Author: jamesstodd

Radiodays Europe 2011 #rde11

| jamesstodd

The case is packed. I’ve got a pocket full of Danish Krone. And I’m off to Copenhagen for Radiodays Europe  2011.

It’s the first time I’ve been to this European conference, though I spoke at Radiodays Denmark a couple of years ago, and am very much looking forward to experiencing the hospitality of this fine city. In fact, there’s a particularly nice bar round the corner from Radio 100 where @jamescridland, @newsleader and others enjoyed a nice variety of local brews. I’m also looking forward to catching up witha couple of old radio friends including Ryan Seacrest’s Executive Producer, Dennis Clark who I last saw when Ryan broadcast his show from Capital FM’s studios in London in 2007.

I’m on a panel entitled “Imaging and Branding – from strategy to successful branding” along with a number of other producers and presenters from the USA and Europe. I’ll include some insight from BBC Radio 1 and 2 about how their strategy feeds into their production – and how it’s more than just imaging and promos.

There’s one thing I’d have liked to show – but time precludes – and it’s this film produced by the agency PHD Worldwide. It was designed to stimulate marketeers about what our young audiences want from brands. And it’s a real eye opener. Nik Goodman wrote about it on his blog a couple of weeks ago – but if you haven’t seen it – it’s worth a watch.

So, if you are coming to RadioDays, hopefully you’ll come and say hello – or maybe Skål


Learn Radio (and TV) Production Skills for free from the BBC

| jamesstodd
BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place at the ...
Image via Wikipedia

The BBC College of Production website  has just launched.

 Now, anyone – not just BBC staff – can get a basic insight in the skills needed to make great TV, Radio or Online content. There are profiles of jobs, background “how to” films and details of talks and training courses.

In the radio section, there are details of music scheduling, setting up microphones, making a trail for Radio 2, and the role of a station sound producer.

For budding TV producers, you can learn about self-shooting, special effects, developing programme ideas, and how to shoot on green screen.

And if you need to know more about blogging, there’s a section on that too.

It’s a vast (and I guess constantly evolving) resource. See more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/collegeofproduction/

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No more music buzz?

| jamesstodd
Universal Music Group
Image via Wikipedia

Sony Music and Universal Music have announced that from next month they will be simultaneously releasing some singles from their acts to radio and for sale online.

This will probably lead to articles asking “is music radio dead” and “why radio has no place in the music business”.

The music business is a commodity based one, reliant on shifting units (tracks/albums/downloads). As such, they need to make their products available wherever there is a customer base and demand. This change is feeding in to the “on demand” “right now” culture that we now find ourselves in. It was tested out pretty comprehensively during last years X-Factor where performances were available to download almost immediately after the show aired.

But does this mean anything for radio?

Previously, radio would play a large (though not exclusive) role in hyping demand for many singles and albums. The plugging arms of the record companies put much effort in offering exclusives, spot plays and playlist additions. These happened weeks out from release and added in to the highly planned pre-release publicity schedule including interviews, contest winner gigs, live sessions and much more. This record company pre-release marketing effort also provided much programming and contest content for stations.

This is purely another way of marketing the product. It means that the record companies (like everyone else) will need to work harder and smarter to target their consumers. They will probably make preview clips available online beforehand, and build up social media buzz in a highly targeted way. And the result will hopefully mean higher sales in the long run. And I’m sure radio will still get content driven promotions via the record companies – they may just need to come up with bigger ideas.

Image From http://www.pure.com/
For radio, it will be increasingly important to have links to technology that lets the listener “buy it now” – either through the station website, via mobile listening platforms, or directly from the radio via Apple or Pure Flow Songs. This technology already exists – but I guess it’s set to become all the more important – particularly for Commercial radio who can monetize their listeners.

And what if there were a station that could play the song you voted for – a sort of live jukebox service with an online presence on mobile devices? You could vote on the song, get it on air and buy it for your mobile device – all at the same time. Absolute Radio tried it with DABBL with new/live music.

This format exists now – to a degree – in the USA. It’s called Listener Driven Radio. How long before someone tries it again here?

