Guy Zapoleon
When it comes to checking the vital signs at radio, there are few better sources than Guy Zapoleon. He’s accomplished a lot during his illustrious career, never at a loss for experimentation and discovery. He’s been a dedicated teacher and student of his trade for over thirty years, and continues to be one of the driving forces of thought provocation in our industry today. Few radio professionals are as immersed, rehearsed and well-versed in current programming issues as Zapoleon. As he currently presides over his namesake’s consulting firm, Guy’s passion for radio is more fervent today than ever.
Guy was honored earlier this year by being elected to the FMQB Hall of Fame in two categories: Major Market CHR Programmer and Major Market AC Programmer. He also was one of four industry luminaries that received an FMQB Lifetime Achievement award.
e-QB presents excerpts from the July FMQB magazine Cover Story with Guy Zapoleon, President Zapoleon Media Strategies
On the importance of hiring young talent in radio…
In order to maintain radio as a healthy and creative medium, it’s absolutely critical to get as many fresh and unique ideas into our stations as we can. The first part of this challenge is getting the best young minds attracted to the entertainment field back into radio. Our business needs young minds coming into the building with fresh perspectives, because they haven’t been indoctrinated with old habits. We need them to challenge the way things have been done before to help us stay in touch with what the leading edge of your target audience is saying about Pop culture, music and your radio station.
On the long-term effects of consolidation on the radio industry…
Consolidation is a problem. When a company can buy the best five signals in a market of fifteen and wind up with five of the seven top rated stations, then it doesn’t matter which station is #1. It reduces competition. Radio needs to compete to improve and to create more compelling content for the consumer. Consolidation became a problem when in order to get bigger profits they went beyond just creating economies of scale for multiple stations in a market. They would have been fine if they had stopped after eliminating multiple buildings, used multiple stations to get better deals from venders and harnessed the multiple talents under one roof. The final goal became satisfying stockholders with double digit cash flow growth and making quarterly profits. The next round of profit-enhancing cuts, were people and resources for tools like research, outside experts and marketing.
On the current phase of radio privatization…
I’m not too sure it’s going to get better as we move from the Wall Street to private equity phase of our business. Private equity firms will be looking to make the biggest possible profits through greater efficiencies. It starts by asking tough questions about return-on-investment of every expense on the books. But regardless of looking for new non-traditional ways to save money, it’s still all about continued avoidance of risk taking, even more cost cutting, less people, more regionalized strategies, more top down management techniques and overall homogenization.
On the upside of privatization…
On the positive side you’ll see the major companies putting hundreds of stations in the under-50 markets back on the blocks. It’s an opportunity for some veteran radio operators and programmers who have been sitting on the sidelines watching the sad effects of consolidation. These are people who believe in running stations with long-term plans to create great radio by reinvesting a bigger percentage of the profit in programming and marketing.
On radio’s biggest challenges…
Radio has the biggest challenge of its life with the growth of the Internet and iPod, but we have to understand the real threat…ourselves. Radio needs to be free to pour enough money and time to create the best audio entertainment available anywhere if it’s going to meet its technological challenges. Radio must invest the time and money in order to attract the best and brightest minds creating the best content as they create a convergence with new technology.
On programmer challenges of developing talent into big-time radio stars…
Spending time to find and develop air talent hasn’t been made a priority by our business. Today’s programmers are saddled with less help than ever, and are spending much more time in meetings devoted to helping other departments. So working with the air talent just isn’t a priority (outside of mornings perhaps). Young programmers really need a course in on-air basics on how to identify talent in the first place. They need to be taught what elements are most important for their talent to communicate to their listeners, how to help coach them on brevity, teasing and recycling.
On the salvation of radio’s future…
Radio still owns the majority of music fans. A recent survey of music listeners places the use of mp3 devices second, and CD’s third. The winner, with 39%, was FM radio. The study was commissioned by a firm called sonoro audio, which is trying to sell single devices which allow users to access all three formats. Mark Ramsey’s NAB study of ’07 showed that 70% of those people interviewed still said they heard their favorite music on the radio first, paralleling this recent study. The 12-17 demo showed something different, where listening to music on the radio was edged out by an mp3 player. The good news for radio is that when it comes to providing a source for listening to music there are no music sites that dominate a format or a demo. Nothing can compete with radio…yet!
On the job radio is doing in understanding the desires and needs of today’s consumer…
Overall I’d give radio a C- and it’s not because today’s programmers don’t have the talent. It’s because in many cases they don’t have the tools, time and (often) the empowerment by corporate to be creative and truly listener driven. But there still are some shining examples. Z100/New Yorkremains the best example of a station that is truly listener driven. Tom Poleman and his staff still come to the station every day excited to learn more about their listeners and Pop culture. Clear Channel and New York cluster VP Rob Williams provide Tom and his staff with a positive environment and the resources to study and learn about the listener and to create brilliant content.
On the most common ground platforms for radio and early adopters…
Integrated well branded web sites using radio’s audio and the web’s visual. AM/FM radio achieves a 45% share of unique visitors to Internet radio. It wasn’t that long ago that terrestrial stations streamed crossed the 30% mark, and then the 33% level. This is the future and we all know at some point every piece of entertainment will be consumed to a large extent “on the move” on someone’s iPhone, Blackberry or the Internet, radio or satellite receiver in their car. We all know this same integration will exist on a home entertainment unit as well.
On the best advice he can impart to radio regarding music research implementation…
Understand how a good research system is constructed and whether you have a valid sample. Understand why it works and how to read between the lines. Realize that research differs by format. More great songs are killed because a programmer doesn’t know how to read his research properly or tries to make research tell him something it’s not designed to do. Looking for potential on a new song may be the wrong gauge, especially when most people haven’t heard the song enough to judge.
On the timing of industry-wide usage of PPM methodology…There’s no doubt it’s probably 10 to 15 years overdue but it’s difficult to replace something that a large group of clients are used to like the advertising agencies. It’s also hard to walk away from a system that was a lot less expensive to operate and a bigger profit maker. That said, not moving forward would have eventually caused Arbitron to be challenged and replaced as a measurement service. Even though Arbitron hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest start with PPM, at least they are trying to make it a reality. As radio faces its biggest challenges it needs accurate ratings and insights into real listening. This is something I believe PPM methodology can provide.
On the role Zapoleon Media Strategies will play going forward…I have some outstanding teammates and friends at Zapoleon Media Strategies in my partners Steve Davis and Mark St John. We talk nearly every day about all of radio’s challenges and are constantly working on solutions that are imminently critical to the radio business. We’re all strong believers that radio will have a convergence in its future with the Internet and survive as a brand on the cellular travel device as well as home listening devices that will be a viable part of the future generation’s entertainment experience. Whether it’s consulting, teaching or operating radio stations ourselves, we’re looking forward to being a valuable contributing part of the solutions to create an exciting new decade for radio.
** QB Content by Fred Deane **
