Consultant Bob Quick is urging revolution in this week’s Programming To Win column! Quick takes a look around the fancy new digital dashboard in his car and asks where is radio’s place is in it. He encourages radio to take the industry back and control the message of the industry’s “coolness.”
Bob Quick
By Bob Quick, Quick Radio Consulting
I just bought a new car. Well…new to me anyway. It’s a 2012 Toyota Camry.
Other than the great gas mileage it gets, one of my favorite features is the built-in Bluetooth for my smartphone and the 5 inch touch screen “entertainment center.” Integration so easy that with a push of a button I can listen to any streaming app I have on my phone.
iHeartRadio
Pandora
Spotify
TuneIn
Rdio
The WGR app for Sabres news
Scanner Radio
Even audio from streaming video apps.
Cool.
When you switch it to AM or FM radio, what you see is a column of pre-sets on the left side, the frequency you’re listening to in tiny numbers beside it, an RDS feed if the station has it, and the rest of that huge screen is blank. It’s visually boring.
There’s the rub.
Radio, the technology, isn’t cool anymore. Even in our last bastion of strength…the car dashboard.
The “entertainment center” also plays CD’s, and has a USB and aux connection. But the seamless Bluetooth connection to the phone, in stereo, is so simple that the most technophobic person in the world could use it.
And, if I wasn’t so cheap, the “grayed out” satellite radio button on the touch screen would be functional too.
The screen also displays metadata on streams & mp3’s. And even has a one inch square space for album art.
Really cool.
With all that information coming at you…the ability to listen to streams from faraway places…and program your own eclectic taste in music, in your own car…it’s no wonder the younger generation doesn’t think radio is cool.
They’ve been brought up with the ESPN crawl. Picture in picture. Their entire music library in their pocket. My son listens to iHeartRadio and plays Mindcraft while talking to the other players over the internet, all at once, on his tablet…and he’s 7.
They can multi-task. They’re trained to embrace their ADD from the time they are born.
Music coming out of a speaker just isn’t entertaining any more.
When I was a kid, like most kids, I wanted to be cool. The coolest person I could imagine was the guy (or gal) behind the voice coming out of my radio. The thought of the power of speaking to thousands of listeners all at one time was like a drug to me.
It’s one of the biggest reasons I entered into this crazy business.
So, the real question is, how do we get the younger generation to think radio is cool again?
It really isn’t brain surgery. We need to take or industry back. Innovate. But MOST importantly…entertain. Get plugged into the local scene. Hone our craft. Let our personalities shine.
REVOLT NOW. Use your gut. Tell a PD or Sales Manager no….respectfully, of course.
Look, I know you need your job to pay your bills. The older you are, the harder it is to start over.
But one of my most trusted mentors once told me when I was frustrated with management…”There’ll always be a job for you in this business because you’re good at it.”
Once you let go of the fear of being let go, you will be free to innovate, be irreverent, be creative, be the personality that listeners seek out and tell their friends about.
Isn’t that what cool people are…innovators, irreverent, creative and fun? Didn’t you want to be friends with the cool kids in school? Everyone wants to belong, it’s a human trait.
The technology we can fix, being considered cool again is much harder work.
Don’t let the Madison Avenue propaganda machine get you down. We can be thought of as vital again. You are the stars in your market. You provide entertainment and engagement when times are good and vital, life-saving information when times are bad.
Take your industry back. If your company won’t innovate, find one that will. Be passionate about what you do, be passionate when you do it, and the listeners will be passionate about you.
Our forefathers had so much passion, they took on the most powerful nation in the world to innovate and dream of a different kind of nation. And, as Americans, last week we celebrated our 237th Independence Day.
Maybe next year at this time, you’ll be celebrating your first.
Bob Quick of Quick Radio Consulting is so completely fired up right now he will not be able to sleep tonight. When he can’t sleep, he works. He could be working for you. Find him at quickradioconsulting.com.
