Brand on Fire

Thursday, I was about to drive a pizza home from the shop to its rightful place on my dinner table when I checked Twitter and discovered that Atlanta was on fire, or, more specifically, I-85 was on fire, at the very spot where, every time I visit, I think, man, this city has traffic that's almost as bad as we have it at home. It was, of course, huge news, and I wanted to find out what was happening right away. So I turned to the brand I assumed would be the best source of information on breaking news in Atlanta.

A radio brand. The fact that I don't live within range of the station was irrelevant. And I didn't need to think very hard about it, either -- I'm sure several stations and news outlets were on top of the story, but my brain immediately associated all the elements and sent me to WSB, though not on 750 AM or 95.5 FM, of course. I quickly found the stream and listened to the coverage (which was customarily excellent) through my phone and car audio system on the way home.

WSB has the news brand in Atlanta, and there are many other examples of a radio station maintaining the position of Trusted News Authority for local emergencies. WTOP in Washington is an obvious example. The CBS all-news stations, for the most part. It's something heritage all-News or News-Talk radio stations have retained as the new media onslaught of the last 20 years has diluted everything else. Your city's on fire? You're not near a TV? You want reliable live coverage? There's a brand that'll come to mind, it's often a radio brand, and you'll turn to it first.

That is, you'll turn to it if they've maintained that brand. In too many cases, the heritage News-Talk station's news content has been diminished by cutbacks, inattention, and, worst, failure to establish beachheads on other platforms. How many News-Talk stations have websites that do nothing but offer stale schedules, repurposed national "news" content that isn't even appropriate for the format (like, for example, celebrity gossip geared towards Top 40 websites), and a stream? How many stations forget to tweet out breaking news because the intern in charge of Twitter and Facebook already scheduled some promo material and left for the day?

If a station's allowed its dominance in news to fade, I'm not sure how effectively it can be recovered. All it takes is for your station not to be on top of a story once for listeners to lose faith in your brand as representing the news coverage they're seeking. I think the squandering of heritage brands has been one of radio's biggest mistakes as new media encroached on its territory, and while hindsight is easy, the goal should have been to update the brand to carry over to online and video and wherever the audience would be, and make it mean "best news source" for new generations. Some pulled it off -- WTOP is the perfect example -- but a lot stuck with the old audience and the old imaging and the old programming and the old medium, and those are the ones who aren't dominant any more.

It's not only about stations, though. Let's extend it to the personal. What are YOU known for? You, as an individual, as a host or programmer or producer or podcaster. I'm not talking about "well, I'm known as a good host." It's about WHY. What do you provide that others aren't? Are you an expert on something? Do you have a special talent for analyzing news, or are you hysterically funny? Is your personality sufficiently different to set you apart from the mob? If something big is happening, do people instinctively turn to YOU to find out what YOU think? In short, do people seek you out, and why should they? Finding the answer to that is the key to a long career that isn't dependent on platform.

And, deep down, you've always known this. But when things were more simple -- when it was all just TV and radio and newspapers and everything was in its place -- you could skate by with the knowledge that limited competition would mean a decent chance to build a decent audience. Now that the competition is practically unlimited, you need not just to give people a reason to seek you out on whatever platform they prefer, but, ideally, to be top-of-mind with them when they turn on their radios, or fire up their podcast apps, or surf the web or social media. Loyalty doesn't happen by accident. You gotta give people reasons to be loyal.

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If your audience comes to you for interesting topics and angles they can't find elsewhere, you should be checking All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics for material that's picked at the peak of freshness for the kind of show you do. It's all available by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item, too. And there's the Podcasting section at AllAccess.com/podcasts. This week, you'll also want to read "10 Questions With..." KTOK/Oklahoma City's Jason Doyle, yet another strong personality on a station with a history of strong talent.

Make sure you're getting Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter, every day, too. We send it out each afternoon, and it's your daily rundown of the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting, plus my PerryVision! video commentaries three times a week and more. If you aren't getting it, go subscribe in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections.

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One more thing. Doing an April Fool's gag does absolutely nothing for your business and your reputation. It's never all that funny, either. So, as a charter member of the April Fool's Day Sucks Society, I'll just advise you: don't.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
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