12-23-13
The Home Depot had been radio's best advertiser for many weeks until last week when it was edged out by GEICO by 944 commercials according to media Monitors. GEICO ran 31,932 commercials on radio last week, compared to Home Depot's 30,988. Coming in at number three was Macy's (up from #7) with 29,053,. Fourth was Mcdonald's with 28,050 and rounding out the top five was AT&T Wireless with 27, 252.
12/20/13
One of radio's most successful seller is stepping away from his job, for now. Curtis Media's Senior VP/D.O.S Adam Maisano will exit the company at the end of December. Maisano says he'll be spending more time helping a family member recover from illness. ?It is with exceedingly mixed emotions that I leave this great job with our stations currently on such a roll, but over the last 18 months I?ve learned a lot about what?s truly important in life, and right now family has to come first.?
Maisano joined Curtis Media as national sales manager in February, 2002 after serving in sales for Clear Channel in Augusta, GA, Statesville, and Greensboro-Winston Salem, NC. Under his leadership, Curtis Media?s Raleigh cluster became the top-billing radio group in Raleigh-Durham. In September, Maisano won the Radio Wayne Award as radio?s best Director of Sales in America. He says he hopes to return to active radio management by spring.
12-19-13
Late last night we learned of the death of Larry Lujack. To those of us who have been around the industry for a few decades, that's like losing the Top 40 jock version of Paul Harvey. But there is more to the story. It's about the death of communicators in our industry.
As a teen in Indiana I was heavily influenced by Lujack's show on WLS, which blasted into our town from Chicago. He was different from the rest -- not like a regular DJ, but irreverent and funny. Very funny. I never met Larry, but I followed his career avidly in those days. It was a giant deal when "Super CFL" lured him away from WLS in the 1970s -- and an even bigger deal when WLS lured him back.
Years after I first heard his show, I was visiting Chicago on business and I happened to get up and roll tape on Lujack, as I did frequently in those days. That day, it turned out, was his return from time away after his son's death. Lujack's compelling story had me, and no doubt all of Chicago, in tears. Here was a friend who was suffering a great loss, and he was willing to talk about it to all of us, on the radio. It was that day that it dawned on me what radio is really all about.
Lujack wasn't just a local morning jock. He was a friend to everyone. A companion. Chicago lived his life with him, every step of the way. He held nothing back. He discussed his problems at home, his issues at work, his life -- and most of the time he had fun with it all. It was real.
Lujack's loss is a reminder that a generation of great communicators is moving on. More so, it's a reminder of the value of great radio communicators and the need for the relationships they have with listeners.
No, we can't live in the past. Things are different now. Debt is high, pressure is higher. And that means expensive people are being pushed out of our industry every day and being replaced by lower-cost alternatives or syndicated solutions. I recently visited a market I used to live in, tuned to my favorite station, and found that all the air personalities -- people I had a 10-year listening relationship with -- were gone.
That station no longer has any interest for me because only a part of my loyalty had to do with the music. I had grown familiar with their airstaff and had grown to love them. Yet they had all been replaced by less talented -- and presumably less expensive -- people. I was embarrassed for the station.
Larry Lujack's passing reminds me how long ago it was that I fell in love with his unique ability to communicate, and how long ago it was that I was first inspired by guys like Lujack, Fred Winston, John Records Landecker, and others from that legendary station. They inspired me to fall in love with radio and want to spend my life doing it. That was 44 years ago.
The radio industry I fell in love with was about great content. No matter how far we've come, no matter how much has changed or how tight the budgets are, it's still about great content, content that binds us to our audiences and creates deep loyalty. Yet how many times have we heard about air personalities who have been terminated after decades on the air because they "just cost too much"? Billing on a station might drop by half when a beloved talent leaves, even as management pretends one has nothing to do with the other. Larry Lujack made headlines back in 1984 with a then-unprecedented multimillion-dollar contract. If WLS was willing to spend that much to keep Lujack on its airwaves, imagine how much he was bringing in.
