"It's not what you say, it's what they hear." — Red Auerbach

Have you ever noticed that some on-air personalities, while they may be completely professional, are somewhat boring by themselves? But the minute someone else walks into the studio, they seem to come alive and get much better. Some personalities seem more talented when they are performing live in front of an audience. Others are funnier, sharper, and more creative by themselves. It turns out that talent usually falls into one of two categories: generators or reactors.

In order to coach talent effectively, it helps to identify the talent’s strengths and natural abilities. Sometimes that can be achieved by clearly defining the talent’s roles. Consultant Dan Vallie advises, “There must be an anchor or director, a creative chief, a producer, etc.” But before you define the role, knowing the type of performers you are working with lets you guide them toward their maximum performance. The programmer is then able to design powerful radio by making the shoe fit the foot, instead of trying to do it the other way around.

What Is a Generator?

The natural skill of a generator means that he or she can easily work alone or as part of a team. A generative talent can easily visualize original ideas. (These ideas are not always good or usable ideas, but generators do tend to come up with a lot of them.) A generator has a strong, independent imagination. The generator comes up with a myriad of topics, undaunted by the blank page. True generators are rare. Generators can be the “life of the party.” Something interesting happens when a true generator enters the room.

What Is a Reactor?

Reactors are also creative individuals. A reactive talent takes existing ideas and comes up with numerous ways to make them better or more workable.

No less talented than a generator, the reactor nonetheless has a very different style. A reactor alone faces the blank page with terror. However, the moment a reactor comes in contact with a generator, he or she can instantly and very cleverly pick up on remarks, comments, or nuances and be very funny.

A reactor is usually the one who responds to just about any stimulus with an insightful or witty remark. Reactors can have a lot of fun talking back to their TV sets and radios.

If you’ve ever listened to a talk show that seemed to have a slow start, but then picked up after the interview or calls began, you were likely listening to a reactive talent. The minute the host can “react” off of the callers or interview guest, generating for him or her, the show comes alive.

Many stand-up comedians are reactors. Although they might seem to be generative, after all, they’re standing up doing a monologue in front of a live audience. In reality, if you put those people in a studio, alone in a room, without that live audience generating for them, they may be less colorful. Reactors work best with other people in the room to spark their creative energy.

Both types of talent are valuable and good, but the right casting here is the key. Forcing a reactor to carry the show as a generator doesn’t work, and forcing a strong generator into an equal or subordinate partnership with another generative talent can lead to an almost painful on-air clash. The trick is to identify each person’s specific strengths and then to encourage the person to develop those strengths.

Putting two generators together as co-hosts or as a team can sometimes be a disaster. They tend to battle for the microphone, seldom listen to each other, and compete for attention. The show sounds like two kids fighting at the dinner table. It is hard to listen for very long.

Putting two reactors together is not much better. The audience hears them casting a net for ideas over and over again. The process is dull, and, if nothing swims into the net, the show becomes weak and boring.

Electric connection with the audience happens when you have a balance of both elements.

How Do You Tell the Difference between a Reactor and a Generator?

It's fairly simple. Generators have a lot of ideas and energy. They take huge risks and worry about it later. They have moments of brilliance. They sit alone in a room, and their minds overflow with ideas. That is not to say that every idea a generator produces is a perfectly conceived show, but consistently they seem to be practically exploding with new material.

If you are looking at a reactive talent, you will notice that he or she is quick with a story, a memory, an imitation or a line for any topic you could give him or her. But you must lead the reactor by giving that first push, that suggestion, or a good opening. Leave the reactor alone in a room with no external catalyst for the show, and he or she is miserable. Reactors may do brilliant interviews, or pick things out of the newspaper that are unique, but they need some kind of initial stimulus to begin the process.Reactors often come alive in a room full of people. But again, you probably have a reactor on the air if he or she is dull until the news person shows up or until the calls begin.

Generators are scarce. Most people are reactors. It is a little like being left- or right-handed. One is no better than the other. If absolutely necessary, right-handed people can adapt to use their left hands, and vice versa. You can certainly force people to improve in the area where they are weaker, but in most circumstances it is best for the station to take advantage of their natural inclinations.

