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Learning from the Entercom Tragedy

 

Radio contestant Jennifer Strange and her family.

Imagine the frustration, the torment, the sadness.

You've built a great company, you're a responsible broadcaster, you've got one of the better companies to work for, and one day you get a phone call telling you a promotion gone bad at one of your stations has resulted in a listener death.

Never in a thousand years could you have anticipated this scenario. No matter how much planning, how many rules, how much great management, it all came down to a poor decision on the part of some employees in the radio station, who never even imagined someone would really drink too much water and die. Yet Jennifer Strange, a mother of three who was trying to win a Wii video console for her kids in a "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest on Entercom's KDND/Sacramento, died trying to win.

This will go down as one of the biggest promotional tragedies in the radio broadcasting industry.

For almost three years, especially in the last several months as the trial neared, the media has been pounding the story locally and nationally, and the station has often been in the news, but not in a positive light. The GM of the station, the involved employees (10 employees were fired over the incident), the regional VP, and the CEO have probably had days consumed by meetings with $600-per-hour lawyers who defended the company as Strange's family asked the court for $34 million-$44 million for wrongful death. This is a radio nightmare.

Of course, Entercom lost the lawsuit and $16.6 million was awarded to the family yesterday.

I am not in a position to judge whether this was the right settlement, too much or too little to compensate them for their pain. I cannot imagine what this family has gone through. I feel deeply for them.

I also cannot imagine what the people at Entercom and their CEO, David Field, have gone through. I feel deeply for them as well. Entercom has the option to appeal or ask the judge to reduce the award, but nothing has been said about that yet, and Field may have to take more than $16 million from his business, his stockholders, his employees to pay this award. In these days where every dollar counts, this is a huge hit. To those thinking that this big corporation won't even feel it, it's simply not true. A judgment like this could put most any broadcast company today at risk. All because some well-meaning people in the company had a moment of poor judgment.

Knowing David Field as I do, I know he is a buttoned-down, detail-oriented, systems-driven guy. He has high ethics, the utmost professionalism, he is an excellent broadcaster, and I can only imagine how he must be beating himself up, wondering if something could have been done to prevent this tragedy. I'm sure he feels deeply for the family and for his employees, who have been through nearly three years of hell over this.

If anyone in this industry would have had a good prevention system in place, it's David Field. Perhaps a system or rule wasn't followed. That was raised at the trial, but we'll probably never know everything that happened that day.

But in spite of all the systems, all the rules, all the regulations, all the communication, I'm not sure this could have been foreseen. Even if there was a rule that said, "Under no circumstances is the station to do anything that could result in physical harm or death to listeners or employees," most people involved at a promotional level probably would never have considered this a risky promotion. Even if they did know some risk could be involved, they would probably assume than no listener would put their own health at risk to win a prize and would stop before any point of danger. And contestants did sign a standard contest risk waiver, which didn't hold up under California law.

We as an industry need to use this example of a promotion gone wrong as an important lesson. It could have happened to any one of us. If any good comes from this tragedy, perhaps it is the prevention of future tragedy.

Though I'm not saying the people at Entercom were reckless in any way, this is an industry prone to reckless behavior. For instance, I was on the air at 14. I grew up as a teen on the radio, pretty much doing and saying whatever I wanted. I pulled some outrageous stunts, said a lot of foolish things, and frankly it's a miracle something like this didn't happen to me or my stations back then (though we did lose the license of 96X and spent a year in an FCC trial, which is a story for another time).

One of the things that makes radio so magical is that we attract insane people who want to draw attention to themselves. Though there are fewer teens on the air today than in the 1970s, this is still a young and creative business filled with rebels who could easily think up something equally dangerous, not even realizing it. All the more reason we need to invent ways to communicate with employees and have fail-safe systems in place to ensure responsible behavior.

Every radio station manager in the world who reads this should talk about the Entercom story with staff members in a meeting and ask, "What could we have done to prevent this?"

Though we must never remove the fun and playful spirit that brings so much to our airwaves, we need to make sure something like this never happens again.

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The Blue Light Special

While reading The Snowball, the authorized biography of Warren Buffett, I learned that his father was a politician. Buffett recounts how he used to tag along when his father, a Republican, would visit meat-packing plants and factories. Though his father may have dreaded spending time in these environments, where he was often met with suspicion and hostility, he knew it was part of his job.

