Did you see the silly waste of ink from some pundit in the UK blathering that “right-leaning talk’s audience is dying off”? Talk about looking stupid by writing a newspaper column before he’s done his homework! Read the following. Then we’ll take a breath and respond with some facts…

“There’s really only one rule in talk radio, and that is that, whether you’re on the left or the right, you can never be uninteresting,” says Dennis Prager, a syndicated conservative host based in Los Angeles. “You can be an idiot. You can be a moral fool. You can be primitive. But you cannot be boring. Every sentence must hold the attention.” This led to the rise of the Nineties “shock jock” - men (it was always men) who would push at extremes, or maintain a constant wattage of outrage, to keep their followings - There is, however, a very large potential spanner in the works. It revolves around demographics. Put bluntly, right-leaning talk’s audience is dying off. A recent profile of Limbaugh by Vanity Fair claimed that the average age of his listeners is 67 and rising. Fox’s average viewer is said to be in their seventh decade. In a changing world, against a President catapulted to power with a staggering majority of the youth, they may (in the long term) turn out to be onto a losing bet” (read more - Guy Adams - The Independent U.K.)

OK, Mr. Guy Adams, here the deal…

I’ve been watching the demos in Talk Radio since 1978. In my 31 years experience in programming and consulting this format, I’ve not seen any indication that the talk radio audience is “dying off”. In fact, back in 1978 there were only about 50 news and talk radio stations in America. Today, I did a search and found 641 news talkers, 994 talk stations and 409 listed as news stations. That’s over 2,000. Not to mention all the cable news talk shows, etc.

Mr. Adams, here’s how it works…

Sure there are people who listen to talk radio who eventually die, don’t we all… eventually? But those listeners are replaced by new listeners who are just discovering the talk radio format. Over the years, we’ve seen that the typical listener to music radio begins to get interested in spoken-word formats around the age of 30-34. That’s the age of “enlightenment”. That is the period in life when people start raising families, note how much they are paying in taxes and become more aware of how politicians and governments are trying hard to nibble away at their rights. It is then that this audience starts dividing up their time between their favorite music stations and their favorite talk stations.

To assume that the talk radio audience is “dying off” (left or right) is to assume that no new talk radio listeners are entering the pipeline. That is just not so. Never has been the case. In fact, we are seeing the growth of more “progressive” left leaning talkers and the move of more FMs into the talk format. Moving forward, it may be that talk radio is delivered to listeners by different delivery systems, like the internet, but trust me Mr. Adams, the appetite to listen to talk radio will remain and continue to grow.

Bottom line, to put it bluntly, the idea that the talk audience right-leaning (or for that matter left-leaning) is “dying off” is absurd. Do your homework Mr. Adams.

Michael Packer June 2009

Differentiation is critical for establishing and maintaining your station’s niche. One easy way to reinforce how your station is different from the competition and sell the unique benefits you offer is through liners.

Just remember: Promise only what you can deliver. NEVER use a liner that does not match what you actually do on air. It’s better not to air a liner than jeopardize your station’s credibility.

Recently I was rereading Jack Trout’s Differentiate or Die. If you’ve read Ries and Trout’s 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, you’ve seen some of this before. Trout’s strength can be called branding, positioning, differentiation — they’re all closely related. In Differentiate or Die Trout, and his co-author Steve Rivkin, contend that the only way a company can survive is to differentiate. This is true for radio stations too.

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As Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over”. About a month ago Radio America’s Roger Hedgecock sounded the alarm on censorship plots being hatched in Washington. The response was incredible. Americans - right, left and center - are angry and want to fight censorship!

It remains to be seen whether this will be a direct fight against the Fairness Doctrine itself, or one that involves a battle against indirect measures to censor such as the creation of localism and diversity guidelines for programming monitored by “advisory” boards.

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QUESTION: What’s the most common mistake you hear talent making on the air?

