It's Summertime And The Listening Is Easy -- Or Is It?

Summer Rites Of Passage

As we penetrate deeper into the first phase of the summer of 2006, we thought we'd offer a few thoughts on what to do with summer and show how and why it is different from the other seasons. We want to examine what we're calling "the summer rites of passage."

First of all we must answer the obvious question: Is summer really that different from the other seasons? And the answer is "yes." For one thing, people listen differently during the summer. Their attitude and their needs are different. There are kids who are out of school, people who are on vacation, and, even for those who are working, there's a whole summer "feel." Capture it and you can instantly convert some P3s and P2's to P1 listeners. If you can become their favorite summer station, you will be their favorite station this fall and beyond.

For those listeners to our stations for whom the listening is easy and who want to just while away and enjoy the summer of '06, we have an excellent opportunity to grab 'em by the ears and convert some of these lazy summer listeners to other formats and stations to our format and our stations. We can do this by playing and saying things that will have a significant impact. At the same time we can significantly impact how people listen to and remember what they heard on the radio. Then, if we've branded and marketed correctly, they will identify with and remember which station was part of the greatest summer of their lives. Gears need to be set in motion for this new building process.

Something else to keep in mind this June, July and August, is that we're still here, hopefully stronger, wiser, more dedicated and ready to face the new summer challenges of what some are calling "the digital decade."

Radio -- By The Numbers

The digital decade has spawned complex numbering systems that often define and direct our e-mail, cellular telephone calls, research, earnings, transportation systems, playlists and websites. Then there are those dawdling digits, or report cards from Arbitron that arrive every 3 months. They're all part of our obsession with numbers.

Obviously, some numbering systems are necessary. Things such as zip codes, area codes, social security numbers and Arbitron share-trends have become a way of life.

Zip codes began back in 1963 as a result of changes in mail transportation and an explosion in business mail and the overall population growth.

In order to track mandatory worker contributions to the new Social Security program -- part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation -- our social security number program was established. Since so many folks shared the same names or changed names, it was decided to use numbers as identifiers.

But whether it's social security, or computing cost-per thousand, digits will continue to dominate our world and the more we understand them the more effective we can be.

From focus groups to satellite delivery, mp3's and iPods, downloading, Internet radio to the emergence of HD-Radio, it all comes together. This is important and we have to take the time to think about it this summer because we have new competition. So now more than ever we have to avoid sounding old and stale. We have to prevent staleness. The best way to do that is to sound fresh, and the best way to sound fresh is to make sure the music is fresh. Now is the time to take some chances on some fresh new jams. Cut back on the gold and re-currents and bring the energy up.

Time & The Music March On

Five summers ago, our business was different. Our industries were different. Today, due to downsizing, restructuring, takeovers, group ownership and consolidation, instead of concentrating on a quality product, radio often concentrates on Wall Street affairs (their bottom line). Why are these cold, hard moves necessary? Most corporations are propelled by habit and inertia. In today's radio landscape, fragmentation, competition, job instability and merger fever have made for nervous businesses.

Like many of you, I considered myself a nervous beneficiary of the civil rights movement -- one of the heirs of a long and sustained war against racism -- casually accepting, but not embracing, a future of endless conflict.

That summer when we first heard "The Godfather of Soul," James Brown, asking us to "Say it Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud," we weren't sure if he was extolling the good life in America and challenging us to reach for it, or if he had somehow managed to produce an unfortunate corollary declaration.

Somehow the racial attitude of this generation -- the post civil rights, television-bred, cyber-spacing, baby boomer group -- seemed only slightly better than those of our parents. We espoused racial "brotherhood" and "sisterhood" in the abstract, while preserving the right to be racist in our hearts behind closed doors. Some of us, at least.

This was perhaps a contradiction of feelings none of us, neither blacks nor whites, will ever completely understand or resolve.

Despite the fact that today's young listeners play together, learn together and listen to radio together, and despite the fact, too, that they are better informed, better educated and better researched, many still reject integration as a goal. Integration, they will insist, implies loss of identity. The goal of this new generation is "diversity" or "multiculturalism."

While all this bantering is going on, the majority of Americans of this re-defined new generation seem to have grown weary of what they perceive as simply another grand attempt at integration. One of the by-products is the blurring of formats between urban, Top-40, urban adult, adult-contemporary, rhythmic CHR, "Jack" and smooth jazz. The goal, of course, is to be as mass appeal as possible without exceeding format boundaries.

Recent research studies have shown that during the summer months and because of the sheer energy they offer, urban jams and artists are more than mass appeal. They often provide much-needed fresh energy for ballad-heavy formats. They offer a welcome change for many Top-40 and AC formats' constant guitar-based bands and singers. There are still markets such as Birmingham, Memphis, Chicago, Washington, Detroit and Baltimore, where urban music stations are both format dominant and market dominant. But with the constant mergers and ownership changes the landscape is changing politically as well as musically.

Politically, merely judging from their recent positions on affirmative action and immigration and the Republican Party's current, subtle, race-based appeals, many members of the majority race appear to have jettisoned every avenue toward racial co-habitation of formats, be it integration, diversity or multiculturalism.

So what's in store for us next summer and in summers to come? Most likely there are still going to be seasons and a future filled with endless racial conflict. No, we're not saying that there is no hope for an end to our cultural problems both on and off the air. Someday we may find a way to bridge the gap, but this new generation of listeners, programmers and researchers still has a long way to go and will most likely continue to remain divided over some racial and political issues.

While we have to keep one eye on these social and political issues, for obvious reasons, the answer for programmers and air-personalities this summer is to work toward becoming an "indispensable specialist." No longer can you be obscure and secure. In today's crowded radio marketplace, the "if you build it they will come" philosophy doesn't work very well. You have to become noticed for the right reasons. Focus is a big part of it. The ability to provide thought and insight are equally important, but there needs to be a little bit of fire to go along with the smoke. It also helps to poke the flames.

Many of us are dismayed and frustrated because our generation didn't make more progress, but then we must remember our parents were divided over virtually everything except the music. Favorite songs and artists' color didn't matter then and they don't now. Songwriters, artists and producers listened, learned from, copied and sampled. Many of the magic songs of our era became the crucibles from which future hits were forged. They crossed over then and they still do. Segregation of radio formats was ridiculous then ... and it still is.

We enter the next five years on the threshold of a new dream, still facing our greatest and as yet unmet challenges.

In spite of these challenges, obstacles and reservations, the tide is turning. As consolidation and partnerships grow more and more innovative and results-oriented, watch some of that apprehension give way to a common-sense view of survival. Thanks to these collaborations, this summer we should recognize that we no longer have to live in a divided digital world. We can create a more balanced one -- a world with new summer rites of passage.

Word.