"There is no more expensive thing than a free gift." Montaigne

"Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible." George Orwell

"Knowledge is the beginning of the discovery of something we don't understand." Andre Gide

Today's image: sunflowers by ko-knia. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

The Radio 2020 initiative is much talked about of late and that's a good thing. Radio folks love to talk and there's no shortage of opinions especially when there's creative execution to critique. He might as well have been talking about logos when Buzzy Bennett famously said "Everybody has the right to program." Aside from the usual suspects, advocates for the Radio Heard Here tag line and logo are harder to find than Randy Kabrick when Arbitron is caught doing something right.

Should the efforts of branding ace and initiative creative lead Kelly O'Keefe prove to be successful he stands to gain a lasting place in business history not simply for results produced but for an important precedent - the amazing achievement of getting and keeping radio folks focused and on the same page for longer than an afternoon. This will merit nothing less than the creation of a new SIC Code, SERVICES - CAT HERDING. Kelly, welcome to our dysfunctional family picnic. Do keep in mind, radio gets up everyday and goes to work not only to commit some measure of great radio but to kill other radio guys in the process. Beware, some of our most vocal creative types are former program directors - think Orson Welles without the genius baggage. Unfair it may be but expect the wags to continue throwing the apple of discord.

Back to the countdown. The concept of radio coming together to promote radio is nothing new. Previous modern endeavors, each introduced with varying flourish, have failed to produce results of any significance. Take radio's share of ad spend as an example. No matter how well intended the efforts, share has remained about the same. Radio is experienced and highly skilled in the art of winking at buyers in the dark, and as this paraphrase goes - we know what we're doing even if no one else does.

To move things along let's stipulate the concept of a fresh attempt at self promotion remains an idea worthy of serious investment.

There are a number of constituencies potentially involved in this initiative, permit me to pick just one - people with money to spend, the buying community. Getting the register to ring should be job one here. Let us agree to table any attempts at getting the industry pumped or convincing the unwashed youth that listening to radio is so totally mad cool. Narrow the focus, define success.

Let me play contrarian and present something that's right about Radio Heard Here. O'Keefe and team are to be commended for use of language, for employing a very important verb.

Because we are so close to it, lost in the press of daily affairs, we too often take for granted or tend to discount the incredible power, the magic, that radio has harnessed. Two citations:

The New Positioning by Jack Trout & Steve Rivkin. Chapter fourteen. Minds Work by Ear...

"Has anyone ever asked you which is more powerful, the eye or the ear? Probably not, because the answer is obvious. I'll bet deep down inside, you believe the eye is more powerful than the ear. Call it 'visual chauvinism,' if you like, but it's a preconception held by many marketing people...After analysing hundreds of effective positioning programs, we ran into a surprising conclusion: The programs were all verbal. There wasn't a single positioning concept that was exclusively visual...We have come to the conclusion that the mind works by ear, not by eye. A picture is not worth a thousand words."

Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams. Chapter 43. How Long Is the Race?...

"If your goal is to be the first into the mind of your customer when he needs what you sell, and to be the company he feels the best about, you should invest in the intrusive nature of sound with the reliability of its echoic retention."

There's a significant body of literature that supports the argument that the ear is a key driver in cognitive process. I'll not spend any more time making this case. It's out there and credible.

Radio Heard Here could serve as an excellent approach in a crucial conveyance of message. Let's start with four major points of difference: the intrinsic powers of audio media, ubiquity of reach, local influence and unmatched bang for buck. Supported with facts already in evidence (e.g., client testimonials, Radio Ad Lab, Arbitron & Media Audit data), Radio Heard Here could well deliver the mail to buyers, planners, brand managers and clients. Radio does have a great story to tell but we also have a history of getting in our own way.

The challenge here is not only in crafting a relevant and effective message but also in achieving deep consistent dissemination. The burden of message architecture needs to be equally sensitive to the practical realities of Madison Avenue and of Main Street. Time to grok "think global, act local." My thought is the task of dissemination will be made easier by leveraging those assets already in place.

Each participating station should be able to adapt the creative in such a way that it compounds the practical effects of the messaging while permitting, encouraging, the richness and nuance of individual local voice. We need to bring the message home by unlocking the power of complimentary local creative.

While the NAB, RAB and HD Radio Alliance may serve as initial channels of communication they alone should not be responsible for getting the word out. The message needs to be carried with consistency into the conversations happening in every metro where two or more are gathered in the name of advertising. To accomplish this the initiative should recognize their work as being grassroots in nature. Accordingly, they must reach out and involve those organizations friendly to radio where grassroots is lingua franca - the associations of state and metro broadcasters. Moving forward without these associations fully engaged is less than wise and simply not lucky.

Every state and metro association should establish a point person to lead Radio 2020 efforts. Provided materials from O'Keefe and crew each association and their members should have the tools needed to deliver the mail locally if not regionally. Every ad club, every agency, every advertiser should get the word.

Not just group guys or regionals or market managers or general managers or sales managers but every single seller as well, everyone in sales, everyone in sales support needs to be totally involved in the delivery of this important mail. It's potentially game-changing work that matters. Let the word go forth, one voice heard everywhere, keeping in mind that frequency sells and repetition is learning.

Until every agency, every single advertiser without regard to metro has heard the story, has been delivered the mail, the job will not be started. Until we move the needle and appreciably improve radio's share of ad spend the initiative should not be deemed in any way a success. I again, respectfully, call for transparency with regard to goals, standards and metrics (detail here). We need a scorecard. No more winking in the dark.

Clearly, we're talking marathon not sprint. Such an incredible endeavor has never before been mounted. There's no reason to believe that a properly resourced, developed and executed Radio Heard Here will fail to get the job done with the buying community. It's time. Let's get on with it. Let's have the courage to break all the rules and the audacity to make the new ones.

