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Insanity
June 30, 2022
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According to history, it was Albert Einstein who said the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s something we’ve addressed “over and over” again, not only in this particular column, but in the broadcast industry in general. Too often, the same “seasoned” and “usual suspect” managers are still the only ones with the ability to make actual decisions when it comes to hiring, strategy, spending and decision making in general, when it comes to our radio brands. Sadly, they are so far removed from the day-to-day business of radio, think their old school strategies are still appropriate and have no actual ability to relate to the growing audience we need to keep the business alive. This has had a serious impact on the progress of the broadcast and audio business and made us not only stagnant as an industry but threatens the very relevance of traditional radio among anyone under the age of fifty.
The bottom line is, the people in charge are “Insane,” according to the definition from Einstein. They keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, and we as an industry experience Déjà vu every time it happens. We’ve seen it repeatedly in major markets, medium markets and small. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that “hypothetically,” a station in your market has just re-branded, hired all new talent and made an attempt to go after their direct competitor with a dominant signal for the third (or fourth) time in the last 8 years. Basically, every few years, when the strategy doesn’t work, they re-brand with the same plan of attack and pray it moves the needle next time.
Now, let’s say “hypothetically,” the station’s goal is to try and drive a lane in between a CHR station in the market, the Dominant Hot AC, and the Dominant AC station. Almost impossible, right? That’s like trying to drive in the middle of the lane, but really your centered over the yellow line because there’s no room, and at some point, it’s going to end badly. There is no room for another lane in a market that is already overcrowded with music stations targeting Adults 25-54.
Let’s also say that “hypothetically,” the station has been doing nothing but bashing the dominant station in the market with negative imaging, using the usual “all they do is talk,” “all they do is play commercials,” bla bla bla. The goal was to have their station sound like a JACK station while positioning themselves as the station who played the most music. The one thing they did have going for them was, they did have long music sweeps and occasionally TSL worked in their favor. However, it was never enough to keep the ratings consistent and honestly did nothing but give its direct competition thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of free advertisement. (As old as this strategy is, I have YET to see it work).
So, let’s also say that “hypothetically,” with the re-launch of the station, the new imaging and presentation had a laid-back JACK delivery, while the music sometimes crossed over to Pop and even Rhythm CHR (to squeeze into a lane that potentially doesn’t exist). There is little to no flow, the segues were loose, and each individual song was its own entity which is much worse than even having just individual day parts be their own entities. It’s sometimes uncomfortable to listen to.
Now, one more “hypothetical” I promise. And this is the one thing they have going for them. Let’s say that the re-brand was moved to a station in the cluster with a much better signal. Basically, they swapped frequencies with one of their top performing brands in the cluster. So, you think, “Well, there’s the win.” However, lets talk about what is now at stake here:
To sum it up, because there has been a long-term goal of trying to take down one station in particular, the cluster has once again blown up not one, but two signals this time and launched an okay product to try and move the needle again. Think about it. They had the #1 station in the market for years in a format that screams loyalty and revenue, and a decent showing with the weaker signal in the Hot AC world with a few years under the belt. Combine that with their other signal in the cluster which has consistently maintained Top 3 in rank with Adults 25-54 for several years now and that’s pretty good coin depending on the sales department.
But now you have confused two sets of loyal listeners (who have multiple options already) looking for their stations and music on the dial, and now both brands have to start all over again. Sounds like a PPM nightmare to me. In addition, the new brand now has brand new talent on the station, and they are all starting from scratch on a station that doesn’t really have a clear path. We all know you can’t be all things to all people in the broadcast business.
A move of this caliber is going to take more than patience and “Insanity” for this to turn into a winning strategy. It’s going to take a lot of time, marketing dollars, talent coaching, and some serious PPM JuJu to see significant results. As I mentioned, we’ve seen this situation happen repeatedly in other markets and I have to believe there’s a better strategy. Based on the history of the industry, the last thing we need is another “Insanity” plan executed by “the usual suspect,” just with a different name, on the same station, who will also expect different results. Hence the need to call attention to the definition of “Insanity.”
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