The New Normal?

What is “normal?” The Thesaurus uses these words: Usual, standard, regular, ordinary, typical, customary, common, average, natural, habitual, routine, conventional.

If you’re applying it to a Radio station over the past two years you could say: revenue losses, personnel cuts, resource cuts. You could also say: still a viable business…for now.

Why “for now?” Because it is and can remain viable, but not if we let ourselves be lulled into a sense of a new normalcy by continuing to operate stations the way they have been over the last couple of years.

As revenues return so must the people and resources that make our industry competitive in the ever changing world of communications and entertainment.

Now that Arbitron is using the meter to measure usage almost by the minute, and we have let ourselves be bought on monthlies in metered markets instead of quarterlies by advertisers, getting the product right has never been more important. If you’re still in a diary market use this time to shore up your product and your brand before “real” measurement begins.

I don’t provide research but my friends in that industry tell me their business has either all but dried up, or has been significantly reduced. How can we continue to produce a product consumers want if we are not surveying their needs? Their likes and dislikes? How can we be competitive with other competing media unless we have the information from the consumer that will allow us to do so?

The marketing story is no different. I know some stations that have not had a marketing budget for several years, much less the last two years of a bad economy. Remember marketing your station can have a positive effect on your sales as well as your programming.

As for what I do provide, consulting, I can vouch for the fact that it has been reduced to a ghost of its former self. I’m not whining or having a pity party. I am very concerned for the level of expertise that is being allowed to lead the product production based many times on how cheap they will work rather than how much they know.

I realize how harsh that sounds. Sorry, but that’s what I am seeing unfold. Even the most experienced programmers need a sounding board for things like strategic planning, music testing and knowing how and when to play defense or offense. For the rookies or those short on experience, this is doubly true.

 Because I am a vendor this could all be easily dismissed as complaining about lost business. Not true. I’ve devoted my life to Radio and the last 20 years specifically to helping others solve their problems.

I am waving the flag and sounding the alarm in hopes you take action to help keep the business we all love relevant in the future.

Bob Glasco

bob@glascomedia.com

480-488-0903