Deane’s List
By Fred Deane
Fred Deane
Inside the Editor‘s Circle this month are members of the programming community who have made “The Deane’s List” permitting them to turn the tables on the editor and toss a few questions my way.
Jonathan Shuford, Jon Zellner, Gene Romano and Brian Mack are ongoing influential contributors to the profession of programming with all of them distinguishing themselves in a variety of ways.
Let’s see what’s on their minds lately…
Jonathan Shuford
Jonathan Shuford, PD, WRVW, Nashville
What’s the best-case scenario for radio in ten years and how do we get there?
[FD] The best-case scenario may not be achievable if our industry continues on a stagnant growth curve by living quarter-year to quarter-year with debt burdens overriding risk taking initiatives for its future path.
Radio ownership must be prudent at all levels of management and make the right investments in the industry’s future. If you’re a decision maker in radio at any level you currently have skin in the game, so please contribute to our industry’s future and the future of your dedicated workforce.
Recognition of vital issues is essential, especially at the top executive levels. Whether it’s getting to a competitively productive place in 5 or 10 years, radio groups must be actionable now and willing to invest in the medium’s future by building innovative and applicable foundations that take root and blossom over the next 5 to 10 years. Invest in a new breed and generation of employees to help get you there and absorb everything this new blood brings to the equation and act on it. Millennials and Gen Zers are essential demo groups for radio to secure a future, especially a future in Pop radio. When you assess the defined age brackets of Gen Zers (10-25) and Millennials (26-41), there’s a desirable intersection of both groups with Pop radio’s wheelhouse demos (or at least what used to be). Don’t miss this opportunity or it will be too late when we reach that 5-to-10-year horizon.
If what leadership is currently offering is a reliance on status quo operating procedures with occasional staff reductions for the foreseeable future, then say it and let your devoted staffers make prudent decisions for themselves and their families about their future endeavors.
Jon Zellner
Jon Zellner, President Programming Operations, iHeartMedia
What’s the best way for radio brands to maintain or increase their relevance with Millennial and Gen Z listeners?
[FD] It’s not easy and requires a lot of work. But if radio companies desire these groups as inclusive and marketable demos, as I strongly believe they should, they must prove to themselves and their employees that they want them. Much to my points in the prior question, investment in your future is imperative.
It’s incumbent for top executives of radio groups to make long-term investments in the medium by realizing the future is NOW. As I previously delineated, it is that essential. Major commitments must be made to ensure the medium has a realistic future across the entire demo spectrum and especially by cultivating new recruits from the likes of these two younger demo groups who are in the working force demo.
My primary recommendation is to hire members of these groups as quickly as possible and assimilate them into your operating systems and allow them to help you create an addendum to the best practices manual. Allow them to teach your companies what the lifestyle of these groups is. They ARE the demo! Discover what’s important to them regarding lifestyle needs, how they consume audio and visual entertainment on a regular basis, what is useless to them about the existing radio model, how to create a more appealing radio model, and so on.
I’d love to run a focus group study with members of these groups and let the discussion flow. We need to learn their passions and desires and integrate these factors into radio’s model going forward.
Radio has always been a lifestyle medium and for the longest time we employed programmers and other staffers who were either in the target demo or close to it. I would venture to say there aren’t many decision makers in radio today who are near or in either of these demo groups who are so crucial to the medium’s future.
Hire them and learn as much from them as they need to learn from you.
Gene Romano
Gene Romano, EVP Programming, iHeartMedia
Since you talk to so many different programmers, I’m curious as to the feedback you get on what may be lacking when it comes to programmers getting coaching and development from THEIR direct reports?
[FD] The one constant I hear frequently from programmers at all radio groups is “lack of time.” As many of the radio execs up the chain of command know, programmers’ plates are overloaded. I believe it’s the responsibility of the direct reports to reach out to their respective programmers and offer a multitude of constructive remedies along the lines of helping them streamline their daily and weekly duties.
