham at ejgorham@syr.edu.

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Radio Goes Old School During Blackout

2-4-2013

The power outage at the Louisiana Superdome last night wreaked havoc with all broadcasts coming from the big game, including Dial Global's radio coverage. Dial Global tweeted this picture of play by play man Kevin Harlan. Yes, that's Harlan using a landline to get the details out to the DG audience. As they say, the show must go on.

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(SALES) Next Level School

2-1-2013

Even some of the best radio managers in our industry fall a little short when it comes to being teachers and devoting meaningful time to training. You can?t grow a business without growing your people. I call it Next Level School. It?s an atmosphere where everyone is consistently growing to the next level. It?s where new sellers learn to become senior sellers, senior sellers learn what it takes to be sales managers, sales managers are in GM school, air-personalities learn what it takes to be program directors, etc.

Next Level School requires top management to fully understand and practice the true art of leadership and understand how it differs from authority. Authority says, ?Do it because I say so.? Leadership says, ?I?ve received lots of input on this. Here?s the direction we?re going and I want to share with you my decision and explain how I got there so you?ll know.? There are two words that are the foundation of Next Level School. They are HERE?S HOW! These two words are hard to find today in leadership. If we?re not teaching HOW to get the results we want, we?re not leading, period. HERE?S HOW doesn?t mean you always give them the answer even though you could. It means, ?Tell me what you think we should do, first.? Make them bring their solution to the table. Next Level School means you have an ever-present atmosphere of learning and growing.

Let?s drill down on an example of HERE?S HOW in sales. I?ve taught radio stations to define what is required to be a Senior Account Manager. For example, one must have made budget for three years and be a ?Sales Coach? for one year. What?s a Sales Coach? Let?s say you?re a senior seller on my staff and we just hired a new seller. I?ll give you the opportunity to be their coach for the new hire?s first year. You?ll know their activity every day, help them succeed, answer their questions and take some responsibility for their success. Every month the new seller hits 100 percent of their budget, I?ll pay you a bonus. If they hit 100 percent of their budget their first year, I?ll pay you a larger, annual bonus. As the manager, I win two ways here. I?m helping insure the success of that new seller and I?m also preparing you for sales management, or indeed, the next level. This is an example of Next Level School.

Another example is KXYZ UNIVERSITY (use your own call letters or company name). Most every employee is pretty good at something. Some sellers, for example, specialize in direct business. Some are great at collections. Some are experts at dealing with media buyers. Whatever their specialty, have them teach a class on that subject. You?re winning two ways again. You?re growing your team in that area and you?re growing the teaching seller in the art of training and leadership. Building an internal faculty of teachers in sales, programming, promotion, and event management provides you a curriculum and a faculty for your own internal university.

Remember, the best way to ever really learn something is to have to teach it. The greatest way you can take your team to higher levels of performance is to make certain your radio station is always in NEXT LEVEL SCHOOL. Good people stay where they?re growing! When do classes start at your station?

Rob Adair is the President of Pinnacle Solving. His company provides revenue growth solutions, branding and differentiation strategies to radio and other industries. Adair is a former radio industry COO and Sr. VP overseeing 25+ stations and multiple major markets. He can be reached at 405-641-0458 or by e-mail rob@pinnaclesolving.com

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(SOCIAL) Social Media School For Radio

5/9/2012

Every single person in the broadcast business should be going to social media school. Social media is more than a few buzz words. It is a way for radio to expand its engagement with listeners in their chosen social media platforms, lead them back to our brands for usage, and stay strongly connected to the communities inside our own local communities that matter for ratings and revenue expansion.

After all, our goal should be to use social media to improve our relationship with listeners and to grow our brands ? our goal is not to grow Facebook or other social media sites. Here are five important lessons in building true social media engagement that matters to your brand.

1. Stop whatever you are doing on Facebook, YouTube, and the other social media platforms.    Actually develop a specific plan so that you know every day, week, and month what percentage of each type of content you will be posting on the various social media platforms, including photos and video. Yes, you should be posting photos and video. You should do this exercise with your team so that you can flesh out what is exciting and engaging about your personalities, activities, and brand that will attract the type of listener you most want to attract. If you don't have a strategic plan that makes you confident that you are posting specific content by percentage, you don't have an actual plan.

2. Commit to being consistent in sticking to your content goals by percentage.  If you have a plan but don't stick to it, you might as well not have a plan. Being consistent is critical. Once your team has a plan, execute that plan ? by percentage ? piece by piece and day by day. However, have a long-term commitment to truly engage listeners for the long term. Even radio stations that largely have a plan for social media don't remain consistent. Only consistency will give you true results and separate you from your competitors, because you are truly connected.

3. Use the sexy "backstage" factors of our business to attract listeners directly to your dot com, (that your company owns ? not Facebook or a social media site that someone else owns), on-air personalities, and brand.  No matter what you think you know about our business with your years of experience, average listeners think we have lives that intermingle with stars of our format(s) and cool events that happen in and out of our market. If you are not thinking about these types of "assets" in your social media, your social media is likely failing to attract and engage the listeners who will drive your ratings.

