Streaming Audio ROI Spreadsheet

March 26, 2009 Steve

A while back, I wrote a spreadsheet for some simple calculations of the return on investment for streaming audio - like a radio station.

I have made some changes to the spreadsheet to accommodate the new negotiated SoundExchange fees for terrestrial broadcasters who stream.

Here's a link - click on the picture and then you should be able to edit the cells in yellow to see the results of different audience size, spot counts and so on.

New Streaming Costs Calculator - Online Spreadsheets - EditGrid.jpg

It's a work in progress - tell me what you think!

Using a Macintosh in a Radio Station

March 21, 2009 Steve

Chris “Doc” Tarr, Director of Engineering for Entercom in Milwaukee and Madison, WI, wrote an article for RBR today about using Macs in radio stations.

As a business technology consultant for radio stations, I strongly endorse Chris's statement.

The Mac is a terrific computer for a radio station. It is simple for even the most technophobic account exec to use and because it comes pre-installed with a ton of useful software, there's a lot you can do with it out of the box.

For example, with the extremely powerful (and included as part of the OS!) iMovie video editing software, even a neophyte can produce compelling video presentations for your sales department or your website. GarageBand, the Mac's audio editing system, provides many of the features of a much more sophisticated package like ProTools. Thousands of bands have produced professional recordings using GarageBand, right on the Mac. It even has features for creating podcasts - including building the RSS feeds and so on. Very powerful stuff.

For an extra $79, you can get Apple's iWork, a suite of three applications that include a word processor (Pages), spreadsheet (Numbers) and presentation program (Keynote). In many ways, these applications are even more powerful than MS Office - and they are certainly easier to use. There's no doubt that Keynote blows away Powerpoint as a presentation tool. Plus - you can create your presentation in Keynote and then export a perfectly compatible Powerpoint version for your less capable colleagues.

Plus, with the free OpenOffice package for OSX, you can have the complete functionality of Microsoft Office on the Mac without the cost!

I have run a virtual machine on my Mac with copies of Tapscan, Maximi$er, PD Advantage, AudioVAULT and various music scheduling packages - and they worked without a hitch. Of course, the vendors get a little "hinky" when you run on unapproved hardware, but with the right relationship with these folks, you can get them to understand.

Imagine being able to create a Tapscan report and then use it seamlessly in a powerful Mac-based presentation package to create a compelling story for a prospect. Of course, as these applications go more to the web (as Max and Tapscan are starting to now), you will be using the web browser and not a built-in application; but the principle still applies. Even more so, because the Mac will let you dress up those dull-looking web reports with some truly persuasive graphic elements - in a snap.

Back in the day, before Maximi$er, I used a Mac to suck in AID runs (remember those?) and automagically transpose them into compelling graphical presentations for my sales team. Even 20 years ago, it was a very useful tool in a radio station.

Another advantage to using a Mac on the business side of a radio station is, quite frankly, the "cool factor." Many radio station clients are Mac users themselves - ad agencies in particular have been one of the strongest vertical markets for Macintosh for decades. If you walk into a presentation to a group including a creative director, media director and account manager and you plug in your Mac for a Keynote presentation, you will gain immediate "inside" cred. It might be that extra edge that gets you the deal.

Today, the Mac will give you an edge over the competition.

Want to know more? Please leave a comment here.

Nielsen, Arbitron and the upcoming battle

March 20, 2009 Steve

Does Nielsen really care about measuring radio in just small and medium markets? The big prize is - and always has been - measuring radio in major markets and nationwide, using meter technology. This is where they are going.

In an article on March 19th in Tom Taylor's Radio-Info, Tom said:

"What kind of electronic measurement is Nielsen thinking about, for radio?

One research-industry veteran tells me “look, the competition with Arbitron will keep everybody on their toes. But they’re not doing this just to rate 51 small markets for Cumulus and Clear Channel. And they must know that when they look at the bigger markets that have the Arbitron meter, they’re not going to be able to break in there with a diary.” He figures “they must be working on something electronic” to counter the Arbitron PPM. more...

Nielsen has had a portable media measurement device in the field for several years now. It is the "Go Meter," and has a similar technological design to Arbitron's PPM device.

