In life we have three important choices: 1) accept things that can’t be changed, 2) muster up the courage to change the things that can be changed, and 3) be blessed with the wisdom to know the difference.
Radio’s WHY
In last week’s blog, I asked “What is Radio’s WHY Today?” In reviewing blog reader comments, I saw a common theme expressed, that radio should be LIVE & LOCAL. But does being “live” really make a difference in and of itself? If seasoned radio people are being honest with themselves, they would have to admit they had heard lots of bad “live radio” over the years. When it comes to being “local,” what is local today? We live in such a connected world, that in order to live the lives we’ve become accustomed to, requires a global supply chain. Any disruption, will negatively impact our happiness faster than a bee sting.
Radio’s guiding principle is relevance. People will gravitate to things that have relevance to them and their lives. Let me give you one example…
Fundraising
When it comes to raising money for a good cause, radio stations continue to turn in an outstanding performance, why? Because people feel these causes are very relevant, so they support these events.
Unfortunately, much like a retailer’s weekend sale, when the radio station’s fundraising ends the people depart for other activities that are higher on their relevancy scale.
The Amazon Lesson
In Seattle several decades agao, Jeff Bezos began Amazon in his garage. His guiding principle in building this company into the behemoth it is today was to invest in the future. Identify the constants of the people who use your product or service and build on them with relentless focus. In other words, be relevant to your customers.
For Amazon, it meant offering everything at the lowest possible price and delivering it to people’s homes faster and faster.
“When you have something that you know is true,
even over the long term,
you can afford to put a lot of energy into it.”
-Jeff Bezos
Great Radio
Great radio will always be about the listener, knowing what is relevant to them and delivering it 24/7.
Great radio provides community and companionship.
Great radio creates FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in the listener.
Great radio stations are highly focused on the audience they have set out to serve. They’re not trying to please everyone, but only to super-serve their target audience.
Less is More
The venture capitalists thought the way to riches was by putting more and more radio signals on the air, quantity over quality and in so doing abandoned the very essence of what makes great radio.
“Successful businesses are those that continue to find ways
to best fulfill (their customer’s) core needs.”
-Jeff Bezos
In two months, the world’s largest radio meeting will once again be taking place in Las Vegas; the 2016 NAB Show. Ironically, since leaving the radio industry and entering academia at Western Kentucky University, I attended my very first NAB show in 2011 and have every year since. So as visions of massive crowds and very sore feet dance in my head, I thought I’d look back over those past years and see how the theme of these meetings has evolved.
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