This week's All Access newsletter, which may go out in minutes or may go out tomorrow- I never know- involves being careful not to get caught short:
When you live in a natural-disaster-prone area, you learn the importance of preparedness. You'd also learn that in the Boy Scouts, but I was never a Boy Scout. (Okay, I was a Cub Scout one year, and I vaguely remember the word "Webelo" being involved, but I didn't ever get to the part where they tell you to Be Prepared. We just, like, made towel racks and ran around in stupid little blue uniforms and got bored and quit at some point) Anyway, because we here in Southern California get to experience the Grand Slam of natural disasters -- earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, and Paris Hilton -- they stuff a big foldout Emergency Preparedness Guide into the local daily paper every other month or so. And it tells you to make sure you're prepared with your Emergency Kit (flashlights, batteries, bottled water, canned food, gizmo to shut off the gas valve, Twizzlers) and know what to do when the ground starts shaking (scream, run around in circles).
There's a lesson in this for radio, believe it or not, and it ties into some of the stories we've been running lately in Net News, like the star talk host who's trying to jump to a rival station, or the four-months-and-counting saga of finding someone to fill the slot of that long-time syndicated morning guy who said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Let's break this into two parts: first, for program directors, you have to have a Plan B in place at all times, a pool of hosts you can immediately plug into any spot that unexpectedly opens up. That means developing your weekenders, your fill-in hosts, your network of talent. It means taking the time to scout hosts in other markets, hosts languishing in lousy time slots at the competition, people in your town who might make good radio personalities with a little time and coaching. You need to start collecting these folks now, before you need it. Do you have a ratings book or two to throw overboard because you need all that time to decide who to hire to replace your star? No, you don't. So you need to have some idea of who can, at worst, hold down the fort and, at best, take over on a permanent basis, and you need to do it well before it's necessary. It's like they say about looking for a job: the time to get your resume in order and start looking is when you've just started a new job. And the time to get your replacements ready is when you don't think you'll need one for a while.
The second part is for the General Managers, and it addresses what I know PDs are saying about the first part. GMs: This is gonna cost you a few dollars, but let your PDs develop talent. Let them use the weekends and overnights for local hosts instead of infomercials. Loosen the purse strings just a little and call it an investment in your future, so you don't get stuck spending months and months scraping to find a fill-in because your morning guy woke up one day and decided he wasn't interested in bourgeois Western values like work anymore, or your afternoon team just told you they've been offered three times what you're paying them to go to a bigger market and they can't give you a whole two weeks' notice. If you like the way a strong local show makes you money and gets you ratings and gives the entire station a better position in the marketplace, make sure you have insurance. If small market radio is no longer providing a farm system for talent, you're just going to have to make one yourself, and that means a few hours less of the Miracle Weight Loss And Enhancement Show.
And let's throw in a third part, for the station owners: running smaller market stations on the cheap has its advantages, but you need that farm system. Look, you need to start reconnecting those stations to the community anyway (it's what satellite and iPods can't do all that well), so it makes some business sense to get new talent in there and involved with the local community. I know you're focused on what you're going to tell analysts this quarter, but someone has to start thinking about the future. And something has to happen to keep talented people in the business. Just sayin'.
Now, before the mere mention of "farm system" gets me off on a tangent about the Phillies and pitching and 10,000 losses, let's go right to the plug for All Access News-Talk-Sports and the Talk Topics column, back after a week's hiatus with more of the show prep goodness you need, like items about the emergence of "Wizard Music" (by "Harry and the Potters"!), the scary numbers about real estate foreclosures, a pretty impressive penny slot payoff, Miss New Jersey's picture problems, the joy of sitting on a commuter jet while a baby chants "bye bye plane!" over and over and over and over and over, the predictable first selection for Barack's Book Club, the Waffle House Museum, another couple of politicians caught in embarrassing personal situations, the "fat tax" proposal, the whereabouts of Michael Richards, why Boomers can't hear, why iPods and lightning don't mix, why Jim Morrison's death is suddenly back in the news, the (expensive) search for Bigfoot, the latest in toilet paper dispensing technology, the Crazy Eddie movie, why you really should check the date on that wedding invitation, and the horror of the pending Barry Manilow-Rosie O'Donnell collaboration, plus much more. And there's "10 Questions With..." WOR/New York and syndicated talker Steve Malzberg as well as the rest of All Access with Net News, the undisputed leading source for radio and music industry news, plus columns, message boards, Mediabase charts, the Industry Directory, Arbitron ratings, job listings, and everything else you need, all in one place, all free.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go check on a few things, like what "Webelo" means and whether we have sufficient Twizzler reserves for any emergency. More genius next week.
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