Breaking the Law

In the end, after four days of the same old thing at the NAB Show in Las Vegas this week, one thing stuck with me.

"Here's the beauty of podcasts," Raw Voice and Blubrry CEO Todd Cochrane told an audience member during the question-and-answer portion of one of what seemed like a thousand panels on podcasts at the convention. "There are no rules."

Yeah, that. But it also applies to other things.

Let's step away from focusing on podcasts for a moment. Yes, there's practically no barrier to entry for podcasting, and there are a zillion podcasts, and there are no universal gatekeepers (you could say Apple and Spotify are gatekeepers, but they're not the only platforms), but let's leave that aside for now. I'm more focused on applying the no-rules idea to all media, and it reminds me of one question those in radio don't ask enough: Why? And the corollary question: Why not? And a third question: What if we do it anyway?

Not every rule, written or unwritten, is a bad thing. There are good reasons some things are done the way they're being done. Experience and results count. But even if you can produce scientific evidence that, say, a stop set must run at a specific time or certain topics are verboten or shows have to start and end at specific top-of-the-hour times, you don't know for sure that it CAN'T work, and even work better, some other way. The only way you know something doesn't work, for sure, is to try it.

We don't try enough.

Seriously, can you tell the difference between stations in the same format from market to market anymore? Same music, same imaging, same personalities (in many cases, literally so), same topics. Only the commercials are different, and they aren't that different, either. And it's been the same for decades, because....

Is it because it works, or because we haven't tried something different that might work even better? Is it because nobody wants to take any chances? Because if it's that, podcasting is taking chances and may just end up siphoning generations of young listeners away from FM radio (the less said about AM radio and young listeners, the better). Radio is one of several industries that really needs to experiment, to develop something different for the future. So far, it hasn't, and we've talked here before about how little innovation has come from radio in the last, oh, say, 50 years. Same formats, same talk, same sound, and whenever someone DOES take a chance, everyone else in the business aims and fires (I still have arrow wounds from 25 years ago).

Would it really torpedo a station's business to do things differently? Do spots have to run at the same time as everyone else's? I know, the PPMs show a preference for more music and less talk, but are you certain that it applies to GOOD talk? What would happen if someone just completely did things a different way -- non-standard time slots, talk about something other than politics, imaging and promotions and sales events that are unlike the rest of the industry? Are there no busted, underperforming stations in the big companies' portfolios where they can just take chances and try new ideas out to see if breaking the rules might make sense? Not even an HD2 or HD3 channel that nobody's listening to as it stands? Why? Why not? What if we do it anyway?

I understand. People generally like having rules to follow. It's one of the things you'll see at any podcasting conference or on message boards, questions about things like how long a podcast "should" be, because people crave having simple formulas. It makes life easier, as if there's a specific recipe for success, just add water and stir and you'll be fine. But the best stuff comes when you throw an ingredient into the mix that nobody else would do. (Salt on caramel? Heresy!) We think there's a formula, but there is no one formula. Podcasting needs to avoid falling into the trap radio finds itself in -- there's no single path to success, not even just doing a true crime podcast like everyone else does. You don't have to do things the way they've always been done, or the way another station or show or podcast does things.

Break the rules. Or bend them, if you're timid. Don't be afraid to fail, either. We tell our kids that we learn from our mistakes, but we're afraid to apply that to ourselves. Roll the dice, swing for the fences, color outside the lines, think outside the box, use whatever analogy you like. Just try something different, no matter how grand the vision or minor the change. You might flop, but you might do something great, too. The only way to know is to try.

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Take a chance on better show prep (groan) with Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, offering a plethora of show prep topics, all for free; find it by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. Plus, speaking of podcasts and innovation, "10 Questions With..." visits iHeartMedia's VP of Podcast Programming Matty Staudt, who offers a lot of insight into the podcast world and iHeart's success therein.

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It was nice to see everyone at the NAB Show. Well, not everyone. No, I don't mean that it wasn't nice to see some people, I mean that I didn't see everyone who was there, probably because while they were touring the exhibit halls and networking and taking meetings, I was in my accustomed spot in the back of the room at all the panels and sessions. Oh, well, there's always the next convention. I've got another one coming in (checks schedule) June, I guess. And August. And September. And....

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