Andy Meadows

Texas based radio consultant and author Andy Meadows has been in radio for literally his entire life. He grew up in a small market radio station his family owned in the Texas Hill Country. Recently, Meadows spent sixteen years at LKCM Radio Group in Fort Worth, the final thirteen as the group’s OM, growing some of the highest digital stats in the country. He’s published two radio eBooks, “From Broadcast to Podcast: Applying Radio Rules to Podcasting” and “7 Habits of High Performing Radio Personalities.” 

Andy’s the CEO and Founder of Playlist FM, the creator of Solo Show Prep, an on-air talent coach with Tracy Johnson Media Group and he consults a handful of his own clients on programming, digital, operations and sales. He also publishes a weekly free blog on his consulting website www.radiostationconsultant.com and hosts Radio Station Consultant the Podcast.

You had the good fortune to basically grow up in a radio station. Describe what that was like and how it set the career path that you’re still following?

I grew up in a small market station my family owned, where out of necessity we had to do everything ourselves, so I was able to get hands on experience in every aspect of radio. But, my father, who ran the station had also been in radio since he was eighteen, as a programmer and on-air talent in all size markets, so I also got to see how well it worked to apply big market tips and tricks to a small market.

You’re not that far removed from a 16-year run at LKCM Radio Group in Fort Worth, where you turned in some very impressive digital stats. What do you say to broadcasters who still shy away from that side of our business?

When done right, digital does not detract from terrestrial, it greatly enhances it. Pushing longer form benchmarks, features and interviews to websites, social pages, and podcasts as exclusive content protects the mass appeal quality of terrestrial while giving die-hard fans a reason to jump to other platforms. Plus, ahead of time social media gives us a great outlet to set listener appointments.

Why did you want to open your own consultancy?

It sounds corny, but I love the radio industry. However, I think we have a short window to shift our business models to better attract listeners whose habits are rapidly changing and advertisers who are quickly souring on old media.

What makes you and your company unique and stand out?

We offer a lead by example approach. We coach talent and managers, but we also provide turn-key programming, promotions and digital content and give our clients a look behind the curtain to see exactly how we created all of it. Our services are all customized and scaled to help meet that specific group’s needs. So, we can do as much or as little as necessary. Plus, we work with all departments.

You’re out there with Radio Station Consultant, The Podcast. What’s it been like for you to jump into that end of the pool?

I’m a huge advocate for broadcasters’ podcasting. That’s part of the reason I wrote my ‘From Broadcast to Podcast’ eBook last year. Podcasting is not a fad, listenership is through the roof, podcast ad sales are growing every quarter, and nobody is better equipped to podcast than a trained broadcast professional.

You are also a very proficient Blogger. So many things are extensions of our brands, including blogging—what do you like to write about most?

Anything that connects with radio people and gets them to comment or email me with some of their old broadcasting stories. This is a real tight nit industry, and we all share the same kinds of experiences and challenges regardless of market size or geographic location. The scale is larger in a major market of course, but you also typically have more resources available to help you. Right now some of the greatest innovations I’m seeing are from independently owned groups in medium and small markets and most of my blogs are inspired by things I’m having success with or seeing others have success with.

Speaking of writing, you’ve produced two eBooks:  “From Broadcast to Podcast: Applying Radio Rules to Podcasting” and “7 Habits of High Performing Radio Personalities.” What was the impetus to go down that road?

I wrote ‘From Broadcast to Podcasting’ to encourage radio people to embrace podcasting because I still saw a lot of hesitancy to do so. The first eBook, 7 Habits of High Performing Radio Personalities, which wouldn’t have been possible without help from Tracy Johnson, is simply about how I’d noticed that most of the successful on-air talent I’d known, or worked with, over the years had several things in common behind the scenes.

You’re also the man behind Playlist FM—what formats are you covering and how does it work?

Our initial formats are country (New Country), hits (Hot AC/CHR), rock (Active Rock), and hip hop (Urban). However, since I already program additional formats like classic hits, oldies, alt-country and classic country, we’re going to start collecting data on those as well when we launch on 4/5 with an eye toward rolling those into the fold later. On top of that we provide each affiliate with tons of digital content that’s tailored to each platform. We use network prizes, and any local prizes they sell, to encourage listeners to give us music feedback which we use to localize our programming for that specific market. We’re not trying to break a bunch of songs, we’re simply using global data we track, and regional and local data we collect, to identify which songs truly are breaking. 90 to 95% of what we play current-wise will be the same as most stations, but that 5-10% we identify that stations are missing on is a big deal because those are heavy-rotation categories.

Solo Show Prep is another creation of yours. Why is this “not just another show prep service?”

It’s made specifically for midday/afternoon/evening solo shows. Plus, we provide the teases, hooks and potential outs that are all scripted to where they could be read verbatim. We also include one daily DIY feature and a contest. Then, it’s all turned into two blogs they can copy/paste onto their website along with a graphic to load on the web/social.

As someone who is a professional advisor, what’s an example of great advice that you’ve received professionally?

Wrap your critiques in compliments. I worked with a lot of great consultants in my career, Scott Mahalick, Rusty Walker, Howard Kroeger and Tracy Johnson, who taught me the art of wording things in a way where they’re received better. Because of the head start I got from growing up in a station I started my career seeing what needed to be done. But, over the years working with those talented consultants, I went from being able to simply identify a problem, to becoming a coach who can work with and motivate any kind of personality type to address that problem.

The pandemic has turned every business model upside down. What are some of the things that are here to stay as far as broadcasting businesses go in a post-COVID world?

The shift to remote working will remain, although certainly not at peak pandemic levels, so that will continue to effect commuting and should make us all evaluate our content placement and break times. Overall COVIS acted as an accelerant for change that was going to happen anyway over the next few years. The modern radio listener wants their favorite local radio content available on every platform they’re on in a way that fits that platform so it’s easy to consume.