Here's a photo of the Go Meter:

Nielsen could use a national rollout of the Go Meter and have the radio service subsidized by the TV service. It certainly will help economies of scale to be able to spread the cost of a national roll-out across multiple media. And, remember, Nielsen is also very interested in streaming video and audio measurement. So, they have a lot of ways to monetize the deployment of this system.

My view, radical though it may seem, is that the sticker diary program announced by Nielsen and Cumulus is a straw horse for deployment of Go Meters in the Cumulus markets in preparation for an all-out attack on Arbitron's PPM strongholds in the top markets. Nielsen has a bottom-up strategy versus Arbitron's top-down strategy.

Will this be a "slam-dunk" for Nielsen? No - because the new management team being formed at Arbitron, led by Michael Skarzynski, undoubtedly sees this coming.

This will be a tremendously interesting battle.

Radio's Social Community

March 11, 2009 Steve

Neal Bocian, an agency guy who is a keen observer of the radio scene, has again posted a terrific commentary on radio, this one addressing the issue of how local radio personalities make the brand of a radio station. Here's a quote from the article:

Every personality on a radio station has a job to do, and that job is no easy task. They have to create unique content every day to engage their listening audience. That personality is the moderator of a “community”. A community analogous to communities you find online, like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. It’s people who can relate to that DJ, whether its their programming including views on subjects, poking fun at people, news events, satirical opinions- the list goes on and on. What’s most important is that they add value to the station, and changes the “vanilla” flavor to something that adds “spice” for the listeners. There is such a disparity between “cookie cutter voice tracked programming,” to a personality who can relate to the local community and listeners alike. It is like going from one end of the spectrum to the other. Yes, radio stations CEOs can save money by eliminating the talent on air and replace it with voice tracked programming, but at what price? You save a salary but you deteriorated and cannibalized your audience as a by-product. That same audience you worked so hard to acquire.

When you read the entire article, you will see that he has a different perspective from the normal radio pundit. Neal is someone who believes that the medium is unique in its ability to deliver results for his clients because of the personalities social connections to the local community.

We're interested in your comments - please write!

Music Scheduling and the State of Radio

March 6, 2009 Steve

Computer-based music scheduling programs have been around for over 30 years. I know, because my first Program Director and I collaborated on a very rudimentary one for the Apple II back in the late '70s. Soon, there were quite a few commercially available systems available, including the venerable Selector.

Today, I was researching some new opportunities and I read an article on Jeff Pollack's site by Pat Welsh about stations moving from DOS versions of music scheduling systems to windows-based versions. This article was posted on December 23, 2008 Huh?

When you look at how many things have changed in radio over the past few years, it’s stunning to realize that one of the most important tasks, music scheduling, has changed so little. Many stations, especially in the U.S., still use legacy DOS-based programs (elsewhere around the world, especially in markets where music scheduling has only recently been introduced, stations are more likely to use Windows based systems).

But things have started to change in this area, too. Many stations have converted or are converting to new, Windows-based releases of various music scheduling systems. Besides the new interface and the ability to do things like changing the color scheme, doing copy and paste, customizing screens and other Windows type functions, under the hood there’s a lot more going on.

Of course, it's absolutely true. For various reasons, many (most?) established US stations have not upgraded their music scheduling tools to even 1990s' technology. I won't get into the reasons here, except to say that it's partly an unintended consequence of consolidation.

This has put established radio stations at a decided disadvantage over the years. It's a creeping problem; if you don't upgrade your software today, you save money today. However, you also suffer the consequences of an inferior product on the air. This is not immediately apparent, but over the years the problem becomes more and more audible to your listeners - if not to you. And - by the way - this isn't a case for "DOS" over "Windows" (I can't believe that I am writing that in 2009) as much as it is a case for providing the best, most effective tools for your team. As a radio software guy, I can tell you with no equivocation that relying on an old platform (even if it's updated frequently) for more than 7 years or so will cripple your ability to accomplish what is really possible with the tools at hand. This kind of inertia also creates a disincentive for your software provider to collaborate with you and their other customers to create new, cutting edge, improvements for your software. If you are not constantly pushing them to innovate by staying current with their their latest software update, the vendor will have little if no reason to provide a new version - especially when there is one extremely dominant provider.