Closed circuit to Dan, John, Farid, Jeff, and Gary: That very cool idea - the group guy breakfast rally in Los Angeles earlier - was to be the first of many, what happened? Get the next ones scheduled (and invite Kelly to present).

Your thoughts heard here - comments welcome. Thanks for stopping by. Make something amazing happen this week.

"The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of work." Sarah K. Bolton

"The fact that people do not understand and respect the very best things, such as Mozart's concertos, is what permits men like us to become famous." Johannes Brahms

"When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction." Steven Wright

Today's image: Atardece el sol by Hernan P. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Good reads: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Burnoff. (Amazon info, blog) The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler (WikiNotes, free PDF download). Both highly recommended.

Congrats & cheers: Steve Safran bows MediaReinvent now in Very Beta. Add it to your reader.

A call for disclosure and transparency
Promise vs Performance

The NAB, RAB and HD Radio Alliance have joined forces to create the Radio 2020 initiative. The HD Radio Alliance is now in the second quarter of their third calendar year of efforts and running their second campaign of radio creative ("Upgrade") so far this year.

Opinions of the ongoing efforts by the HD Radio Alliance and early judgments of Radio 2020 are mixed. For the purposes of this post let's stipulate that the goals and objectives of both Radio 2020 and the HD Radio Alliance are the stuff of noble ambition. Further, let's agree, without objection, that the magnitude of resources being invested is not insignificant. Therefore, it seems fair and reasonable to ask "What's the ROI?" My thought is - absent all of any industry feel good generated by these endeavors - what measurable results are being produced? It's time for some pragmatism about execution.

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely - S.M.A.R.T.

Radio 2020 and the HD Radio Alliance will each benefit by establishing goals and openly sharing those with industry.

Scorecards.

Once goals are established related scorecards should be created.

Let me suggest scorecards be behavior focused and employ standards. For Radio 2020 a number of metrics are now available including ratings and share of ad spend. For example, should the goals of Radio 2020 be to improve 18-34 listening levels and increase share of ad spend, performance against these goals can be tracked. For the HD Radio Alliance we'll need retail sales data (e.g., NPD) to determine if the current drive to upgrade is working and if so how effectively.

Perceptual research involving consumers, customers and industry can be valuable in gaining a better understanding of expressed behaviors. Additionally research could help "course correct" initiatives providing insights into any patterns, trends or changes in perceptions, attitudes, values and beliefs.

Accountability separates the schnapsidee from the serious.

We need to be able to recognize and differentiate activity and progress. We also need to be able to grasp the true context of any progress. Therefore, leadership of Radio 2020 and the HD Radio Alliance should commit to nothing less than full and complete disclosure. Transparency will ensure a more robust and honest industry discussion. Moreover, transparency will provide a clarity of focus and the safeguards needed to lessen if not prevent ineffective investment of valuable resources.

It is in the best interest of all involved that leadership be held accountable for producing results. For this to happen we have an urgent need for specifics, a need for the deep detail; we need to know the goals and we need to know the results being produced. We need to have a serious and open industry discussion about what's happening and what's not happening. The work of Radio 2020 and the HD Radio Alliance should be work that matters, work that makes a difference.

Let's agree, the potential benefits of this work merit nothing less than full and complete disclosure.

Transparency will more fully engage an industry, promote a deeper, richer creative collaboration and it's the right thing to do.

"There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them." Alexandre Ledru-Rollin

"Two kinds of ballplayers aren't worth a darn: One that never does what he's told, and one who does nothin' except what he's told." Oail (Bum) Phillips

"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care." Colin Powell

Today's image: Josh and Footprints by Vu Bui. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Today, my response to the RBR article Why HD Radio may never make it.

"Jacta alea est"

The typing, not to be confused with writing, was not signed. We were told only that the keystroke artist was a "loyal reader" and "For business reasons, this reader cannot be identified by name." Since RBR chief Jim Carnegie did ask "Got a different take?" Let me now say that I do. Here's my scribble on each of the article's six points.

1) The name is wrong...already taken...Why unnecessarily create the impression of a brand extension...Rookie mistake.

Absent the suspect HDR Alliance research there is no empirical evidence to suggest HD Radio means much of anything to the mass audience, only a minority of the population even admit to being familiar with it (Jacobs Media Tech Poll, Arbitron-Edison Infinite Dial). In sum, the name remains innocent, benign, albeit undefined. A professional name lab developed the consumer brand name "HD Radio", the same firm that created the brand "Blackberry" among others. It is the inexperienced or lazy PD that blames the call letters then insists on changing them. Tylenol wrote the primer on rescuing brand names. When product tampering killed customers they stood firm. Radio programming ace Lee Arnold reminds me "The Beatles was a really lame name for a band until they had their first hit, come to think of it what kind of a name for a computer is a fruit?" We should leverage the TV messaging. This is not an act of brand extension but one of brand creation. HDTV = better television, HD Radio = better radio. Let me suggest the rookie here is the anonymous contributor, one needing to read Jones & Slater (or Rosser Reeves the wellspring of Trout & Ries).

2) HD Radio is not listener/consumer driven...neither compelling Content nor is it Convenient to use or understand...listeners do not have faith in the rank-and-file operators.