I recently took my kids to a county fair and had a similar experience of mixing with people I rarely encounter in my life otherwise. We all tend to hang with people who have a similar socioeconomic status. Though I don’t want to send the signal that I consider myself better than anyone else, I do consider myself more fortunate. I don’t have to do hard labor or work in a difficult environment like a meat-packing plant.

So what’s this got to do with radio? While at the fair, I commented to a friend that if I were programming a radio station, I’d be spending a lot of time at events like this one and talking to the people. This is where you get the story that research cannot tell. This is where you can learn to understand the issues facing families and the ways your radio station can be most relatable.

In the 1970s, when I was a programmer and, later, a programming consultant, I always insisted that we hold our music meetings in the cafeteria at Kmart. As my music and research director and I discussed each song, we could gaze at the shoppers and have a pretty good feel for its fit.

Sometimes I feel as though radio stations have lost their deep, relatable connection with their audiences. It’s critical to spend time where the bulk of your target audience spends time, whether that's upscale or downscale. An old buddy of mine called “T-Buff” (Tommy Buffington) was a retail consultant in Salt Lake City, at Brown Brothers Furniture. He used to say, “If you want to appeal to the masses, you can’t hang out with the classes.”

I used to give him grief about the overly folksy, hickish-sounding ads he ran on my radio station, but they packed the store when my slicker ads would not. It was clear what he did was working.

Where are you spending your time? Are you investing time to learn more about your listeners and their lives? Every programmer, manager, and air personality should be required to invest time in the study of their target audience — not just reading data, but immersing themselves in the local culture. Only then can they truly understand the value of the Blue Light Special.

Lessons From Rush Limbaugh And How I Got Arrested Learning Them

Showman P.T.Barnum

A Message from Radio Ink Publisher Eric Rhoads

An e-mail this morning from a college student led me to offer some lessons we can learn from Rush Limbaugh, and a story about how I got arrested learning those same lessons, long before Rush was on the air.

I wanted to comment about your recent blog. I sure do relate to what you said about radio not paying attention to developing future talent. I am 22 years old and have hosted and co-hosted a talk show on my college campus. I am looking to get into the business, and am sending out a new demo I created to various places. I feel because I'm young, have done talk, and am unique, perhaps I'll be noticed. Would you have any advice for going about getting noticed, or would you know anybody I could send a demo to? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

-- Ryan V.

I've been in your shoes, Ryan.

One thing to understand, which is hard at 22, is that most of us (not all of us) at a younger age THOUGHT we were very talented, but our talent had not caught up with our belief in ourselves. I could not understand why no one would hire me. Looking back, it was because I was green and needed a lot more experience to be considered talented by others. Of course, my persistence made up for my lack of talent, and that can work for you, too. Keep pushing.

The biggest issue you face is that there are more talented, experienced people out of work and lots of people for employers to choose from. Why hire inexperience when you can get experience?

I know you don't want to hear any of this. I wouldn't have either. So how do you get noticed?

Take a Lesson from Rush Limbaugh
Let me turn your question around. If you were on a top station in town doing your show and the PD said, "You have 60 days to either get noticed and get your ratings up, or you're history," what would you do? It's a real-life scenario that happened to me. I was told to get noticed or lose my job. It was a career turning point because I realized that great personalities are great self-promoters and masterful at generating controversy.

Rush Limbaugh on Fox, CNN, and Most Other Media
Last night on Fox, Bill O'Reilly spent 15 minutes talking about Rush Limbaugh's buying into the St. Louis football franchise. I don't know how important this is to Rush personally and how far he will carry it, but he has all the major media in America talking about him. Now that the buying group he was part of has dropped him, Rush can milk this for another couple of weeks. No matter the outcome, this is great for his show. It acts as a reminder for people to tune in to see what he will say about it, and it will bring new listeners and advertisers. It's not unusual to find Rush in the news with some controversy like this a few times a year. It's great for business, and it doesn't happen by accident.

