Date Posted:
04 | 13 | 05

The Real Competition

I spent my lunch today enjoying a phone conversation with a guy I consider to be among the nation's best up and coming air talent. He's a Hot/AC night jock. It is during these conversations I realize the basics aren't being taught any more.

Correction: The basics that are being taught (when they're taught at all) are ten to twenty years out of date. I suppose this is a truism in business in general, but I'm not writing about Detroit automakers and their decades old slump.

With the basics in mind, I asked this jock who his competition was. I wasn't being a smart-ass... He's a young jock, and I think it's important to teach whenever you get the chance. It's important to keep learning too - but that's a post for another day.

"Well, I'm up against..." [insert local chr here]

"The basics that are being taught (when they're taught at all) are ten to twenty years out of date. I suppose this is a truism in business in general, but I'm not writing about Detroit automakers and their decades old slump."

A Hot/AC night show does compete with a CHR show. Sure. But here's a list of other things his show is competing with for a 30 year old female's time:

  • The triple A station
  • The AC station
  • Sirius Satellite Radio
  • Her mp3 player
  • American Idol on FOX
  • Animal Planet on cable
  • Going to the movies
  • Yoga class
  • Shopping (till stores close around 9pm anyway)
  • Meeting an old friend for drinks
  • Screwing her boyfriend's brains out (we're all human after all. Good luck competing with THAT!)
My point, of course, is that when you're on the air, you are competing with anything and everything else listeners could be doing with their time.

A person's time is really quite a gift. Consider the many other options at their disposal, and then realize that they chose to hang out with you.

While I'm sure you know this, I suspect that a little reminder every now and then is a good idea.

...and with that - Captain Obvious... OUT!

Colophon:

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Think About It:

  • A Sense Of Perspective:   We know that Seattle is not Miami is not Albany is not Ames Iawa. We mock those who treat them as if they're the same with the same ideas and the same programming. And then, at the end of the day, we leave our radio stations & forget that what we have learned applies to real life.

  • Indecency, And The Dance:   The real issue here is a weakened FCC. We have no standards to go by, and no reasonable expectation of repercussions for when we go over the line.

  • Radio As A Music Delivery System:   Music is a form of entertainment... but if music is the only way you know to put entertainment on the radio, do us all a favor and be gone.

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