Physician heal thyself! "The play's the thing." Content is a station level operations issue. This is a leadership problem manifest in a massive failure of imagination, lack of serious investment, an aversion to risk and a growing tolerance, acceptance of mediocrity. On the subject of multicasting my proxy goes to Chuck Tweedle. Chuck, as you may recall, was the GM who built, from scratch, one of the most successful brands in American radio, KOIT. It was Chuck who said "Multicasting is the killer app." The fundamentals remain the same, put something on the wireless that they really want and they'll find it. More on this "product first" approach from Kent Burkhart (#201). Listeners only care about what comes out of the speakers, everything else is a footnote. Some 230 million are keeping the faith weekly and turning on their radios, they could care less about the "rank-and-file operators" (until those operators take away something they care about). As to the ease and convenience issues bear in mind that HD Radio is software driven, we're dealing with version 1.0, first generations of any tech product suck in hindsight. Greed will ensure things will only get better. Hint: Apple developed a hit form factor using a dated common software app.

3) Your introduction...is almost always a disappointment...does not make a good enough first impression.

The consumer electronics retail value chain plays by cutthroat jungle rules. Few working in the trade today can even remember the last time radio operators had to sell receivers. While the rule sets of CE were changing radio was busy harvesting the golden apples of bcf. Complacent in this rich Garden of the Hesperides radio took its eye off the ball. Driving folks to retail and having retail channels ready and productive while a serious significant challenge is not the Sisyphean mission some make it out to be. The most effective solution to remedy those first impression problems and help create demand is organic - product innovation. We also have an urgent need to get deeply involved at retail and point of sale.

4) It was designed to solve a non-problem.

A popular canard. Let me also quote the "honest liar" Jamy Swiss "I want to highlight the line between illusion and reality." Pay radio had nothing to do with the creation of HD Radio that's a convenient illusion. The reality is IBOC was designed to solve the problem of migrating radio to digital using the same licensed spectrum, a rubric fraught with the perils of "acceptable tradeoffs."

5) Hillary Derangement Syndrome...HD Radio is the Sheridan Whiteside of Media...Even Radio people have lost faith.

Too clever by half. Like Hillary, HD Radio is arguably better than its campaign. Communications from the HDR Alliance are what they are, anyone confusing a press release with reality is, to be kind, tragically naive. The single purpose of this Alliance messaging, imho, is to gin up favor with the street. To say that HD Radio is Whiteside is to infer that operators are Daisy Stanley (or at least the Stanley family). Further, this scenario implies that HD Radio is culpable of blackmail. This stuff smacks of a wacky grassy-knoll theorist mindset. Yes, some radio people have lost faith, some others never had faith, however, some do have faith and are working to make a difference. Again, this is a leadership issue. One needs to remember that at one time the majority of AM operators had no faith whatsoever in the future of FM (as before VHF guys laughed at UHF and the suits of broadcast tv once made jokes about those silly cable guys).

6) The commercials don't work...the more we keep advertising this non-starter, the more it becomes obvious the radio advertising must be the villain.

Poor creative execution is one villain here not the communications channel. The simple facts are advertising fails for a variety of very good reasons. If all one needed to do was run an ad to produce results commercial time would be traded on the gold exchange. There's nothing wrong with radio as an advertising medium. There was, as written here previously, something seriously wrong with the messaging. Peter Ferrara is still not getting credit for changing up the ill-starred "Discover It!" and inviting input after the failed "It's your radio" creative. Will the new campaign work? We need disclosure and transparency to begin that learning process.

In understanding the giant story arc that is radio and media behavior it benefits us to remember. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" so said George Santayana. The quote is probably familiar to most readers but let's put it into its proper context. Here's what Santayana said in The Life of Reason, Vol. 1, Reason in Common Sense...

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

We are going around in one big circle folks. We've been at one of these inflection points before, this will not be the last. Observe! Think! Discuss! Decide! Act! Learn! Think! Repeat. Will HD Radio "make it" whatever that means? Yes, if and when operators get serious. Once we truly understand and respect the advantages inherent in being in perpetual beta. Wimps play defense. My sense is the HD Radio glass is half-full and I'm more concerned about who's pouring. Game on!

My response to the RBR follow-on article Part 2: Can HD Radio Be Saved later this week.

To send comments please use the contact me form (left column). Thank you.

"Taking a new step; uttering a new word is what people fear most." Dostoyevsky

"To be free is precisely the same thing as to be pious, wise, just and temperate, careful of one's own, abstinent from what is another's and thence, magnanimous and brave...To be an opposite of these is the same thing as to be a slave." Milton

"What is a good man but a bad man's teacher? What is a bad man but a good man's job? If you don't understand this you will get lost, however intelligent you are. It is the great secret." Lao-Tzu

Today's image: Trees, Snow and Fog by Peter Bowers. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Trace v. Piers
No contest

In the Celebrity Apprentice competition Trace never had a chance. Had it been a contest of personality, a match awarded to the most charming or the nicest guy Trace would have walked away with it. But it was the Donald's game and in the world of business cash is king. Piers consistently "billed" better, game over. After all, management is paid to produce, responsible for results.

Did Piers game the system? Of course. Was Piers a jerk? Perhaps. It is safe to say he's got a sharp edge, a "shark's attitude" especially when compared to the reserve grace of the gentleman Trace.

The outcome serves to confirm one of the fundamentals of business. Being a nice guy is not enough, you've got to deliver; winners get the job done. Nice guys do finish first but only when they perform.

Truth be known a significant number of business failures can be traced to nice people not doing their jobs. Nice guys that don't do their job are working against the venture itself. Moreover, they too often are allowed to hold their job without the usual continuing qualification.

The nice guy can be dangerous if he's a mediocre or failed performer. The nice guy's social engineering skills may help him to gain popularity, leverage with the staff ("Everybody likes Alex, he's a great guy"). That popularity may even provide him with an unfair pass, one others don't get, a pass that hurts the enterprise ("Alex dropped the ball again but that's Alex, the guy really does work hard, he's doing his best"). The nice guy that fails to perform after being given fair warning and a chance to turn it around needs to be reassigned or released.

