Keeping Track of Target Audiences

More Talk Coming to FM Radio?

By Eric Seidel, CEO
The Media Trainers®


Back in the 70s, FM radio's purer signal quality started Shanghai'ng listeners from AM radio with what has become a variety of niche music formats. Today, FM commands about 80% of the radio audience. Now, once again, some 30+ years later, it appears that FM again is postured to hijack the preeminent AM format, talk, and, as a result, much of the AM audience. The reason is strictly one of economics, based on a bill that will require music stations to pay record labels out of station revenues. This prediction of coming trends on FM is made by the publisher of Radio Ink, Eric Rhoads. Here is what he has written:

Is This The Breakout Year For FM Talk? Pioneers are the people with arrows in their backs. Talk radio pioneer Walter Sabo told me more than 15 years ago that FM talk would become a hot format, but it was a tough sell. He suffered a lot of criticism and resistance because companies that owned big talk stations didn't want to cannibalize their successful AMs. After all, AM had been dead for years until it was born again with talk radio. Sabo's vision from back then has yet to come to full fruition -- but it may be just around the corner. Here's why:

There is a 50-50 chance radio will lose the performance fee issue this year or next and will have to pay some percentage of revenues to record labels. With the current state of radio, taking dollars off the top line may be economically impractical, especially if the rates are as far out of line as some anticipate. Music radio could become a shadow of its former self, and we may see a proliferation of FM-based talk formats. Though there will likely be multiple traditional talk outlets doing politics, I believe a new breed of FM talkers will succeed by offering variations on talk lifestyle formats with younger demographic targets.

Because many believe they see this coming, there will be companies, perhaps those with less successful music stations, that will want to establish a beachhead now, before everyone comes to the realization that music formats will be less profitable.

The generation that grew up with music on FM is now favoring talk programming, and the generation behind them is entering the age when talk becomes more interesting. Younger, hipper FM-talk presentations like "real radio" and new variations for younger audiences will be embraced in every market. And with PPM results showing how much listenership National Public Radio is taking, it's clear that a large chunk of all listening is talk-based. Commercial radio will begin to engage strategies to take those audiences away from NPR.

According to BIA, in 16 of the 20 top U.S. radio markets, lower-ranked AM talk formats generated more revenue than higher-ranked FM music formats. Meanwhile, Arbitron says the combined spoken-word formats -- news, talk, sports -- add up to the most most-listened-to format in the country, comprising 17.5 percent of radio listening.

But 80 percent of all radio listening takes place on FM. So imagine what could happen to talk stations on FM. If the total of all the talk in your market is a combined 10 share or less, there is an average of seven points to be gained by an FM talker.

Of course, the talk format has more available inventory before it's not considered annoying. Music stations may find they need to reduce inventory in order to compete. And in almost all markets where an FM talker competes with an AM talker, the FM is outperforming the AM. Typically, there are multiple choices for similar music formats, which further dilutes opportunity. But FM talk takes over in most of its markets rapidly, often within one or two rating periods.

For those of you who fear that putting on an FM talk station could cannibalize your AM talker, the evidence is to the contrary, especially if you're doing a talk format designed for FM. For instance, when Walter Sabo launched WTKS in Orlando, it took no audience from traditional AM talker WDBO and shared no cume (listeners sampling the stations). Most of its cume is shared with the alternative rocker in the market and with WOCL and, formerly, with WMMO. The same held true at NJ 101.5, which shared audience with classic rocker WAXQ-FM.

If I were a betting man, I'd bet that spoken word, which saved AM radio, may in fact be the format that soars on FM in every market. New iterations of talk will emerge as this soon-to-occur phenomenon takes radio by storm. Can you say "opportunity"?

For more information on Eric Rhoads and his radio trade publication, click on: http://www.radioink.com/

Gentleman Jack

Power of the Unspoken Word

By Eric Seidel, CEO
The Media Trainers®


He stutters and stammers and often has to back up and correct a pronunciation. Yet, Jack Welch is one of the most effective communicators I’ve ever encountered. I’ve met him, spent time with him, and followed him in the media. His speech impediments, if that is an accurate description, certainly can be traced to his early childhood.

So what’s his secret? Well, it’s really no secret at all. Welch super sells his points non-verbally. His body language is emphatic; it validates what he is saying and makes him very convincing. I’ve witnessed him hold an audience of 750+ in the palm of his hand just through the way he used his hands, arms, and, when it fit, even his legs to make a point. Almost every word he uttered was supported by his non-verbal punctuation.

If an expert were to base judgment on Jack’s oratorical skills on speech alone, he would be overlooking more than 90% of what is being communicated.