What's the result? Well - stations cannot take advantage of the incredible power of current technology in providing music scheduling capabilities. For example, with today's technologies, I see a music scheduling product that takes into account "on the fly" research from social networking sites, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora and so on while providing a user interface that is based on User Centered Design principles rather than the baggage of the past.

And - why on earth does a music scheduling system need to be an application that is installed on your PC? This is the perfect application for a web-based, hosted solution that is built using a powerful back-end technology running on multiple redundant servers. Imagine if your music scheduling program had a feature as powerful as Amazon's recommendation engine - a feature that could take the input of tens of millions of listeners and provide guidance for scheduling your music? This isn't possible on a traditional "PC-based" platform, but would be absolutely possible on a using AJAX and LAMP in a web-based environment. Want off-line capability in case of an internet outage? No problem - technologies today allow offline use of web apps - check out Google Gears.

This same logic holds true for other software tools in your station, such as automation. Many stations are running on automation systems (reliably, I must say) from the last century while vendors have released systems that are ready for the challenges of the 21st. Yes, the music still gets played, but your station can sound so much better with a contemporary automation platform!

Check to see if your current vendor has a contemporary tool available to you. Ask hard questions about the platform, its compatibility with your current system and its future product roadmap. If they don't have a contemporary system or you aren't satisfied with their answers, then switch vendors!

Don't procrastinate on this - your new competitors are using the latest and greatest technologies to compete with you.

In order to compete in the media environment of the second decade of the 21st century, you needs the tools tomorrow. Get rid of your old, dusty programming software systems and invest in those that will bring you immediate benefit today.

The "Radio is Dead (not)" crowd

February 27, 2009 Steve

Wow - today brought to my attention two articles arguing that indeed, radio is not "dead." The first, written by an acquaintance of mine from back in my radio sales days in Boston - Neal Bocian - talks about the speech given by John Hogan, leader of Clear Channel. Here's a brief quote from that article:

I found your perspective on the future of radio, Mr. Hogan, humiliating to my brothers and sisters in the audience. You are a leader in our industry, and with that title comes responsibility to lead our respective “tribes” with ideas for improvement and reinventing ourselves in order to gain market share. I know that’s what the audience was anticipating. I know that’s what I was expecting.

You really should read all of Neal's post, here. It's worth the time.

Then, this evening, I ran into these two posts, written in the same vein by Eric Thomas. Eric is a radio professional who recently was "downsized" from his gig at WWBN in Flint. In his two pieces, he talks about how radio folks need to stop getting down on themselves and get their butts in gear because the medium is still as powerful as ever - it's just going through change. Here's a quote from one of his two entries:

Radio is an industry that is boundlessly fun to work in. If you are good at radio, it will afford you opportunities that you would never have otherwise. I have stood onstage in front of thousands of people with a microphone, I have laughed until my sides hurt in a studio, broadcast from the Superbowl, signed baseballs at the MLB All Star Game, and countless other "I will never forget" moments and that is all because I am damn good at being on the radio. If you are not good at radio, you can get my coffee and watch me enjoy all these moments.

You can read Eric's blog here.

I agree wholeheartedly with both of these guys. Let's keep the dialogue going because that's how we'll make the business better!

Radio is the thing...

February 19, 2009 Steve

Caroline Krediet, Planning Director at TAXI-NYC, a brand agency, wrote a piece for MediaPost that sounds heretical for the typical media pundit in 2009. Here's a quote:

There it is: Clinically proven to be entertaining and economical, innovative democratic and about as underleveraged as a medium can be in our frenzied multichannel universe. I may be in the minority on this one, but I do think that in today's economy, radio affords some of the juiciest creative opportunities, at a bargain price. A radio revival could be just the thing to beat the recession blues.

She covers a wide range of rationale in her piece, but it all revolves around the unique engagement that the audio medium has with the listener. It's vital to note that she isn't just talking about terrestrial radio; she correctly points out that all forms of radio - streaming, satellite, podcasting and terrestrial - have this unique property. Check out the article here.