The failed nice guy is holding down a job that should go, to the ultimate benefit of the business, to a more productive person. In the words of the great Norm Goldsmith "If they're not helping you, they're hurting you." You need to do the right thing, move along the failed nice guy and make room for a contributor, an effective producer.

Some of the most dangerous sellers in media are the ones who do their best selling in the office. These are the champions of graduate level dog ate my homework. These sellers are always seen to be very, very busy. They have confused activity with progress and so have their managers.

Similarly, there are times when work ethic buys the wrong person a pass. Recently we were asked to take a meeting with a struggling director of NTR sales. This person was very busy, so tightly-scheduled with calls and related presentation prep, that we had to meet over a 6:30 am breakfast.

Bottom line - lots of activity, very few closed sales.

The person was openly failing on the job but given a pass time and time again because of work ethic ("The hardest working person in the company", "First in the office and last to go home every single day", "The hardest worker on the team, a class act") A classic mistake, the case of rewarding diligence over delivery.

We each earn our place on the team one day at a time. My personal preference is a positive work environment driven by values, a team where jerks are simply not tolerated. Freaks and mavericks always being welcome and valued additions.

The best performing teams are those that are held to established standards. Standards with well known consequences.

Meritocracy works best when everyone knows the rules of the game, when performance trumps personality, when productivity and progress are the most prized metrics.

Bonus: Never be late again. Thanks Googlers for GMail Custom Time.

It's what we don't know that will hurt us: Peter Ferrara deserves credit he's not yet getting. First, he gathered a group of radio's best and brightest for an idea summit early last month to discuss what was and what was not working with initiatives directed by the HD Radio Alliance. Second, he killed the ill-starred 2008 HD Radio Alliance creative campaign ("It's your radio") along with the two-year old "Discover it" tag line. Informed by his idea summit, Peter has refreshed the creative and developed a new tag line - "It's time to upgrade." Clearly, that's commendable progress.

What's still missing in these initiatives is disclosure, a serious and firm commitment to transparency. Going forward what are the goals and objectives, how exactly will performance, progress be measured? What were the goals/objectives in first quarter and how did we do? It comes down to defining success, establishing fair and reasonable quantitative metrics. What's par? Are we winning or losing? Making real progress or falling behind? It's what we don't know that will hurt us.

The HD Radio Alliance needs a scorecard, one that's shared and openly discussed with the industry. It's the right thing to do.

2004: "...increasingly it's all about audio and not at all about radio. We must dedicate ourselves to recruiting music programmers who possess an effective skill set eclipsing Selector expert and plays well with others...Going forward music radio must abandon the role of jukebox...Let's agree to stop describing our programming as compelling unless something actually happens on the radio station after the morning show that is not a liner, a sweeper, a promo, that day's music log, or one exceptionally good phone bit with a contest winner. Read the entire post here.

"A grapefruit is a lemon that had a chance and took advantage of it." Oscar Wilde

"Make chance essential." Paul Klee

"The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes." Goethe

Today's image: Yellow rose - Radiant Perfume Rose by RosePhotosEtc. Beautiful. Thanks.


The Emmis earnings call yesterday was refreshing. Unvarnished candor without the graduate level dog ate my homework excuse making.

Finally, someone had the courage to speak up and talk about reality as it is, not as it was or as some wish it to be. Bravos to Jeff Smulyan!

While Jeff is right to suggest we may well have reached the "worst-point in the history of the industry" he is, in my opinion, equally right to be optimistic.

Let's review the bidding.

The first tribe of wireless starts this year with an estimated 233 million weekly users, reaching 93% of Americans.

Early indications from the PPM data tell us radio's reach is robust, greater even than the reach now revealed by diary capture.

We have at hand empirical data on radio's effectiveness thanks to the ground-breaking and ongoing work of the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab.

While radio is not growing revenues (or bcf) the generation of free cash remains strong. Radio stocks have no chance of coming back until growth, that bitch goddess of Wall Street, is clearly in evidence.

2008 can be a tipping point, a second chance.

Today's sales crisis (and truth be known that is exactly what we are experiencing, a full blown crisis years in the making) should serve as the final wakeup call, the needed catalyst for change.

Jeff is also right when he says "demand is the issue." As a practical matter, we have to get serious about creating that demand. We need to keep the AV (audacity and veracity) dialed up to eleven.

What's needed now more than ever before is effective leadership.

No one is going to save us, we have to save ourselves. Let me close with Dr Hamel...

"What ultimately constrains the performance of your organization is not its business model, nor its operating model, but its management model...management innovation has a unique capacity to create a long term advantage for your company...frankly, today's best practices aren't good enough...I dream of organizations that are capable of spontaneous renewal, where the drama of change is unaccompanied by the wrenching trauma of a turnaround. I dream of businesses where an electric current of innovation pulses through every activity, where the renegades always trump the reactionaries. I dream of companies that actually deserve the passion and creativity of the folks who work there, and naturally elicit the very best that people have to give. Of course, these are more than dreams; they are imperatives. They are do or die challenges for any company that hopes to thrive in the tumultuous times ahead - and they can only be surmounted with inspired management innovation...'management' as currently practiced, is a drag on success" Gary Hamel, The Future of Management

Bonus: Larry Shannon - That's Where America Talks. Kudos to Larry, well said!

But wait, there's more: Kurt Hanson weighs in on the new HD Radio Alliance creative - HD Radio Alliance found a workable tactic...but it's off-strategy here. Reading Kurt's post reminds me. Please let us see the research finding supporting the claim (among others) that HD Radio has a 77% awareness.

Older men take control of perfectly good student radio station: Doing it only to amuse themselves, Bruce Ravid will host and be joined by Tom Teuber, Rick Murphy, Dave Benson and others in the eight hour take over of WSUM. It's scheduled to happen on Tuesday, January 15 beginning at 10 am. Don't miss it if you can.

