Some Good News In Bad Times

Sometimes, I despair over what I see happening in the radio industry, how the business is being steered in the wrong direction or mismanaged on many levels. And then, just as I'm about to give up and go write about, I don't know, anything other than radio, something happens that reminds me there's hope.

Let's focus on the good stuff this week.

First, you know how I, as an early entrant in podcasting, feel about the hordes of radio people who have suddenly "discovered" the new medium and are presently big-footing the people who actually DO know what they're doing. That's why it's especially heartening to see a radio station do podcasting right and get immediately rewarded for it. I'm talking about Bonneville's venerable KSL in Salt Lake City, a station that's been known to try new things despite practically defining the very idea of "heritage" News-Talk radio. In this case, while most radio stations are doing repurposed content or "behind the scenes"-style podcasts as adjuncts to existing shows, KSL dove head-first into one of the two hottest categories of podcasts, the true crime series, and they nailed it. "Cold," a deep dive into a woman's disappearance that led to suspicion and murder, debuted this week, and while I tend not to use Apple Podcasts' charts as a true indicator of actual listening, the fact that "Cold" raced to the number one overall position practically immediately -- and garnered a ton of attention and positive reaction -- is a very good sign that the series is a hit.

More importantly, I think it shows that radio stations have an advantage in producing effective podcasts that ISN'T necessarily derived from the shows that air on their broadcast signals or streams. What KSL did here is to leverage its news department, and in fairness they have the benefit of a long-established newsroom with more resources than your typical radio station, to gather the reporting necessary to tell the story, then used its production capabilities to tell the story in the form that works for the podcast medium. It's a story too long and involved for a simple radio show, but perfect for several episodes that lead the listener into wanting more, an hour at a time. It's the "Serial" formula. It's "Dirty John." It's "S-Town" and "Up and Vanished" and whatever other true crime narratives you prefer. KSL did it, because they committed the resources, did the homework, and produced the right content for the right medium. They didn't think of themselves as just a radio station, or a radio station that does podcasts. They're a content creation company and they made this one as a podcast. It's not radio.

Let that be a lesson for all stations and companies, a lesson you probably aren't going to hear from the newcomers who profess to have the answers. You need to identify the market for your content, choose the proper medium to reach the target, and produce the content to fit the medium and audience, leaving the constraints of "we're a radio company" (and "we're a radio company with a digital division," for that matter) behind. Seems like a simple recipe, but it takes some vision and commitment. Maybe you don't have a newsroom to dive into cold cases -- and shame on the radio industry for allowing its news departments to wither into dust over the last 20 years -- but there are stories in your market to be told that would work as podcasts, there are stories you can adapt to web content, there are stories that would work better as video, and you can do them all. So do that.

(And before I move on, kudos to Sheryl Worsley, Dave Cawley, and everyone involved at KSL for showing how it's done.)

The other good news comes from the very, very bad news here in California. You know about the fires both north and south, and the tragedies that have resulted. (For how the Malibu fire affected the All Access family, you can find that here.) A lot of stations have joined in the relief efforts, too many to individually point out, yet I'm gonna point out and probably embarrass my friend Carmichael Dave, the morning host at KHTK in Sacramento, who did the kind of impromptu thing that good radio people, and good people in general, will do in a crisis. Seeing a TV news report on a really tall guy (6'8") who lost everything in the Paradise fire and was in Chico with no clothes that fit and a too-small tent, and Dave took it upon himself to load up stuff for the guy (turned out they wear the same pants size) and asked listeners to drop off more stuff at his truck in the station parking lit and drove up to Chico to deliver it. Finding the scene horrific, Dave made a video proposing that if everyone just did one thing, it could make a difference... and so was born the Do One Thing Challenge, that led to organizing a caravan to get aid up to the displaced Camp Fire victims. He doesn't plan to stop there; the "challenge" may just keep going and going and involve more help to more people.

That resonates even more than the usual radio charity drive, because it feels like a "hey, kids, let's put on a show" grass-roots thing, mostly because that's exactly what it is. I've been involved with radio promotions before, but the biggest and most successful weren't the ones we carefully planned, they were the ones that started with someone saying "hey, why not?" And if you're a PD or GM and someone on your staff comes up with an off-the-cuff idea that would involve listeners getting together to solve a problem or change a law or move a mountain, don't reflexively say no. The best engagement comes from the most spontaneous, honest places.

Okay, I've embarrassed enough people and I've been uncharacteristically positive enough to carry me through the rest of the year. Maybe it was the frankly lousy week -- fire, illness, the Eagles -- that made me just want to be Mr. Brightside for a minute. I'll revert to form soon enough.

=============================

You WILL find positive things to talk about at Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports. And negative. And neutral, and funny, and somber, and weird. Mostly weird. It has topics that you will not find elsewhere, the stuff that's not obvious and some that is, all available for free anytime by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And while you have a moment, don't miss "10 Questions With..." the legend himself, Jeff Wyatt, who talks about his storied career and his current work on the upcoming Fisher House Foundation special hosted by my old New Jersey 101.5 colleague Mary Walter.

Make sure you're subscribed to Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter with the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting. You can check off the appropriate boxes in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections if you're not already getting it.

My podcast is "The Evening Bulletin with Perry Michael Simon," a quick (two minutes or less) daily thing, and you can get it at Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Stitcher, and RadioPublic. Spotify, too. Google Podcasts? Click here. You can also use the RSS feed and the website where you can listen in your browser, or my own website where they're all embedded, too. And if you have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device, just say "Alexa, play the Evening Bulletin podcast."

You can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

=============================

I'll be back with another one of these things in two weeks -- no, YOU work on the day after Thanksgiving -- but in the meantime, you can help in the wildfire relief efforts via the United Way of Los Angeles and United Way of Northern California, the American Red Cross, the California Fire Foundation's SAVE program, the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu, the North Valley Community Foundation, the Salvation Army Del Oro Division, and several others. Have a happy Thanksgiving, and if you can help make it a happier one for those displaced by the fires, that'd be even more special.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
www.facebook.com/pmsimon
Twitter @pmsimon
Instagram @pmsimon