I will be the first to admit that there is nothing genius in here – for the most part, all these pillars are common sense, but that doesn’t make them any less important! And as stated above, I have changed these pillars many times throughout the years, rotating different ones in and out bur for the most part they have expressed the same things. So with all that being said, here we go…..

1. The Right Music – An obvious one, of course, but it needs to be said that if the music isn’t targeted towards your core listening audience then nothing else on this list will matter.

2. The Best Talent – This is NOT an area to skimp on. There’s a reason why certain talent demands big dollars. Because they’re worth it. The whole “you get what you pay for” thing. Back when Mel Karmazin ran CBS/Infinity radio he responded to those who questioned him about paying Howard Stern, Don Imus and others so much. Mel responded by saying something to the effect of, “you’re looking at it wrong – it’s not about how much I’m paying them, it’s about how much they’re MAKING for me.” Nuff said.

3. Unique, Compelling, Exclusive – The “Holy Trinity” of content creation, ESPECIALLY these days where there are unlimited choices for consumers. Any content that you create for your channel, station or platform should have these three elements – uniqueness, compelling-ness (to coin a word) and exclusivity. Sirius and XM got into a bidding war for content because they each wanted content that was unique, compelling and most of all, exclusive. The ONLY place to get Howard Stern was on Sirius; the ONLY place to get Oprah and Friends on radio was XM, they each competed for exclusive sports rights and so on.

4. Think Strategically, Act Tactically – Every station should have its own strategic plan, which simply put is a document that identifies what the overall plan for the station is. Like I said, simple. At its essence, the plan identifies what the station’s three (or so) key elements are. These three elements are the key positions that the radio station is trying to own. Once those are articulated, EVERYTHING that is done on the station has to support one of those key elements – whether it’s imaging, DJ talk, events, promotions and everything else. Once that’s in place, the tactical plan is created. The tactical plan is the document where all of the station tactics are articulated – each of these tactics should support the strategic plan. Sounds simple, and it is. But it’s surprising how many times it’s not done.

5. Specialty Programming – This is an extension of the point above, as specialty programming is a tactic that is deployed in order to carry out the strategic plan. However, it is a pretty important tactic and therefore gets its own number. It is critical for a few reasons, the first of which is that because whatever it is that is created will (hopefully) be good programming for the radio station. . Secondly, the promotion value of the show can’t be overestimated. The specialty program is something specific for your station to promote across dayparts, on the website, in e-mails to the database or elsewhere. Instead of saying, “hey, listen to our radio station ‘cause it’s great…” if there is a specific specialty show to promote the message becomes, “Listen to ‘Most Wanted with Ben Jones’ every night at 7…” (An actual show on Virgin Radio U.K.). And this becomes even more important when promoting across a platform, say like a satellite radio platform.

6. Promote, Promote, Cross-Promote – This ties in with the item above – Promotion is everything. Across dayparts, across channels (in a multi-channel environment), on the website, in e-mail blasts, in outside advertising, wherever, whenever. Promote specific things – shows, jocks, events, contests, whatever. Just promote it.

7. You Have Left the Box – (Think and Re-Think Everything) – You know that proverbial box you’re always hearing about? Not to be cliché about it, but really, take a look at everything you’re doing with a fresh perspective. Don’t necessarily throw out the rulebook (cause there ARE some really useful ‘rules’ that have been established), but re-evaluate EVERYTHING. Look at everything you do and your reasoning behind doing it with a fresh set of goggles. What do you see now? The landscape has changed drastically over the last few years and is still evolving. Make sure you are adapting.

8. It’s More than the Music – Okay, if you’re a music station the music is obviously super important (see #1). But don’t stop there. If you do you’re dead. What does your station do that is SO compelling that someone would rather listen to that rather than their iPod? Are your jocks compelling? Are they babbling idiots or do they have something to say? Do they relate to your audience?

