Guy Zapoleon has been involved in radio programming in one way shape or form for over four decades. Chances are he’s seen it all by now, but never one to stand in his tracks, Zapoleon still attacks every mission as if it were his first. Constantly staying well-versed in all things new with the additional balance of seasoned wisdom is the recipe that’s worked quite well for Guy and his executive team at
Zapoleon Media Strategies.
Guy Zapoleon
Surviving and succeeding in today’s turbulent and challenging times is an ongoing exercise for many professionals in and around the radio and music industries. Changing financial times begets changing business models and paradigms, and many pros wind up outside the business through no fault of their own. It’s simply a matter of attrition. But this intro is not meant to be a downer…conversely, it is a ray of hope, because the industry needs more mentors, advisors and counselors to help connect the next generation of programming executives to the realities of the industry, and the solutions to many of those realities are tied into experience and historical perspective…Enter Guy Zapoleon.
As President of Zapoleon Media Strategies, Guy Zapoleon has for many years filled the aforementioned roles. It’s his uncanny ability to distill issues down to actionable steps and his willingness to be teacher, collaborator and student. It’s always refreshing catching up with a fellow veteran of the business, one who shares a tremendous passion for the business and the people we refuse to not care about.
Whose hands is radio in the most these days regarding charting the future course for the industry…owners, bankers, programmers?
All of them! First of all programmers need to be charting the course for our future, they are the creators for our business. Let’s divide owners into large and small (and also include syndicators), and the roles they play as we hit the crossroads of our future in this decade. Each group has a role in moving the ball forward for radio to survive. Smaller owners are faced with a choice to either buy programming from some of the great syndication firms or to invest in finding and developing local air talent and local programming. Major corporations also have the ability to operate great local clusters as well, but high financial expectations are being placed on major corporations so you generally see less risk taking in finding local air talent and you see more corporate network programming instead. However, they do have the money and see the massive opportunity to fund digital initiatives, syndicate the best talent, mass market, and to take radio into the digital age securing its place on cell phones, iphones, ipads etc. You also have to give the major syndicators like Dial Global kudos because they have the ability to find air talent and programming and develop them into great talents as well.
As for bankers I’m hopeful that large and small owners can find great banking partners who know enough about the business to allow them to take the proper risks and have realistic expectations. Our business needs to adopt that old adage of “fall in love with risk,” instead of what has plagued us the past fifteen years “aversion to risk.” Yes taking unnecessary risks is a problem but that’s where creativity starts. We need to learn how to take the right risks by those with good intuition with the necessary intel and experience to interpret that intel.
My partner Mark St. John and I have advised the very best broadcasters in the business, and the successful ones have a synergistic team-based relationship among owners, managers and programmers that insure their companies are strategically driven and operate at maximum efficiency so they stay ahead of the game.
Since programmers live where the rubber meets the road, shouldn’t programmers in all market sizes have more of a say about how radio groups operate these days?
Programmers will always have a course in charting the future in our business, and there are some exceptional minds out there at all levels. You are seeing more and more major corporations realize the necessity of leaning on their programmers. Mark St. John and I have had the pleasure of working with brilliant programmers like Tom Poleman and his team at Clear Channel, Greg Strassell, Steve Salhaney and Dom Theodore at CBS, Jeremy Rice at Cox Communications, Pat Paxton and Bill Pasha at Entercom, Greg Solk at Bonneville, Tom Land at Journal, Buzz Knight at Greater Media, and many more. These are the programming minds we work with to develop new strategies to help take their radio stations into the digital age.
Have local PD’s become unsung heroes to a degree given the workload and lack of support staff issues prevalent in programming departments today?
It’s been a reality of our business because of the financial straits of our country and radio over the past 5-10 years. Honestly it reminds me of what we had to do at KRTH in Los Angeles when I started out. FM’s were the bastard stepchildren of AM’s in the thrifty ‘70s and we all did three jobs. My first programming job I was PD and Promotions Director at KRQQ Tucson. However I think today’s programmers work even harder and certainly aren’t appreciated enough. Excellence is expected of them in many more areas than in the past like programming, marketing, management, sales, and now they have to understand and program websites and social networking sites and generally that’s at least for two stations if not more. The expectations placed on them and the workloads are generally much higher than they were twenty years ago.
The ultra competitive multi-media landscape leaves little margin for error these days. What does radio do better than any of its media competitors?
Radio has always been known as the companion medium, a necessity providing immediate live and local, as well as IMMEDIATE news and lifestyle information for local communities. Radio has always had those bragging rights, and the Marconi winning stations are the ones who have taken that to a level above in serving their communities. It’s more than an honor; it’s a necessity if radio wants to survive into the new age of media consumption. Radio still has a chance to continue in its leadership role with the added visual dimension of its digital platforms. No other medium can deliver audio better in that sense. Social media and sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are developing exponentially in their immediacy, but most social media events don’t match the mass audience of a single radio broadcast. However, these social media sites are certainly challenging us in audience and immediacy, so we need to ramp this up.
Do you feel radio has adapted to the digital world to the extent that real revenue can be generated from the various platforms?
It’s been a slow process but major companies are investing in the creation of their own web/social media initiatives and companies like Triton Media’s M20 and Emmis Interactive are providing the service, and you’re seeing radio beginning to embrace different ways to monetize their digital platforms. I believe at some point a station’s website/social media platforms will be the focal points for visual and audio content with the radio station broadcasting the audio portion of much of this content. That’s the future folks, and how radio will survive.
Are you advocating more investment in digital programs?
