If I had a Clean Sheet of Paper...
Dave Farough
![Dave Farough]()
Dave Farough
Content Strategy | Talent Development - Vista Radio and Acadia Broadcasting | Past President- Canadian Club of London
I read a post by the very smart Seth Godin today where he asked the question "what would you do (about various issues or industries he listed) if you had a clean sheet of paper". It got me thinking about radio. How would I build a radio station today if there were no traditional "rules"?
In no particular order;
- Talent on Demand; Get rid of traditional "dayparts" and have the best talent provide content to be played in all hours (and across all platforms)- like we play our best songs. Why do we lock our top talent into a 6a to 9a time-slot only? We would never play our best songs only in mornings, yet we do with our talent.
- Hire sales reps for digital knowledge and teach radio; Have you walked through the sales department of a radio station lately? Hard to find anyone under 35 or 40. We need to do a much better job getting younger people (who truly "live" digital) interested in "sales".
- Stop hiring "radio people" with the hope of making them interesting. Instead, find interesting people and put them on the radio (and FB, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, live events, etc)
- Hire a 22 year old as a Program Director and let them loose.
- Get Top Talent (and PD's) making sales calls; the time has come where some of our best talent needs to be using their big profiles and celebrity status to excite prospects and turn them into clients. And, I've yet to come across talent that doesn't want to make more money.
- Generate revenue from producing live events (concerts, job fairs, wine shows,etc), endorsements, product placements, social media, etc. and rely less on 30 second commercials filled with phrases like "shop now and save", "best customer service" and "hurry, this offer ends soon".
- Appreciate and engage with the audience constantly vs. putting the lines on hold and referring to our best customers- the ones who engage the most - as "contest pigs".
- Take back the streets; there was a time when radio was everywhere. Being visible matters.
- Figure out ways to make listening to radio on a smartphone a "habit" for the audience- like turning on the radio in a car. Currently it's not.
- Stop reading blogs and posts from tech people that say radio is dead.
A few thoughts from my clean sheet. Please feel free to ad yours to the list.
Content Strategy | Talent Development - Vista Radio and Acadia Broadcasting | Past President- Canadian Club of London
8yGreat points Dave...thanks for sharing! By the way, as a Talent Coach with years of experience working with some of the biggest personalities in the radio business, I've now started to assist podcasters to create more compelling and appealing content for their audiences. Spread the word! Podcasters- contact me directly for more details.
CEO and Co-Founder, PodSearch, Inc. (PodSearch.com and PodSearchAdvertising.com)
8yI would prepare the station for the fastest-growing and next generation of spoken audio content: podcasting. It amazes me that radio stations, with talent and ideas, don't set up podcasting factories! A morning team may be on a station playing tunes but may, in fact, be really into the local food scene; why not let them loose to have a weekly foodie-review podcast? A traffic reporter might have a passion for basketball; why not let her loose in a podcast format? Maybe there's a funny morning team that would love to let loose with language that the FCC wouldn't allow. I've started a podcast directory called PodSearch and am blown away by the incredible creativity and power of storytelling that podcasters regularly put out. We'll have 1000 shows by month end and we've only been in existence for a couple of months. Come on radio people...YOU CAN DO THIS!
Podcast Wizard / Voice Talent
8yThanks for taking the time to come on the podcast to talk about these great ideas. And thanks for coming onto the podcast to talk about a few of these ideas. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-sound-off-podcast/id1123481444?mt=2&i=1000389414291
Singer/Songwriter, CEO & Founder of PodcastExperts.ca and former software professional
8yTHANK YOU! What an amazing fresh breath of air at a time when almost everyone is saying that radio no longer matters. The day part aspect is novel but would have no idea how to implement it...bold thought though! And hiring interesting people THEN training them to be on the radio is game changing. I've always felt that if they aren't entertaining in real life putting them behind a mic changes nothing, but training them how to op and caress a mic is easy! Some great things to reflect on Dave :-)
Membership Director @ Verity - A Private Women's Club
8yLove this Dave! Oddly I was on Seth's blog when I flipped over here to LinkedIn! Electric!