KLSX changing format, powered by social networking

February 19, 2009 Steve

Word is that KLSX, the LA CBS station that is currently a talk station will be changing format to CHR on Friday, February 20. Format changes aren't particularly interesting - they happen all the time - but what's worth watching about this one is the stated intention to heavily use social networking to connect to the audience. Tom Taylor of Radio-Info reports that the the Sr. VP Programming, Kevin Weatherly, will be tapping into Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Plus, they'll be hooked up to iPhone and Blackberry applications from the start. Definitely worth watching how they manage this - there will be lessons to learn! Check out www.ampradio.com.

HDRadio in Rental Cars?

February 4, 2009 Steve

Chriss Scherer, editor of the industry publication RadioMagOnline, posted about his experience with a rental car that offered satellite radio. Towards the end of the post, he made this comment:

Sirius promotes its service by having it available in rental cars. Why aren’t we doing the same with HD Radio? Get HD Radio in rental cars and tout the multicast channels. Tout the data. All the listening and data options are not available in every market, but pick and choose a few to start.

This is an excellent point that has bothered me for some time. Over the past year, I have rented 20 or more cars and many of them included satellite radio, but none of them had an HD radio installed. One of the most effective ways to sell a new technology is to provide a sampling opportunity. Ibiquity does not seem to be having much luck in getting the rental car companies to provide an HD Radio as part of the standard equipment; perhaps redirecting some of the marketing money being invested in more traditional areas would be better directed at "encouraging" rental car companies to purchase cars that have HD Radios installed.

As far as I can tell, none of the car rental companies are offering cars with HD Radio. If they are, they certainly aren't marketing it like they do XM or Sirius. Now that HD is well-penetrated in the major metros and is becoming more available to consumers at retail, this would be the perfect time to encourage sampling.

Ibiquity's Struble Discusses Short and Long-term Issues Facing Radio

January 26, 2009 Steve

Bob Struble, president and CEO of Ibiquity Digital Corporation, has published a column reviewing his take on the recent Consumer Electronics Show. Ibiquity is the owner of the intellectual property for HD Radio IBOC technology. They license the IBOC to broadcasters, technology suppliers, and consumer electronics companies who make the radios and other devices that utilize the technology.

In his column on the Ibiquity website, Mr. Struble points out that there are a growing number of consumer electronics products that will compete directly with traditional radio (which Struble refers to as AM/FM). He also addresses the current economic challenges facing AM/FM, saying:

In my view, AM/FM is having such business difficulty now because it is suffering from both cyclical and secular issues. The shorter term cyclical issues - the current broad recession and the bad state of some radio company balance sheets - will get better over time. The long term secular issues - the intense new competition from different sources of mobile information and entertainment and the myriad new choices that consumers and advertisers have - are not going away.

His point is that the recession presents one set of problems and the introduction of new competition to radio presents another set of problems. He says that HD Radio is not a "silver bullet," but simply an element in a more comprehensive strategy.

Indeed, this is true. What Mr. Struble calls "AM/FM" today may well be unrecognizable in just a few short years; indeed, it will be an amalgam of traditional analog radio, digital broadcast radio, IP-delivered radio, and web presence. For some broadcasters, these elements will be intertwined to present something that could be considered to be a completely different medium. Others will stick with one or two of these elements because that is how they can best service their audience.

Deloitte Predicts 2009 to be strong year for WiFi Radio

January 24, 2009 Steve

Deloitte Canada released some predictions for the media industry in Canada this week. One prediction of interest is "the dawn of WiFi Radio." Here's a quote from the analysis:

But in 2009, the availability of reasonably priced standalone Internet radio devices, 10,000 available stations, pervasive WiFi and location-aware technology will push consumers and advertisers alike to turn the dial to the Internet.

No doubt that they are on the right track... but it's not just WiFi... it's all the other new wireless IP technologies that will drive this as well. Certainly, smartphone (iPhone, G1, Blackberry and others) streaming applications using 3G networks, WiMax, and hybrid technologies like miRoamer and Blaupunkt's new aftermarket streaming enabled car radio will be at the crest of the wave.

Deloitte also makes the point that the location-awareness of these "receivers" will enable geographically targeted advertising. It's not just location awareness, though - these applications will also know who you are, so they can target ads even more accurately. Perhaps even personally.