9. Make it a Production – The importance of great production, or imaging, can’t be overstated. At its best, great imaging can go a looong way to communicating to listeners what your radio station is all about. It can convey the brand essence of your station in a way that is creative, exciting and pleasing to the ear rather than seeming intrusive to your audience. At its worst it is annoying, intrusive and sounds like a commercial. Be on the right side of that divide. Make it cool. Make it in tune with the brand essence. Make it fit with the strategic plan. And make it short – you know, attention spans and all.

10. Events – Another ‘more than the music’ element that is critical to the success of a station is events. Partner with cool existing events. Create your own events – be creative, think BIG, be unique. And make sure the event is a good strategic fit for your station. And then of course, promote it! The promotional value of events can’t be overstated – again, it is something specific to promote – and gives all listeners a sense of the ‘bigness’ of all that’s happening on the station/platform. Even if they’re not interested in that specific event, they’ll take note of it.

11. Artist Involvement – Get the Artists involved – through interviews, performances, endorsements, guest DJ slots, hosting a show or other creative ways. This is another area that people can’t get elsewhere – on their iPods or their customized Internet radio channel. The only place that can deliver the artists directly to the people is your radio station! You have to build the relationships with the artists, managers, record people, roadies, whomever; it is imperative that your station delivers the artists to the listeners.

12. The WOW Factor – This is kind of the catch-all. Even if you do everything technically ‘right’, does your station have that ‘it’? Does it reach out and GRAB the listener and entice them to listen? It better. There’s a great scene in that movie “21” when the main character is interviewing for a scholarship to Harvard Law School. The kid has a 4.0 GPA, has aced the law school exam and is a perfect candidate in every regard. The only problem is, as the dean tells him, is that there are 72 others just like him! So, the dean asks him, what makes him stand out and his application ‘jump off the page’ and rise above the rest? What makes his story so compelling? So the same can be asked for your radio station – what makes your station so damn compelling that listeners will say, “WOW”?

13. Communicate – Sounds silly and cliché and basic, but again, sometimes things are cliché for a reason – because they’re true. Communicate externally and internally. Make sure everyone at the station knows what the plan is and make sure everyone listening knows exactly what you stand for and what you’re all about.

Yes! I couldn’t agree with him more.

At its essence, radio is about the communication between the listener and the person on the other side of the mike. That person plays the music the listener wants to hear and provides information about the songs and the artists that keeps the listener plugged in. Additionally, that person provides a sense of companionship and community for the listener. Radio is the social network with a voice.

So as I sat there thinking a bit about radio and the definition of radio and of how radio is evolving, I began thinking about satellite radio. I listen to a lot of satellite radio here in the U.S. and I must say that there are many things I either hear for myself, or hear about through cross-promotion, that get me excited about listening. Things that give me the sense that the “true mission” of radio is being fulfilled there. I’ve written a few times before – here, here and here – about my fascination with and fondness for these “micro-channels” that both XM and Sirius do. To me, these channels kind of sum up what the benefits of satellite radio are for the listener, providing a snapshot of the best that satellite radio can offer.

The other day while I was driving home I tuned into one of Sirius’ such channels, the all-Springsteen “E Street Radio” channel. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon the beginning of an hour that featured a guest DJ, something that the channel regularly does. However this hour wasn’t featuring just any guest DJ, it was none other than long time member of the E Street Band, pianist Roy Bittan. I sat there in my car captivated as Bittan not only played songs that featured his playing – songs in Springsteen’s catalog as well as those by other artists – but also as he discussed in depth the particulars about each track and why it was so special to him. It was pretty incredible radio – hearing Bittan introducing “Born To Run” as he spoke about his first ever gig with the E Street Band back in 1974; about how the classic piano-outro on “Backstreets” came about; how the sessions for Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” album came to be and his experiences in the making of that classic album; how he came to record with David Bowie and his experiences with recording the “TVC 15″ track; about how the band recorded many of the tracks on “The River” in a live fashion and many others. Now keep in mind that each of the songs he played during the hour I’ve heard a thousand times – but hearing them with the context he provided enabled me to hear each song in a different way. Powerful stuff.

