Radio Show Thursday: Agency Stuff, FCC Stuff, Awards Stuff

Thursday

By PERRY MICHAEL SIMON in ORLANDO: The second full-day schedule of sessions at the NAB and RAB's 2018 RADIO SHOW THURSDAY (9/27) includes the annual Advertiser Breakfast and a visit from one FCC Commissioner as the day builds to the MARCONI AWARDS gala in the evening.  The official attendance count, released early this afternoon, has 2,130 at the show, up 8% over last year's convention in AUSTIN, where 1,974 attended.

A Futurist Looks At Radio

The Advertiser Breakfast featured a presentation by PUBLICS GROUPE Chief Growth Officer RISHAD TOBACCOWALA on the future of media and how the changes will affect business, and
the futurist surprised the audience with his opening statement: "Change sucks."  Among the changes he examined in the talk were globalism, demographic changes ("the world is turning brown whether we like it or not... are we going to be talking to the audience of the future, or are we going to be talking to the audience of today?  We have to do both"), and technology.

TOBACCOWALA related the story of how a company born in the "second connected age," DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB shaved 20% off GILLETTE's business, and said that the third connected age is beginning with three elements, one being that data is connecting to data -- artificial intelligence ("the machine knows you better than you do," TOBACCOWALA said of recommendation engines) , another is that things are connecting to things (a/k/a The Internet of Things), and the third is new ways to connect, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and voice (Alexa et al.).

"We are living in a data-driven storytelling age," TOBACCOWALA asserted, adding that radio needs to invest in itself and will find new growth if it defines itself more broadly, warning that the industry needs to come to grips with the prospect that the car, one of radio's strongest listening locations, is on its way out.

As someone who has bought radio time for agencies, TOBACCOWALA offered some hope for radio (assuming it rises to the challenge of changes), saying that the people who say radio is dead will be dead while radio is still around.

In a chat with RAB Pres./CEO ERICA FARBER, TOBACCOWALA recognized the importance of localism while asserting that the Internet has converted "local" to mean anything from anywhere.  On making decisions for the future while managing the business as it is today, TOBACCOWALA, adapting INTEL's ANDY GROVE's "Only the paranoid survive," which he said caused the company to miss the mobile chip opportunity under the mistaken impression that it needed to protect its dominance in computers, insisted instead that "only the schizophrenic survive," being able to focus on both the present landscape and future competition.  And asked for a piece of advice for the assemblage, TOBACCOWALA offered two: "you have to invest in yourself and learn new things," and to follow him on Twitter @Rashad.

Managers On Programming

SEAN ROSS moderated a panel on managers' perspective on content, with URBAN ONE VP, Programming COLBY COLB TYNER, TOWNSQUARE MEDIA COO ERIK HELLUM, EMMIS NEW YORK SVP/Market Manager CHARLIE MORGAN, and ENTERCOM WASHINGTON and HARTFORD-PROVIDENCE-SPRINGFIELD SVP/Market Manager PHIL ZACHARY discussing the PPM's effect on programming -- risk aversion, focus on minutiae -- with ZACHARY ("talent and cume solve everything") and MORGAN both saying that good talent reduces the importance of the minutiae.  

ZACHARY related the story of Sports WEEI-F/BOSTON's resurgence through taking risks with edgy programming that drew advertiser boycotts ("I'm not suggesting you do this") but reversed the staton's 25-54 declines, and credited the station's talent for the revival.   HELLUM, for his part, said he is "waiting for the next big thing" in formats, assigning the responsibility to the music industry to develop new and exciting music but praising the hip hop format as one which is still offering excitement.

The panel also discussed ancillary content initiatives, including EMMIS' YouTube videos (MORGAN said that top 40/RHythmic WQHT (HOT 97)/NEW YORK celebrated its billionth video view this morning), TOWNSQUARE developing a Country show from a live event, and an URBAN ONE show creating a feature on true crime that became a podcast.

Take It From The Top

FARBER returned to moderate a panel of four female radio C-suite executives, CUMULUS/WESTWOOD ONE's SUZANNE GRIMES, COX MEDIA GROUP's KIM GUTHRIE, NEUHOFF MEDIA's BETH NEUHOFF, and PREMIERE NETWORKS' JULIE TALBOTT. The executives answered questions both personal (what they wish they'd known when they started -- GRIMES wishes she knew she can't fix everything, NEUHOFF said she thought selling and buying stations was an intimidating "dark art" and not accessible -- and the value of mentors) and business (traits they look for in potential leaderships -- TALBOTT looks for the right hard working attitude, NEUHOFF is looking for people who "think differently... if we don't have different thinkers, we're in trouble," and GUTHRIE wants people who can have fun).

