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The Game Has Changed
May 2, 2006
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The Game's Happy Ending May Need A New Beginning
Today is about the game. It's about recognition and it's about time. For all of us, time is taking its toll. Even while you're reading this, you're getting older. The past grows shorter as the future comes sooner. The sooner you fall behind, the more time it will take you to catch up. It's easier to get older than it is to get wiser.
We're living in some special times. We are part of an industry that we love -- one that is ignited by motivation and change. We have to avoid the traps in the game and know that for most of us the promised safety net is a cruel deception. A job is just that -- a job. You understand that when you lose your income, often you also lose your dignity and self-esteem. You have to start all over again -- at the bottom - or, if you're lucky, in the middle.
Our urban radio and music industries are home to some of the greatest names in the world of music and entertainment. The marketplace of idea is still the catalyst for change. That change includes unpredictability, constant overwhelming advances in technology, information overload, and intense and multiplying competition that demands research and risk reduction.
The game continues to change. The kitchen has gotten a lot hotter. Ratings, spins and detections still determine who works and who doesn't. We owe the reasons for the increasing importance for all these issues to one word -- success. Because before we had success we had failure, and now that we've learned to overcome failure the pressure to succeed is constant.
Whether we're talking about music scheduling or dayparting and music testing, it's obvious there have been changes in our industry. These changes have been out-distanced by the increased complexity triggered by consolidation and group ownership. In fact, it appears like that the current transactional turbulence will continue as companies continue to attempt to satisfy their investment strategies and complete their portfolios. Coupled with this are advances in research theory and technology.
Is Research Radio's Cop-Out?
There are those in the record industry who still feel that when radio says they have to wait until they receive the results of their call-put research before they can add or spike a record, that it's merely an excuse or cop-out. But is it a cop-out when a PD or MD doesn't want to add your record and delays the decision until the research comes back? Sometimes it is, but more often that not, it is not a cop out.
You see, we have raised a whole new generation of radio decision-makers who have forgotten how to listen - who depend entirely on research. The other problem is the amount of time it can take to gather and process the results of this research. It can take days or even weeks to get the results. And since so much of today's research is centered on music, often the demands are huge.
Music, which is the product for most urban stations, is basically a non-intellectual function. The average person can tell you if they like or dislike a song, but they often have no idea why. And these same people often, given time, will come to really dig a song they rejected when they first heard it. That's what is wrong with call-out.
It's measuring what one time listening produces based on a 7-second hook. And to date, none of the research companies doing hooks have one African-American employee participating in the process. They're not even training any. That brings about some key questions. Suppose they miss the hook? That possible because some of these white boys can't even clap on the beat. That, too is part of the game. It's a dangerous music game in which we're getting played. Therefore it certain behooves us to devote some attention to the processes involved in making such value judgments.
The left-brain, right brain phenomena has been widely discussed in recent years. The left brain is concerned with matters emotional, among other things. Music is handled differently by males and females, but in all cases, it is an emotional process even though strangely enough, it is handled the same way as mathematics.
We continuously run up against the dark, mysterious right brain area of likes and dislikes. In order to shed some light on this, let's rationalize and evoke some comment from the experts. One such writer, a fellow named Normal Dolph, teaches a course on the subject of hit songs and how to write them. He is a Yale graduate who has worked for several labels. He has written hit songs for artists whose music we play. Dolph feels (and we agree) that the big misunderstanding among writers is that record companies make records for totally different reasons than radio plays them. It used to be that the motive of the record company to sell a lot of CDs and the motive of radio to draw a lot of new listeners was one and the same.
Radio no longer feels any kind of grand loyalty to the performance of the artists of a record company. What radio wants to do now is minimize tune-outs any way we can. Can't blame us for that. Some sharp modern writers are aware of this and now write songs especially for radio. The first way this is accomplished is by being non-linear, with no particular story.
Hit songs don't usually have plots any more. They have a premise that is stated early and then repeated over and over. The reason is that with radio listening, the song will usually already be playing when a listener first really hears it, so the middle has to make as much sense as the beginning. When this type of song makes it, it makes it big, regardless of category.
Another important ingredient of a hit is being "noise immune." This is a communication theory term for being readily perceivable in a noisy environment. That's why well-constructed hit songs usually have what's known as a redundancy factor. The hook in a single is destined to make certain that no matter how noisy the environment is, the receiver clearly understand the message. Finally, noise (or anything perceived as noise) is unwanted information.
One man's noise, though, is another man's information. If you're talking to an advertiser, the music is noise. He wants to make his commercial in such a way that they stand up against today's hit songs. You talk to the artists and they'll tell you the commercials are noise and they try to make a record that will stand up against McDonald's.
It's a tough game out there and it's getting tougher all the time. Those among us who would survive and win have to pay attention to some of the things new research methods are turning up every day. Research and technology can't continue to be things we don't understand and simply complain about. The same systems that make us feel trapped are the same ones that can set us free and motivate us to make "second effort" common and even fun. But how do labels reach the decision-makers and convince them that their
music is worth a second listen, regardless of what call-out research may say? By learning more about radio's call-out research process themselves.
Today more than ever, there are a great many more trap doors to failure than there are shortcuts to success. All of this relates to radio research directly since we are all searching for the hits that will become favorite songs. But it relates in other ways, as well. We all seek to present the image of a fresh hit radio station. This it true even with urban adult stations which are 70% gold-based.
Until we get more black faces in high places, we better recognize that life and this business is a game and if you don't learn about it soon and early no matter how smart you may think you are, you will get played. We know, as you know, that there are many steps between creation and compensation -- whether it's a song or a format.
Understanding change is part of what the game is all about. It's also about time, empowerment, discovering the power of partnerships, and about taking the misses from your hit list and remembering. It's about avoiding trouble. Trouble teaches you two things: How many friends you really have and how many people are just waiting to catch you bent over.
Judging by past examples, one thing we know for sure, there will be some lessons taught by the winner and some layoffs coming to the loser. Being number two in a market could still mean huge profits for stations with a creative sales department that's plugged into its passions. We'll just have to wait and see.
It's a fact that both spot and network radio sales are expected to post only single-digit percentage gains in 2006, if that. That sluggish pace has led to more consolidations and joint ventures and well as lowered expectations throughout our industry.
One of the main obstacles continues to be capital. Fewer banks or investors want to loan money to companies involved in music or media. Even profitable companies are having a difficult time raising cash or keeping stock prices at acceptable levels. The effect that this will have is enormous. Even if the economy rebounds tomorrow, the long-term effects will be felt for years.
Many operators are not just missing a few steps, they're stuck in a phase of awkward pretense -- making moves and then questioning them or waiting desperately for the environment to somehow change. The big radio players such as Clear Channel, Cox, CBS, Radio One, Cumulus, Emmis, Citadel and Inner City can't be blamed for this embarrassing rite of passage. They're simply confronting the oddities of change, defined by countless standards, cost controls and a deceptive consumer market. Why is this important to us? It is important because the music and the artists -- just like our radio stations -- will keep moving, continue, changing, and becoming more diverse. Sometimes the best way to have a happy ending is to have a new beginning.
The faster we produce, the faster we consume. The need for speed often results in faster, more destructive extractions. We must take time to care. Today we sleep less, cook and eat faster, and even have sex faster. The best selling book, "Five Minutes to Orgasm Made Simple," is a great indicator of our perceived need for speed. We used to slow down and smell the roses, but now we only have time to wake up and smell the coffee. We schedule our lives to fit abstract time rather than natural time, forfeiting opportunities to understand how nature works and to be part of it. Just know that if God decides to bless you, even Mediabase and Arbitron have to recognize you.
Word.