Is Gwyneth Overshadowing the CMA Awards?

Have you noticed that TV promos for tonight's CMA awards focus mostly on Gwyneth Paltrow's debut singing performance?  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that her spot on the show will no doubt attract viewers who might not otherwise watch.  But I can't help feeling that some of our biggest stars are getting the short shrift.  At least promotionally.  Let's hope her performance on the show is a big hit.  It would be even better if her new movie, Country Strong, is a bigger hit.

Where's Taylor?

No disrepect to today's CMA nominees (they are a great bunch), but I do not understand how last year's Entertainer of the Year, Taylor Swift, is shunned from even a nomination in that category? Did Kanye West hijack the voting?

Shorter Is Better: At least this is true with respect to song length. Could a trend be emerging? Witness new releases from Justin Moore, Billy Currington, Carrie Underwood in the 2:50 something range. Why does this matter? It helps both radio and records. Radio gets to play more songs and records gets more new songs played. Why? At the risk of sounding techno-geeky, new currents are often in "drop" positions and they are less likely to be dropped by the computer if they are shorter and can get aired before a time sync for commercials. If I lost you on that one, just know that shorter songs are less likely to be dropped. Bring on the shorties!

Idea For A New Country Song: Way Out Here we've got a Bonfire going in the Back Woods where I'm a Little More Country than how The Country Boys Roll their Hillbilly Bone.

Give Back, Advance Your Career: The state of the radio industry is such that we need all the help we can get. There are quite a few radio organizations that can use your help. Volunteer to serve on committees putting on radio conventions like the Country Radio Seminar, the NAB, The Midwest Conclave and your state broadcasters. Most states put on an annual convention. Not only can you make a difference, but you’ll make valuable contacts that will not only enrich you personally, but will advance your career.

If you have time to serve on one committee, serve on two. Make the time. Make a difference. I have the privilege of currently serving on the CRB (Country Radio Seminar) Board and the Agenda Committee for the Midwest Conclave. For more information, drop me an email and I’ll get you the contact information to get you involved. You’ll be glad you did.

Where Will The Innovation Come From? Not Nashville, according to the NY Times:

Click here: Grudgingly, Nashville Inches Into the Future - NYTimes.com

It speaks to a point I made on my blog a few months ago. Where are the new stars?

And that while great music comes from Music City, we need to be open to Country sounds from the rest of the Country to help spark innovation.

Help Dene Hallam's Daughters: In my blogs I like to get right to the point and not waste your time. Please help insure that Dene's wonderful daughters get a good education. Moby of Moby in the Morning has set up an Educational Trust Fund. Here's a link to the information: http://www.mobyinthemorning.com/index.cfm

The Hidden Meaning of Taylor Swift's Big CMA Night: Conventional wisdom is that Taylor Swift won Entertainer of the Year because she's arguably the hottest artist on the planet. I think it goes deeper than that. This is the beginning of yet another changing of the guard in Nashville. Think about it. The incredible Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and George Strait (fellow nominees) have all been hit makers for a decade or more. Taylor was the only recent hitmaker in the bunch. It's not about who's more Pop or who's more Country. Nor is it soley about Taylor's amazing talent. The message from the CMA voters came through loud and clear: It's time to shake things up. Taylor Swift is a glorious lightening rod for that change.

Fourth Single Syndrome: Have you noticed that several of our biggest stars are out with their third or fourth singles from current album projects? No problem with that if the material is great. The problem is that much of it is not. Therein lies the rub. I think strong songs like those by David Nail and Luke Bryan may not be getting their just airplay as we instead give more spins to that weaker song by the bigger artist. Just because an A+ act has a song in the Top 10, it does not mean that it is a hit, or worthy of power rotation. I'm just sayin' ...

Enough Already: Country Boys, Country Girls, Country Men, Country Women. Is it just me, or are these themes overdone in Country songs of the last few years? Just asking.

Write Like Your Life Depends On It: As we all get more tech-savvy, let's not lose sight of the power of the written word, whether it's in our web copy, on-air imaging, or any copy associated with radio stations.

It's easy to become enamored with how something looks or how the audio bells and whistles sound. It's harder to craft the messages that will resonate with our target audiences.

In visual marketing, only the right words combined with great layout and visuals will produce the desired results.

Is there a compelling story ready to motivate your audience? Write and re-write until it's right. Your professional life depends on it.

Country At Conclave: Thanks to former R&R Editor Paul Heine for his coverage of the Country panel I was privileged to moderate:

Thursday, July 16, 2009
How To Upset The Status Quo

MINNEAPOLIS –The annual Conclave radio conference opened up Thursday afternoon (July 16) with a textbook story of how old-school, street-level warfare can still damage entrenched competitors, especially in today’s environment of cutbacks and limited resources. Ron Allen PD at country KVWF (the Wolf)/Wichita, told the tale of how, in February 2008, Connoisseur Media signed on as the market’s seventh country station and how the Wolf has since defeated all but two of them. In the winter 2009 Arbitron ratings, KVWF is one-tenth of a share away from the market’s No. 2 country outlet.