How Do You Translate This to Your Situation?
You don't have the experience, audience, or name to get the media talking about you. Yet every day you see someone get their 15 minutes of fame via YouTube or some viral e-mail. I cannot advise you about the specifics of what you should do, but the goal is to get noticed, get hired, and hope that some visionary PD will see you and say, "This guy has guts. Let's give him a shot." You can be highly targeted (Rich Marston at WAYS/Charlotte once had himself delivered to a car dealership in a coffin. When they opened the coffin, he was holding a sign that said, "I'm Dying to Get Your Business"), or you can go national.

Your job is to figure out how to create some noise that will work to your benefit. If you can learn this lesson early in your career, you'll be ahead of 85% of all talk hosts. Most of those who are nationally syndicated are there because they are expert at creating buzz over what they've said. They understand how to get people talking. Think about Michael Savage being ousted by the United Kingdom and the subsequent legal battle, or the White House criticisms of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh. These guys are consummate masters of buzz. The rest of the pack seem to tread water for their entire careers because they've never understood this principle.

How I Got Arrested
The principle of buzz really applies to everyone, whether on the air or off. We're all in the business of persuasion, and the first rule of persuasion is to get people to pay attention. Of course, it needs to be appropriate persuasion, or it can backfire. As a green 20-year-old DJ  in Florida I pulled a stunt that, thankfully, worked, but could have ended my career.

Don't Lose the License
My PD, Jerry Clifton, told me to get my ratings up at 96X in Miami (1974). "I don't care how you do it or what you do, just don't lose the license." I went on the air that night, told my audience I had been fired and this was my last show, and proceeded to take over the radio station, barricade the doors, and "take control of the transmitter." I vowed to played one obnoxious song over and over "until management gives me my job back."

Guns Were Drawn
I did such a convincing job that the Miami Beach Police Department was flooded with emergency calls, and police were outside the studios. When the jock who was on before me (Steve Rivers) left the building, they cuffed him, threw him in a cruiser, and then demanded that he open the door to the station. I was about to do my next break when I heard a sound. I turned around to find two Miami Beach cops with their guns drawn and pointed at my head. (I only wish I had opened my mic to get the arrest on tape.) I was cuffed, arrested, and about to be removed from the building.

Saved By Quick Thinking
As I was being taken out of the building, I said to the cop, "It's ironic that here you are, doing your job arresting me, and you're the one who will end up in prison." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "I'm licensed by the FCC to sit here at this federally licensed radio facility. If you remove me, you're committing a felony." Again, I must have been convincing, because we got the GM on the phone, he confirmed this, and they let me go. (Meanwhile, there was an hour of dead air.)

Kids, Don't Try This At Home
The end result of my stunt (which I believe is now illegal, so kids, don't try this at home) is that I went from being an obscure unknown to being someone everyone knew. The Miami Beach police made us run on-air apologies every hour for a week saying, "This station would like to apologize to the Miami Beach Police Department for statements made by Eric Rhoads and Steve Rivers on the air. We assure you it will never happen again." We made the newspaper, the local news, etc., and I accomplished my goal of better ratings and going from fairly unknown to fairly well known.

The Art of Buzz
Radio has always been the master of creating buzz through stunts and promotions. The mark of a true pro is having the ability to do it well, get others talking about you, and do it without causing damage or losing the license. Hollywood also gets this, which is why they thrive on tabloid rumors. It keeps the names in the news and gets people talking. If you want to be in the media, you need to learn the art of getting noticed.

Eric Rhoads
Radio Ink
[email protected]

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Chief Economist for S&P Joins Radio Ink Forecast Conference
A Message from Deborah Parenti, VP/GM of Radio Ink

In addition to keynote speakers Gov. Mike Huckabee, CNBC's Ron Insana, and CBS Radio's Dan Mason, we have just confirmed David Wyss, the Chief Economist for Standard & Poor's, to participate in a session called "Economic Forecasting: Revenue Expectations for 2010." You'll hear insights from one of the leading economists in the world.

The Radio Ink Forecast Conference is the premier industry forecasting event. It's attended by an industry Who's Who and followed by the reception for the "40 Most Powerful People in Radio." Forecast is now the largest networking event in the radio industry, held in beautiful Harvard Hall at the Harvard Club in New York. This conference is a must-attend, especially in these tumultuous times. You’ll hear advice, ideas and, forecasts to lead you into 2010. Limited to 200 people. (No exceptions. Each of the last eight years were at capacity.) Register today to guarantee your seat: 561-655-8778 or go to www.radioink.com/forecastsummit.

