This past week, as I lay on my couch recovering from COVID-19, I desperately needed a break from the stress of non-stop election coverage.
So, I decided to do something that I had been putting off for a while. I pulled up Disney + and, likely, became the last person on Earth to finally watch Hamilton.
It was worth the wait. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s epic on Alexander Hamilton was truly mesmerizing.
One of the songs really stuck with me.
At one point in the musical, after the Americans had won the Revolutionary War, the rather pompous King George III came on stage to lament the loss of the colonies with a catchy number entitled “What’s Next?”
That same question can now be applied to the news radio.
A global pandemic followed by civil unrest followed by a bitterly contested presidential election has allowed news and news-talk stations to literally defy gravity throughout 2020 in terms of massive listenership. But the inevitable run of non-stop news cycle gold is coming to an end. The election is over, a COVID-19 vaccine is on the horizon, and cities are no longer burning.
At some point in 2021, life will start to resemble normalcy.
With that, the tide will go out for news media. I could literally sense every News Director and Producer across the country grappling with every ounce of strength to hold on to the 2020 Election Story…trying to drag it out if they could.
Even as it became clear that Joe Biden had won this damn thing, every network did what they could to drag out the suspense. One more hour, one more day, one more news cycle. Finally, there was just no more water that they could squeeze out of the proverbial sponge.
The bevy of non-stop stories covered up for a multitude of sins that the news media, (and radio, in particular) have committed over the years. The audience is getting older, younger consumers are embracing more technologically savvy platforms and ad revenue is shifting away to new media further than traditional operators can keep up with it.
All is not lost. As we head into 2021, here are three things that I sincerely want to see news-talk and news radio embrace with gusto.
OWN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD…EXCLUSIVELY.
It’s the oldest rule in the book…and it still applies. You can never go wrong talking about what’s going on in your own neighborhood. But you must do more than that…. you must own it. You need hosts, anchors and reporters that can get EXCLUSIVES. They need to be able to get a story that no one else has.
I was always amazed by walking into newsrooms at places like KDKA in Pittsburgh, where Marty Griffin would drop bombshells that would get the entire city talking. Or KIRO in Seattle where Dori Monson would walk into my office once a week with a big grin saying, “Wait till you hear what I got at 12:05!”
These are the types of people you need to find and get them in front of a microphone. They have connections, they work them, and they are tireless and relentless to bring fresh, new material to the table that no one else has.
In the news world, having creative hosts who are entertaining with interesting perspectives isn’t good enough. There are just too many choices for the consumer on too many different platforms.
What IS a rarity, are the people that can tell you something you didn’t know was going on in your own back yard.
GET FEARLESSLY YOUNGER
I remember speaking to a high-end national media figure who was in the middle of hiring a Senior Producer for a network morning show. This program is well-established and has a large worldwide audience.“What are your biggest challenges?” I asked.
“Our audience is literally dying off,” she replied. “We are just not reaching younger people. Whomever we hire MUST be able to tell stories that reach 18-34-year-old listeners. We just don’t have enough people that can do that.”
Hearing that was amazing yet validating at the same time. I’ve always felt that news radio’s biggest challenge was the fact that listenership was aging out of the 25-54 demo and there just wasn’t enough incoming youth to replace them.
There are a lot of reasons for this. One that isn’t talked about enough is that the stories I hear on news radio and news-talk stations just don’t appeal to younger listeners. Service elements like traffic, weather and financial info are now owned by smartphone apps. Most news stories are geared towards people on the older end of the demo. While this serves an important purpose, 18-34-year-olds are virtually forgotten and that is creating a missed opportunity.
I recall a particular episode of “The Daily” from The New York Times. They had a detailed account of college students that were living on campus and sequestered due to the pandemic. Needless to say, life was tough for them. Many could not leave their dorms and the food they were being given as part of their meal programs was often inedible. The genesis for this story? A TikTok feed that several students had started and that had gained steam online. That was a great example of a story that effects younger listeners and was started on a platform that they use massively.
These are the kinds of stories that will reach the people that you need to fund your future. Seek those stories out and work them into your rotation.
EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY, NOT RATINGS
I honestly wonder, at times, when radio transmitters will just go from resting on giant towers to something that will only be on display in a museum.
As we see 5G rolled out nationwide as well as the installation of in-car Wi-Fi, over the air broadcasting suddenly seems so antiquated.
I’m 43 years old and have spent the better part of three decades in terrestrial radio. Yet, I can’t remember the last time I used the AM or FM features in my car. I plug my phone into a USB port and I’m either listening to Spotify, Radio.com, YouTube Music or SiriusXM.
Yet, when I talk to so many of my colleagues in the biz, they’re still trying to chase down terrestrial listeners. They’re sill pouring through mountains of Neilsen data, hunting down meters, chasing panelists, and playing what is slowly becoming a zero-sum game.
I remember once talking to a radio executive about on-demand listening.
“We’re relying too much on digital,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We put all of our shows online, and it gives people no incentive to listen live. It’s hurting our ratings,” he replied.
The first thing to pop into my mind when I heard this was….’WHO CARES?’ It shouldn’t matter where or how people consume your product as long as they are consuming it. No matter where you reach them, you can engage them….and that should have value for ANY advertiser.