Innholdsfortegnelse for October 9, 2017 i Radio Ink Magazine

Dan Kennedy, one of the world’s great marketers and direct response copywriters, often talks about how rapidly businesses can change and the status quo can be disrupted. In his long career, he has watched entire industries disrupted by one swift signature on a contract or the development of a new technology. Kennedy often talks about how his firm was raking in millions of dollars in the infomercial business, until everything changed dramatically when Congress passed a law that prohibited many things infomercials were doing. Overnight, his cash cow became anorexic, and there was nothing he could do to change it. Kennedy talks about how, in most industries, revenue is based on a single source of income — he refers to it as “single pillar.” Picture the Parthenon, but instead of…

Have you ever looked at the ratings and wondered: How do certain ACs always come out on top? There is a reason. Do a “programming X-ray” on the most successful and consistently high-rated AC stations, and you quickly see the common elements that make them winners. After years of working with ACs around the country, here’s my top 10 list of the common traits of winning AC stations. 1. They understand their listeners’ music taste. They know that if the music is not right, their ratings will not be right. To them, music research is like a utility bill. It always gets paid. Successful ACs don’t want their “lights turned off,” so they do the research (you know what I mean!). 2. The golden rule is “win at work.” Everything…

Congratulations, you’ve been promoted to manager. You’ve been handed the keys. You’re in charge. While once the title may have carried a more autonomous ring, a manager is still a manager. Implicit with the role is an expectation that you have all the answers. Translation: You have been blessed with superpowers mere mortals can only dream of possessing. I know. I’ve been a radio manager. I know what it’s like to walk cold into that office for the first time and sit behind that desk wondering “What in the hell do I do now?” How the faces of people you’ve worked with for years take on a look of bemusement. Or you scan the room, watching furrowed brows telegraph a “Did I ever do anything to offend this person in…

Our 2017 top managers are certainly a group of experienced and successful leaders. They come from all over the country and from large, medium, and small markets. They’ve accumulated hundreds of years of combined radio and management experience. Some are leading 20 employees, others 50, many 100 or more. They may operate a single station or run multiple clusters across several markets. And they have several things in common: They constantly brag about their people, they know how to build a winning team, and they’ve all had great mentors. To help you become a better manager heading into 2018, we peppered our list of Best Managers with tough questions. We asked these great leaders to tell us how they’ve been able to achieve the success they have for so long,…

Freeze-frame each moment when something rocks your world. When you cry or become frightened or get angry or laugh or are overwhelmed by a sense of wonder, reverse-engineer what just happened. Ask yourself, “Why am I feeling this way? How did they do this to me?” Was it something in the sequence of events? Was it in the shapes or colors, words or music, symbols or associations? Was it facial expressions, vocal intonations, or a combination of several of these at once? Keep in mind that visual techniques and gestural techniques can be easily adapted to radio. This is a huge blind spot in the minds of radio professionals. Experiment with what you learn. The techniques that worked on you will work for you, as well. Communication is usually auditory,…

JT Gandolfo has been in the automotive business for 26 years. His first store was a Dodge dealership he opened in Columbia, SC, in 1991. He started expanding in 2011, opening a Kia dealership north of Columbia and then, a month later, a Chrysler/Jeep store in Lexington. And last year, Gandolfo purchased another Kia store, this one in Rock Hill (in the Charlotte market). Gandolfo is a big believer in radio. We were introduced to him by Beasley Charlotte Sr. AE Chuck Powell, who tells Radio Ink Gandolfo is extremely consistent with his radio advertising. “He commits to radio,” Powell says. It’s not a ‘Hey, let’s put a toe in the water and test it out for a week and see what happens.’ He’s been doing this for a really…

Daymond John, now best known as part of ABC’s Shark Tank, burst into public awareness in the early ’90s, when he launched the FUBU clothing line. But, as with most “overnight” successes, it took some time: John admits that he “failed a bunch of times” before he had the idea to start selling hats and T-shirts with some friends. And when the potential for his ideas became clear, he took out a loan and launched FUBU — while still waiting tables at Red Lobster. John’s gift for imaginative marketing was soon in evidence: In 1993, he asked an old friend, LL Cool J, to wear the clothes, and even to wear a FUBU hat and say the words “for us, by us” in a commercial — for rival clothing company…