Remember Who We Are

Robby Bridges

By Robby Bridges

Full disclosure: I was pretty deep into HBO Max and couldn’t resist watching a bit of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze which turned THIRTY this spring. While the movie is much worse than I remember as a kid, the line “remember who you are” jumped out at me as a spark for this piece. Radio and us – its worker bees that ought to remember who we are and what we do best. As I and many others have noted, radio ought to also “remember who we are” as far as value proposition, health and importance of our business model in local markets too. Here a few ideas to keep in mind:

1. Mark Zuckerberg should probably write a million-dollar check to every radio station in America because radio has given Facebook (and the other social media platforms) mentions, contesting and promotions to the tune of that value and more over the years. Social media ought to be utilized as an extension of our brand. For example, Colgate has a Facebook page—they show product, user testimonials, philanthropy they partake in, occasionally offers for freebies, but Colgate makes a great toothpaste and mouthwash. Their socials reinforce the brand and the brand is a must-have consumer product and a darn good one. Radio, conversely, has allowed the advertising community largely to see as much or more value in likes, clicks and followers versus AQH, TSL and cume — furthermore value to a digital campaign on a station brand’s social assets than on it over the air/streamed signal. Second, talent should absolutely interact with listeners on socials and both create and recycle content there. But, again, it’s a supplement – what talent does on the air matters most. Lastly, ability, experience, diversity of expertise and track record all matter more in the value an air talent brings than how many followers they have online or likes their pictures get. We need to focus our talent on doing great radio content, the socials are on-demand and reinforce the brand content, but are NOT the content itself. I’d add that digital content is an additional revenue stream, but it ought not to BE the revenue stream.
2. Be a TLR station and then promote listening on your mobile app, website and through a smart speaker. We should educate the audience that “you don’t have to listen on a radio if you don’t want to” (especially with car radios becoming a connected dash instead) BUT we’ve got to get Nielsen credit and we lose it without the digital signal mirroring over the air.
3. Speaking of the connected dash—get an RDS, program it and offer logos and album art. There is no other way and the RAB and NAB ought to bring all the groups together to universally improve the AM/FM visual display experience on the connected dash. Streaming services, internet radio and SiriusXM have done it. Terrestrial simply must immediately. It’s as important as audio chain processing. It goes hand in hand.
4. Many talent and brands matter in their local communities, but many don’t. They are stale, liners about downloading apps from out of market and little presence in market. It doesn’t cut it now and it’s much harder to reach the under-35 audience when terrestrial radio reaches them at all. Broadcast TV is struggling because it’s been usurped by better content on streaming and online. Here are a few things we know – Internet and satellite radio offer what terrestrial does at a price point and their expanded options of programming are niche. Podcasts are niche. Meanwhile, streaming (Spotify/Pandora/Apple) has the TSL that used to go to CDs and vinyl. In 1978, radio wasn’t about songs on demand and it isn’t today and doesn’t have to be. It’s always been about talent creating content pushing an emotional button (exciting/funny/sad/shocking) matched with connection to the community in content, mass appeal music and contesting. The old adage that a great local station is like a great local pub is so true. Radio stations used to be electric, they had an “it” factor, a “miss it and you’ve missed out” feeling. We’ve got to find that mojo again and maybe we need to go back to our roots and try some new ideas to see what sticks.

The prolific YouTube channel of radio archivist Ellis B. Feaster just posted a tape from 1953 this week of Dewey Phillips at WHBQ/Memphis. Dewey is noted for breaking Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. He talks between and often during each song, he does LOTS of artist info, LOTS of listener interaction and very local mentions (high school football, mentioning stores and neighborhoods). He plays no imaging, reads most spots live, he’s bouncing with enthusiasm, he had an 83 share of the market at one time. When the last time a station or a talent broke an artist? It doesn’t happen as it once did. I’m not saying a return to the past is the answer, but the best way to know where we are going is to learn the lesson of where we’ve been or…to remember who we are. Thanks, Splinter the sensei rat.

Robby Bridges has been a programmer and air talent for nearly 30 years in New York, Detroit, the network level and elsewhere. Currently he is Vice President of Programming for M.G. Broadcasting in Northern Michigan and most recently worked for Audacy in Boston and voiceover for multiple clients, including United Stations, Townsquare and Sun Radio.