As I was driving along and listening to this incredible hour of radio, I was thinking to myself, “This is exactly why I subscribe to Sirius. I couldn’t hear this type of radio anywhere else.” And yes, it’s just one small example, for I don’t pay $13/month so I can hear Roy Bittan do one hour of radio. The fact of the matter is that the hour of radio I just described above is representative of not only what is happening on the “E Street Radio” channel, but what is happening on many other channels on the Sirius platform not to mention with what’s going on across the XM platform.

NPR calls them “car moments” – radio programming that is so compelling that you sit in your car to keep listening even after you reached your destination. The Roy Bittan guest DJ program provided me with a “car moment” as I sat in my driveway to listen Bittan introduce the last of the songs he was to play for the hour. And truth be told, I would have sat there in the car for another hour if he had kept on going – and that is the true testament to the power of great radio.

I’ve written about these satellite radio micro-channels before here and here and I hate to sound like a broken record, but I will.

Investing in creative, compelling programming pays off.

Sirius just announced that Coldplay will take over one of their channels (Alt Nation) for ten days beginning Friday, June 13th. The launch of the channel, Coldplay Nation, coincides (shockingly!) with the release of the band’s “Viva La Vida” album which will be during the channel’s 10-day run. As is stated on the Sirius website, Coldplay Nation “celebrates the June 17 release of Coldplay’s new Viva La Vida with Chris Martin and the band’s personal introductions to songs from the new album. You’ll also hear music from throughout their career, artists who influenced the Coldplay sound and current favorites.”

This cuts to the heart of what radio has to do to succeed – create programming that is unique, compelling and exclusive. If listeners are given a compelling reason, they will listen and become fans of a radio station or in the case of the satellite radio providers, subscribe to their service.

Coldplay is one of the biggest bands today with one of the most anticipated new releases on the horizon. If you’re a Coldplay fan, the channel is great news for you because you get to listen to a channel that is running what you consider compelling content. Those who aren’t Coldplay fans may not listen, but they will hear about it (thanks to cross-promotion) and they will get the message. The message being that one of the globe’s biggest artists is doing something big and something exclusive for the service that they subscribe to. Sure, it may not be an artist that they’re particularly interested in, but nonetheless they are once again reminded of the fact that “cool things are always happening here” thus subtly giving them additional justification for subscribing to Sirius – which is critical during this time where every cent of discretionary household spending is analyzed for potential reductions.

With Viva La Vida being their 4th studio album, Coldplay doesn’t have the catalog to support a channel for an extended period of time like Sirius’ other micro-channels, such as Springsteen’s E Street Radio, Jimmy Buffett’s Radio Margariville, Elvis Radio, Siriusly Sinatra or The Grateful Dead channel, but that’s hardly the point. With the announcement and imminent launch of Coldplay Nation, Sirius has scored a coup and like George Bush can proudly say “Mission Accomplished,” although without the irony. They’ve sent the message to fans of Coldplay, to non-fans of Coldplay, to subscribers of Sirius and to potential subscribers of Sirius.

This is nothing earth shattering, in fact it’s extraordinarily simple. But then again, most things are. Invest in programming. Be creative in the programming. Offer something compelling and unique and people will respond, even in this day and age of changing consumer habits, declining radio listenership and of serious questions regarding the relevance of radio to people’s lives.

After the phone rang I took a look at the caller ID and saw by the number that it was yet another telemarketer. Instead of ignoring it or picking up and then immediately hanging up as I usually do, I decided to answer it up and see what they wanted.

This is where the surprise came in.

The person on the other end of the phone simply said, “Hi Mr. Sabatini this is (name) calling from Verizon Wireless. We just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for being a customer.”