4. People connect to people.  It is much more difficult to get them to connect to things. One of the most frustrating things we see today is that people have been pushed to the backseat of the broadcasting bus over technology. Well, social media is an area where smart broadcast companies and shows are putting their personalities up front to boost connectivity and claim real-world results that drive new ratings and new revenue possibilities (see what ABC is doing on their morning TV show against "The Today Show"). Think about protecting your primary business today by putting your people ? and the right people ? up front to drive connectivity to your local community and the most active listeners you want to attract and engage. This can be done best with your personalities.

5. The old days are gone.  Today on-air pros should learn all they can about social media, connectivity, and visuals that engage listeners and lead them to your product. You can be excellent on the air and excellent in attracting people by lifestyle and usage to your on-air brands. If listeners like or comment on your Facebook page, you better say something back to them and send them an email on Facebook. Engage them. You can do this. In fact, today you must be thinking about listeners and you should also have your revenue generation cap on because connectivity is money and all broadcasters need as much revenue as they can get their hands on. Connectivity is money. Social media done right allows you to give your employers an expanding opportunity for more revenue. That makes you more valuable than ever.

It's always been the prepared and consistently hard working against the people who "phone it in."  It is easy to "phone in" social media activity. It just won't work. And the consistently hard-working people with a strong strategy usually win again and again. They make it look easy, but it is truly having a plan and remaining consistent. It is using the "entertainment assets" you have to attract the listeners you most care about and pushing them to your content, your personalities, and your brand. In the end, you want to build relationships with your most active and important listeners so that they become engaged with you. After all, what is a world where your most active listeners care about your brand because of what they get from you, how connected you are with them, and how they use your product? It's good. That's what it is.

Loyd Ford is the direct marketing, ratings, and social media strategist for Americalist. He has programmed successful radio brands in markets of all sizes, including KRMD AM and FM in Shreveport, WSSL and WMYI in Greenville, WKKT in Charlotte and WBEE in Rochester, NY. Learn more about Loyd here:  http://about.me/loydford. Reach out to Loyd via e-mail HERE Visit his Facebook radio social media page HERE

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(PODCASTING) School of Pod

3-8-12

The Carolina School of Broadcasting is the oldest stand-alone broadcasting school in the United States. The studio doors opened on January 2, 1957, and it's been operating continuously ever since. It goes without saying that the school has seen the radio and television industry change a little. AM to FM, black and white to color, to HD, analog to digital, and rest assured that whatever's next, the CSB will adjust to that, too.

But as Kenneth Fuquay, the man who runs the place told me, the industry isn't the only thing changing. The students are, too. ?Interestingly enough,? Fuquay said in an email, ?the number of students who contact the school with a dream of working in radio has decreased dramatically over the past ten years.? Translation: Radio doesn't have the same effect on the next generation of talent that it did on us.

Radio's charms are not completely lost on this generation, though, but students who have RF in their blood are few and far between. Those students recognize how the radio industry has changed, and they also recognize their opportunities may be limited. They don't have to look much beyond their instructors to see that.

CSB uses broadcast professionals to teach their curriculum, it's been policy at the school since day one: ?Broadcasters training want-to-be broadcasters.? But as one instructor told me, the students notice that the instructors in the radio curriculum tend to be unemployed. To the school's credit, they tackle these questions head on.

?Our Radio students understand that their first job in radio will most likely be part-time.? Fuquay said. ?They also have no delusions, their first job most likely will NOT be on-air. They recognize that the competition for those jobs is tougher but they are not afraid of the challenge. In the meantime, they are creating their own brand using the tools provided through the school. They are crafting their trade and creating content.?

Translation: They're preparing for a tough road, and the very real possibility that their own brand will be their currency. Coming out of the Carolina School of Broadcasting, graduates have a well-rounded resume. They will have had their hands on every piece of TV and radio equipment, and at least a rough knowledge of how it all works. They will have been in front of the camera, and the mic, and will be prepared for just about anything- including podcasting, which has gradually worked its way into the CSB curriculum.

?The basic broadcast skill set necessary to podcast is the same as the broadcast skill set needed to work at a local AM or FM station,? Fuquay said, ?students  have been introduced to podcasting as an additional avenue in which to utilize their skills.? And like you, and I and everyone else, the CSB has asked the million dollar question.

?Podcasting is a viable training tool for students interested in radio, but it?s not yet a viable employment statistic for us. Carolina School of Broadcasting is held  accountable to its accrediting body and the US Department of Education for two statistics; graduation and placement. We are mandated to meet a minimum placement statistic.?

Here it comes.?Podcasting provides all of the elements necessary to be 'a broadcaster' with the exception of the paycheck. The school is unable, so far, to substantiate  podcasting as a viable employment statistic.? Translation: We haven't figured it out, either. When you do, call us. That reality hasn't stopped CSB from moving forward with strategic podcasting partnerships with a group called The Light Factory (a museum of photography & film,) and a little group called Radio Exiles (full disclosure- Radio Exiles is the operation I'm currently working to steer clear of the rocks.)

