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Danno Wolkoff
September 3, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. What we can safely say is that variety is our main selling point. If the goal is that every time someone turns on your station, they'll hear the exact same type of programming and Talk show, that's not our format. We truly believe in providing information and entertainment in every hour of every day. We believe people have a variety of tastes -- and listening to the same style of programming day in and day out gets old. Listeners like the idea of changing the subject matter, so we're going in that direction
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The stretch run of the political season is slightly less than a full year away, yet Talk radio is already chock full of overheated, high-decibel partisanship - and truth be told, it's been pretty much that way for years. Envision Networks Pres./CEO Danno Wolkoff has come up with an alternative for those who are getting burned out by the daily Sturm und Drang of polarizing Talk, offering a respite called Smart Talk Radio, which features a choice of weekend programming, complete dayparts and even 24/7 programming of lifestyle information and entertainment programming. What's more, Smart Talk Radio is affordable to stations with limited signals or budgets. Here, Wolkoff presents a closer look into his new venture.
Before we get into Smart Talk Radio, a couple of background questions. First, what made you decide to leave Premiere and start your own company? Was there the proverbial "hole in the market" you wanted to serve?
Out of necessity, to be honest. I really didn't want to leave Premiere at the time it merged with MJI. They were merging sales staffs - it was a three-year process - but it finally got down to the point where they didn't want to continue having two VP/Affiliate Relations. Clearly, since I was based in Cleveland and the other VP was based in L.A., where Premiere was, the writing was on the wall. The good news is that I had a choice to make. I could've moved back to New York and worked for another network. Fortunately, I already had enough contacts and people to pitch different programs and services to. Then I had to find shows and see if they were interested in being syndicated. That's how the company got started. I wanted to make a go of it on my own and build a network.
Was there a moment or instance when you felt confident that Envision Networks was here to stay? A particularly successful show, perhaps?
Our first syndicated product started us off on the right foot -- Guest Services. The guest booking service took off because Premiere decided to eliminate theirs. I kept the team together and they kept booking guests for morning shows. It took a good six months before we started to see sales from the barter deals. Once that got running, I realized, "Wow, I can actually make a living doing this." It was the first indication of what I had was going to work. My initial goal was to try it for a year, but after nine months we were breaking even, so I never looked back. Seventeen years later, our guest booking service is still going strong.
In all honesty, building the company was not only tough back then, it's still tough today. "You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince." The fact is, we listen to every program and every service being pitched to us. If anyone called us with an idea for a show or a service, we always said, "We'd love to hear it." and we went through each one. All I can tell you is that for every 100 pitches, we'd find one needle in the haystack, something that was interesting, different or fantastic, be it a music format, specialty show on weekends or a feature that's run throughout the week.
Nowadays, though, stations are looking for complete solutions. Our biggest growth areas are daypart programming that can run throughout the week or weekend, fill an entire shift or deliver a turnkey 24/7 format. We have seen tremendous growth from operators that have limited signals, are barely breaking even or in most cases, losing money. They're happy to outsource programming, imaging and production to us, so we can create a unique brand in the market to sell and run more cost-effectively.
How much research do you do of the station's local market in how it would work for Envision Networks' programming and services?
We do look at the composition of the marketplace demographics and see what other formats are on the air, so we can figure out if there's an obvious opening for something we have already created. If there is no Rock station or Country station in the market, that's a clear sign it's okay for us to do a format variation there. It there are a lot of mainstream formats already on the air; we look more for niche programming. Our goal is to make sure the station can win despite a bad signal or without full coverage of the market by controlling the niche demo. Whether the position is Classic Country or MeTV FM for baby boomers; we have unique programming options available that can make a difference.
Is creating and offering new programming a matter of you fulfilling the audience's and your clients' tastes, or is it more you offering them something new or slightly different that they can step out on?
A little bit of each. Our main goal at Envision is to "Find the need and fill the need" for our stations. That's what we work on; we go over options and come up with solutions to whatever problems they have. Our focus is to find out what they really need. Hopefully, we have a solution. If we don't, we can create or find resolutions to fulfill what they want. While we look for what programming in a marketplace is missing, it's more important to provide answers to stations questions.
So, when and why did you see a need for a Smart Talk Radio format?
