This week's All Access newsletter was inspired, in part, by going onto the web to get some information about a show and finding nothing. What, you don't want anyone to know you exist?:
Yeah, I know it's late again. I spent several hours trying to find some inspiration, several more writing a long piece about that Sacramento water-retention contest disaster, about 30 seconds deciding that I wasn't saying anything you didn't already know, and finally gave up and moved on to write up some news items for the Net News section. And it was while looking for background information on some shows that something dawned on me.
I've heard a lot of complaints over the years from hosts who feel that their stations don't give them adequate publicity. It'll be along the lines of "they promised a billboard campaign!" or "they were supposed to do a direct mailer, but it got cut from the budget." Then there's the one about "they're doing a generic station billboard, but they never mention me!" And so on, all offered as a reason the ratings aren't where they should be.
Yet when I go on the Web and look for information about some of these hosts, there's... nothing. Maybe I'll find a crappy, rudimentary bio on the station web site. That's about it. The number of hosts with web sites or blogs that are regularly updated and worth a damn is dwarfed by the number of hosts that don't bother.
Listen, if you're looking for your station to spend money and time (but especially money) to promote you, you're looking in the wrong direction. But unlike, say, fifteen years ago, you can now do it yourself. You know that your listeners go to the Web for information. You know that they Google everything. You have no excuse not to make sure that when they do that about you, there's something interesting and fresh and new waiting for them. A blog costs nothing, or next to nothing if you get all fancy. It takes only a few minutes to post a few thoughts, a link or two, maybe a picture from the day's show.
Think of it this way: you're not just a radio host anymore. The media world has moved beyond that. You can and should be generating more than just radio content. Look, we have no idea exactly what the future of the industry will be, so why limit yourself? And in doing things like writing or posting videos on YouTube or creating podcasts or offering listeners more than just your radio show, you're developing your brand and developing a fan community. And if someone like Dane Cook can take a freakin' MySpace page and build a massive career from it without actually having to be even remotely funny, well, the sky's the limit for you, isn't it?
But you have to take control of this- don't leave it to your station's promotion department, because a) all you'll get is a standard bio page in the Official Corporate Web Site Template, and b) if you get fired- and this IS radio, so you WILL run into that at one point or another- your web site will go poof, and someone who wants to look you up and maybe even hire you will get nothing but "404- Page Not Found." Plus, they'll get the sales department involved, and that'll delay everything and cause more trouble than it's worth.
(Yes, I do practice what I preach- pmsimon.com. It's a way for my readers to discover that I am not merely "that radio guy" or "the All Access guy" or "the guy who writes that e-mail thing I have to delete every week" but also have a peculiar and somewhat unsettling interest in old TV Guide ads and yearbooks from defunct sports franchises, plus it's where old "The Letter"s go for future generations to ignore. Fun for the whole family)
One of the first to recognize the value of the web was, of course, All Access Music Group, and now it's the biggest radio trade of all. And it wasn't long after All Access started up that we began to serve up the rich creamy show prep goodness that is the Talk Topics column, where to this day you'll find a large assortment of topics, stories, links, and stupid comments which will help you get your show together. So far this week, you'll find stories about Hugh Hefner's next child, what to do when you're surrounded by obnoxious jerks, the trouble with Ted Nugent's t-shirt, a unique way to combat homelessness, another reason prescription drugs cost so much, the controversy over the exploding cell phone that may not have exploded after all, a truly disgusting recipe for meatballs (the word "liposuction" should never appear in ANY recipe), a courtroom drama over whether dog feces are "free speech," the horror of the Kevin Federline Super Bowl commercial, why the Big Bopper's su ddenly back in the news, and snow in Malibu, plus "real news" like Chinese missiles and gas price drops and Marty Schottenheimer's refusal to go away. In the very same News-Talk-Sports section, you'll also find "10 Questions With..." Hay House Radio producer/host Diane Ray, who has some interesting things to say about what it's like to work at an online network after years in "regular" radio, plus the Talent Toolkit with sites all about privacy (and why yours is in danger); then, check out the rest of All Access with the industry's best/fastest/most accurate news coverage, the Industry Directory, ratings, Mediabase charts, columns, and everything else you need to know about the radio and music businesses, all free.
One more thing: I want to just send my condolences to the family and friends of Andi Parhamovich, who was one of Air America Radio's spokespeople and a friend of All Access before she left to join a civilian organization working to help develop democracy in Iraq, where she died when her convoy was ambushed by insurgents earlier this week. She went to Iraq because she was all about making the world a better place. She did.
