The 2010 FMQB Triple A Conference is currently in session through Saturday, August 14. This year’s event is outpacing recent years in radio, label and artist attendance, making it one of the most celebrated Boulder events of all time. Full coverage will appear in next week’s eQB.
In June 2009, due to the changing face of our industry, Triple A faced the first summer since the early ’90s that its music and radio community, along with some of the best artists on our airwaves, would not be gathering in Boulder, CO. The easy route would have been to accept that the industry is changing and budgets have been slashed and this very special convention had run its course, but the sentiment among most label and radio personnel was that the yearly gathering helped define what Triple A is, and is therefore crucial to the survival of the format. As all of us at FMQB share that sentiment, the only course to take was to continue supporting this music-intensive, community-driven, artist-developing format by trying to pull off the Boulder Convention – with barely two months to do it. We rechristened the event the FMQB Triple A Conference, crossed our fingers, and became even more appreciative of the strong sense of community in the format and the way everyone from radio to labels to managers to the artists themselves closed ranks to make sure the Conference was a success, which meant we were going to do it again this year.
The first challenge in going forward was to develop a “mission” for theConference, which meant coming up with a clear definition of Triple A, which anyone who truly knows Triple A will tell you is nearly impossible. Is Triple A a singer/songwriter format; is it Alternative-leaning? How about those heritage artists from the Classic Rock era, does it play those? Oh, and by the way, is that ’60s, ’70s or ’80s Classic Rock? Does the format play familiar music or does it give a home to songs and artists that you’ve never heard of? The excitingly frightening answer to all of this is, “Yes, but not necessarily at the same station.”
That answer is frightening because it is generally assumed that radio formats have to sound the same from station-to-station and market-to-market, with only slight variations in music and imaging. The same answer is exciting because for the almost-20 years Triple A has been gathering in Boulder, it has defied that assumption and not only survived, but thrived. How many other formats manage to gather not just once, but multiple times a year as Triple A does? The culmination of the annual gatherings is the trek to Boulder, where major markets and small markets, commercials and non-comms, a variety of musical flavors and the promotion community, take three days to celebrate all the things that bind us…and what makes us all unique? It is in that sentence that the Conference’s mission becomes clear.
Celebrating Diversity
“Some have griped the format has become too diverse, with no cohesive consensus on what songs or artists are appropriate,” I wrote upon joining FMQB in 2001. “Yet the strength of the format has always been the uniqueness of each station and its ability to reflect local community tastes and lifestyles.” This was the first time – and probably until now, the only time – I wrote anything resembling an op-ed piece, and at that time I was trying to define the FMQB Triple A department’s “mission” for the future. It’s remarkable that the course we set for the department nine years ago is so relevant to the course being set for the FMQB Triple A Conference today.
Since the writing of those words nine years ago, radio formats in general have become more tightly defined, while Triple A has become even more diverse. As the original audience aged, some stations evolved with theirs listeners. Some remained targeted at a specific demo, evolving toward the tastes and interests of the audience “growing into” the station, with the sound of each outlet totally unique to its market and vision. Herein lies the mission of the FMQB Triple A Conference: A commitment to defining the commonalities among the stations and labels in the Triple A business, while celebrating the diversity that – in itself – defines the format.
At 2010’s 2nd Annual FMQB Triple A Conference, laying the groundwork for all ensuing Conferences, FMQB will bring together professionals from all parts of the Triple A dial – major, medium and small markets; heritage outlets and recent entries; commercial and non-commercial – along with representatives from major labels and independents to create a forum where Triple A’s leaders, and its future leaders, can discuss the challenges we all face, and everyone can learn from each other. FMQB will also strive to present exciting performances from the stars of the format, as well as from compelling new artists who will be Triple A’s stars of tomorrow, all in pursuit of the same goal we set in 2001: to “use all the resources of FMQB to help the talented, driven and passionate group of people working within (Triple A) to do their jobs better.”
Jack Barton
*** The 2010 FMQB Triple A Conference is currently in session through Saturday morning, 08/14. This year’s event is outpacing recent years in radio, label and artist attendance, making it one of the most celebrated Boulder events of all time. Full coverage will appear in next week’s eQB.***