Our partner in the Smart Talk Radio Network is the GAB Network, which we have been handling their affiliate relations and ad sales. For the past six months, both networks have created new daily and weekend programs and when we finally looked at everything we were representing, we realized that neither programming lineup had any political Talk shows -- for no other reason than both companies believe there are already too many politically charged Talk shows. We happened to go another way -- entertainment and info-based shows. We looked at all of our programming and came up with a lineup that would combine the best of Envision Networks and the best of GAB for 24/7 programming. We had more than enough content to build a network; we just had to put it together to create an easy plug-and-play radio format that would offer an alternative to programmers not interested in political talk. Offering information and entertainment would make the station more exciting to its listeners.
Are you test marketing this or currently airing a Beta version?
Our flagship is WCGO-A/Chicago; we've been testing and loading up daypart programming and weekend programming, using different lineups and configurations to see what works best together. We also wanted to make sure programs uploaded to the satellite are available for live and delayed broadcasts. Literally, this is the first week we're fully operational.
There are lot of different types of Talk shows on the schedule. How do you handle the challenge of making them as cohesive as, say a Sports Talk station?
What we can safely say is that variety is our main selling point. If the goal is that every time someone turns on your station, they'll hear the exact same type of programming and Talk show, that's not our format. We truly believe in providing information and entertainment in every hour of every day. We believe people have a variety of tastes -- and listening to the same style of programming day in and day out gets old. Listeners like the idea of changing the subject matter, so we're going in that direction.
Since we started this, in the last month or two, our revenue has increased dramatically in several categories, including auto and financial. We have two animal lover programs that bring in the pet care business and Barbecue Nation attracts cooking advertisers. When you think of all the categories radio sales can go after in terms of local advertisers, they'll see a big benefit.
What if some of these shows are already being aired on other stations in the same market?
If something is cleared in a market, we certainly won't double-clear it. Smart Talk Radio affiliates would have their pick of alternate programs to broadcast as replacements. We have the ability to insert other programming that's not being aired in that market.
How do you and the stations plan on marketing this - by each particular show or the format as a whole? TV spots ... billboards ... social media ... or just in-house cross-promotions?
If a station really wants to make a splash and get recognized, the best, most cost-effective plan is to do billboards or vehicle wraps. But again, we understand that a lot of stations don't even have budgets for that; we assume they have no budgets. Our goal is to do a lot through social media. All our hosts and programs have social media channels to promote the affiliates and we can create local video ads to use in these outlets.
Will there be a lot of cross-promoting on-air, even if one show's topics has nothing to do with the other?
That's a tricky situation for us because we know that no matter what we do, there will always be some local programming on our affiliates. We have the technology and ability to run imaging, liners and promos for each station and customize show promos for them as well. But if the stations are carrying 24/7 programming from our satellite feed, we won't do cross-promotion of our programs. For instance, our host from Around The House will not promote "Our Auto Expert, coming up next." We're going to do that in between segments so we can control the tease of what is being talked up.
Just how potent is the "no politics talk" angle for this format? Have you seen research indicating a strong political burnout?
First and foremost, Smart Talk Radio's information and entertainment stations should use the brand and stick with the brand in promoting their stations. They should emphasize the fact that everything they do - all programming --- is information or entertainment-based. We also want people to understand that if they tune into these stations, they won't be bombarded with angry political talk.
You've already set up your schedule. Have you set up any time limits to see how this particular schedule goes before you decide to tweak it or rearrange the shows?
Part of it goes with the delivery system. We're satellite delivered, which allows stations to take the programming live or delay broadcast it. While we have a fixed schedule when programs are fed online, whether stations want to carry live or not is a different story, since the programming can be flexible for stations interested in only certain parts of the programming lineup. Most of it will be based on advertisers' need. Stations might delay broadcast a show to serve a new advertiser category.
Do you have a certain time when you'll judge how the shows are doing and are still worthy of being part of the Network?
I don't think so. Each show can and will stand on its own. It doesn't matter if it's a daily daypart or weekend show; we're already programming to 100-plus affiliates and we technically launched just a couple weeks ago. The complete weekend lineup is in place with over 250 stations. These stations might not be running all our programming, but some aspect of Smart Talk Radio is being broadcast on at least 250 stations.
Finally, how important is it for you to push the envelope in Talk and syndicated programming?
We wouldn't do this if we didn't feel it was important. We're not making a statement of "no more politics;" we just believe there should be an alternative for people to listen to for a part of the work day and throughout the weekend. You should be able to turn on the radio and enjoy something informational or entertaining -- and not listen to the "same old, same old." We're trying to give stations a fresh and original alternative to running "best of" shows from their daily hosts. So, we're giving operators options with 29 different program offerings on the Smart Talk Radio Network.
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