GRIMES described her transition into the radio business, talking about the need to instill a "swagger" into the staff.  "It used to be so quiet," she noted, adding that now, the noise in the office has increased; TALBOTT, sounding a similar note, called radio a "sexy business... we're really sexy, we just have to get our story out there and tell people how great our business is."

The topic of diversity -- of gender, ethnicity, and thinking -- prompted GRIMES to say she had been unaware when she joined CUMULUS of the magnitude of the diversity problem, but described how several programs instituted at the company have energized the operation. GUTHRIE, relating how she was called "one of the best female broadcasters" by a colleague and responded about "how much better that would be if you just took the word 'female' out of that, decried the paucity of female program directors while also voicing an aversion for "tokenism."  She also cited the problem of diverse voices being drowned out at meetings by more established and experienced staffers, and the need to encourage the newcomers to "come up to the big table" and participate.

A Visit From O'Rielly

FCC Commissioner MICHAEL O'RIELLY, cutting his arrival close due to cancelled flights and the birth of a new daughter, held forth on radio policy issues in a brief speech that touched on defining radio's competition (the Commission's past rules were "myopic," he said, in light of the introduction of SPOTIFY, PANDORA, and other digital options), loosening ownership caps (he's open to those changes, including removing subcaps), and the FCC's incubator program.

Following the speech, NAB President/CEO GORDON SMITH joined O'RIELLY on stage for a conversation in which SMITH praised O'RIELLY and Chairman AJIT PAI for their support for NAB positions ("you all have come out pretty much on the right end of votes").  Radio's emergency response to Hurricane Florence, deregulation, the quadrennial review (O'RIELLY indicated support for the elimination of subcaps in smaller markets and possibly in all markets, but later stressed that he hasn't arrived at a final position on the topic yet), and ownership diversity via the incubator program got mentions, and SMITH asked a complicated question involving broadcasting's power as demonstrated by the live broadcast of TODAY's testimony by Dr. CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD versus social media reaction and the possibility of FCC action in that regard, which O'RIELLY declined to answer directly; however, O'RIELLY said that the Commission is "aware" of the problems related to social media and directed his answer towards the "fake news" issue and his philosophy that the solution is more free speech to allow people to draw their own conclusions.  And SMITH thanked O'RIELLY and Chairman PAI for their opposition to pirate radio stations, drawing applause from the audience and O'RIELLY's comment that the Commission is just doing the job it was hired to do in trying to stamp out unlicensed operations; O'RIELLY blamed PAI's predecessor TOM WHEELER for being uninterested in combating pirates, and suggested some on WHEELER's staff encouraged pirate stations as a way to "train future broadcasters."

More Talk About Smart Speakers

A late afternoon session on smart speakers and voice commands moderated by NAB VP, Technology Education and Outreach SKIP PIZZI included a presentation of research and data from this year's TechSurvey by JACOBS MEDIA President FRED JACOBS and an overview of use cases by HUBBARD INTERACTIVE VP of Digital Strategy JEREMY SINON.

JACOBS noted that only 2/3 of millennials own radios in the home, while smart speaker ownership nearly doubled in the past year ("that's bigger than iPhone growth," JACOBS said).  But over 40% of Amazon device owners have yet to download even one Alexa skill, which JACOBS said spoke to the "clunkiness" of the platform.  One quarter listen to music from AM/FM radio on their smart speakers, he said, while about one in six listen often to News-Talk radio on their devices, and the devices tend to see users listening to the same or larger amount of AM/FM radio.

SINON gave a presentation showing how to access HUBBARD stations on an Echo Show, which didn't go as expected -- asking for the stations (which stream via TUNEIN) by slogan triggered streaming of competing stations via iHEARTRADIO.  The company's solution has been to build skills in-house for each station, primarily to stream, although other features are included; with skills installed, the stations properly stream.  SINON also showed how the stations promote the skills.

WESTWOOD ONE COO CHARLES STEINHAUER credited smart speakers for having "reinvigorated" audio, but warned that because voice command devices are coming to cars, the issue of making sure the correct station comes up when summoned is more critical.  He discussed the need to establish the correct brand and noted that "best practices" have yet to be established.

Finally, the NAB's DAVID LAYER offered an overview of the voice-controlled hybrid radio prototyped by the NAB's PILOT program in partnership with the EBU, being demonstrated TODAY (9/27) at the RADIO SHOW.

Marconis Tonight

The MARCONI RADIO AWARDS will be bestowed at a dinner and show TONIGHT (9/27); watch NET NEWS for a list of winners.  And the show will close FRIDAY morning with representatives from DISNEY.

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