It remains to be seen whether there will be enough funding available to drive this change in 2009.

No Free Lunch

January 23, 2009 Steve

An article on Boston.com, the Boston Globe's web presence, today discusses the abandonment of lunch service hours at Locke-Ober, a venerable institution in downtown Boston.

As you scan the article, look for what's missing as associated content.

Figure it out? No? Then, you need some remedial work in marketing 101.

What is missing is ads for lunch options around the neighborhood of Locke-Ober! Now, Boston.com is one of the original newspaper-owned websites and they do a tremendous job with their content. But - if the Globe is going to survive, they need some creative advertising sales efforts.

You can be assured that if you were reading this article on a Google-run site, you would see three our four ads with links to local restaurants.

So - how does this connect to radio? Well, imagine if you had the ability to be airing a local news story on your station about this subject and an ad (with a link that the user could type into their iPhone) appeared on the dial of the radio for a substitute restaurant. This ad simultaneously runs in the audio player for your internet stream, where it's clickable. Plus, a link goes out to Twitter.

Impossible, you say? Not so - it's very do-able today, with technology from companies like Broadcast Electronics and their "The Radio Experience" product line. They call it "Messagecasting" and it can be up and running in a radio station in just a few days.

This is the kind of thinking that all media outlets will need to embrace. Think synergy between your content (whether news stories, music, whatever), your listeners and advertisers. Think of ways to make the advertising accountable. Think of ways to not insult your audience with poor execution.

It is clear that the platform we will see emerge is a hybrid of "broadcast," web-based (I really want to say IP-delivered) and tangible media (as an example, scaled down newspapers). Local media entities will become a synergy of these parts. Each entity will have its own personality ("stationality") focused on it's rather narrowly targeted market. Because of the interaction between the components of the platform, advertising results will become more accountable. The successful local media entities will not be focused on just one or two media types (i.e., written word and video or video and audio) but will cover all media types equally well. Why? Because each one has its advantage for certain users in certain situations.

Want to start your own radio station? For free??

January 22, 2009 Steve

Sounds like a come-on from an email spammer, right? But - it's true. Radio automation, streaming and ad-serving provider Spacial Audio is offering up 50 "radio stations" to radio folks who have been "down-sized" sometime during the past 6 months. They call it the "Radio Bailout." Here's the deal:

1. Every Tuesday between February 3rd and April 7th, five people will be randomly chosen to receive their "radio stations." There will be fifty winners total. The Radio Bailout will end with the final drawing on Tuesday, April 7.
2. Each week's five Bailout recipients will be given an opportunity to build their own internet radio station through the following Spacial Audio software and service:
a) One (1) SAM Broadcaster v4 - (valued at $279.00)
b) One (1) StreamAds Ad Delivery Platform - (valued at $99/month)
c) Free use of one stream from SpacialNet.com, with the ability to serve up to 500 concurrent listeners at 128 kb/s - (valued at $1,150/month)
3. Just go to Spacial Audio's Radio Bailout web page for complete details

And - Spacial Audio will host your stream for up to 5 years!

500 concurrent listeners at 128kbs is a pretty decent sized audience with a quality stream; I wonder if they'll support 1000 at 64kbs?

They are even pitching this to salespeople - after all, a salesperson and some talent could hook up and build their business together.

I've gotta hand it to these folks - this is a terrific idea that will not cost a lot to implement but will both help Spacial get a lot of attention and help 50 radio folks become entrepreneurs. And - internet radio station owners.

The Audacity of Hopes

January 22, 2009 Steve

The well-written and to-the-point article by Jim Hopes, CEO of the Center for Sales Strategies, on the future of traditional media selling provides a cogent analysis and an audacious (in the good way) solution to a seemingly intractable problem in broadcast media sales. Here are a few lines from the article that shifted my thinking:

The first (and biggest) problem with broadcast sales departments is how they’re organized—much more as wholesale businesses than as retail businesses. Think about it:

A wholesale business is one that:
• Sells large quantities of its products to a short list of resellers.
• Deals with third-parties, with proxies and agents, not with the end-user of the product.
• Negotiates price and terms with professional specialist buyers, often defaulting to commodity
pricing levels.
• Sells about the same thing to every customer—a schedule.
• When broadcasters deal with transactional media buyers—national, regional, or local—they are
practicing the media equivalent of wholesale selling.