PACKER: When a talent falls into a rut. When the surprise factor is gone and the listener can predict what will happen tomorrow on the show, the host is in trouble. The thrill is gone. The listener becomes desensitized and searches for other forms of stimulation.

QUESTION: What’s better- guest interviews or lots of calls?

PACKER: Given a choice, quality callers interacting with a well prepped talk host is what most listeners prefer. But that assumes that there are plenty of calls, the quality of the calls are outstanding, the host is a super personality and the show’s content is on target.

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Urgent Programming note to N/T Hosts. Starting now, forget about 24/24. Think IMMEDIACY.

At this moment, on my computer’s desktop, one of the windows I have opened shows a financial page. Right now, I can see that GM will open today at $2.89 — down over 90% from a 52 week high of $29.28….. And, I see the Real Time Headlines posted within the last few minutes announcing that Chrysler and GM will widen buyouts, (more people fleeing Michigan) and a breaking story that Ford sales dropped 40% last month.

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When’s the last time you tried to monitor every local talk show you air to make sure your station is on target? Unless you lock yourself in a hotel room and do a 24 hour monitor, it’s almost impossible. And that’s only going to give you a one day sample.

Here’s a time saver tip that will give you at a quick snap shot everyday of what’s being aired on each of your local talk shows. It will not tell you how the shows actually sound but this tool will give you a sense of the content and flow of your station’s programming.

Below is my “Week-At-A-Glance” show tracker that I’ve used for years. It only takes a moment each hour for the producer to complete and each day after the show, it’s emailed to the program director.

It’s easy to put together. Just create it in an Excel spreadsheet with the following columns.

Check out the tracker below starting at the first column on the left. Continue reading »

In the spirit of the holidays, during the month of December, Radio America and I are offering you free access to a programming tool you can share with anyone interested in Talk Radio Excellence. Available free this month are the Packer Smart Talk online training sessions that cover the format basics of creating, producing, and hosting Talk Radio Shows. Please feel free to forward this link to anyone.

To get your password for 24/7 access, please go to: www.packersmarttalk.com

Happy Holidays and here’s to a Wonderful 2009!

Michael Packer - VP Programming – Radio America

In its long climb to the top of the format charts, the number of stations involved in some form of News/Talk, Talk or Sports/Talk has mushroomed from around fifty in 1979 to well over one thousand six hundred today! Some are successful, some are not.

In reviewing the management styles of the most successful stations, six immutable principles come to mind.

#1 The Client Principle: All clients are not created equal.

Question: Who is the station’s most important client? Answer: The Listener. To outpace the market, a talk station must generate lots of traffic for advertisers. The customers who move through the advertiser’s door and ring the cash register are the station’s loyal audience. Bottom line; make sure the number one client is a satisfied listener. The advertisers and revenue will follow. Continue reading »

Inside-Out Program Directors focus on changing listener attitude.

They believe they have a great radio station that deserves a larger share of the ratings. They think all they have to do is change listener perception. That’s the major difference between Inside-Out and Outside-In thinking.

Outside-In Program Directors build on audience perceptions by making changes in the format or the type of personalities they hire, not by trying to force changes in the environment.

When the plane is falling, you don’t try to eliminate gravity, you focus on getting the plane to fly. In radio, you don’t fix the audience. You fix station content and formatics. Continue reading »

Yes, it does cost to listen to your radio station! We’ve all heard the expression that radio listening is free. It’s true that the audience does not pay a monetary fee to tune into their favorite station. But, in reality, radio listening costs the audience what is most precious, TIME.

TIME they can spend doing lots of other things even if they are stuck in traffic in their car, bus or train. Aside from listening to your radio station while commuting, today your listeners are text messaging, talking on the cell phone, tuning to satellite channels, listening to their favorite song or book on their iPod or CD player, surfing the internet, watching a video, and the list goes on and on.

Each day, your listeners make a decision to invest time listening to your programming or show because they believe the return on their investment will be lots of valuable information and entertainment. The greater the return on their investment, the more they are willing to reinvest. Continue reading »