Under The Influencer

It's interesting that in 2019, the marketing industry has caught on to something radio in general and talk radio in particular has known for decades. It's also interesting to see that the radio industry has managed to... (audible sigh).

Right now, there's a convention going on in Anaheim called Vidcon, and it's all about the YouTube celebrities and Snapchat and Instagram stars and other online creators of whom older media types have never heard but who are huge with teens and young adults. Yes, we're talking about "influencers," it's big business, and it seems alien and, frankly, rather stupid to people who are steeped in traditional media and traditional celebrity. Someone just speaking into a camera at close range? Putting on makeup? Doing moronic stunts? Eating weird food combinations? Just posing in a glamorous setting wearing clothes provided by a sponsor? What IS that?

You shouldn't be wondering what that is. What it is, is what radio did for years. It's taking someone who develops a close engagement with an audience and marketing through that relationship. Wearing a sponsor's clothes and holding a sponsor's soft drink can in an Instagram photo or a YouTube video is the 2019 equivalent of Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh telling their audiences about Snapple. It's a morning show host chronicling their weight loss using a sponsor's program.

Radio hosts were "influencers" before that term existed. They demonstrably sold merchandise, popularized restaurants, got people to show up for live events decades before the internet. Somehow, while there are still hosts who command loyalty and live reads are still premium territory, radio hasn't really held onto that position. The reason, I think, is the devaluing of personality in radio. If the PPM ushered in the era of "shut up and play the music," it also ushered in the era of radio hosts being practically anonymous, generic liner-card readers with generic single names -- can there be anything more dehumanizing in media than being assigned a single, unmemorable, unrelatable, obviously fake name? -- and little on-air engagement. Listeners SHOULD feel like they have a bond with the hosts, especially with social media being available to augment that, but everything seems corporately controlled. And as for talk radio, there are fewer and fewer local hosts, except maybe in the sports format, and even the local hosts are mostly talking about the same national political news to a core audience that is older and getting smaller every day. In an age when marketers are looking for proponents with "armies" of followers, radio, which practically originated the loyal fan mob, has retreated.

But it can be restored. Some podcasters command that loyalty, and while the audience sizes are still dwarfed by national radio, there's a reason CPMs for native advertising on podcasts are so high. It makes radio's need to develop another generation of stars that much more acute. It's what advertisers want. They really don't care that much about the reach percentages that radio stresses. They want someone who can move product. If that's a teenager showing YouTube viewers how to apply eye shadow, that's who they'll buy. Radio, when it had the stars, could always demonstrate that kind of audience loyalty. Now? There are some hosts who can do that. There are not enough.

The mission, then, is to not just find and develop talent, but to let them do the things that develop the kind of engagement that sells. That means finding unique personalities and letting them talk. That means not hiring someone because they sound like other hosts and are therefore "safe" or "comfortable." I know, radio management is averse to taking chances, but take a test: If you ask people on the street if they recognize the names of your hosts (or, if you're a host, if they know who YOU are), would they say yes? Would they have an opinion, positive or negative? Would they care?

In 2019, it's imperative that the answers to all of those questions be "yes." The industry's future, and your own, depend on it.

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One way to get loyalty is to talk about interesting and atypical stuff, and you'll find material like that at Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, all free when you click here and/or follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. Oh, and you are going to want to read the current "10 Questions With..." Fox Sports Radio "Straight Outta Vegas" host RJ Bell, who is doing a national network sports betting show at a time when sports betting is in the process of erupting from a Vegas and underground thing to a mainstream legal enterprise. He and FSR are ahead of the wave, and he has some interesting insight on how the business is developing.

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Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes from last week. I feel... older. Oh, yeah, another reminder: I will be moderating a panel on "Celebrities in Podcasting" at Podcast Movement in Orlando on August 14th. Register here. See you there.

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