What Radio Will Avoid -- That Could Save It

 

When I was a 14-year-old kid, radio seduced me. I wanted to be a radio star because radio was where all my friends spent their time. Being in radio was cool. Many of us entered the radio industry inspired by various on-air personalities. I was inspired in the early '70s by the likes of John Records Landecker, Charlie Van Dyke and Fred Winston at WLS, Larry Lujack at "Super CFL," and pretty much all of CKLW in Windsor/Detroit, all within the range of my hometown.

There were even some local radio heroes who inspired me, like Bob Dell at WOWO and Gary Lockwood, Chris O'Brien, Guy Hill, Jay Walker, and Bill Anthony, the "Live Guys" at WLYV, who were at every school dance and every event in town. I was attracted to the fun they were having on the air, their pranks, their relationship with the music, and the fact that they were stars.

Of course, these guys made it easy for me to break into the business by letting me watch them do their shows, sneaking me into the production room to practice being on the air, and letting me run the Sunday-morning church tapes to learn the board. I remember shaking when I did my first few live IDs. Before long I was doing weekends on the air with the help of these very giving local DJs.

Aside from the fact that there are few places to get this kind of experience in radio today due to voicetracking, automation, and network programming, I wonder if there are as many young teens inspired, as I was, to get into radio. I'm sure they're out there. But chances are they are being ignored and not given any opportunity. So where will they land?

Being Illegal

When we wanted to get on the air in the worst way, my friends and I created an illegal low-power radio station with an old army transmitter (I hope the statute of limitations has expired). Today, if we were really driven to be on the air, we would have a potential audience of millions if we could get our stream online and find a way to spread the word virally. There are hundreds of thousands of online radio stations out there.

Future Personalities

The Internet, of course, is where the personalities of the future go to become stars. But, unlike my generation of wannabe DJs, this new breed will be converging all media. We're already seeing it, among bloggers who write and produce podcasts and other forms of audio and video. Simple distribution methods allow anyone with talent to emerge on any number of platforms. I believe that hyperlocalism is the future because of the desire for local connectivity. It's already becoming huge.

Like the hyperlocal radio stations of the past, or local TV stars and newspaper columnists, these new web jocks will be doing it all, on focused websites that are all about local entertainment, local news, local community events and affairs.

Burning the Ships

I know what you're thinking. "We'll do that. It's what we do best in radio, so we'll just extend our brand." The problem is that this isn't about brand extension. If you do it, it needs to be about brand-shifting, where your brand shifts online and you're aware that the on-air brand will ultimately play the supporting role.

But most radio folks not only don't want to believe that, they simply can't. It's too radical. It will require real budgets, money invested in talent, and, when it comes down to it, you or your company probably won't or can't make the choice to support the new at the expense of the old.

John Temple, the former editor, president and publisher of the now-closed Rocky Mountain News, recently spoke at the Google Future of Media Conference at UC Berkeley, and he said that was exactly why his newspaper failed. Company executives simply could not believe the website would, could, or should become more important than the newspaper, so they didn't allow the site to make the moves it needed to. They always looked at the site as a supporting promotional effort rather than THE place consumers were going -- for instance, if a reporter got a scoop, company executives insisted it be held for the paper rather than getting the news online.

Nah, It Won't Happen to Radio

I'm not one who hails the death of radio, but I do think that radio as an industry could place itself at risk if it's not willing to build new ships to sail on their own and not willing to -- eventually -- burn the old ships behind us. We can arrogantly say that what's happened to some newspapers (and more to come) won't happen to radio. That's what the newspaper people said.

Though it's not practical or smart to shutter our radio stations, it is practical to make sure we offer products consumers want and realize that we're not in the radio business, we're in the information and entertainment distribution/product-moving business. If consumers want hyperlocal online products, we should be building them. We have to be willing to let go of concepts like "broadcasting" and the belief that we are the experts that people want to hear from and that we decide what people will want to hear played or talked about. Radio must become totally consumer-driven, and each of us should be investing in Internet-only businesses that will stand on their own and not serve as radio support vehicles.

