Radio Show 2018 Tuesday Kicking Off With Talk On Analytics, Emergencies

Starts Today

By PERRY MICHAEL SIMON in ORLANDO: The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS and RADIO ADVERTISING BUREAU's 2018 RADIO SHOW got underway TODAY (9/25) with a handful of opening sessions as leaders of the radio industry assembled at the HILTON BONNET CREEK and WALDORF ASTORIA in ORLANDO.

Today's abbreviated schedule included two early sessions at 1:30p (ET), one with WESTWOOD ONE MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL voice KEVIN HARLAN offering tips to the RADIO SHOW Student Scholars and another with MEDIADISASTERPREP.COM's HOWARD PRICE offering an extensive series of tips for emergency preparation for radio.

Emergency Preparedness 101

RADIODISASTERPREP.COM's HOWARD PRICE held another session on emergency planning for radio, opening with sobering photos of the devastation Hurricane Florence inflicted on WSFL/NEW BERN, NC and urging attendees to institute "impact-based planning" to address possible emergencies in a budget-friendly way using partnerships and sponsorships.  He noted that while investors don't have an appetite for spending on anything that doesn't have an immediate positive revenue impact, they would be in worse shape if their businesses suddenly went silent and unable to function. He suggested a focus on six primary impacts of disaster: loss of personnel, loss of plant, loss of production capacity, loss of cash flow, loss of reputation, loss of supply chain, and possible third-party impacts. 

In addition, PRICE cited NIELSEN numbers showing News-Talk listening jumping by over 100,000 listeners in the post-hurricane WINTER 2018 diary book, with the additions coming from people who commented that they were not avid radio listeners before the disaster but were won over by radio's emergency information.

PRICE offered stark evidence of what can happen in an emergency with the list of stations knocked off the air by Hurricane Florence and the fact that while many stations had generators; their problem turned out to be a lack of fuel or an inability to get fuel to the generator. "Those of us who do this, we plan down to Plan C," PRICE asserted about the inability for those stations to anticipate third-party impacts. He also criticized stations that left their websites in regular entertainment mode during the storm. But he pointed to COMMUNITY BROADCASTERS' extensive hurricane emergency plan for its SOUTH CAROLINA stations as an example of a strong and successful response to disaster, including programming (with regular time checks, because when power goes out and phone batteries run out, so do the phpne's clocks).

Other emergencies cited by PRICE included vehicle attacks, shootings, a flood from a burst pipe, toppled towers, hacker attacks that took one station entirely off the air and another that allowed someone to post a racial slur on the station's RDS, and the evergreen disaster of a drink spilling into the board. He pointed out the various and possibly catastrophic consequences of disasters (and the additional danger of forgetting the impact of disasters on stations' supply chains) and added that "listeners and clients don't care about your problems"; they expect stations to do their jobs no matter what.

As for what should be addressed in an emergency plan, communications, shelter and possible relocation, backups for everything (including staff), creating a checklist to make compliance simple and accurate, and leveraging existing assets and resources. A sample plan PRICE offered kept things simple: a list of who to call, what to do in each of the six primary impacts, how and when to implement the plan, and where and when to go in the event of relocation.  And the simple act of competitor stations placing their backup antennae on each other's towers rather than their own main sticks, PRICE said, cuts each station's risk in half. But as for paying for a preparedness program, PRICE suggested establishing a year-round community preparedness campaign involving sponsorships and partnerships.

More Show

At 2:30p, RAB Pres./CEO ERICA FARBER headed up a session at which the Student Scholars made the acquaintance of ENTERCOM's WEEZIE KRAMER, iHEARTMEDIA's JON ZELLNER, COX MEDIA GROUP's TIM CLARKE, TOWNSQUARE MEDIA's ERIK HELLUM and ALPHA MEDIA's BOB PROFFITT, while the RAB's GEORGIA BEASLEY hosted an orientation session for RADIO SHOW first-timers.

The official opening session, "DATA U," opening with a performance by Country performer CASSADEE POPE, was a look at advanced analytics, with FARBER and the NAB's STEVE NEWBERRY introducing a series of videos of radio managers discussing the collection and use of data, followed by MSNBC's STEPHANIE RUHLE interviewing iHEARTMEDIA's BOB PITTMAN and ENTERCOM's DAVID FIELD about the effect of technology on their business (FIELD stressing the value of being able to collect data to gain attribution for radio's performance as effectively as social media has been able to do so) and competition with FACEBOOK and other competitors (PITTMAN saying that FACEBOOK is "getting more credit than they deserve" and that radio can show sales effectiveness stronger than social media; "Radio," FIELD said, "is to some extent the RODNEY DANGERFIELD medium," not getting credit for its effectiveness).  PITTMAN noted that with radio's greater reach, it should be able to collect a data set to rival and exceed those of FACEBOOK and GOOGLE.

The agenda closes with an opening reception featuring a performance by SOUL CIRCUS COWBOYS.

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