Next time: Closed circuit to Radio CEOs - The 2008 To Do List

From TED, must see video, J. J. Abrams: The mystery box

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"To gaze is to think." Salvador Dali

"I shut my eyes in order to see." Paul Gauguin

Today's image: Art Supply Vortex by taylorkoa22. Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

The top two stories in this morning's Inside Radio concern the HD Radio Alliance.

Peter Ferrara tells IR as many as 1.5 million receivers "could be sold" in the coming months. That's good news. We have set a performance expectation, established a measurable business objective. The same paragraph references "the estimate of one million units already in-use." This would seem to be an error of fact. The last number heard was 500,000 units sold over the last 20 months or so. How many units have actually been sold? What's needed here is a full disclosure. All involved will benefit from transparency.

We also learn this morning that GSD&M was chosen because of results produced for BMW using a share of the HD Radio Alliance radio inventory. What were those results exactly? Let's get a testimonial from BMW's CMO on the power of radio advertising. While we're at it, let's invite that CMO and a representative from GSD&M to speak at RAB 2008. They can deliver a case study.

Bravos to Peter for inviting ideas on the 2008 campaign. "The more we have input, the better we're going to get at it" he tells IR. Here are three suggestions:

Let's get some research into the field to measure the messaging.

Let's tag the messaging directing listeners to the hdradio.com site, we need to put the web to work, help deliver the mail and compliment the broadcast messaging. Station main pages should also feature an HD Radio badge above the fold linking to the hdradio domain.

Let's open a serious and candid industry conversation putting everything on the table.

Congrats & cheers: Top ten in the city, 25-54, fall book. 1) WSKQ tied WLTW 2) WBLS 3)WRKS 4) WHTZ 5) WPAT 6) WAXQ 7) WKTU 8) WCBS-FM 9) WWFS 10) WQHT. #1 18-34 a tie between WQHT and WHTZ. Special honors to the crews at Z100, WSKQ, WLTW and WBLS, they have again proven it possible to deliver top five rankings 18-34 and 25-54.

"I am my brain's publisher." Philippe Starck

"Music draws upon feeling and thinking, joining the emotional with the rational." Yehudi Menuhin

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else." Tom Stoppard

Today's image: Fly My Guitar by The Rocketeer. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.



NBCU has a site dedicated to CES. Very cool. NBCU at CES.

Scoble: Live streaming wireless video from the CES show floor here. Congrats to Mogulus!
LATER: John Furrier and others participated in a cool real-time Q&A via video and chat from the Scoble Blog Haus.

Kudos: Peter Ferrara permissions access to the new HD Radio Alliance creative. Not a fanboy of the new creative but perhaps you will be. Check it out here (audio is stored under Commercials). Thank you, Peter.

Kudos 2: Fred Jacobs offers up Lessons From the HD2 Highway by guest blogger Mark Pennington, the programming ace behind RIFF2.

"To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage." Georgia O'Keeffe

"...one of the hallmarks of a creative person is the ability to tolerate ambiguity, dissonance, inconsistency, things out of place. But one of the rules of a well-run corporation is that surprise be minimized. Yet if this rule were applied to the creative process, nothing worth reading would get written, nothing worth seeing would get painted, nothing worth living with and using would ever get designed." Ralph Caplan

"The ways of creativity are infinite: the ways of formal learning are numbered. Restless, curious, playful, contriving, the innovative mind feeds on challenge and makes its home in the province of mystery." Robert Grudin

Today's image: Street guardian by Rui Palha. Brilliant. Thanks for sharing!


Something discovered while doing research for an upcoming talk.

David Ogilvy, a memo to the Board, October 1978...

A Teaching Hospital

I have a new metaphor.

Great hospitals do two things: They look after patients, and they teach young doctors.

Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people.

Ogilvy & Mather is the teaching hospital of the advertising world. And, as such, to be respected above all other agencies.

I prefer this to Stanley Resor's old saying that J. Walter Thompson was a 'university of advertising.'

Beautiful. Ogilvy was indeed a genius.

Wanted: Teaching hospitals of the 21st century advertising world.

My sense is that project would require another Ogilvy. Leadership!

Bonus: Lee Arnold

"Perspective is worth ten IQ points"

That's wise counsel from Gary Hamel. As we begin another first quarter and another round of earnings calls what we need is some fresh perspective. The #1 challenge facing broadcasters continues to be broadcasters. Captives to history. As a practical matter, incumbency is worthless. Stop thinking about broadcast in the context of broadcast. Start thinking about broadcast in the context of everything else. Focus on the denominator. The most telling stat of all is share. Set aside CAGR, broadcast share is in decline - Danger, Will Robinson. First big important step - find the hunger. Forget about getting better, get pathologically competitive, obsessed about getting different. (My thanks to Thomas P.M. Barnett for the construct. Tom has said the difference between himself and the folks that work at the Pentagon is they think about war in the context of war and he thinks about war in the context of everything else)

Eagle flies in Iowa: Campaign Media Analysis Group estimates Iowa TV stations picked up $45 mil in the run up to yesterday's caucuses.

Congrats & cheers: For the first time, Disney Channel beat all the ad-supported cable networks in prime during 2007, delivering more average viewers than any other #1 network in cable TV history. USA posted second.

Blogging music: Daytrotter. Rock Sellout. My thanks to the Hey Nielsen crew for the tips.

