Michael Riley oversees the strategic management of Radio Disney serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager. Armed with a 2008 Arbitron Custom Radio Disney Ratings Study showing Radio Disney has generated its highest annual ratings since 2005 with weekly cumes of over 31 million listeners. There’s no doubt that Riley has Radio Disney on the right track as one of the most respected and powerful franchises in the music industry today.
Michael Riley
Nowadays Michael Riley oversees the strategic management of the Radio Disney network and its portfolio of forty-two owned radio stations serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager. He joined The Walt Disney Company in April 2008.Most of Riley’s experience comes from television where he spent many years within the Turner Broadcasting System in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It was in those territories where he was responsible for developing CNN commercial strategy and overall brand strategy for the entertainment channels such as Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TCM, TNT and Adult Swim. But he couldn’t have picked a better time to have joined what has become a Pop culture empire.
In 2008 an Arbitron Custom Radio Disney Ratings Study showed that Radio Disney generated its highest annual ratings since 2005 in key daytime and morning drive dayparts among its core demographic, Kids 6-11. As a network designed for the whole family, 82 percent of Moms 18+ with Kids 2-11 listened with a child, while 27 percent of Kids 6-11 listened with a parent. On a weekly basis throughout the year during the station’s programming day, Radio Disney generated weekly cumes of over 31 million listeners 6+ and 9.2 million Kids 6-14.
The network’s current playlist, driven by listener requests and representing major record labels, includes recording artists Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, David Archuleta, Jordin Sparks, Jesse McCartney and Mitchel Musso. The network is available on forty-nine terrestrial radio stations and via RadioDisney.com, Sirius XM Radio, iTunes Radio Tuner, XM/DIRECTV and mobile phones. Its brand extensions include multiple Radio Disney Jams CDs from Walt Disney Records and iTunes Music Store offerings. Needless to say Radio Disney has become a force in popular music and it wasn’t so long ago when Pop radio stations across the country wouldn’t even touch an artist that was branded to “Radio Disney,” but oh how times have changed as the Radio Disney brand has become one of the most respected and powerful franchises in the music industry today.
Congrats on the Arbitron Ratings report that recently confirmed that 2008 was a huge growth year for Radio Disney.
Having joined Radio Disney in 2008, it was just a great year for us! We had a great report back from Arbitron and it’s from our perspective about building this contemporary hit network that’s reaching out to kids, tweens and families. From our standpoint, we feel like 2008 was the year where we really did two things around the programming.
We made a shift to a broader programming strategy, where we play whatever it is that kids, tweens and families want to hear, whether it’s Pop, Country or Rock. It’s about content our audience is looking for and making sure that we play it. We want to build Radio Disney as that sort of family destination. It’s about attracting a family audience and playing what it is that they want to hear.
The second thing, and what I think has been fantastic to watch, is connecting the kids and families with their favorite artists through the things that we call “Takeovers.” That’s where we have artists take over the station’s airwaves for an afternoon. It’s an opportunity for kids and families to connect with their favorite artist.
Another thing we also do is take Radio Disney on the road. We love to broadcast from whatever it is that we think kids want to be a part of at a national level. We were at the Disney Channel’s Camp Rock, premier in New York last June broadcasting from the Red Carpet. We were at the High School Musical 3 premier in Los Angeles, and we covered lots of events in-between whether it was the Bolts premier or Dancing with the Stars. We really want to be where we think kids and families want to be.
It’s taken nearly a decade to build the Radio Disney brand into what it’s become today. Is Radio Disney at its peak and what’s the key to sustaining the momentum?
I think Radio Disney is at the beginning of its potential. We have a great team in place with a huge amount of experience both here at Radio Disney and in the radio and content business. It’s really about building the momentum that’s been created over the past ten years. Plus music continues to be a great way to connect kids and families at local and national levels
How has the transition been for you in venturing into an audio medium in radio from a visual one in television?
It’s been really amazing actually. There are a lot of similarities with television and some really specific differences. Radio is so much more interactive than television. Because you’re creating so much visual content, there’s a tremendous amount of planning in advance with television. With radio you can react much more quickly, so although there is still a tremendous amount of planning, it’s about being able to connect the kids and family instantly to the big events when we take Radio Disney on the road.