Speaking for Radio Exiles, our new partnership with CSB allows us to branch out a bit, and get some production elements we have been lacking, produced by CSB students under the supervision of one of our podcast pros. Some of us will also be teaching some classes, and we will soon be providing a ?New Voices? page at Radio Exiles which will feature podcasts from CSB students.

Ken Fuquay sees the partnership as a win-win, and one that will grow as podcasting becomes more main stream. ?Radio Exiles adds an element of validity to the area of podcasting that has not existed for the school before,? Fuquay said while I blushed noticeably. ?I envision that the partnership will grow, out of that, the curriculum will adapt to those needs and more of our students will see podcasting as an employment track. In the short term, the partnership with Radio Exiles will bring more broadcast professionals into our space and offer our students real-life hands-on training.? Translation: While the number of people who know what the future holds shrinks every day, the number of people working to figure it all out continues to grow.

Get more article from Brian about Podcasting HERE

Brian Baltosiewich has been a broadcast professional for more than 20 years. His podcast website, www.radioexiles.com features professionally-produced podcasts from radio pro?s who have lost their gigs.
Reach out to him at brian@radioexiles.com or through their twitter account @radioexiles.

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Turning High School Sports Into Cash

by Carl Magnusun

High School sports is huge in every city across the nation. Families, neighbors and business owners gather by the thousands every Friday night during football season to see the home team battle its cross-town rival. All week long, in every small town across America the water-cooler talk is about "the big game." Halley Phillips (pictured) is the Director of Digital Marketing for Big River Broadcasting in Florence Alabama. Big River figured out to tap in to that community excitement, and, they figured out how to make a little money on it as well.

RI: Can you tell us about this project?
Halley: This fall we?ve begun covering Florence Falcons? Football via a special hyper-local website www.florencefalcons.tv. Sports is huge in our area and with a new Media Span product we discovered called Game View (we saw a demo at Radio Ink?s Convergence earlier this year) we are able to broadcast our team?s games in HD to your computer, Android, iPhone or iPad.

RI: What?s the response so far?
Halley: We went on the air the day of the first game we covered and told our listeners we were trying a new way to watch the football game. With a day?s worth of promotion we had 3300 viewers tune into the game that night.

RI: 3300 viewers/listeners to an online stream from a radio station is a big number in a big market and you are in a tiny town? Why is this digital offering so popular?
Halley: Like I said, this is a big high school sports town. People around here care about the school, the team and the community. When you create content that resonates with your audience it will be successful. That?s one of the new rules for local media.

RI: What about advertiser response?
Halley: Awesome. Just awesome. This has been a great digital success for us because local businesses understand supporting and sponsoring the team. They understand a live game broadcast that looks professional. We tell them it?s like an ESPN for our town. And they get that whether it?s online or not. Then we give them on air spots, sponsor mentions and then live reads and :15 second video commercials in the game stream. Plus we do a revenue share back to the school of 50% after we cover our hard costs to produce the game feed.

RI: What?! 50%?!
Halley: Yep! The 50% going back to the school gets the sponsor excited and gives us a lot of goodwill as we?re not seen as a greedy media company exploiting the high school?We?re boosters to the school and their programs. On top of that we are getting interest from students who want to learn about sports broadcasting and so we plan to create a sports broadcasting internship for students at the schools we cover.

RI: Getting younger people involved in broadcast is crucial to the future of our industry. Good for you. I was going to ask you about the future and where you see this going and I think you hinted at it saying ??schools we cover.? Are you planning to take this to more communities in your listening area?
Halley: We plan to take this to as many schools as we can support and create a dedicated team within BRB Digital to handle the production and sponsorship sales of our high school sports network.

RI: BRB Digital? ?Since when?
Halley: Since we decided that Big River Broadcasting was going to become a serious online media competitor in our region. We now have a separate operation, BRB Digital, that handles all of our online content and revenue initiatives.

FlorenceFalcons.tv is a wonderful example of good radio?even if it is TV. Halley?s team is coming with the station?s brand behind them and that gives them the credibility to create a new product like this. They invest in the product, listeners respond with their eyes and ears. Sponsors respond by wanting to support the local school team and advertise their business. Their sponsorship results in new revenue for the station and new revenue to the school. The station gets credit all the way around for making this happen. The station, the advertisers, the listeners and school all win. Radio wins.

If you?d like to talk to Halley about this program and how they pulled it off email her at halley@brbdigital.com.
Carl Magnuson is a contributor to RadioInk.com and the Co-Creator and Director of Sales for Social Radio, a stream personalization platform for radio stations. Reach him with your digital content and monetization success stories at Carl@SocialRadio.org.

View the Florence Falcons? sports site at http://www.florencefalcons.tv
Take a look at the Game View platform here: http://www.gameview.tv

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