I use one particular piece of video of Welch in my training that captures completely just how important your body language is to persuasive communication. You can click on it below. It’s from an interview with Chris Matthews, the master of interruption, on Hardball during a program from the business school at the University of Chicago. Welch is talking about how the desire of American businesses to innovate and take risks is being negatively affected by government regulation. In this segment, by the way, Matthews was so captivated by Welch, he (Chris) said just one word the entire time: "Yeah."

Your body language is important for all types of interviews. In a print interview, body language can help reporters choose the right quotes to use, and pick up the essence of your intended message. Even over the phone, body language comes through in the tone and sense of enthusiasm in your voice.

Jack Welch’s body language is honest; it’s not contrived; it comes naturally. And while you don’t have to imitate Jack Welch when you’re talking to a reporter, or employees, or a large audience, do what feels comfortable and will help you leave intended impressions.

And practice.

A Textbook Case of Crisis Communications

A Deserted Wesleyan University Campus


By Eric Seidel, CEO
The Media Trainers®

Noon Wednesday, May 6th, was especially festive on the Wesleyan University campus. Another winter semester was ending and, even though finals would begin soon, it was time to party as the annual Spring Fling got started on the Middletown, CT, campus.

In less than two hours the fun and celebration were instantly transformed to shock and fear. Tensions would be high over the next two days as a student body of 2500 was sequestered in their living quarters.

An hour after Spring Fling began, a cold-blooded killer walked into a university bookstore and emptied his gun into a beautiful young coed working there. Within 40 minutes of that shooting, a mass email, a voicemail and text messages were broadcast to the entire Wesleyan family. It would be the first of at least 12 public updates from university president Michael Roth in the 47 hours between the murder and the arrest of the suspect. In that initial message, Roth said, “We advise students, faculty and staff to remain indoors until more information is available.”

The response by Roth and the city was swift and organized. In the early stages they had no idea what they were dealing with. Was this a crazed gunman, like the one who killed 32 people and himself during a campus rampage two years ago at Virginia Tech? Memories of Blacksburg, VA, still are vivid. That was a wake up call to colleges and universities nationwide to be prepared for the unexpected, to have a crisis plan.


Roth, the police chief and the mayor obviously were in constant touch with each other. Their actions were coordinated and reassuring. On the morning of day two, less than 24 hours after the shooting, all three held a joint news briefing to update the community. (Click on video below.)



Meals were delivered to dorms and homes where students lived so that they would remain indoors. University president Roth took his family to have dinner with students at the one open dining facility the evening of day two. In addition to his other updates, the university president also kept his own blog updated.

Roth extended dates for exams, even into the summer, in order to meet the needs of students who had made unalterable travel plans, or were just too shaken. He asked professors to be flexible in light of the tragedy.

He has made sure in his online messaging that students are aware of support systems available to them as well as plans for memorials in honor of Johanna Justin-Jinich.

Using all the available avenues of communication, Michael Roth and city officials prevented panic and made sure the entire community was connected to events as they evolved. Once it was clear that there was a specific suspect and that he did not pose an immediate danger to the student population, Roth began reopening the campus.

Obviously, the university and city had to react to events as they understood them at any given time. Some things you just cannot anticipate. But having a basic plan gave them the flexibility to improvise as necessary. No doubt others will study and learn from Wesleyan University’s crisis response.

A Do-It-Yourself Crisis

A Case of Unintended Consequences

By Eric Seidel, CEO

The Media Trainers®

It all started with Oprah.

A promotion with KFC designed to drive traffic and goodwill. Oprah sent her millions of minions to the Internet to download coupons to sample KFC’s new grilled chicken sandwiches. A free lunch!

It all turned sour.

Angry KFC customers were turned away in midtown Manhattan because the restaurant had run out of chicken, leaving chicken egg on the corporate office’s face, back in Louisville:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) A Kentucky Fried Chicken spokeswoman says customers at a Manhattan KFC hoping to redeem coupons for a freemeal were disgruntled when the fast-food restaurant ran out ofchicken, but Internet rumors of a riot were unfounded.

Laurie Schalow says the restaurant on East 42nd Street wasforced Wednesday to stop honoring the coupons because it did nothave enough chicken to meet demand, and some customers were upset.

But Schalow says customers who want their free Kentucky Grilled Chicken two-piece meal, promoted on "The Oprah Winfrey Show'' and Oprah.com, have until May 19th to redeem their coupons.

The Louisville, Ky.-based company, owned by Yum Brands Inc., expected millions of the coupons to be downloaded, but Schalow described Wednesday's demand nationwide as "extreme.''