Hmmmm…Okay. The classic setup. Good telemarketing technique – thanking me for my patronage and then coming in for the hard sell. I was ready. Ready to hear the pitch so that I could quickly cut her off by issuing my terse, “no thank you” followed by me hanging up.

I waited for her to continue with her pitch. But there was nothing. I waited for her to continue but the silence became deafening. “Uh, thanks” I mumbled semi-coherently. She thanked me again and then hung up. I stood there a bit dumbfounded. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.

So what does this have to do with radio? Everything. Don’t worry, keep reading and I’ll get there.

Sure, that phone call was just another telemarketing technique – but damn was it a good one. They didn’t actually want anything. Well, that is not entirely true, as they obviously want my business. But at that moment they didn’t want me to do anything, sign up for anything or think about spending more money with them for services I probably didn’t need.

It got me thinking about customer service and the value of GREAT customer service. There are companies that are renowned for their customer service but many, many more who are not.

And here’s where the radio part comes in. In the radio business customer service can mean many things, but no matter the definition, I think you could safely say that many radio stations do NOT give great customer service.

In the radio world, great customer service means delivering MORE to the listeners than they expect. It’s being bigger, better, stronger, faster. It’s surprising them (in a good way!). It’s giving them a reason to listen to your station rather than a direct competitor or a non-radio competitor like their iPod. It’s providing them with a difference – a difference that matters to them. A difference that tells them you care about them. That you understand what they want and that your goal is to meet their needs, and then some. They can rely on you.

In the satellite radio world, customer service has more of a traditional meaning as people actually have to pay a monthly subscription fee to listen, therefore they are the classic “customer.” But the bottom line is still the same – customers have to be not only completely satisfied with the product and service that they are receiving, they should be overwhelmed.

The customers (subscribers) should be constantly reminded why they subscribe. They should be reminded by hearing great programming; creative programming; compelling programming. They should be reminded by coming across all of the unique channels. If the satellite radio business, subscribers have to be constantly reminded why the paid option is a better option than their local and free FM stations. The listeners have to be reminded why you’re better than their iPod. When the monthly bill comes in they shouldn’t even have to think about whether they should keep subscribing or not. It should be like the utility bill. They should feel like they can’t live without it. GREAT customer service can do that. In the radio business, GREAT customer service equates to GREAT programming.

I’m Just Sayin’….

I’ve written before about why I think satellite radio is great – here and here. Basically it boils down to the fact that the satellite services can take advantage of the fact that they have the Power of the Platform.

And while that’s all still true, I want to take a brief break from discussing radio “strategery” or any other serious, well thought out concepts or points about what makes radio (especially satellite radio) tick. I just want to talk about the experience of listening to radio as a listener.

Here in the States, we are just coming off the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend. It’s the weekend that officially celebrates the men and women who have given their life in service of our country while also serving as the unofficial kick-off of the summer season. Over this weekend, radio stations traditionally do something “special” and this weekend was no exception as stations trotted out their countdowns and what not. But what made me stand up and take notice was something that one of the Sirius channels did – it reinforced to me why I was a Sirius subscriber and why I thought satellite radio is a powerful medium.

For the record, I’m a Bruce Springsteen fan – a big one. I spend a lot of time listening to Sirius’ “E Street Radio” channel – a channel which, as you may have guessed, plays nothing but Springsteen music. The fact is that even though I have all of his music loaded up on my iPod and can play any Bruce song that I want at any time, I still really like listening to the E Street Radio channel. One of the reasons for this is that I enjoy the serendipity of it all. I like hearing ‘random’ songs – songs that I wouldn’t dial up on my iPod, but for some reason I enjoy hearing when the channel plays it. But another reason I like the channel as much as I do is that they play stuff that I don’t have! Since they’re officially sanctioned by the Springsteen camp, they have access to lots of things that I only wish I had.