As we slowly climb out of the recession and radio begins to have much better revenue producing years the timing is critical to create unique vibrant programming for radio’s airwaves. We certainly need more of an investment in the digital programs I mentioned above. But we also need to reinvest in programming to create new and exciting audio and visual content especially for Generation Y that will bring more listeners back to radio. We need to find the next great talents for on-air and for the Internet because that is certainly what makes us the companion medium and that concept will continue to be important.
Can you truly have genuine community involvement without the live and local component, or is it irrelevant to radio’s local success?
You can’t have true community involvement without being live and local. It’s the biggest hazard of not doing live and local radio shows. Take the recent Tucson tragedy. While there was certainly a national presence in the mourning there including President Obama, you just know that the residents turned to local radio and TV to find out about Rep Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims, as well as the monster who shot them. They turned to local radio and TV to express their anger and grief, and look for solutions and comfort. It’s the one dynamic that has always made radio what it is, and it’s one of the main reasons above all why radio stations have commanded loyalty for years. Radio personalities helping listeners deal with a tragedy or coming to the community’s rescue during a crisis is powerful engagement.
From a sheer entertainment perspective of the benefits of being live and local let’s take a look at reality television. Reality television has become so popular (especially with younger viewers) because they have grown bored with so much of the scripted television and have a problem with the suspension of disbelief necessary for much of it. They are more jaded and want “real and spontaneous” television for entertainment. There was a great article in the LA Times recently about what network/cable TV can learn today from the “Pioneers of Television” and a wonderful quote about what’s happened to television, “The system shaves off the rough edges and eliminates the feeling not only that anything might happen – including something bad – but that it might happen right down the street.”
Talent issues abound as the industry is not generating young talent stars of tomorrow. How much of a critical problem is this if the trend doesn’t reverse soon?
Obviously it’s a big problem, and there definitely are some very bright up and coming stars in our business, but we need more, especially from the generations who aren’t using radio as much as they used to. Radio needs to employ the Gen Y young adults especially. These young adults who have grown up with the Internet, iPods, and mp3s on cell phones, with radio being less important, are needed to give the rest of us in radio a counterpoint about how radio can be better for them and their peers and help us develop the programming that does that.
How does the industry get more proactive in the area of youth recruitment?
I’ve been preaching this for awhile. You get started by convincing corporate officers they need to train young people in the unique skills radio people have. You find the best and brightest and then create a company initiative, create a set of values and skills that are paramount for young entrants in programming, sales, marketing, engineering, digital, etc. Find a creative person with vision to see talent at early stages, someone to head it up and hit the colleges, high schools and tech schools. Then create a “Catch A Rising Star” program inside the company to reward young up and comers for excellence in whatever they do and give them a reward and company wide recognition.
What do feel are the most challenging issues the music industry confronts today, and what advice can you impart to the industry regarding a fresh business model?
It’s really unfortunate, for the music business and artists as well, that the business didn’t deal with Napster quickly and effectively back in the late 90s, make a deal with Shawn Fanning, shut it down or convert it to a system to sell mp3s and stop consumers from being able to steal music. But I guess we all have 20/20 hindsight. There is no doubt that people will be renting more music and buying less and getting more and more of their music from the cloud. Consumers don’t want to pay a lot for music when they can get it cheaper by renting it. Consumers really won’t see a need to owning a specific mp3 in their collection because it isn’t the same cool thing it was back in the day with owning an album with beautiful artwork and background information about the artist in your collection. I’m sure there will always be a way to package music together for an artist as an EP or album by offering exclusive music and perhaps visual (even video) content, but it’s my belief that the music industry will exist like television on cable and will have no choice but to “bundle” content and eventually adopt some kind of subscription model.
What are your thoughts on the ongoing passionate debate regarding the Performance Tax Bill?
Both sides have good points, but the timing on this decision is a tough one for both radio and records who have faced some very lean years. You can certainly see why the music business feels it should receive payment, as ASCAP and BMI payments go to songwriters and not the performers/music labels, and there is intrinsic value to providing the essential product that music radio offers. Radio argues that it gives free marketing, audio exposure on its airwaves and now digital exposure through the web and cell phones to artists and music and that has immeasurable value to labels and artists. The bottom line is both sides get value from the way the current relationship is set up. The stations get the content and the artists get free airtime to promote themselves.
Your 10 Year Music Cycle took a few hits last year from programmers who felt that the theory wasn’t relevant anymore. I’d be remiss if I didn’t give you an opportunity to update us on your current thinking of the Music Cycle.
It’s funny because after the Rich Davis interview in FMQB we traded emails. He’s one of my favorite people out there, a great music guy and programmer. We worked together when I consulted WYSR in Philadelphia and he was MD. His knock on the cycles is that it is as simple as our mutual friend Steve Rivers said…”Play the F’ng Hits.” I do agree with Brian Michel’s criticism in another FMQB interview, that some problems of the cycles have been radio’s reaction to it which causes the Phases to be more extreme themselves. So I agree to some extent with Rich, Brian, and with that slogan from my buddy Mr. Rivers…BUT what the hits are varies based on where we are in the music cycle and YES there are music cycles and phases, because music swings like a pendulum based on popular music tastes, and now (more than ever) with the Internet and iPods there is less radio can do about it than ever. So it’s obvious to me as a music historian and a programmer/consultant that the 10 Year Music Cycle exists and has repeated over and over again for sixty years. The music pendulum swings to the edges or the center because of the most influential format in the process, Mainstream Top 40 being the ULTIMATE VARIETY FORMAT. Its fan base wants a variety of genres as well as a variety of familiar and new artists and when there is too much of one sound or the same artists the pendulum moves the cycle to the next phase. Our society moves like that as well, to the middle then to the liberal left and then to the conservative right.
[eQB Content by Fred Deane]