Hello, Yum Brands, is anyone at home? Did anyone think that just maybe, since this was Oprah, who has millions of followers, demand could be humongous? That you needed to make sure your restaurants had enough chicken in the fridge? And did you consider that this promotion would go viral in the cyber world, too?

Well, it did.

And did anyone consider the downside? Was the ecstasy of a promotion with Oprah so hypnotizing that all pragmatism was lost? Not only does KFC now have very angry (former?) patrons to deal with, a competitor is ambushing the chicken chain with KFC’s own promotion, accepting those KFC coupons for free chicken. And El Pollo Loco even questions the legitimacy of KFC’s grilled chicken.

There are enough potential crisis situations companies may face. There’s no reason to create one for yourself. While this promotion may have been based on good intentions, there’s that old axiom about how the road to hell is paved. No matter how good a promotion or plan may feel, you always have to consider the sword’s proverbial opposite blade.

Social Media & Crisis Communications: Not an Oxymoron

Is Marrying Marketing & News Like Kissing a Pig?

by Eric Seidel, CEO
The Media Trainers®


My good friend Richard (Dick) Miles’ recent post on his own blog, Edit30, brilliantly captures the collision of today’s new media with the age-old challenge of addressing a crisis. Social media now have a major role in alerting the masses.

Dick sites a fascinating and very valuable AdAge article by Pete Blackshaw, exec VP of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services. He uses the response to the swine flu crisis by the Centers for Disease Control as his case study for the intersection of a crisis and social media. Blackshaw says,

“At the end of the day, communities are popping up all over the social-media landscape around the swine flu issue, which means CDC needs a presence, or some level of representation everywhere. The CDC has made its swine flu information easy to share and pass-on virally through social networks. Whether through widgets, Twitter links or embeddable mobile apps, they did precisely this.”

What’s especially interesting is that Blackshaw’s whole premise is based on how marketers are responding to the new, social media. In my years of experience, news and marketing were rarely, if ever, brought together. But Pete Blackshaw is absolutely correct. Communicators dealing with the news media have got to take a marketing approach.

This does not mean developing and delivering messaging that is laden with company/organization slogans. But, with all the available channels of information today, you have to think as a marketer, determine all the possible places your audiences can be located and then strategically create valid and newsworthy messages.

Will Mike Vick Become a PETA Spokesman?

Credibility is earned by what’s said and who says it!

By Eric Seidel, CEO
The Media Trainers®

AdAge is reporting imprisoned NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s people are talking to PETA about Vick becoming a spokesman on behalf of the organization. Of course, Vick is serving time for engaging in dog fighting. I suppose both Vick and the animal protectors have lots of questions to consider before, or if, this becomes a deal.

Is it a good idea? Who has more to gain? Better yet, who has more to lose? Will Vick be sincere? More importantly, will he be perceived as being sincere? Does his history offer evidence that he can honestly change?

At a recent federal court hearing updating Vick’s financial obligations, the judge made a point of telling the imprisoned pro football player that he—the judge—was not yet convinced of any remorse on Vick’s part. He sent him back to his Leavenworth prison cell with that admonition to ponder.

Vick has had well over a year to begin apologizing and retooling his image. Instead, he’s remained silent while news stories about his questionable financial manipulations have filled the void.

It does appear that PETA, sometimes extreme and unrealistic in its causes, has more to lose in this situation. If Vick is not believable, then PETA appears to have been sucked in and used. Vick’s history does not offer strong evidence he can be convincing.

PETA’s director of youth outreach and campaigns, Dan Shannon, wants Vick to undergo psychological evaluation before any decisions are made:

"We're suspicious this may come from a place of simply wanting to repair his public image, rather than genuine remorse. He was dishonest all the way up the line until he finally had to admit to what he did, which is a hallmark of [antisocial personality disorder]. If he can't tell the difference between right and wrong, we can't get in bed with this guy. At this point, he hasn't chosen to submit to an evaluation. We hope the NFL will require that evaluation as a precondition of reinstatement. The bottom line is: Everybody knows he's going to
apologize, go on Oprah and Larry King and say he did wrong, that he learned his lesson. But there's no reason for anybody to take his word for that based on the pattern of dishonesty and the severity of cruelty he took part in."

That being said, one has to wonder if/why PETA really is seriouly considering it. As for Vick's side of this story, no one was willing to talk to AdAge.

And, finally, it’s of some interest to note that nothing about any discussions with Mike Vick can be found (at this writing) on PETA’s homepage or news page.