Too soon to tell: Story about GSD&M creative for the HD Radio Alliance breaks in the trade. Gregory Solman writes it up in Ad Week, GSD&M Preps $200 Mil. + HD Radio Push. Meanwhile, Media Monitors proclaims the HD Radio Alliance 2007's #1 radio advertiser (national spot). 1,451,036 spots detected. My thought is those 1.45 mil units were only a part of the 2007 messaging efforts. Promos, IDs, et al by local stations were not insignificant and should be properly credited in any realistic accounting of investments made in the HD Radio initiative. As mentioned here previously 2008 is the third year of this initiative. Alliance members have pledged $230 mil in inventory. This represents an incredible opportunity and one that should not be wasted. The largest single multi-year investment made by and for radio in the history of radio should produce results. The HD Radio campaign should serve as nothing less than a practical demonstration of the power of radio advertising. The evidence must be empirical. Q.E.D.

"I quote others only the better to express myself." Michel de Montaigne

"Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality." Arthur Koestler

"If you want to get lucky...it pays to be ready." Michael Bierut

Today's image: This Way by photosapience. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing!

Radio execs continue to have important and valuable missed opportunities at hand. More here (including comment by Mel Taylor).

Local, local, local: Google gets a dedicated GOOG-411 button on new phones. Release here.

Make it urgent

Fred Jacobs revisits last month's kerfuffle related to the new GSD&M creative from the HD Radio Alliance and suggests an industry dialogue. He's right. Fred's post here. What is obviously missing in all of this - so far - is any sense of urgency on the part of Peter Ferrara. Disclosure, transparency, creative collaboration, ongoing open and candid industry conversation are needed going forward. Needed now! This is becoming less about the new creative and more about leadership. Peter, do the right thing, take the lead, make 2008 the year of dramatic game-changing difference, of real progress for HD Radio. P.S. You'll find a great many of radio's best and brightest willing and ready to answer the call.

Face time, again: Free the Scoble 5,000!!! Kara's take here...

"All that information on Facebook is Robert Scoble’s. So, he should–even if he agreed to give away his rights to move it to use the service in the first place (he had no other choice if he wanted to join)–be allowed to move it wherever he wants."

Dave Winer lends his usual uncommon good sense to this...

"It's a big effin loop we're in. One of these times around one of the companies that feels (incorrectly) that they have a lock on their users, will voluntarily give it up and be a leader in Generation N+1. I've never seen it happen, but in theory I think it could...So Facebook has the opportunity to be a crossover company, part of the next generation -- or a last gasp of the generation that's about to run out of gas. It's their choice. And it's fitting somehow that Scoble is the poster child for users in this cycle."

More Dave w/comments here.

Robert writes Facebook disabled my account and weighs in here (hundreds of comments and counting - good show).

LATER: We learn Robert was alpha testing Plaxo Pulse.

The lesson here is not about ToU or portability of personal data or the myth called privacy. The lesson here is don't be messin with alpha-geeks. More on data portability here.

Bubble 2: Plaxo for sale? $100 mil? Timesman Andrew Ross Sorkin has the story here.

Resolution, Read More: Brad puts up a one page summary of the Thomas P.M. Barnett suggested reading list. Outstanding. Highly recommended list, here. Thanks Brad, and TPMB! Earlier comp on Tom's site here.

"It is not so hard to be original, what is hard, is to be original with continuity." Andres Segovia

"Art is what you can get away with." Marshall McLuhan

"Art is pattern informed by sensibility." Sir Herbert Read

Today's image: Red fruit by unneva. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

Thinking out loud: The agency hired to do the new creative for the HD Radio Alliance is GSD&M. Have a great amount of respect for that shop. Still, not a fan of the new Alliance creative. The questions remaining are: Why Peter Ferrara has not announced that GSD&M, a celebrated and respected shop, was engaged to do the creative? Does Peter have research to support the creative? My sense is GSD&M, understanding the critical importance of the initiative, would have suggested the creative be tested before or after execution and before air. If not before air then certainly after a good measure of weight has run to establish some measure of effectiveness. We have an urgent need for transparency. Peter?

Thomas P.M. Barnett: The Pentagon's New Map for War & Peace. Must see video of his presentation at TED. Brilliant!

"Consider the doorway as a metaphor for information, humour a passageway to understanding." Rich Saul Wurman

"Matisse renovates rather than innovates." Guillaume Apollinaire

"It may be those who do most dream most." Stephen Leacock

Today's image: New hat and a hula hoop by fd. Great shot! Thanks for sharing.

More of my eight to watch in '08: He's the marketing guy's marketing guy. While others are talking about doing something, he's doing it while blogging and podcasting about it. He's the juice, the goods. If you like Seth, you'll love Joseph Jaffe.

Just say no: Should you work in commercial radio and if your group is a member of the HD Radio Alliance please be aware of the new Alliance creative set to air beginning 12/31. Does the creative belong on your air? Please listen to it and decide. Fred Jacobs and I have suggested that it not air. We are calling for a time out and a candid industry discussion. Read Fred's post with comments here. My earlier posts on the HD Radio Alliance here, here and here. FYI - to date not one person other than Peter Farrara has stepped forward to defend the creative. Time to take action. Should you agree that the new creative will not get the job done, will not position and promote HD Radio in the right way then just say no. Do let corporate know how you feel about this. Let's not waste one avail with this new creative. The messaging for HD Radio is important. We have an urgent need to be right.

Peter, I again respectfully request you delay the 12/31 start and ask you to please remove the password protection allowing everyone to hear the new creative. What's needed now more than ever is transparency.

Keeping Up - Best of trade coverage, online, '07: Radio - AllAccess Nobody does it better. Joel Denver and his crew are simply the best. TV - Tie - TV Decoder (Brian Stelter), Lost Remote (Bergman, Safran, Johnson, Day et al). New media - Tie - paidContent, TechCrunch.

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information." T.S. Eliot

"To look is to learn, if you listen carefully." Per Arnoldi

"Knowledge is little; to know the right context is much, to know the right spot is everything." Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Today's image: Wilderness of Glacier & Snow Lake by Heartkins. Amazing! Thank you.