We were recently simulcasting the kids’ inaugural concert with the Jonas Bros. and Miley Cyrus, along with the Disney channel. One of the great differences between television and radio is with Radio Disney we were able to position our jocks up front to the event to provide broader context throughout the show. After the event was finished, we were fortunate enough to be able to take calls from kids who were talking about what a fantastic event it was. It’s so much more active than television and it’s where can really be a part of communities that affect kids’ lives, and that’s really what radio has been able to provide better than any other medium.
When you arrived at Radio Disney in April of 2008 what were your first impressions?
I’ve been struck by the passion for radio at Radio Disney and the radio environment as a whole. There’s so much experience we have at the network and local levels, and it’s amazing for me to see how everyone wants to participate in moving Radio Disney forward. I do a lot of traveling to our local stations and spend a lot of time at the network level, and everybody always has suggestions. This is the way we did it here in Richmond, you guys should try this down in Orlando. It’s amazing to me to see how much passion they have for the Disney brand, and just for the radio business as a whole.
What challenges do you see for Radio Disney in 2009?
One of the things we’re very much looking forward to is this digital transition. How are we building our distribution? How are we raising awareness? Fundamentally we’re doing it through online streaming both on the web and on wireless devices. Also how can we make sure, now that we have all this great content on Radio Disney, are we building out the digital footprint and getting it in front of more people?
Terrestrial radio stations, which had once shunned artists as being too “Radio Disney, are now embracing such artists. Does that help or hinder your target audience’s expectations?
We’re very proud that other radio stations are catching on to the artists and the demo we serve in kids and families. Obviously we are an environment that continues to play these great artists. We played the Jonas Bros. long before other stations ever played them, and now they’re one of the hottest bands on the planet. We like being ahead of the curve. We must be doing something right! Anything that raises musical awareness for kids and families is good for us and it’s great for our artists and helps the overall music business.
How are you integrating Radio Disney’s online and on-air positions?
From a programming standpoint, everything as we move forward is focused on building our online component with pictures, video and audio. We have a lot of new features on-air right now that have a tremendous amount of online presence. We have something new called, Radio Disney’s “Next Big Thing,” where we sample new artists on-air and online, hopefully finding the next big thing in the music business for our audience.
As a national network, how is Radio Disney positioned in local markets?
We’re lucky that Radio Disney is a network, but also the network is made up of forty-two owned and operated stations, and we have a number of affiliates on top of that. We’re connecting kids and families at the national level by calling in and reaching out to those artists and talent we have access to. But at the local level, we’re also reaching into the community. It’s one of the great advantages that Radio Disney has because we’re able to connect the Disney experience at a local level with our forty-two Road Crews. We’ve executed more than 8,000 local events over 2008 and those really do help deliver the Disney experience in our local markets.
Radio Disney is an attractive platform for advertisers when it comes to youth based products. But have you seen the advertising base evolve regarding parents who often share the listening experience with their kids?
Absolutely! One of the things in being a great platform for kids and families is we find the listening experience is very much about kids and adults together sharing their favorite artists. Therefore as we broaden our music strategy our advertising base broadens which is great for us from a growth standpoint.
You’ve recently relocated and centralized all Radio Disney operations in Burbank. What are the immediate benefits to the move and will it affect any RD programming?
One of the reasons we moved from Dallas to Burbank is to be in the center of the entertainment industry. It’s about getting access to the people that are making and playing the great music that we’re programming. Being based in the Disney Channel building is a great opportunity for us to bring people by in a much more casual basis, so when they’re coming in and out of the building we can flag them down. The whole idea is about creating this community aspect on air for the audience that we uniquely target in radio.
What’s your ultimate goal for Radio Disney in 2009?
We really spent 2008 building out the content, and we’ve done a great job at that and the ratings from Arbitron very much highlight the great content. For us now it’s about concentrating on making sure we continue to connect our artists and events to that kids and family audience. It’s also about raising the awareness and getting people to tune in and making sure that people see that Radio Disney is on the move. Lastly it’s about this whole digital component. Building out our digital presence with new audio and video features that complement what we do on-air. That’s what our focus is in 2009. The whole digital opportunity, and with our brand-new studio where we’re installing video equipment, we can really move Radio Disney to the next level.
We feel very fortunate. We’ve got a great brand and a wonderful audience, and we’re here at a time when music is such a connecter for kids and families. Radio Disney really is one of the unique environments that can really celebrate that, and finding new ways as part of the Walt Disney Company, but overall as part of the radio business, is really exciting.
**QB Content By Bob Burke**