A Cast of Dozens

You might think it takes a generator to host a morning show. That is not always the case. One reactor, “Casey,” found a cast of generators in his listening audience. “Rita” owned and operated a local beauty salon. She was also Casey’s loyal fan and listener. Rita started calling in on a semi-regular basis to chat about hot movies and goings on around town. She was funny and charming and had unique views. Rita became a regular on the show. The listeners started calling in wanting to meet Rita. She participated at station events and appearances.

Next, Casey added another regular listener, a talkative cab driver. Then he found a local construction guy with fix-it tips, who also happened to be 27-years-old, dating regularly, and happy to talk about his weekend adventures.

Using interactive media, Casey continues to add appropriate players as they appear. He now has a winning show with lots of generators to show off his reactive talents. He assembled his own generator-reactor team.

If you're an on air personality, it helps to know your own strength. Are you a generator or a reactor? And if you are a manager or programmer, it is your job to identify each person’s specific strengths and then encourage each one to develop those strengths. Once you know who your generators and reactors are, you can get onto the business of creating powerful radio.

Labels: Beyond Powerful Communications, Coaching, Consulting, Generators, Radio, Reactors, Talent, Valerie Geller

The old adage says, "Fish where the fish are." Pretty self-explanatory -- if the people you want to reach are somewhere, be where they are and don't wander off in another direction. With that in mind, it's mind-boggling that radio people still aren't acknowledging the draw of Internet radio streaming and not seeing the potential to reach listeners there. In a study that Parks Associates did recently for TargetSpot called Digital Audio Usage Trends: A Highly Engaged Listenership, the research company concluded that digital audio listening has indeed reached critical mass, with 39% of all broadband-equipped American households using Internet radio... though it's important to note that Parks included online simulcasts of terrestrial stations as part of their "Internet radio" figures. Online streaming mirrors broadcast radio usage, with around 80% of respondents consuming 1-7 hours of radio -- both Internet-based and online streams of broadcast stations -- daily on their laptops, desktops and tablets; the only device where online beat transmitter was via smartphones, which topped out at 84%. One bright spot in these figures was that 66% of Internet radio users actually listened to the same amount of -- or more broadcast radio as a result of streaming.

Here's where the money kicks in, so get your salespeople to read this next part: Listeners' ad-response rate was great for Internet radio, with 52% recalling seeing or hearing an ad online, and 40% actually responded to the commercial. Plus, Parks reports that "combining Internet radio with broadcast radio advertising boosts broadcast ad recall and increases response by 3.5 times over broadcast-only rates." Translation: If you're wasting your online stopsets, you're losing valuable revenue that can be used to reinforce your over-the-air spots. It's worth your while to check out the full report and to rally your troops to fish where the fish are -- because smartphones and Internet streaming aren't disappearing.

Labels: Internet, Market Research, Parks Associates, Radio, RAMP, streaming, TargetSpot, web trend

AllAccess: Your new book "Beyond Powerful Radio - A Communicator's Guide to the Internet Age" is now available -- what's new compared to the previous (and still available) "Creating Powerful Radio?" What, and who, is the new book for?

Valerie's reply: Beyond Powerful Radio is for anyone trying to navigate and become a more powerful communicator in the digital age...It's meant to be for a diverse audience of working broadcasters, both managers and talent, and people aspiring to do creative work, manage creative people or market content in any platform.

AllAccess: Speaking of Internet content, are there similarities in producing talk audio content for podcasts or streaming as opposed to broadcast?

Valerie's reply: Powerful, relevant content always wins the day. Good storytelling always works and it applies in any medium. What the internet gives you is the ability to enhance your storytelling by working with the visual component to integrate still images and video with lengthier print pieces with your audio stream or podcast. The internet also offers a new component, but it's not new to talk radio - that's the constant conversation with your audience.

To master the digital world:

1) Adhere to the principles of powerful storytelling.

2) Entertain and inform whether it is live or on-demand.

3) Keep in mind that shows that are downloaded may not be heard right away.

4) Conversely, you should also expect that when there's news of an immediate nature, or a big break in a story, people will still go to their radios, TVs, and computers with the expectation that you will give them the most immediate up-to-the moment information.

Labels: books, Creating Powerful Radio, John Parikhal, Radio, Valerie Geller

Media Mix translates to adding more and different ad media. Adding more ad media increases reach. Increasing reach increases advertising's cost. And overspending on reach media at the expense of driving commercial messages home re-peat-ed-ly represents the biggest mistake in advertising today.