Relying on Our Past

I'm sure this all sounds very obtuse. I'm used to it. But there is an entire generation that thinks, acts, buys, listens, and responds differently than any generation before it. Your future and the future of the industry cannot rely on lifelong baby boomer listeners. It's time for bold moves, big investments (yeah, I'm a realist and I know no one can spend a dime), and the people who do that may become the hyperlocal media of the future.

Few in radio are doing it. CBS is working very hard and making some interesting decisions, and that leads me to believe they get it. Another company was doing it, but investors who could not see immediate returns opted out and removed the CEO. A couple of local, independent stations are doing it. Of 12,500 radio stations I'm aware of maybe five moving in this direction.

Outsiders Are Usually the Innovators

Oh, did I mention that everyone in the tech world believes that two of the big trends of the future are hyperlocalism and the "convergence personality," who is a writer, an on-camera talent, and an on-air talent (online), all rolled into one? The new communication vehicles will be created by someone; if radio wants to control them in local markets, they should jump on this fast. But, sadly, they won't. And it will take an outsider to do it and eat our lunch, much as Craigslist did to newspapers, which lost billions in classifieds revenue overnight.

Eric Rhoads
Radio Ink
[email protected]
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In what unanticipated ways will radio need to adjust and change in 2010?

A Note from Deborah Parenti, VP/GM of Radio Ink:

What will CBS Radio's Dan Mason say at Forecast that he believes you need to hear about change? What will you learn about 2010 and what you need to do as a radio operator, owner, investor?  Join Eric Rhoads and the staff of Radio Ink for the premier financial conference in radio: Forecast 2010, held December 8, 2009 at the Harvard Club in New York. Limited to 200 people, and many seats are already sold. To register call 561-655-8778 or go to www.radioink.com/forecastsummit. Keynotes include: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who now hosts Citadel Media's "The Huckabee Report," and financial expert Ron Insana, host of Compass Media Networks' "The Market Score Board Report With Ron Insana."

Supernova Thinking

Last week I met with a well-known Internet entrepreneur to consult him on a new business he is launching. During the conversation he kept referring to the “supernova,” and, though I know the term from a space perspective, I finally had to stop him and ask, “What are you talking about?”

He explained that, in business, a supernova is something that hits with a bang and immediately achieves critical mass. No waiting around for growth. He’s seeking a supernova impact with his new business. “I don’t want to take five years to grow it,” he told me. “I want $300 million in revenues out of the box. It can be done. All we have to do is find out how.”

I replayed this conversation in my mind and realized that my initial reaction had cast this guy as unrealistic. But as I thought about it, I wondered, why not?

Many years ago I met W. Clement Stone, a well-known motivational speaker and insurance billionaire. Stone preached that his success in business was based on the “Do it now” principle. He described his strength at determining where he wanted to be, then finding ways to accomplish in one year what might take others 15. He was very convincing, citing multiple instances in which he had achieved his goal.

I only wish I had followed his advice. Stone was referring to a supernova, though he did not call it that.

I once had the pleasure of spending time with world-renowned artist Richard Schmid, who told me that he spent years correcting the mistakes he made in paintings. “Finally, as I matured, I realized that I was going to aim for greatness out of the box,” Schmid added, “and that I would be meticulous with every brushstroke, so I don’t spend hundreds of hours cleaning up mistakes I’ve made.” This was his supernova.

Finally, I’m starting to get it. I can’t calculate all my wasted time correcting silly mistakes from my shoot-from-the-hip decisions. I have wasted years growing businesses when I could have employed supernova thinking by asking myself: What can I do today that would make this business soar out of the box? What would make this so important to customers that they have no choice but to spend money on it?

What have you been doing in your life, or at your radio station, year after year without improving significantly? In what ways can you apply supernova thinking in your personal or professional life? How can you use supernova practices to build audiences, advertising, new revenues? If you remove all limitations, can you invent a way to achieve the desired end result in a fraction of the normal time?

Though many think that greatness is grown slowly and organically, I’m starting to realize that every success boils down to one or two moments when you figure out one thing that changes everything else. It starts with obsessive curiosity: Spending more time planning, questioning customers, and removing your blinders to create a supernova.