Renegade branding, complete with on-air howls and a 25-foot inflatable wolf for appearances, made the station stand out, Allen said. Instead of another lackluster station van, Wolf staffers drive a bright orange truck – with paw prints all over it.

“We blind-sided the competition; they weren’t expecting the full court press,” Allen told attendees at the Country Cage Match session, moderated by Joel Raab, president of Joel Raab Associates. “We came in with the attitude that every event will be challenged.”

As the last one to the dance, KVWF had to improvise to put its paw prints on concerts and other events traditionally dominated by its established competitors. When the Wolf was told it could not participate in an event at the 10,000-capacity Kansas Coliseum, the station set up large displays at three main access points to the venue, giving it what Allen called “high visibility.”

Don Jacobs, market manager/VP of the Results Radio cluster in Sioux Falls S.D., also shared war stories from a new country sign-on. When Garth Brooks came to town for six sell-outs, Jacobs distributed 6,000 Brooks masks with the station’s Kickin’ Country logo printed on the back. “When you’re in later than everyone else, you have to take a different approach,” he said.

Mark Phillips, PD at the nation’s first Wolf – Cumulus Media’s KPLX/ Dallas – bemoaned that many stations don’t excel at the basics: “Everybody is short-staffed, resources are limited, but I still hear a lot of basics that aren’t being done right, starting with the music.” Remarkably, Phillips pulls a four-hour afternoon shift in radio’s fifth largest market. “People think I’m crazy but you need to lead by example.” The strategy appears to be working: KPLX is No. 2 in the market among listeners 6+ in Arbitron’s June PPM report with a cume of 1.2 million.

Phillips says his day starts at 5 a.m., taking notes on the morning show, monitoring the competition, working on the music. By two in the afternoon, it’s show prep time. In between, he says he makes a lot of time for communicating with the airstaff. “When people are insecure about their jobs, you need to make them feel important. There’s a difference between leading and managing.”

Country Radio Broadcasters executive director Ed Salamon shared 10 programming strategies from his tenure at WHN/New York in the ‘70s.

“The country life group in New York wasn’t obvious,” he said. (The No. 1 radio market has since gone decades without a full-signaled country outlet.) So Salamon had to “find out exactly what it was about country music that made sense for our listeners” and that included not using the word “country” in on-air imaging. “We used a lot of listener voices on the air, taking advantage of all the beautifully unique accents, from Long Island to the Bronx to New Jersey. And we campaigned like politicians to win listeners over one at a time.”

http://paulheine.blogspot.com

The Michael Jackson - Elvis Radio Connection: I remember when Elvis died. If you were there, think about it. Nary a mention on the CBS evening news; Time Magazine buried the story in the back of the issue.

RADIO was there. Radio was where we mourned and shared our thoughts and feelings. Callers could request Elvis songs. Programmers could air specials within minutes. I was a Dee Jay in Chicago then and remember the adrenaline rush of our relevance.

Michael Jackson dies and radio's role, is diminished. TMZ dwarfs CNN and the major networks along with radio in reporting news. How quickly did voice tracked stations respond?

As I noted last week, I have decided to be optimistic. As an industry we can recapture our extreme relevance, but it will take a lot of hard work. Are you prepared for when a major Country star (heaven forbid) dies? Are you using the excuse, "We're understaffed" or do you have a plan? We must lay down the gauntlet.

Economically, radio will get healthy again. In the meantime, we have to work harder and more creatively.

To quote an old Country song, "time's a wastin'" ...

“Less” Is the New “More”: Heard this line on one of the news channels. You’ve got to be kidding me! There seems to be some sort of a campaign going on to make people feel like its OK lose a job, have income, benefits and pensions chopped up. As long as we’ve got “love." Puhleeze!

I’ve seen my share of economic downturns in my lifetime, but never one quite as severe as this one. Challenging? Yes. However, I refuse to be negative about future prospects for me, my family or the industry I love with a passion.

I have decided to be optimistic. You can make that decision, you know, and take pro-active steps toward improving your situation. Those steps will vary widely based upon your circumstance.

What have you done today to make things better?

Good luck. Be optimistic. That’s half the battle. The other half? That’s a lot harder.

Kudos To Nashville Record Labels: I've noticed an interesting phenomena lately. Quite simply, when a song is released to radio and early indications say, "this is not a hit" the labels are backing off much more quickly. I have advocated this strategy for years. In the past, it seemed like any release from a major label would be pushed into the 30's on the charts. This practice of pursuing the inevitable "miss" wasted valuable time and dollars.

