What Lovemarks Can Teach Radio Stations -- and Marketers

Excerpted from Advertising Age
By Doug Zanger
Published: January 29, 2008

We started the 2008 school year in the Integrated Media program at Mount Hood Community College a few weeks ago. As is our habit, we are using Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands as the primary text. It's not because there are so many pretty pictures (which I definitely need), but there are clear and simple ideas that give our students a clear foundation for understanding the basic concepts of branding.

One of the questions posed to the students was whether they thought, here in Portland, they could identify radio stations that were true "brands." A few stood out (KINK, 94.7, KGON and Jammin' 95.5 for music, and KOPB and KXL for news and talk), but most, they felt, were just "stations" that didn't exactly connect with them. There were myriad reasons why this was the case. For the most part, they felt as though most music stations were "delivery systems" with some people telling them what the song was. Part of their reasoning was that there lacked, in most cases, a tangible emotional connection. Most of the people in our class are under the age of 25, pretty brand loyal and savvy and, despite the fact they are in what amounts to a radio creative class, struggled to find, with some exceptions, a reason that a radio "station" could be considered a radio "brand." (Read More)

A Dirt Road to Psychedelia: Austin Texas during the 1960s

"The story of how Austin became groovy. With a folk singing Janis Joplin, the 13th Floor Elevators, peyote, LSD and the first psychedelic music venue in Texas, Austin was a fertile ground for the emerging counter culture of the 1960s. Seen as nonconformists, Beatnik inspired students were drawn together by folk, country and blues music while dabbling with drugs to create an explosive scene. Traditional values became challenged as they sought a lifestyle outside of the system." -Austin Film Festival

Epiphany!!!!

As a Radio Programmer, you never know where your programming epiphanies are going to come from. I've always tried to view all life experiences as applicable to my radio life. Sometimes this lead me to radio concepts. At other times it lead me to motivational tools to inspire my staff.
This morning while reading the USA TODAY, I was reminded of an example of the latter.
Back in 1978, I went to see the movie American Hot Wax, a biopic of pioneer Cleveland disc jockey, Alan Freed, who introduced rock'n'roll to teenage American radio audiences in the 1950's.
(Arguably the man who coined the phrase Rock 'N Roll)
Overall the movie captured the boundless spirit of early Rock Radio. Not a bad movie at all.
There was one scene in the movie, though, that stayed with me for the last 30 years and that I have retold numerous times to my airstaffs, other PDs and stations that I have consulted.
In the scene Alan is on the air. He's playing a record really loud and is totally into it. His engineer comes in to the Control Room and says to Alan, "Why do you always listen to the music so loud?" Alan turns to him and says, "THEY KNOW WHEN YOU'RE LISTENING."
Epiphany!!!! No truer words have been written or spoken. When you're on the air, do not turn the monitors down and work on something else. BE "IN THE MOMENT" with your listeners. THEY KNOW WHEN YOU'RE LISTENING!!

WHAT THE @#%#@?

Why the hell wouldn't THE HD ALLIANCE want feedback from radio professionals on the upcoming HD Radio campaign? It would be like not letting a client have input in to their own advertising campaign. Dave Martin and Fred Jacobs raise all the right points. (Read Fred)(Read Dave)