Radio and the Australian Floods

| jamesstodd

You will have heard about the flooding
in Australia. Radio stations and networks such as
Australia’s ABC have played a crucial role in reporting this
disaster and bringing communities together. In fact, this blog from an abc station
sums up what they are going through to bring their
listeners the information needed. I was speaking with a young
Australian radio producer, Nic Kelly, via email the other day and
he said he was working on an audio piece that would run on a number
of stations. He shared it with me last night. This piece is running
on roughly 30 stations around the country in the breakfast time
slot tomorrow morning including the RadioWest, SEA FM and STAR FM
networks in Australia – as well as a station called HOT 100 in
Darwin and a few others too. Take a listen: It’s amazing how words
and sound can sometimes express emotion more than pictures ever
can. And if you feel moved to donate to the Flood Relief fund, you
can do so here at http://qld.gov.au/floods

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Is syndication really killing the radio star?

| jamesstodd

So, according to a report in today’s Media Guardian syndication of radio services is killing the radio star.

In a way, it’s true. Fewer stations or on-air shifts mean it’s harder for new entrants to break in. But many (including Global Radio‘s Ashley Tabor) would argue that there were many mediocre presenters on air anyway, so at least the new wave of “syndication” is improving quality.

Image By AndyBee21 (CC) Flikr

This article set me thinking though about whether this trend by Global and others may have actually increased opportunities for people to get into the new era of radio?

Capital Fm now has a 24 hour team of producers turning around content and links to keep the national feed of the service on air. They (along with the Heart network) also have a fairly large team of imaging and promo producers turning around everything from contest promos to local sponsorship ads. Sure, it’s may not have exactly the same levels of creative freedom that existed years back when I joined the original Capital Radio group. But if I was a new producer, currently in student radio and wanting somewhere to aim, this is a huge opportunity. An opportunity to learn the mechanics of how huge brand scale radio works – skills which are transferable across the digital marketing spectrum.

It’s also a fact that the global (small g) marketplace is continually shrinking. When I wanted to get into presentation and production, my only hope was to send out a demo (cassette) to various programme controllers. Now, I can start up a blog, share audio with colleagues worldwide online and maybe come up with and produce stunning visuals and share them on YouTube. The ease with which content and talent can now be showcased makes the world your marketplace.

And since Radio 2.0 is now where we are at – it’s the web/marketing/digital skills that are (almost) more important than the DJs themselves. I started my career striving to be a DJ. When I finally got on air, I was relatively successful but quickly became bored with a (then very loose) format. Presenters would kill for that level of freedom now. But even then, I could see that to survive, you needed to be able to do far more than just play the hits. S ave for a precious few, this is still the case.

And new talent is definitely out there.  As Clive Dickens noted in the article; “Student radio has become the new hunting ground for new talent”.  Having judged the Student Radio Awards for a number of years, I can only agree.

When I was at Puretonic Media, we found a new temporary producer – Andy Jackson – who very quickly became full-time. He’d only worked on a very small station in The Wirral. But he had immersed himself in radio online, read loads of blogs/ sites/ articles. And had amazingly creative production skills. And, more importantly, was willing to learn.

And through this blog, I’m in contact with producers around the world who ate equally striving to make it.  One such producer is just 15 years old – Nik Kelly. Already creating imaging on a national night show in Australia. And gaining attention of the international imaging guys at Benztown Branding in the process.

So if syndication IS killing the radio star, it may also be providing many new opportunities in the process. But you have to be prepared to find them. And maybe adjust your skills accordingly.

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Play My Song and I’ll Say What You Like

| jamesstodd

Wow – I love NRJ in France. They have all the big stars on air and on their TV ads:

But hang on – I love Capital FM in London the UK – and they’ve got a fantastic new TV ad too:

These artists can’t surely love both NRJ AND Capital?

Can they?

Both these adverts are great examples of bringing brands closer to the music. They take a huge amount of planning – but give so much payback. They aren’t necessarily the sort of thing you can do if you are a small station with little real-time access to the big artists. But for Capital and NRJ, with big events to draw these stars in, increasingly, they are part of the deal. I’m not sure if any money changes hands with these things, but let’s face it – if you get to associate your face/name/band with the big stations in the market, and they hold events/play music/ do contests promoting your album/single/gig – then who loses out? And they got Justin Bieber  and Rihanna speaking French too.

Of course, radio station TV ads don’t always need to feature the music you play or the stars of the station. But I can’t imagine NRJ or  Capital would ever run something like this!

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Hwyl fawr Red Dragon FM

| jamesstodd

Red Dragon FM holds a place dear in my heart. I worked there from 1998 (just after Capital Radio group originally took it over) and left there in 2002 (to head up the production department of the original Capital FM network). Those 4 years were really special – due mostly to the friends I made, the stuff we did and the City I still love. It was even the last station I did an on air shift on – covering a week of drivetime. From what I remember, the advice of the Group PD at the time (Clive Dickens) was to “shut up and just play the hits, mate”. Good advice!

