Innholdsfortegnelse for September 17, 2018 i Radio Ink Magazine

This issue profiles the 2018 slate of Radio Wayne finalists and their “secret sauce” for success. It’s the 26th year of this prestigious competition, the one award that recognizes and celebrates the sales, marketing, and management side of the industry. It began as a vision of Radio Ink Chairman Eric Rhoads, inspired by his admiration for Wayne Cornils, whose career spanned decades across many facets of the industry, most especially sales, marketing, and management. Eric wanted to ensure Wayne’s legacy following a cancer diagnosis. Eric also believed this was the perfect opportunity to acknowledge the side of the hall that did not usually bring home the big shiny, trophies. Essentially, Eric found a need — and filled it. Something, by the way, that sellers and managers strive to do every…

Radio is holding its own against the stiffest competition ever. Outdated rules make it difficult to keep the digital companies from taking away advertising dollars. The radio industry is working hard to stay as significant as ever with advertisers. ROI studies, creative content, and digital innovation all play a role. In our Leadership Roundtable for this issue, we reached out to some of the 40 Most Powerful People in Radio and asked them this question: What is radio’s biggest challenge, and how do we overcome that challenge? This is the most unique media business I’ve ever been in. Usually when the stories are written about your business or industry, the facts have to catch up. With radio, the facts about consumer engagement with our medium, and the effectiveness for advertisers,…

One of my first managers, Perry Samuels, taught me a valuable lesson early in my career. He would say, “Don’t skip steps.” At the time I was not sure I fully understood how important those three words would become for my career. He had 40-plus successful years in sales, and he shared with me that most sellers do skip steps; they meet clients and try to close them on the next call and then move to the next prospect. He explained that I might close a few clients that way, but if I committed to the fundamentals of sales without skipping steps, I would create a lifetime of customers. I have incorporated the system Perry taught me over 30 years ago, and I coach my team with the same philosophy…

If you were to ask any successful PD what the secret to their success was, I am sure they would tell you that being sales-friendly is one of them. I certainly believe that, and continue to be sales-friendly myself. Which takes me to live reads, arguably one of the most requested and successful tactics for today’s radio advertiser. To get some solid advice on how to make live testimonial reads more successful, I spoke with Peter Connolly. Peter owns LIVE, The Personality Advertising Specialists in Detroit. He creates and manages live local radio endorsement campaigns all over the U.S. GB: What are the most important strategies for a live read, testimonial spot to be successful? PC: An AE, PD, or any manager should be able to do a marketing gut…

KEVIN EPPS Cox Media Group Houston This 18-year vet started out working in collegiate sports marketing in the ’90s, which led him to a sales position with the Texas A&M Radio Network, whose rights were owned by Clear Channel. He sat next to Clear Channel’s sellers for a year, and when the opportunity presented itself in March of 2001, he moved to Clear Channel’s Classic Rock KKRW-FM — and he’s been with radio ever since. Epps tells Radio Ink ROI was difficult to measure in sports sponsorships, and when he saw the success stories coming from radio sellers, he was hooked. “I wanted to help businesses spend their advertising budgets wisely. And the opportunity to get paid commensurately for growing those accounts was a nice carrot. “Shortly after I started…

MATT COWPER Beasley Media Group Delaware, Philadelphia Cowper is a 19-year radio vet who loves winning, and watching his sales team thrive. “We have a saying here that we’re ‘in the business of making millionaires’! That’s what we do! We help our clients grow their business and turn them into millionaires. Over the past 19 years, I’ve created so many cool, custom, and effective promotional programs for my clients that have been very successful. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching a promotion come to life and deliver the kinds of results you and your client had hoped for and expected.” Howdoes that relate to becoming an NSM? “Easy question: I wanted to have the same success I had at the local level with local clients on a bigger, broader scale…

Watching the Radio Show over the past decades has been interesting, because most years there is a hot topic that is going to “change the face of radio.” We’ve been through it all, from citizens band radio to CDs, cell phones, the digital dash, Internet radio, iTunes, Spotify, and other threats to radio listening. The hot topics at this year’s show will be listening on smart speaker devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, and the related topic of podcasting. Predictions of radio’s death have happened over decades — in fact, I’ve made a few myself. Radio has watched the threats come and go, and most anyone you speak to who’s seen it happen will roll their eyes and say confidently, “Bring it on. Radio was strong before, is strong…

IF TALENT ACQUISITION ISN’T A MAJOR FOCUS FOR YOUR COMPANY, YOU WILL STRUGGLE TO ATTRACT, HIRE, AND RETAIN THE TALENT YOU NEED. Labor-force projections over many years showed that we would face a shortage of qualified talent, and now that time is here. If talent acquisition isn’t a major focus for your company, you will struggle to attract, hire, and retain the talent you need. We are seeing the lowest unemployment in decades, with lots of competition to hire the talented professionals and entry-level candidates radio needs. Talent acquisition must become a major focus for all businesses across all industries. Here is a step-by-step solution to help you win this war. It is strategic, tested, and proven. 1.Assign a budget for talent acquisition. Include marketing, fees for career fairs, travel,…