So over the Memorial Day weekend, E Street Radio featured nothing but live Springsteen shows. Shows from all different time periods and from all different tours. Shows with the E Street Band, without the E Street Band and solo shows without any band; basically everything a Springsteen fanatic would love. And as great as all the live shows played were there was one that stood out in particular. It was a benefit show recorded just over two weeks ago at a small 1,500 seat theatre in New Jersey. In addition to the intimate nature of the show, what set this show apart was that Bruce and the band did something they have never done before – ever. They played two of their classic albums, Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town in their entirety. The songs were played in the exact same order as they appeared on the original albums. People literally paid thousands of dollars to be at this show and a mere two weeks later we were hearing it on the radio. If you’re a Springsteen nut, hearing this was nothing short of incredible.

From a fan’s perspective the whole weekend was awesome. I didn’t change channels once throughout the whole weekend – and I’m a constant channel-changer. And even though gas prices are through the roof, I did some driving around I didn’t really have to do because I didn’t want to miss anything. That’s powerful. And that’s the power of the platform. The fact that Sirius could do this is due to the fact that they have a Springsteen channel to showcase it on. And the only way you can have a whole channel dedicated to one artist is when you have a platform enabling you to provide this kind of variety.

So that’s it. No serious strategy discussion, insight into programming mechanics or anything else like that. Just observations from a listener who spent the weekend listening to something he really liked and was damn glad about it.

I’m just sayin’.

It’s been two months since the U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger of the two U.S. satellite radio companies, XM and Sirius. That was supposed to be the hard part. It was thought that the FCC approval was soon to follow. It was a mere formality. As I’ve written about here and here – the merger of the two satellite radio companies was the right thing to do and in the best interest of the consumers. So I have to ask, what’s the deal?

Actually, that was a rhetorical question. I know the deal. And now that I think about it, deal is exactly the right word, because at this point it’s all about making deals. Deals to get this and get that. Deals to protect special interests. Deals to take advantage of the fact that various groups know the FCC wants to approve this deal and will go out of their way to appease them so there won’t be as much outcry when they do issue approval. So these groups have to strike while the iron is hot. They can overreach in their ask, and know that they will get something. A number of different U.S. Senators and Congressmen have written to the head of the FCC presumably because they’re looking out for what’s best for consumers. Yeah, sure. It wouldn’t have anything to do with looking out for the best interests of the NAB, would it? Nah. The most recent letter came from a couple of Senators two days ago. In the letter they laid out certain conditions for the merger that would ‘protect the consumer by ensuring competition and fairness in the marketplace.’ Really? The conditions they laid out include giving up half of the spectrum the combined entity will have. Please.

Anyway, the point of this post is not to talk about that silliness. The point is that it’s been two months since the DOJ approved the merger and 15 months since it was first proposed by the two companies. That’s a long time. Too long.

What you’re seeing because of this delay is actually what you’re not seeing. You’re not seeing very much advertising for either company. They have disappeared from television completely. Actually I can’t recall the last time I saw an advertisement of any kind from either company.

The reason the two companies proposed to join forces in the first place was so that together they could better combat increased competition. But due to the uncertainty surrounding their partnership, they both have withdrawn somewhat from doing advertising. And that has led to a decrease in awareness of satellite radio in the general marketplace. All the services or technologies that XM and Sirius have articulated as providing this competition are all gaining ground. They haven’t stopped advertising or generating awareness in the marketplace.

Every day that goes by in which the merger isn’t approved is another day that a consumer isn’t hearing about satellite radio. It’s another day they hear about or use another service or technology without thinking about satellite radio.

And yes, of course, it still comes down to content. So theoretically if satellite radio has the ‘best’ and most compelling content they will be able to make up for this lost time and lack of market awareness and will be very successful. The broad range and compelling nature of the content will be able to win the day. However, if satellite radio drops off people’s radar and they develop or further strengthen other habits and don’t even give satellite radio the time of day to sample it, they will never know how good the content is and what they’re missing. Not saying it’s likely, but it’s possible.