In recent posts I have asked questions about HD Radio. Specifically, the need for an intellectually honest evaluation of progress made, results produced by the HD Radio Alliance.
Previous posts here and here.

My sense is we need hard data before any such evaluation is possible. Earlier posts were a call for disclosure. We have an urgent need for transparency here.

Here is what we do know.

This month marks the second year anniversary of the Alliance formation.

Member stations have invested something north of $400 million in air time to promote HD Radio. Perhaps, the single most significant consumer marketing investment by and for radio in radio history.

It appears that about 500,000 HD Radio receivers have been sold.

The HDRadio.com website seems, according to one measure, to be getting approx 33,000 visitors per month.

Should these receiver sales and site visitor numbers prove to be even close to correct it is fair to suggest we have a serious problem.

Either radio is not an effective media to get the message out, the wrong communications channel to use in selling radios and driving web traffic or the messaging is not right. My conclusion is the messaging is wrong, clearly not effective.

The latest development: the Alliance is changing up the creative strategy. My understanding is Alliance CEO Peter Ferrara ordered and approved new creative.

After hearing the new creative I must respectfully suggest it is best that it never air.

I urge Peter Ferrara to order a delay in the launch of this new creative set to air beginning 12/31. We need to take a time out. We need to begin a candid and serious industry conversation about the consumer marketing needed to produce a meaningful result in the HD Radio roll out.

Listen to the creative yourself here.

Fred Jacobs blogs on this issue here. Bravos to Fred!

We can get this done the right way, we can make this happen, make a genuine difference, however we should give this nothing less than our best shot. This new creative does not represent the best possible use of our audio given the challenges at hand and in this critically important initiative the standard must be, without qualification, unconditionally, only the best that we can do. We can do this. Game on.

LATER: Peter Ferrara responds via Fred's blog...

"Fred (an all) –

We're sorry you didn't enjoy the spots. We are working with an one of the top brand building ad agencies in the country that's done great things for clients like Southwest Airlines, BMW, MasterCard, AT&T and the PGA Tour. We explained our challenge, the current status of HD Radio and asked them for their honest evaluation and recommendation.

It's completely natural for all of us in the radio business to bristle at the thought that not everyone shares our passion and commitment to our medium. The truth is that these spots aren't aimed at you and me - and we need to have the courage to engage the folks we're trying to reach in a way that speaks to the way they see it. And when we connect with them on that, authentic level, we can hope to re-engage them in what's outstanding about radio.

In the meantime, all of us in radio's inner circle have an opportunity to trust in the experience and the track record of an ad agency that's been here before."

My response to Peter via Fred's blog...

"Peter,

You're being intellectually dishonest to wit: SW, BMW, MC and AT&T were established brands long before the engagement of your unnamed agency; the proper qualification needed would seem to be a proven track record of successfully launching new, previously unknown, brands in the marketplace - you have provided no such credential with your comment. I again respectfully request you do the right thing and put this creative on hold, take a time out, open a candid and serious discussion with the industry. Should you be right, should you and your agency have the research to prove this approach to be sound, to be the best possible creative needed to get the job done then share it. We can then all move forward together with the knowledge that we are, indeed, doing the right thing."

Update: The HD Radio Alliance creative is now password protected. What is this, high school with money? Peter, we have an urgent need for transparency here. Why would you or anyone else at the Alliance decide to hide your new creative with a password?

Mr Ferrara, tear down this password wall!

At this point, days away from the debut of the new creative, it is disappointing we have not enjoyed the benefits of a more open, serious and candid discussion on this matter. The promotion of HD Radio deserves to be on the agenda of every radio station in 2008. The attitude that Peter Ferrara seems to suggest in his comment reminds me of the line attributed to Groucho Marks, "...who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes." At a time when radio's digital strategy includes betting its life on HD Radio, the Alliance is telling radio professionals "Who you gonna believe, our agency or your own ears." LATER: Peter permissions the new HD Radio Alliance creative. Updates here and here.

"Adornment is never anything except a reflection of the heart." Coco Chanel

"Delusion is the abandonment of outer reality in favour of inner wish." Alain de Botton

"It is the theory which decides what we can observe." Albert Einstein

Today's image: cold sunday morning by C a f r i n e. Amazing! Thank you very much.

Lost & Found: Back in the day it was a wonderment - to read, enjoy and discuss the latest Release 1.0 (thanks, usually, to the kindness of a friend or colleague that could afford those then expensive writings of the great Esther Dyson). Over the years the issues I did have were lost (if two moves = one fire, my six moves = ?). Now, Tim O'Reilly is offering the entire collection of Esther's R1.0 free online here. Very cool. Kudos to Tim and thanks to Dr Dave for the tip.

Your attention, please: Tom Asacker asks why we scan emails, save the ones we want to spend more time with and then never look at them again - with comments here. This mystery of media consumption must be related to the stacks of magazines and newspapers I'm not throwing out yet.

Internet radio is a DIFFERENT medium: Kurt Hanson gets it right, again...

"Webcasters who take advantage of the characteristics of the new medium — e.g., LAUNCHcast, Pandora, etc. — are, I believe, going to be the ones that see the greatest success in this medium. And right now, the Internet efforts of traditional radio broadcasters (AM/FM broadcast groups, satellite radio companies, etc.) are not playing in that game." More here.

Bravos, Kurt. My sense is the linear experience of broadcast is genetically hardwired.

Radio execs continue to have important and valuable missed opportunities at hand. Take streaming. The majority of stations are doing a terrible job of putting their over-the-air product online.