“The client is never satisfied with the results she gets from our station,” said the salesperson. “They are always threatening to cancel. I’m losing sleep just thinking about it.” Unfortunately, this same scenario plays out every single day in every size market. The client just never gets enough response to continue to justify his advertising. I RECALL THE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, THE HAUNTING HARASSMENT FROM BULLYING CLIENTS, AND ULTIMATELY THE INEVITABLE CANCELLATION... A couple of weeks ago, I got another call from an exasperated salesperson telling me her largest client, a local employment recruiter, was getting ready to cancel. “She spent a lot of money on commercials and a remote in a week and said she only had 57 people sign up, and she’s threatening to cancel.” In this case, the…

RAY CARROLL Cumulus Media Houston Ray Carroll is approaching his 45th year in the business, and he still enjoys it as much as he did when his career began. “I still love the challenges and opportunities, and each day is unique to the next,” he says. “I don’t think anyone could stay in the same career this long if it ever got stale.” So what’s the secret to being successful for so long? “Much as they were when I was an Eagle Scout: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind — and then staying on top of your product, knowing your competition, and being willing to share what you know.” BRITTNEY FARROW WRLT/Nashville Tuned In Broadcasting Brittney Farrow has been WRLT’s number one account executive for the past three years, and…

PAUL BLAKE Beasley Media Philadelphia Paul Blake is a 22-year radio veteran who says the key to managing salespeople starts with listening. “I follow the rule of ‘You have two ears and one mouth; listen twice as much as you talk.’ Every person on a team is motivated differently, responds differently, sells differently, and communicates differently. Prior to making decisions, great leaders start by asking lots of questions in order to understand the situation. In addition, I believe employees need to be empowered and have the autonomy to make decisions on their own with the support of their leadership team.” We asked Blake what his top three challenges are and how he overcomes them. “I believe our top three challenges are 1) finding great talent; 2) continuous and consistent innovation…

They told you it was called “reading between the lines.” But what they didn’t tell you was that the writer put it there — between the lines — for you to figure out on your own. Here’s an example of saying something without saying it: “After hearing him speak, I strongly suspected that a village somewhere was looking for its idiot.” Speak the truth, and people will doubt you. But if you can tempt those people to follow you to where they can discover that truth for themselves, you will have convinced them to the core of their soul. You’ve got to let them find the treasure on their own. But it’s OK to leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Just don’t be too obvious about it. When the crumbs are…

Before we get into what we should call them, let’s start with this: are you actually conducting regular meetings? If you are, congratulations, and if you’re not, start! Ask yourself some tough questions. Are your meetings productive? If you were to ask your team, would they say they look forward to them? Are the meetings helping your team get better, or are they considered a waste of time? Let’s be honest: creating good, productive meetings is not easy. Coming up with interesting and worthy material that keeps your team engaged week in and week out is a challenge. Now on to what should we call them. I’m firmly a “training meeting” guy for two reasons. First, the word “training” symbolizes that you are getting better. Second, I have never met…

It’sa given. Attracting great people to radio is an ongoing challenge. It’s also a challenge, by the way, that is not new to the 21st century. It’s been a common refrain for many years — only the competition for hiring strong sales reps and managers has changed. But the Radio Ink special pullout section you are now holding in your hands should both reassure you and suggest an opportunity. Radio’s future has the strong shoulders of great professionals to stand on, and radio continues to grow more promising people for its tomorrows, including people in sales, marketing, and management. And therein lies an enormous marketing opportunity. If testimonials work in advertising, there is a built-in campaign throughout these pages, based on the insights, enthusiasm, and dedicated professionalism of each and…

KAREN EIDMAN Horizon Broadcasting/WSBH-FM Melbourne, FL Karen Eidman is a 15-year radio veteran who says she’s a people person, she’s competitive, and she loves to win. And she tells Radio Ink there are many aspects to becoming a successful sales manager. “For starters, I try to hire great people. I look for exceptional talent everywhere I go, and when I find a good candidate, I invite them to spend one-on-one time with my reps to make sure they’re a good fit for my team and our culture. Once they are hired and up and running, I get out of their way. “That’s not to say I’m not still involved in what they do, but I don’t believe in micromanagement. I make myself available to my reps throughout the day, so…

ALEX CADELAGO KRBE/Houston Cumulus Media Alex Cadelago is edging ever closer to two decades in the business. With those years under his belt, here’s his view on what it takes to manage so many stations and people. “Leading multiple business units goes hand-in-hand with successfully managing so many people,” he says. “I believe the true measure of a leader’s success isn’t the personal accolades he or she has won. It’s the performance and collective success of the teams they’ve led. “I’ve had the pleasure of leading several winning teams and coaching many wonderful, successful people in my career. I take great pride in each of those team victories and in having helped many people attain personal goals and advance their careers. Regardless of what your title is, help your co-workers…