Jacobs Media 'Summer School' In Session At Conclave

School's In Session

The JACOBS MEDIA SUMMER SCHOOL was in session all morning THURSDAY (7/15) at the 35th CONCLAVE Learning Conference in MINNEAPOLIS with presentations on a wide range of topics, from programming to marketing and ratings.

JACOBS' KEITH CUNNINGHAM gave tips on coaching talent through airchecking, telling PDs to, among other things, let the talent talk first after hearing the aircheck, look for evidence of show prep, and watch for whether the jock's tone matches the tone of the adjacent music.  He urged PDs to establish a "creative vibe" at their stations.  Fellow JACOBS staffer RALPH CIPOLLA offered his ideas on music scheduling, stressing that PDs need to "shut off the computer" and create two perfect hours of music on paper, then analyze why those hours are perfect and rebuild the station's scheduling system to match current strategy; he later returned to talk about customer service and the value of interdependence over self-centered individualism in dealing with the audience.  SAGA's STEVE GOLDSTEIN gave an abbreviated version of his "Brilliant at the Basics" programming talk, offering a laundry list of tips and information about aspects like production, promos, and teasing.

Paul Jacobs addressed how PDs and personalities can work with sales ... noting that programming and talent needs to 'embrace reality -- you're in sales' and start attending sales meetings and calls

Ratings were addressed in presentations by ARBITRON's Dr. ED COHEN, who outlined the basics of the diary system and warned programmers to be aware of "a lot of change coming next year" from the new Census, and ARBITRON's GARY MARINCE and MEDIA MONITORS' PHILLIPPE GENERALI, who talked about the ins and outs of the PPM system.

On a personal level, BILL JACOBS' presentation on "Building Your Brand" addressed the need to make show content relevant and for personalities to immerse themselves in their communities, and FRED JACOBS explained the positives and pitfalls of using social media to promote a show, noting that "your image is on the line" and warning against "overtweeting" and failing to update regularly or post compelling content.

FRED JACOBS also gave a talk on research options, incuding using e-mail databases to do audience research and forming listener advisory groups ("poor man's focus groups").  PAUL JACOBS addressed how PDs and personalities can work with sales to help the station and their careers, noting that programming and talent needs to "embrace reality -- you're in sales" and start attending sales meetings and calls, and CUNNINGHAM returned to review how radio can use video to augment and promote shows, giving examples of how radio can create original video content and drive viewing. 

A talk on the "media hierarchy" by FRED JACOBS closed the session, with a look at specific highlights of media usage data like figures showing 80% use social networking sites, 66% own an mp3 player, and over 40% listen to streaming radio.  He also reviewed changes in how people are communicating with family and friends and how they communicate with radio stations (websites, streaming, and FACEBOOK up, events and request lines down).

Afternoon Sessions: PPM, Branding, Promotions

The CONCLAVE's afternoon sessions addressed different tracks, with a Programming presentation on music scheduling and a panel on station identity and branding, a technology presentation on crowdsourcing, and a life skills presentation on sales for non-sales people.

A panel with COLEMAN INSIGHTS' WARREN KURTZMAN, PINNACLE MEDIA WORLDWIDE's BOB LAWRENCE, and RCS' PHILLIPPE GENERATI looked at how to interpret minute-by-minute PPM information, with KURTZMAN and LAWRENCE stressing the importance of balancing that information against a station's branding and GENERATI offering a MEDIA MONITORS analysis of LAKERS flagship ESPN Sports KSPN-A (710 ESPN)/LOS ANGELES and CELTICS flagship ENTERCOM Sports WEEI-A/BOSTON on the night of the LAKERS' championship victory in JUNE.

Playing a generous selection of audio samples to illustrate their points, a panel on station identity and branding offered tips on improving station promos to stress differentiation, relevance, and other aspects of a station's personality. CLEAR CHANNEL/WASHINGTON Creative Services Director DARRIN MARSHALL played a "Snowmageddon" promo that was created in response to the city's weather crisis and counseled to avoid scripting listener sweeps, suggesting instead that listeners should come to the station instead and be prompted with questions that can't be answered "yes" or "no"; consultant DAVE SHAKES suggested that a promo should be written before a promotion is formulated; and CBS RADIO/DETROIT Creative Services Director TERRY PHILLIPS spoke of the value of brevity and discussed how to deal with last-minute changes like sponsors coming aboard and prizes changing hours before a contest is scheduled to begin.

ENVISION RADIO NETWORKS' DANNO WOLKOFF gave a talk stressed the importance of learning sales skills in his talk about "The 10 Commandments Of Sales" for non-sales personnel. WOLKOFF ran down his rules for sales and how they apply to talent and programmmers, including the idea that salespeople "never stop selling" and programming people should do the same, that programming should control its own destiny by creating vehicles for sales on its own, the need for talent to accompany salespeople on sales calls, and more.

At the same time, PROMOSUITE's Promotions Summit included presentations on sales, promotion cliches, responding to community crises, and CLIFTON MEDIA-CPR's PAIGE NIENABER on developing and deploying street teams.

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