A retail business, by contrast:
• Sells smaller quantities to a broad range of solution-seeking end-users.
• Learns the end-user’s needs and problems and takes responsibility for finding or developing
solutions.
• Solutions are tailored. No two look alike.
• Establishes consistent pricing for all customers, negotiating only on selected high-ticket items.
• When broadcasters deal directly with the end-user advertiser—whether there’s an agencyinvolved or not—chances are their entire approach is more like retail selling.

My experience both as a broadcast salesperson and as a provider of services to broadcast sales departments has told me this - but I hadn't put the concept into such a compelling argument.

Jim does.

Jim goes on to discuss solutions to the dichotomy of having a wholesale business with a retail customer base - I recommend that you read it carefully. You can find it here.

My contribution to this discussion is that - in many cases - this dichotomy exists not only in sales departments at radio stations, but also in the minds of salespeople. There are thousands of radio salespeople out there that know in their gut that the local media sales business is truly a retail business, yet they are forced by culture and compensation plans into selling like a wholesaler or they try to sell like a retailer to wholesale customers. These are the salespeople that you want on your team. They are probably the ones that are most likely to have the "right stuff" to succeed in this environment. And - based on my reports from the trade press, the people who remain at Clear Channel are the strong "wholesalers." The "retailers" are on the street.

Hire one or two and you'll get an immediate return on investment.

Social Media and Radio Advertising

January 14, 2009 Steve

So - in listening to a great podcast called Marketing over Coffee, I discovered an interesting example of the way a local business is utilizing social media to market their business. The example cited was a Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts. A case study was done on this restaurant by a social media marketing expert, Jason Falls. You can read it here.

How does this apply to radio?

Caminito's is exactly the kind of place that I would expect to find advertising on the radio - but apparently they aren't. They have, however, built an interconnected web of social networking connections that bring people to their restaurant. This is exactly the sort of thing that a radio station could do for a local advertiser; use the talents of your in-house web experts to build a complete campaign around radio and social networking. Use radio ads to drive people to the advertiser's social networking points of contact, like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Yelp!, and so on. Provide creative ways for the advertiser to interact with their customer. For example, Caminito's has a blog that is frequently updated with cooking tips and other information that relates to the restaurant. It works because it is not pure marketing - it has value to the reader that goes beyond the pitch for the restaurant. For example, January 13th's post was on "Ten Tips for Seasoning Food." So - not only do you learn something about seasoning food, but you also get a sense of how much these guys put into their restaurant. It's really quite brilliant. Here's one of a dozen or so videos that they created on food preparation:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rhgpnubdjs]

One thing that radio sales teams have been brilliant at over the years is showing local advertisers how to use radio in concert with other media to produce results. Using the power of radio advertising and social networking, you'll be able to amp up the results - and make them tangible to your advertiser.

A Brilliant Idea... I wish I had thought of it!

January 14, 2009 Steve

Tom Taylor had this story from the Great Falls, Montana, Tribune in his Taylor-on-Radio newsletter today:

This station is opening a coffee shop at its new location.
That's pretty nifty to think about - and on top of that, KEIN's new studios in Great Falls, Montana are at a former gas station, says the Great Falls Tribune. And catch Clay Holly's overall vision - "The idea is to have a local radio channel with news about Great Falls, and live disc jockeys. We also want to have opportunities for the coffee shop customers to have interaction through a mike." And yes - the coffee shop will have a drive-through window. Maybe they'll take requests. Munson Radio's KEIN (1310) plays adult standards - and keeping some of the old gas station signs in the new setup dovetails very neatly with the station's appeal.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/sv?cbp=12,57.01077724293397,,0,-14.61926109676359&cbll=47.511871,-111.264177&panoid=&v=1&hl=en&gl=us&w=425&h=240]

Wow - this is localism at its best. Might not work well in a large, urban environment or for a station that excites partisan craziness. But - this is a great way for a big station in a small market to really touch its listeners. This is something that world-wide market focused broadcasters like XM-Sirius and Pandora couldn't really pull off.

Brilliant, Clay! Hope you have great coffee!