As he pointed out, now that social engagement is moving from being a destination to a feature, it’s a big opportunity for radio.

Indeed.

Terrestrial radio has done a lot of things wrong in recent years but a way for them to get back in the game and re-establish their relevance is to make sure this is not an opportunity lost. Radio ain’t dead, but it’s broken. It’s critical for radio to re-engage listeners in new (and old!) ways.

And the whole ‘social thing’ is a big opportunity to re-engage.

Back in the day, the great state of New Jersey had an advertising campaign designed to promote tourism (and if there was any U.S. State that needed a campaign to promote tourism, it was New Jersey – Bruce Springsteen and the Jersey Shore not withstanding). The tagline of the campaign was New Jersey and You – Perfect Together! Taking creative license from the Garden State, I propose a slogan which applies to the topic at hand: Radio and Social Networks – Perfect Together!

So let’s get right to it – why are they perfect together? The fact is, at their core radio stations are and have always been social networks. In fact, they are the oldest mass-media social networks. (I’m sure the cavemen had their own version of a social network, but it probably involved cave drawings or something and sure wasn’t powered by technology!). Bound by music, lifestyle or point of view, a good radio station identifies, captures, becomes a source of entertainment and information for, and provides a voice and identity for specific communities of people. They do this by providing these communities of people with content that is important to them. Content that is relevant, interesting and exciting. Listeners to a great radio station feel like they are part of something – something bigger than themselves. They feel like they are part of a larger community of people who like what they like, who feel what they feel and who have similar experiences as they do. They feel connected.

It is about the power of the collective experience.

You know how a song always sounds better when you hear it on the radio as opposed to hearing it off a CD? There are a number of reasons for this, one being due to the serendipitous nature of it; but another is because of that sense of having a common or collective experience. It’s because as you sit there in your car listening to the song, you know that thousands of others – other members of this community – are hearing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

The sense of community is a powerful thing.

Great radio stations are community builders and community leaders. The essence of a station’s community (assuming the station is a music-oriented one) is the music, but it’s more than that. It’s the lifestyle the station portrays, it’s the language, it’s the imaging, and it’s the jocks – their attitude, the things they talk about, the way they talk about them and the points of reference they provide. It’s the whole deal.

Radio stations ain’t supposed to be jukeboxes. In fact there is probably an inverse relationship between the “jukebox-iness” of a station and its relevance and importance to people and how much “connection” they feel towards it. Call it the “sucky” equation.

Great radio stations – those with a low “sucky quotient” – get members of their target communities to place their trust in them by holding up their end of the bargain. Among other things, their end of the bargain consists of the following: providing creative and compelling programming; hiring jocks who know how to relate to and connect with people; creating ways for the listeners to directly interact with the radio station and by becoming vibrant members of the community. The members of the community look towards the great radio stations to be a guide for the community – a guide on musical tastes, on lifestyle on opinions, on trends.

When I think of great radio stations, I think of KROQ in Los Angeles. KROQ plays what would generally be termed as ‘alternative rock’ music, but defining them as purely an ‘alternative rock’ radio station doesn’t do them justice. They’re bigger than that. They’re the self-proclaimed “World Famous KROQ.” KROQ sets trends. KROQ oozes a lifestyle. They reflect the interests of the KROQ community while at the same time leading it. They have street cred. If KROQ says it’s so, it’s so. I remember a day back in the late 90’s when the Kevin and Bean morning show had Snoop on as an in-studio guest. Snoop? On an ‘alternative’ station? Yeah. The thing is, KROQ defines itself by a lifestyle rather than by a ‘format’. There’s a difference. A big one. KROQ understands who their core listeners are and then creates programming that group would appreciate, regardless of any traditional format boundary. That pertains to the music; it pertains to the jocks; it pertains to the imaging and it pertains to the guests they have on the air. Simple. Would the skateboarder kids in Huntington Beach think having Snoop on was cool? Yeah.