Witness: Whereas Procter & Gamble can afford reach, effective reach, and frequency, even with its $8 billion global ad budget, P&G can not afford "effective frequency” without radio. Inasmuch as radio is advertising's primary frequency medium, Media Mix campaigns need radio!

With advertisers becoming increasingly aware of the importance of Media Mix in all size markets, radio's obvious imperative is to get included in as many Media Mix campaigns as possible. Growth money!...

A proactive, radio-driven Media Mix campaign might include a spot radio schedule, promotions, and/or big event sponsorships, texting and Twitter, website tie-ins linked to prospects' websites, direct mail to your listener database, point-of-purchase merchandising, and partnering with outdoor to help advertisers reach those active Lifestyle consumers when they’re out shopping.

HOW TO SELL MEDIA MIX

1. Target the largest non-radio national/regional/local advertisers who can afford Media Mix.
2. Ask direct non-radio advertisers and media planners if they're open to learning about a new breakthrough approach for media planning.
3. Teach the concept of Media Mix advertising (see below to qualify which ad media apply).
4. Sell ideas and solutions to make that happen.

Labels: Ad dollars, Advertising, Media Mix, Radio, Radio Ink, Selling

Labels: 2010, design, Radio, TED.com

"The biggest killer of all will be current management, unless they: Stop dancing to Wall Street's whip, institute formal training and recruitment, start surrounding themselves with smart people who challenge them, create cultures of formal innovation and begin to get serious about spot loads. Radio can control this. They can't control [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs, the Internet or any other of the so-called "killers" of the medium."

"This was all predictable, long before the current economic crisis," he says. "You could see it coming, yet irresponsible people — who didn’t want to invest the necessary time and money — caused terrible pain for so many in the industry."

Labels: Future, John Parikhal, Predictions, Radio, Steve Rivers

Two Things Before You Even Start

• Get rid of all Czars. They screwed up everything in Russia and exploited the people. So, why do we put Czars in charge and expect things to get better?

Why don't we think about stuff like this? We don't question words, even when they don’t make sense.

If we are going to fix radio, we have to think more. Which means the first step is...

• Stop lying to yourself. Things are bad. The top people in radio made a lot of mistakes. You can’t take true action till you are honest with yourself. Things can get better – but not if you don't face the truth. It’s like the 12 step program. Start with honesty.

Describe your 'current reality' – honestly. The tension between 'current reality' and what you want to create (your Outcome Statement) is what creates action.

Then, if you still want to take action, use 3 Tools.

Three Tools for Being Proactive Around Growth

• Use Strategic Thinking. This is the most powerful strategic tool in business. Create an Outcome Statement – what 'outcome' do you want to create? Once you have identified what you want to create, identify what you have to 'do differently' to get there. Start making the changes.

• Use a '90 Days' summary. Work with your direct reports and, for each of them agree on what they have to do in the next 90 days.

And, demand that your boss meet with you (in person or on the phone) every 90 days to determine what you have to get done in the next 90 days.

This is the best get-it-scheduled-and-done tool in the business. It worked for Lee Iacocca.

• Practice Listenomics. Get rid of all Czars and be like Lego and Nokia. Empower your fans. Don’t try to control them. Listen to the conversation. More details at gomediafix.com.

The Most Important Thing To Do On-Air

• Focus on what's immediately relevant. Relevant is more important than local. Even though local is important, it is a subset of immediate – not the other way around.

Get rid of all the Czars – the same ones who said HD was the next big thing. The same ones who say the only future is local. They are playing follow-the-leader.

The Litmus Test

• Sell a 20 year old on working in radio. Write a speech to persuade them to come into the radio business. Think your speech through. Write it down. Try it out. Be honest.

If you can't persuade them, ask the 20 year old - 'What would have to change in order for me to be able to encourage you to work in radio?'

Next, ask yourself – 'What would I want to change in radio to make it more attractive to a 20 year old?'