Since hearing that Red Dragon FM was to become part of Global Radio’s Capital FM network, I’ve been trying to work out what to write as it breathes its last breath.  And now that day has arrived.

I spent a couple of hours last night searching through a box of CDs listening to audio – and was pretty proud of what I heard.

This was the first huge station I’d worked at and it had a large  pool of creative people. When I joined, Andy Johnson was the PD and the station was operating from the original premises in West Canal Wharf. On my first night, I was given a whistlestop tour of the patch by the drivetime guy, Warren Moore and the station producer Richard Firth. We ended up drinking beer looking over the Bristol Channel and having chips from a Chippie on Barry Island seafront. Class!

Capital Radio had bought the station from Emap and set about updating facilities and output. Capital’s influence on the station was pretty big to start with, but we always retained a distinctly Welsh feel to the sound and output. Within weeks, we were running the Birthday Bonanza promotion along with Capital’s BONG game. We even took some of the Groove Addicts jingle package of the time.

On air at that time (on Red Dragon and Touch AM); Jason Harrold and Emma Hignett on breakfast, Bobby McVay and Chris Moore, Tony Wright, Warren Moore, Charlie Power and Chris Bloomer. Then later, Ben Weston, David Francis, and Justin (Dai/Welshy) Waite. Beverly Cleall-Harding was MD, Nick Davidson ran the (huge) sales team and Andrew Jones ran an equally large news desk. Over time, people like Eirwen Parker, David Couch, David Rees and Simon Price joined the team with people like Alun Jones, Steve Martin and many many more. It was testament to the skills and creativity of that team that so many people moved on to other bigger roles with Capital or GCap. And so many more continue to make a massive contribution to radio in South Wales.

I guess much will be written about how another heritage station is being wiped off the map. But things change. Capital FM is sounding great as a hit music station in London. And Red Dragon has sounded almost identical to  Capital for the past year or so anyway. Of course, there are some things that it’s harder to reflect in a station mainly produced from London, as I noted back in September.

To be honest, Red Dragon has changed loads since when Capital first took it over in 1998. The name may now be gone, but Red Dragon was always about an attitude, a pride in a city, a culture and a lifestyle. That has evolved as Wales has changed over the last decade or so. This is probably just a natural progression. And there’s no point aiming criticism at the team in Cardiff. I’m sure they  are just as passionate about their station as they were when they joined.

So, let’s not dwell on yet another change to the radio landscape. If you worked there, be proud that you did. If you listened, thanks. And if you work for the new Capital FM South Wales – good luck.

And maybe play a little Tom Jones/Manic Street Preachers/ Catatonia  on March 1st. Would it really hurt?

PS: Does anyone really know how many people (and animals) Cerys Matthews had in her entourage back at THAT Party in the Park??

Diolch

——–(And now a little nostalgia)———–

For those who like a little nostalgia, here are a few gems from the my archive for you.


 

 

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Christmas Greetings – from Zagreb

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Photo:James Stodd

This afternoon, this video popped into my inbox from one of my new European radio friends that I met at last month’s Broadcast Symposium in Nuremberg.

It’s a simple idea from Antene Zagreb

Take your on air talent. Put them in a room. And get them talking about Christmas. It’s a nice way of creating some connection with some of your on air talent and your listeners.  You could also take some of the audio and cut it into quick Christmas idents.

And whilst you’re doing it, get them to help create your Christmas Card – which you can film and then post on the website or maybe email to clients.

You didn’t do that? Maybe next year…

MTV: It’s all about the music – again

| jamesstodd

According to a report on Bloomberg.com, MTV is going back to it’s roots and focusing more on music again.

I used to love MTV back in the 1990s – it used to play non stop on the TV screens and sound system of our student’s union building in Canterbury when C4 Radio (now CSR Canterbury) was off air – in fact the sound from MTV was our off air sustaining service. (Rights – what rights…?). High rotation of songs, lunchtime requests, Ray Cokes and Euro news.

Then they discovered Reality TV.

They have just launched the MTV Music Meter – which scans social media worldwide to find the new bands generating a buzz in the social media space.

Bloomberg quotes Dermot McCormack, who oversees digital operations:
“We want to re-associate and new-associate the MTV brand with music.” “This is aimed at finding those artists who are rising fast in the social-media conversation.”

And, as Sam Zniber noted on his blog – this could be another useful tool for radio programmers looking for the next big thing.

http://www.mtvmusicmeter.com/