The point is, KROQ has made themselves the center of a vibrant community. They have served, led and engaged this community of people remarkably well. Sadly, most terrestrial radio stations aren’t doing this. But they can start. And for their own sake, they better start. The online social media revolution can serve as their wake-up call. The power of the online social networks is undeniable – and as pointed out by Dubber, it’s still evolving. So for radio stations to regain their relevance and importance to people’s lives, they have to figure out their strategy for riding this new media wave. First and foremost they can start by realizing that by having an existing broadcast signal and presumably a great deal of listeners, they already are social networks. Maybe they’re not strong, effective ones at this point, but that’s because their on-air product isn’t engaging their listener base. To improve the strength of the network they have to fix their on-air product. Invest in it, be creative in the programming, and all the rest. Once that is done and the station has an engaged listener base, they can further engage them by utilizing the web. This will require a lot of thinking. And a lot of work. But it has to be done. It’s show time.

Often, Songs can just up and change audience on us without our really realising it. It can take years, but the appeal of a Song never ever stays still. A glorious example of this was highlighted at a London conference last week. Here’s a link from the Guardian’s gossip column to illustrate. It cattily paints GCap chief exec Fru Hazlitt in a bad light, which is slightly unfair. The gist of the story is that Hazlitt mentioned Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ as her favourite song. No big. But she was then followed by a speaker who demonstrated how research had this same song down as an all time audience turkey. The article failed to mention a few other facts, chief among which was that this was with a specific set of radio listeners in the US, and that this was live monitoring software. I must declare an interest here, by the way – the speaker was Philippe Generali, who heads up RCS, for whom I do a lot of work, and the research interpretation software he was demonstrating is, in my view, pretty damn powerful stuff.

Clever software apart, here is my point: ‘Dancing Queen’ has been through several lives, and it hasn’t stopped yet. And it’s got almost nothing to do with early adopters who bought the records, and almost everything to do with how the song has been used since then. From its first pure pop success, when it was comprehensively dismissed by music purists, though grudging acceptance for its pop craftsmanship, through reinvention as a camp classic with huge gay appeal, and exposure to new audiences through movies like ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ and the ‘Mamma Mia’ musical, through relentless airplay on Gold stations the world over… the song has changed audiences. Several times.

Many boomers who heard it over and over now can’t stand it; post-boomers, like Hazlitt, still love it; kids love it because it is ironic cheesy pop… and the listeners to a particular radio station in the US are pretty damn tired of it.

Like I said, several audiences. It’s up to us to work out who loves it, who hates it, and why. And after that, when to use it, and in what context. I’ll bet it sounds great on an all-Abba channel. Or a mid-70s pop channel.
It all depends on the context. Get that right, and you’ve cracked it.

So far so good. Trouble was, the track was treated and compressed, probably for MP3 and the transmission chain. This did not do the song any favours. That striking bassline was WAY up, the middle and top was sort of up, but a lot of the rest was… just hoovered back into the mix. Yuk.

So the same thing that brought Cogbill’s work to the fore damaged the rest of the mix. I’m all for digital storage, so we can have huge libraries to use as brilliant programming resources (see this interesting post from Billy Sabatini). But aren’t we in danger of damaging prime gold repertoire by crunching stuff down so insensitively? This is a huge problem with 60s and 70s material, which was often recorded live or near-live, with a wholly different approach to balancing and mixing. This stuff was built to jump out of tiny transistor radio speakers. Now, it’s altered by digitisation and remastering for radio, and crushed almost beyond recognition to fit on our Ipods and our databases. It’s not so much a technical issue as a cultural issue. To store our libraries in the digital world, we reprocess, remaster, spindle, fold, and mutilate our music. We commoditise and devalue it. We are in real danger of ignoring what the producers, artists and musicians were trying to do. Maybe that doesn’t matter to some stations, but it matters to old farts like me who remember the stuff from the first time around.