The solutions vary but a great start would be to hire more support under them so they can manage their direct reports to the point of running a much more efficient programming department overall. This would free up time to dedicate to more innovative paths and allow them to shed routine work and add creative time.
Another big issue is that there isn’t much depth of personnel inside local programming departments. Most (if not all) of the direct reports came up through the programming ranks themselves and had the luxury (in today’s terms) of having extensive programming staffs. Back then it wasn’t a luxury, it was required, and radio won and won big. For radio to win big again (and here I go again), hire more members for programming departments and please refer to the prior questions as to whom to hire.
Coaching comes in many forms. Like professional athletes who are skilled enough to play their positions, programmers are talented enough to do their required jobs. A good coach, in any scenario, creates a winning culture by freeing up the minutia and allowing the performers to perform. Typically, that requires time for the developmental process to take its course AND a team-member support system. Give your direct reports a healthy dose of each and watch those higher gears kick in. Think of the tremendous upside, you could have all members of the chain of command working to build and secure radio’s future.
Brian Mack
Brian Mack, SVP Multi-Platform Strategy, iHeartMedia
In all your many great years in music and radio, what in your opinion was the most pivotal technological transformation?
[FD] The advent of Napster and P2P music file sharing in June of 1999 radically changed the game for music consumption. Regarding the marketing of music, technology has always played a pivotal role in regulating the end user’s consumption of music. The one constant, from vinyl through CD’s, was the decisive advantage music groups had over the consumer controlling the configuration and pricing.
Music companies could actively manage the consumer market because they had one-hundred percent control of the platforms for recorded music. From vinyl to eight-track to cassette to compact discs, labels controlled the acquiring and listening habits of consumers.
However, when Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker introduced the concept and platform for P2P music file sharing, it quickly became all the rage. It essentially ended a (century’s long) streak of music labels controlling the music consumption game. The consumer began to significantly eat away at the methods of music consumption with their preferred method being “free.” A classic analogy of “the tail wagging the dog” was in play and there was no turning back. It ultimately (and up until current day) radically changed the entire economic structure of the music industry along with the process of artists recording music acquiring the option of doing so without label distribution…another tail wagging the dog scenario for the labels.
Did major music groups act too slowly? Indeed they did. Most leaders of music industry groups at the time chose to ignore the technology and rapidly spreading file sharing epidemic that was happening before their very eyes. I was right in the middle of our industry during that period and attentively observing everything that was going on. My perspectives and insights are too deep and complex in this area to address in this forum.
Suffice to say that when the music industry finally gave recognition to this generational episode in its history, it was way too late.
Radio group heads please take note. History is repeating itself in a parallel lane to your industry. The ongoing tech movement has been stealing your listeners’ attention and utility far too long and has devalued your brands to the generation groups that are ahead of your curve, as was the case at the turn of the century with music companies and their coveted consumers. It’s still not too late. But I’m astonished to be witnessing the same scenario 23 years later!
Looking at the macro issue, direct-to-consumer economics via advanced technology in just about every level of business consumer model has been a major factor, significantly changing traditional models to the extent of constant evolution/investment in their respective industries, or extinction.
The leaders of every consumer business model in any field are the driving forces in their respective areas (i.e., Amazon) and competitors must adapt to keep pace and survive. Unfortunately today, radio is not a leader in its consumer audio entertainment field (big picture), and must adapt quickly in order to survive.
Here’s where radio can learn another valuable lesson to ensure its future. Borrowing ideas from other forms of entertainment could prove crucial. Using AI technology to accommodate an economy-of-scale model to cut costs and be more efficient is one thing, but technology in concert with human resources also needs to be applied to enhance and ensure the future of your company and the medium. It’s what every radio programmer strives for weekly, the blending of science and art.
Fred Deane is the Founder & CEO of Deane Media Solutions, a firm designed as a medium and pathway of productive and meaningful idea interactions among the multi-media and music industries. Deane has been serving our industry for over four decades, dedicating his career to challenging himself as well as associates, and being a devoted advocate for the radio medium. His academic background includes law, economics, and musicology. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor for several Philadelphia area universities, instructing at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