The simple test is how a station handles stop sets

Failing to simulcast, to insert the commercials as aired, means the streaming will not receive Arbitron credit, granted that's a business decision. However, given that election the result should not be a poorly executed stop set. You've heard them, chopped audio, the use of one boring music loop, repeating the same three, four Ad Council spots, the same one or two promos, or worst of all, dead air (is this thing still working?). Stuff you would never allow to happen on air is tolerated, accepted online. These stop sets are beyond the pale however they do serve to conclusively prove that no one is minding the store. What we have here is a massive failure of imagination for which there's simply no excuse. Online stop sets represent one of the greatest creative opportunities for radio in 2008. Moreover, smart operators will turn this unused inventory into real money. Aside: During my salad days with RKO Radio my mentor the legendary Dwight Case would say "Dave, what you programming people call a stop set, our sales people know, correctly, is a go set."

The cobbler's children have no shoes

That the recognized experts of consumer audio are not leading the online audio charge is, well, practically without any reasonable explanation. Instead we increasingly find the pro-am folks are in the front of that parade. Stay tuned, the whole world is going pro-am before our very ears. For radio to seriously get into the online game we need to, in the majority of cases, take the websites away from the clearly over-worked station folks. This is not to suggest that stations farm out the work, they would be better served by investment, bringing the work in-house and establishing dedicated online teams. With all respect to my friend Dan Mason making the program directors responsible for their websites is at best a temp solution.

PDs in charge will not get the job done, will not move forward the much needed creation of new competitive space, won't move the needle and jump start the revenues that are possible. By the way, our main channel sellers are exactly the wrong people needed to properly monetize our digital assets. One need only look at the job they're doing with the inventory they already have. Certainly there are those rare exceptions but too few to mention. Ok, I'll mention one. Bonneville, Chicago. Schnacke and Horowitz do get it.

While the website should be considered a stand alone business it too often remains an after thought, it should be a collection of prized digital assets. Some of us have been in this movie before. We have a history of doing this stuff. We are treating online assets in the same way an earlier generation of AM guys treated nascent FM. It actually took a change in federal regulation to birth FM (the non-duplication rules). The feds promoted the growth of FM by force of rule making, in the online battle space radio must save itself. This generation's FM guys need to stop treating online like their AM.

Closed circuit to Miller Kaplan: Could we please get current and change that catch all now labeled Network & Other. In the least we need a dedicated line measuring radio's online rev capture. If we can't measure it we can't manage it and we're not measuring it now. Radio has no real idea of where it stands in the growing online spend and we urgently need a performance metric.

Radio needs to get into the export business and out of the import game, that dated 1.0 mindset of attracting listeners to a walled garden. Radio folks continue to talk a good game and then put things on hold. As every good radio manager knows the best way to kill an idea is to find a way for it to cost money. Radio needs to get out of the dangerous sport, the circus side show of dodging bullets and get into the 21st century fight because the battle space is moving, the velocity of change accelerating. The swagger of "Yep, ain't nothing killed us so far" is sounding a wee bit anachronistic.

"There is nothing so exhilarating as being shot at without result" so said Churchill. Radio shouldn't count on that always being the case, it won't be. The good news is there are some bright folks out there, Kurt Hanson included, that can show the way. Game on.

LATER: Mel Taylor weighs in via comments...

"...not to name names....but some in Radio believe that streaming and page view growth equals success. it's a nice start, but will not be enough in a hyper-competitive onlne (sic) space"

Bravo, Mel. Well said. Read more in comments below and at Mel's blog here.

You remember last time

Previously, it was suggested here that it was time the HD Radio Alliance starting sharing receiver sales data (read that earlier post here). Let me now, respectfully, make a second suggestion to Peter Ferrara - please, show us your web site stats. In fact, please start posting them weekly, if not daily. Alliance members have invested about $400 million in promotional inventory and while we have no accounting for how much of that investment actually made mention of hdradio.com domain we do have at least one third party measure of web traffic thanks to Compete.

How would you like to invest some $400 million and get results like this?

33,000 something website visitors per month

$400 million invested, the second most tracked creative on commercial radio nationwide, according to monitors, and radio gets beaten by two dead tree guys including one metro daily?

USA Today ranks #68 (11,739,316), The Chicago Sun-Times ranks #1,101 (1,448,929) and HDRadio.com ranks #50,340 (33,103) Ouch!

A single radio station website can easily generate more uvs in a week than hdradio.com appears to be capturing in a month. And to put this into perspective, these hdradio.com results were produced with a major national campaign running.

As my Georgia relatives would say "Something bad wrong here."

These anemic traffic stats would seem to suggest one of two possible causes. Radio is not an effective media for driving web traffic or the messaging is wrong, it's not working. I vote the latter as I know the former to be plainly false.

Lets do the arithmetic. Again, as before with receiver sales data, absent the real numbers we'll make some up. Let's say only one-third of the $400 million mentioned the domain, the hdradio.com url, or $133 million in weight. Divide by twenty months = $6.65 million per month and provided 33,000 visitors per month = $201.51 per visitor. What's that CPM? With all that weight wouldn't it seem fair that at least one million or more people would have Googled it over a year? We can be certain $400 million generated some level of awareness, some consumer curiosity.

What's needed here is a measure of accountability. We need to know what was delivered, what was produced by the investment. Clearly, it's time to fix this. That process must start with transparency, a full disclosure of the any and all available metrics. We can do this, let's get started. Updates here and here.

Alfred I. duPont - Columbia University 2008 News Awards - congrats to the 13 winners, here. Thanks to Larry Shannon and RDN for the tip.

Bonus: NPR diva Susan Stamberg shares the Independent Booksellers' Picks here.

Congrats & cheers: RAB is now blogging RABBlog, kudos to George Hyde and welcome to the conversation. Also, bravos to George for inviting Amy Van Hook and Gordon Borrell to play at RAB 2008, smart moves both. Microsoft bows Stay At Home Servers, bravos!