Then, look at your answers and theirs - and set to work immediately on influencing the necessary changes. One step at a time. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Labels: 2009, Future, John Parikhal, Listenomics, NAB, Radio

Labels: Effectiveness, Effies, Mercury Awards, Radio, ROI

Labels: Alexa, Canada, Online, Radio, Top 20, web traffic

Labels: Change, Drucker, Future, growth, Leadership, management, NAB, Radio, Thinking

"Internet companies are checking out the customer six ways to Sunday. But radio will tell you they don't have the money to research their customer. I truly think we’re at the tipping point, because for any business, you have to know who your customers are.

For radio, it's 5 different customers:

#1 - Wall Street or another 'lender'.

#2 – The advertiser. And radio should focus a lot more on the advertiser, because it has given them very short shrift. The more innovative companies are trying to become the digital and media marketing experts for the local guy, to help them move more product. Their competition is Craigslist and emerging online city directories.

#3 - The FCC, and I sense that radio will be hearing from them within a year.

#4 - The employees. With a few notable exceptions, they have been treated the way no customer should ever be treated. This whirlwind of firings and layoffs has nothing to do with performance, and the message it sends is very negative. People are now very, very wary about making radio a career.

#5 - The listener. But radio thinks 'all we have to do is keep the listeners we’ve got.' That’s a fool's game. You have to grow the pie, and to do that, you need to know more about your listener than their favorite songs or that they like sports on the radio. The listener doesn't care that radio is in a recession and won't invest in understanding their changing needs."

Labels: Customers, John Parikhal, Media Trend Watching, Radio, Radio-Info, Tom Taylor

Labels: April 1, April Fool's Day, Google, Hijinx, Pranks, Radio, Stunt, Top 100

A few days ago, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs casually remarked that he didn’t own a radio ... which immediately opened up a whole world of promotional opportunities for certain enterprising radio types who generously wanted to help remedy Gibbs’ dire situation — with full brass-band press coverage, of course.

Yesterday afternoon, it was WIHT (Hot 99.5)/Washington morning personality Kane to the rescue! With the help of Clear Channel Communications Queen Lisa Dollinger, Kane organized a motorcade to the White House to personally deliver to Gibbs an assortment of gadgets and doohickeys that pick up radio signals, including an iPod with radio adapter, HD Radio and Clear Channel’s iheartradio app for the iPhone. Before the motorcade departed, Kane explained his bold actions: “Radio played a crucial role in getting Mr. Gibbs his current job. The Obama campaign outspent all others on radio and ran more ads than any other campaign. And while we realize that government salaries don’t always match those in the private sector, Clear Channel Radio believes that’s no reason to be without the most ubiquitous form of media in the country.”

Kane was one of several alert media types, including Ann Compton of ABC Radio News and WTOP/Washington’s Mark Plotkin, who were able to evade the Secret Service long enough to deliver their radios to Gibbs.

Labels: Barack, community, Connection, Hot 99.5, Kane, Obama, Opportunity, Radio, Robert Gibbs, White House

"The other day, I was in the studio, talking to my afternoon jock Chris Davis, when a listener called to tell him about a bad accident that would be sure to snarl traffic for the afternoon commute. They had a brief conversation, and Chris quickly edited and aired it within five minutes. We may take that brief listener interaction for granted, but it is truly unique when compared to competing media.

A few quick thoughts: 1) We already have a relationship with that listener. They thought to call us about the accident. 2) It was that human-to-human interaction that helped create the relationship. 3) There’s an immediacy in which the information was relayed to other listeners, setting the foundation for and/or furthering other relationships. 4) Central Ohio listeners trust in WNCI.

Later, in my office, I wanted to see if my iPod had anything to say about relationship-building, but it just stared blankly back at me. I wanted to talk to someone at Sirius XM about it, but I’m fairly sure they have no idea where '23 & Home Road' is. I then Googled 'human-to-human interaction', but all I got were porn sites...."

Labels: Customer satisfaction, fans, Interactivity, Listening, Local, Radio, Response, StreetTalk

Labels: Paul Harvey, Radio, rest of the story

According to the annual Foundation Research study of 1,012 Canadians, radio reaches 90% of adults 18+ every week. Lifestyle plays a big role in radio’s performance - the more active you are the more radio you listen to; working Canadians, parents and the affluent are all above average in terms of radio tuning with weekly reach of 94% or better.

