CRS In Action: What Keeps Programmers Up At Night?

CRS 2020

MCVAY MEDIA President MIKE MCVAY moderated today's (2/21) COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR panel titled, "Programmers: What Keeps You Up At Night?" Topics ranged from Country radio ratings, to keeping promotions fresh, to the changing state of the industry, and a heavy focus was put on the importance of great on-air talent. Panelists included BUCK OWENS PRODUCTION CO. KUZZ/BAKERSFIELD PD BRENT MICHAELS, SUMMITMEDIA SVP/Programming BEVERLEE BRANNIGAN, HUBBARD RADIO/SEATTLE PD SCOTT MAHALICK and CUMULUS MEDIA KIIM/TUCSON, AZ PD BUZZ JACKSON.

Read on for highlights from each panelists' response.

KUZZ PD BRENT MICHAELS

When asked what keeps him up at night, MICHAELS answered, "Our listeners and how we stay relevant in their lives." Referencing THURSDAY's MARK RAMSEY MEDIA research presentation (NET NEWS 2/20), MICHAELS said, "As we saw yesterday, people view smartphones as radio." Radio is being redefined like crazy, and MICHAELS is concerned about how it will stay relevant. "I worry about how we are keeping up with how many artists there are," he said. "The only real superstar we created [lately], I believe, is LUKE COMBS. Are we helping our listeners raise that next level of superstars?"

When asked about finding talent, MICHAELS said, "When I took over as PD, I knew that was the biggest challenge I was going to face. Our station, in its history, has never voice tracked even one time. So we have to find part time talent, people willing to be there on THANKSGIVING and those kind of things." He believes in finding new and creative ways to recruit talent. "Our midday person actually started as a listener, and a year or so ago we had people submit a clip showcasing their personality on FACEBOOK, and someone [now] on air over the weekends actually came from that."

In terms of a declining promotion budget in radio, MICHAELS feels there are more tools in radio's toolbox now than ever, particularly with social media. He said, "It's about being where they [the listeners] are."

SUMMITMEDIA SVP/Programming BEVERLEE BRANNIGAN

The thing that keeps BRANNIGAN up at night is "recruiting and finding people to join our teams. The business models we have, whether top down or however your company is set up, it demands people to be multi-taskers and generalists," she said. "We ask people to be moderately creative and really good at doing a 100 different tasks every day. To grow our stations requires a level of 'crazy' that we've bred out because it 'doesn't fit' the business model." Referencing RAMSEY'S research presentation, BRANNIGAN reminded the audience that talent is talent, but great talent is additive. "We need to get crazy [creativity] back, because right now we have a bunch of great multi-taskers."

When MCVAY asked about the state of "eroding Country radio ratings," BRANNIGAN responded, "We're operating in the financial reality of whatever our company is, which is mostly out of our control. We're operating on NIELSEN results, and people are using our products in a world that is much larger than NIELSEN and terrestrial radio." When asked about the pool of PDs available, BRANNIGAN explained that there are many  programmers looking for work and to move up, but for her, some are lacking in skill sets due to the company they come from. She said, "Operational skills, talent coaching and creative [are] hard to find all in one. Having a full tool kit to come do radio in 2020 is very important."

As far as the issue of the small number of female programmers, BRANNIGAN said she does not know the answer. "I'm married with a husband who is willing to move with me, and I don't have children. If it was [the] opposite, it would be very difficult career path for me to take." She did say that in her pool of applicants, she estimates that the ratio of male to female applicants is 10-15 males to every one female. 

HUBBARD RADIO SEATTLE's SCOTT MAHALICK

"How does our business stay relevant and evolve with what's around us," said MAHALICK in response to the question,"What keeps you up at night?" He continued by saying he is "hopeful for visionaries in the industry." When asked about a dwindling talent pool for on-air talent, MAHALICK said, "We need to bring the sexy back. The sex appeal in our business has become dull. We need to re-brand what we do." He then shared an anecdote from a time he needed a board operator. Instead of listing the position simply as "board operator," he listed it as "Digital Content Producer" and included responsibilities such as social media engagement, and was overwhelmed with the amount of emails that came in. The point about selecting great talent was driven home once again as MAHALICK added, "No other time in history has there been more exposure to different genres of music than now. How are we gonna stick out by playing the same music in the same way? The only thing that will do that is what you do in between the records. I've had lots of conversations with young talent who don't even think of radio as an option."

CUMULUS KIIM PD BUZZ JACKSON

JACKSON's biggest concern with the industry is whether radio is providing the right opportunities for growth. He said, "We worry about opportunities to get into the industry, but where are the growth opportunities once you get in? We need to figure out a way to build a structure for them to raise their own ranks once they get in within the company." Once again touching on the topic of talent, JACKSON said, "We have to offer something that is not available anywhere else. DSPs have no personalities, so we have to give people a reason to seek us out specifically." He also thinks it's time we re-evaluate what is necessary on stations, saying, "It's time we have the conversation, do we need traffic reports on the radio? They can get that same info on their phones now. Maybe that isn't compelling to them anymore."

JACKSON'S biggest challenge within promotions is keeping the team creative and fresh. He tries to get his team to think of things in a new and creative way, and said it sometimes takes stepping out of the environment to create those results. 

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