The one caveat in all of this is that if the labels genuinely believe in something, they shouldn't give up because of initial resistance. If that were always the case, many great new artists never would have broken through. Again, true belief is powerful. I remember the early resistance to Shania Twain. Need I say more?

Is It Just Me? Watching the Grammy Awards last night I couldn't help but notice that the sound mix, at least to my ear, was superior to what we usually hear on Country Music awards shows. Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney never sounded better live. Just wondering.

NBC and Leno: Like Radio Giving Up Local Control: Short term financial gain is what NBC is getting by putting Jay Leno on each night at 10PM. Lower ratings, lower revenues but more short term profits. Executives show a better balance sheet. For now. Get to keep their jobs. For a while. Even though no new hits are being developed on the network. Fewer eyeballs on NBC. That can't be a good thing long term.

What's the radio analogy? In an effort to cut costs, it seems like time slots are up for outside hire. While there are clearly some "must listen" strong national shows, let's resist the urge to overdo it for short term financial gain. I strongly concur with those who say that radio's best hope is in being local. Great stations are still best served when anchored by local hosts who know their towns and their listeners.

Say Goodbye To The "B" Students: For years, the radio industry had the rap of being a safe haven for "C" students. With the last wave of consolidations and job cuts a few years ago, most of them were eliminated. Now, with another round of eliminations happening as you read this, the "B" students are also in danger. At minimum, "B+" students and up will survive (and even all of those are not safe).

The real question is: What can you do now to survive, let alone thrive? It's a cliche to say you should wear more than one hat. The days of "four and out the door" (doing your airshift and going home) ended many years ago. Today, you will be most valuable if you can demonstrate the following:

a. Web skills. Master HTML. Help your station build on its interactive community. The web-savvy person in the building becomes increasingly valuable as others are stretched to the max.

b. Find ways to save money. Come to your manager with cost saving ideas that will not damage the product. Better yet, find ways to save money and actually improve the station.

c. Become proficient in more than one format. Format experts who only do one format in the same building are becoming a dying breed.

d. Gain a wide range of experiences. Show your eagerness to learn. If your station has a new Talk sister station, volunteer to report on election night (even if you're the PD of a music station!). If a morning producer is out sick, offer to go in and help.

e. Become the "go to" person. Meaning that if a task needs doing, everyone knows that you will do it well and in a timely fashion...and that you will first ask questions if there is something you don't know...Which leads us to:

f. Ask Questions. Many don't do this, for fear that they will be perceived as somehow lacking. Take it from a former manager, questions are ALWAYS appreciated, as they show a thirst for self- improvement and the desire to help the common cause.

g. Don't fly under the radar. Eventually, someone reviewing the station budget will ask, "What does HE do?" and, "Why should we keep him?". Give that person lots of proof that you are an indispensable member of the team.

h. Read vociferously. It may seem obvious, but take the time to stay informed. Know what's going on not only in your industry, but in the world around you. How are other industries coping with the economic downturn? There's plenty you can learn and benefit from.

Knowledge, combined with practical experience, is your best tool to make it through the rough seas ahead.

Where Are The New Country Superstars?: Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith. We love ya! You guys are mostly exclusive to our format and came of age in the late 90's, nearly ten years ago. Entertainment however is cyclical. We need a "next big thing" exclusive to our format to sustain growth. The current new crop of Superstars (Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift) are crossover artists. We share them, and their sound with other formats.

Ten years ago, we wondered, who are the next Garth, Alan and Clint? Today, we wonder, is there a new Kenny, Tim or Toby waiting in the wings? Could it be Brad, Dierks and/or someone we don't yet know about? Why is there no woman on any of those lists? That's a great question for another blog on another day.

Wrong Hook Can Kill Hit Song: Garbage in, garbage out. When testing music, if the hook is wrong then the results may very well be wrong. One glaring example was Kellie Pickler's first single, "Red High Heels". The standard hook most used did not capture the unique part of the song, but instead focused on the title (as do most hooks). A hit song lost. Another example, "Red Dirt Road" a moderate hit for Brooks and Dunn. If you tested the correct hook (which most did not) you'd have found this song to be a strong power gold.

I also believe that the essence of some songs cannot be captured in a five to ten second hook. That doesn't mean they don't resonate with the audience. It just means they don't test well. Some of Keith Urban's best songs haven't tested as well as I believe they were actually accepted by the audience. The depth of some music goes beyond a hook.

Testing is a tool; one of several used to determine airplay. But it is not nor should it be the be all and end all in making music decisions. Knowing your audience, your market, sales, competitive strategy along with testing are all factors in making goods music decisions.