There’s good and bad here. I don’t have a solution. I’d just like to hear a better way of processing classic hits from 30, 40 or 50 years ago.

Hell of a bassline though…

Ah, variety. The “v” word.

Somewhere along the way the concept of a radio station “playing the hits” has gotten an unfair rap. Yes, everybody has a variety of tastes. Yes everybody’s iPod has a tremendous variety demonstrating they have discerning and a broad range of tastes. However here’s the tricky part: everybody’s definition of “good” variety differs. Let’s say that my iPod is loaded with Barry Manilow, Edith Piaf and Godsmack along with everything in between. Damn, do I have variety! And it also illustrates my great knowledge and broad spectrum of taste in music!! And let’s say that on your iPod I can listen to Fats Domino, the New York Philharmonic, Marilyn Manson, Bruce Springsteen and everything in between. Well, you have pretty great variety too. But if you programmed a radio station based on your definition of variety I’d hate it. And vice versa.

In the U.S. it’s been shouted from all corners that terrestrial radio isn’t doing a good job of serving its audiences because of, among other things, small playlists. In other words, lack of variety. It’s a lack of variety because many stations simply “play the hits.” And again, apparently that’s a bad thing.

But terrestrial radio has developed this way over the years for certain reasons – competitive reasons. A radio station that is dependent on advertising revenues has to attract a large amount of people in order to support itself. And since it has to attract a mass audience, it has to choose a format and program it so that it has mass appeal. A single terrestrial station has no choice but to “play the hits” to attract this mass audience. It plays the hits within the parameters of its format of course, but none the less it plays the hits.
If it doesn’t play the hits, rather choosing to play a wider variety and deeper choice of music, they may end up with a more passionate audience, but it will be a smaller one. The station may “sound better” to certain ears, but those ears will be fewer. And if they do that, the station now has to play the game of selling a smaller, but more passionate audience to the radio-buying community. This is tricky. To a radio buyer the qualitative stuff only goes so far. Radio sales people and radio buyers don’t do qualitative well. They are trained to sell and buy quantitative – they like having numbers, big numbers, to base their decisions on. It makes it easier to defend their decisions to their bosses if the numbers are on their side.

But blah, blah, blah…here’s the point: On a platform such as satellite radio there’s no need to choose between playing the hits and not playing the hits; or playing a broader range of hits; or playing tunes that are a hits of a different definition. Because when you have a platform, there’s room for all kinds of channels. And not only is there room, it’s critical to have all these types of channels! Again, here’s a little secret: there’s nothing inherently wrong with channels “playing the hits.” Really.

On XM there’s a channel called Top 20 on 20. You know what that channel does? Shockingly, it counts down the top-20 hits of the week in order, from number 20 right down to number 1. Then they do it again. And again. And again. And you know what? It’s a great channel and it’s always one of the higher ranked channels on XM. You know why? Cause people like the hits. And you know what else? When people want to hear something else – something that has more variety – they can go to a number of other channels on the platform to satisfy their needs. You like Folk music? Good, there’s a channel that plays nothing but folk music. Opera? Fantastico! There’s a channel dedicated to it. You in the mood for rock music, but don’t want to hear the same old rock hits? Great – there’s a channel that plays nothing but the album cuts. Think “Backstreets” instead of “Born to Run.”

And in fact, the hit-based channels actually give the platform freedom. For by having the hit-based channels the provider now has the ability to create channels that have a broader or different mandate. The platform operators can now provide their subscribers with channels that would never fly in an FM environment where attracting advertising revenue is the main goal. Having the platform gives them the freedom to deliver it all to the consumer. Hits, non-hits, hits by hair bands (I’m not kidding – Hair Nation on Sirius) channels dedicated to one artist (E Street Radio, Rolling Stones Radio on Sirius) or channels dedicated to one theme (the 2008 Presidential Race – the POTUS channel on XM). It’s all there and more.

Hits – it’s not a four-letter word.