Friendships run deep, and radio's strength has always been the friendships between great communicators and their audiences. At a time when everyone wants a piece of radio and is trying desperately to draw listeners away, that sense of friendship could be the biggest advantage radio has. When we drive out high-profile, highly paid talent in the name of cutting costs, we may well be driving away the very thing that is responsible for our success. It's something few CFOs or people outside the radio business can grasp. Someone you've just met, however charming they might be, can never match a friend you've had for 10 or 20 or 30 years.
As more great talent are pushed out of the mega corporations, operators like Larry Wilson are going in another direction, believing an investment in great local talent can attract audience away from syndicated shows. We'll see, but Larry isn't often wrong.
As an industry, we need to be very careful about the long-established talent we shed. If I were running Pandora, I'd set up a new division featuring nothing but displaced local market stars. Everyone talks about how a music service can't take radio's audience away, but there are hundreds of much-loved and out-of-work local personalities who'd jump at the opportunity -- and their listeners might well follow them. If I were running Pandora or another streaming music service, I'd be very interested in finding out.
(12/21/2013 4:41:32 AM)
A very excellent article Eric, You are definitely correct regarding Mr. Lujack. I loved this guy on the radio. His delivery was so much different than the other Jocks back then. I grew up listening to Larry Lujack in the mid 60's as a kid and just loved listening to him ever since. I followed him when he left WLS for Station WCFl. He's the one that made me interested into go into radio. To me, he's the one that put personality in radio. R.I.P."Uncle Lar".
(12/20/2013 10:24:29 AM)
There are only 3 air personalities that impacted my life over the years...The Greaseman, John Landecker, and Larry Lujack. As a kid growing up in Chicago, and listening to WLS religiously, Larry Lujack was a part of my every day life. It was Landecker's Boogie Check and Lujack's Animal Stories that made me want to be part of this business. I didn't know Larry personally, but the professional path I chose to take was a direct result of his genius. Thank you Larry
(12/19/2013 8:44:48 PM)
Dick (Summer) was no slouch either as he was "loping along with things to say an' do and kinda make happen."
I was working evenings at a 250-watt toilet in Ontario at the time, After signing off at midnight, I could catch Dick On WBZ.
He too, like Lujack and others had an ability to express his humanity along with his wit. It's true, Larry took cynicism to whole new heights, but by that time Vietnam had become a toxic cesspool and attitudes had changed, as well.
Eric's main contention, however is well-taken and sadly accurate.
The next group of performers, meanwhile, will not only have to be excellent personalities, they will need to be more cognizant of the medium they are taking on. No small challenge.
A lot of years later, I got to work with Willie. I was the first morning man at WNEW-FM. About 9:30 AM, the studio door opened, The Norman Luboff choir sang a chord, there was a reflection of a great golden light in the control room glass, and the tectonic plate under Fifth Avenue shifted gently. It was Willie B. He walked over to me, held out his hand and said, "Kid you sound great." I didn't know whether I should shake his hand or kiss his ring. Some things you don't forget.
Good night Larry. You did good. If you get a chance, shake Willie's hand for me. He did good too.
You too, Eric.
Dick Summer
(12/19/2013 5:47:31 PM)Add a Comment | View All Comments Send This Story To A Friend
He's getting a lot of well-deserved accolades for the impact he made on radio and the lives of those who worked around him. He was the talk of the town on Chicago radio yesterday. However, many of his friends say that Larry Lujack wouldn't have wanted everyone to make a big stink about him or his career. And that message came across many years ago in THIS LETTER It's a classic and you can read it here thanks to John Rook who also sent us this classic photo from 1969. Art Roberts, LuJack, The Dean of Chicago radio news, Lyle Dean & Charles Rowe Rook, WLS-TV anchorman.