"Radio plays an integral part in everyday life; it accompanies every activity, from driving and working to surfing online. No other single media can match radio for its versatility, audience characteristics and its unique ability to reach consumers anytime, anywhere." -- Chris Bandak of Foundation Research.

· 81% of adults listen to radio daily, second only to TV in reach potential. The percentage listening increases to 84% or more for working adults, wealthy Canadians and women with children.

· For 83% of adults, radio use in 2008 increased or stayed the same as the previous year; that percentage is equal to the internet and higher than newspapers (79%) and TV (76%).

· Adults spend more time with radio than any other media during a typical work day. They listen to traditional radio an average of 125 minutes and online radio for 34 minutes. Radio’s total of 159 minutes is 23% more than TV and approximately double that of the Internet.

· Radio accompanies Canadians throughout their busy day. 70% of Canadians listen to radio on the drive to work, school or shopping; Radio ranks highest of all media reaching consumers prior to a shopping occasion; 36% listen to radio while surfing the internet

Labels: Radio, Radio Marketing Bureau, Self-Esteem, Stuart Smalley

The necessary steps the radio industry should take to ensure the future growth and viability of the business begins with low-hanging fruit: cheap and easy ways for radio to make more money.

1. Dump bad initiatives and start good ones: HD is DOA. Spend your time and energy tapping everyone except the most senior executives, who seem to spend too much time with each other and not enough in the trenches. Stop surrounding yourselves with `suck-ups' who agree with bad ideas because they are afraid for their jobs.
2. Push hard for a 30-59 demo buy: For decades, radio has been driven by advertiser's demands for 25-54. It's so out of date. Get modern. Already, 16 million Baby Boomers are 55-59. They spend billions and radio ignores them. In the next four years, another 16 million will be 55-59. Meanwhile, 25-29 year-olds are less interested in radio than ever. Get real. And, if I hear `we can't tell advertisers what to do'- stop acting like a victim.
3. Encode song ID: A simple, inexpensive fix. Make sure that when you play a song, the title shows up on car radios. iPod does it. Satellite does it. But some stations won't spend the money, even though 50% of radio listeners want to know the titles each time they are played.
4. Tap into your 2.0 employees: Get serious about innovation. It's usually `bottom up'. Radio has proven you can't do it top down. The best ideas come from those closest to the customer. Put a process in place to listen to your employees who actually interact with your listeners and advertisers.
5. Advertise: Stop acting like poverty stricken corner stores who cut their ad budgets when sales are down. Act like serious players. Let people know what you're doing, what's new and why you matter. You have to spend the money! Build it into the budget and don't cut it if times get a bit tough. Yes, it's a financial crisis now. If you plan to be here in three years, you have to act like it now or you won't be here in three years.
6. Learn about your customers: Do you know that fewer than 4% of your listeners ever text a radio station? Do you know that almost 25% of those who go to a station Web site are also listening to at least one other Internet-only station too? You learn this by researching your customers. I do a lot of market research for clients ranging from radio to Internet companies. The reason for the market research is because I learned 40 years ago that if you take your eye off the customer, they take their eye (and ear) off you.
7. Get serious about your Web site: Update at least every day. Optimize search. Make it easy to find the `listen' button. Include a phone number in your `contact us' information. Post lots of photos. Do usability testing.
8. Adapt to the new world: Drop the clichéd slogans and connect with the real world. Accept that 30+ listeners are the future for at least another 5-10 years and figure out how to make them really happy with you.

Leaders today have to find broadcasters who want to encourage younger people to come into the industry. Decide if you plan to be in business in three years. If you do, then stop getting rid of your intellectual capital like human beings who actually come up with the ideas and do the work. Without fresh blood, the industry will become almost completely networked and syndicated. At that point, it's nothing more than a transmitter business. Like the oil pipeline business instead of the business of finding oil.

Labels: 2009, Parikhal, Radio, trends, Year-end

Labels: Being digital, Business, Chris Kennedy, Digital, Digital life, Joint Communications, Jointblog, Media Trend Watching, Parikhal, Radio, Transitions, trends

Labels: 2007, Consumers, Future of Radio, Joint Communications, Media, Media trending, Predictions, Radio, Revenue, Usage, VSS

Labels: Chris Kennedy, Future, Future of Radio, John Parikhal, Joint Communications, Jointblog, Media, Media Trend Watching, Radio, Strategy