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12-19-13
The editorial team of iTunes has selected the Adam & Dr. Drew Show as the best new audio podcast of 2013. Additionally, PodcastOne?s Steve Austin Show was selected as the Top Pick in the Sports/Recent Debuts category. Both are distributed by PodcastOne. Chairman Norm Pattiz said, ?We thank the editorial team at iTunes for selecting these programs. We will proudly display the ?iTunes Best of 2013? badge prominently when presenting and promoting these programs. Our lineup of the best-of-the-best in podcasting is validated with recognition like this.?
12-20-2013
Most sales managers believe that they invest their time growing and developing their people. But in reality, even though their intentions are good, that?s not what they?re doing.
Are you?
If you?re like most sales managers, you probably talk with sales candidates during the interview process about how important your sales organization considers the development and growth of salespeople to be. But actions speak louder than words. What do you actually do to make that happen? You may spend money on sales training, even hire a great sales trainer to come in and spend time with your team, but are your sales managers regularly reinforcing that training, coaching the sellers, growing them, and looking for developmental opportunities? Providing sales training is important, but investing time to grow and develop people is a different thing.
It?s what you do on a day-to-day basis that determines whether you are a developer of people or just a manager. That is the difference between spending time managing sales versus investing time developing salespeople.
But it?s not easy to make time to grow your salespeople!
After all, you have hundreds of e-mails that need your attention, a few dozen reports that must be completed and sent up the ladder, and a line of salespeople standing outside your door asking you to sign off on something so they can move it forward. At the same time, you have six to 10 internal meetings that you?re required to attend and that you have to be prepared for every week. Even though you may want to invest your time in your people, unfortunately, you?re tasked with managing the paperwork of the business. This situation is very common ? but just because it?s common does not mean it has to be this way. The best sales organizations are asking sales managers to make developing salespeople a priority.
And it?s not optional.
Spending time managing the business is important. But there will soon be no business to manage if you don?t invest your time growing and developing your people. Talented people want to grow, and they want to know that their leaders consider them valuable enough to invest in. If you don?t focus on developing your most talented salespeople, they will eventually find somewhere else that will. An exodus of top talent, increased turnover, and missed budgets that make it increasingly difficult to recruit top talent ? it all perpetuates the downward spiral.
Here are some ways you can invest in growing your salespeople. You can do this!
? Take the time to identify and understand their individual talents, and then align them with accounts and assignments that will grow them and help them to succeed.
? Spend time in the field with your salespeople ? not to close the business for them, but to coach them and help grow and develop them. It?s impossible to coach someone from the office if you?ve never seen them in action.
? Show them you care. Not just about hitting their budget, but you actually care about them. People grow when they know you care.
? Give them feedback, and make sure it?s specific and frequent. Imagine how it would make you feel if no one ever told you that you were doing a great job. Or if no one ever gave you any feedback except to tell you that you?re doing it wrong. And while the frequency of feedback is important, it?s also important that the feedback is specific. A simple ?great job? is not enough. To really help someone grow, you need to let them hear the specifics.
I could list a dozen more ways to invest in growing your salespeople, but I know your plate is full. Start with these, and let me know how it goes. Also, if you?ve found a favorite way grow and develop others, please share it with me:
E-mail me at mattsunshine@csscenter.com or reach me on twitter @mattsunshine.
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12-20-13
On Friday, ABC News President Ben Sherwood sent a note to the ABC news division letting them know the "legendary work horse" is retiring at the end of this month after a 40 year career. Sherwood said, "Most careers can be captured in words. Vic?s career is captured in sounds. In his incredible 40 years on the air for ABC News Radio, Vic has painted vivid pictures for our listeners with a rich and imaginative vocabulary that brought stories to life and gave meaning to ?Gemini? and ?Apollo? and even ?filibuster? and ?quorum.? With every syllable, Vic defined and embodied excellence."
Ratner said, ?I have been fortunate to work with and learn from exceptionally talented and innovative people at ABC. Thanks to all of you for the collaborative effort, which makes us the best.?
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