Shoring Up Your “Weak-Ends”

February 22, 2013
Shoring Up Your “Weak-Ends”
Next month, Envision Radio Networks will launch it’s previously
announced America Weekend, a new Saturday and Sunday syndicated
offering based on the idea that your station can be
“sold out without selling out.” In a world where
most stations choose to shed higher cost local talk
hosts in favor of brokered shows hosted by talent
that ranges from questionable to downright bad
on weekends, an alternative would certainly seem
to be long overdue and welcomed by listeners,
programmers and salespeople alike. Envision
calls their new venture “a winning antidote to bad
brokered programming” featuring “live, topical talk
KIPPER MCGEE
designed to increase ratings while providing a strong,
flexible platform for sports, specialty shows and brokered revenue.” To learn
more about the project, this week we chat with veteran Talk programmer and
America Weekend Executive Producer Kipper McGee, who has been the
driving force behind the show’s development.
Talk about the genesis behind the creation of America Weekend.
When I was programming WDBO in Orlando a number of years ago, I
had the good fortune of working with a very bright GSM, Jackie Rinker
[now Clear Channel/Panama City VP/Market Manager] and together we
shaped the idea of the ‘experts’ approach to weekend programming. The
idea was to offer programs that were informative, hosted by experts that also
happened to be good regular advertisers on the station. Unfortunately, as the
concept was copied by more and more stations over the years, weekends
have quickly devolved into anyone with a checkbook can have a show.
The results of that, we know by now, were inevitable. Old school managers
and sales people developed the idea that, in Talk radio, weekdays were for
ratings and weekends were for revenue. That worked for a while, but as
stations became more and more addicted to the crack-cocaine of brokered
revenue, it’s become more and more evident that audiences being driven away
by mediocre weekend shows are not always finding their way back to a station
on Monday. Many of those truly bad weekend shows are now contributing to
lower weekday ratings, not to mention the Monday-Sunday ratings that are
published. Realizing that I helped to create this mess, I thought that maybe
I could be part of the solution to try to fix it with a new and more refined
approach that would allow stations to, as we say, ‘be sold out without selling
out.’
Outline for us your philosophy behind this new approach to brokered
programming and revenues.
There are two main drivers behind most brokered shows -- ego or a genuine
desire for return on investment. Most often, it’s a mix of both. So it occurred to
me that maybe instead of making somebody get up at 5am on Sunday morning
to come in and do their half-hour or hour brokered radio show, what if we
could give them 15 three-minute spins over the course of the entire weekend
and give them much more ‘bang for their buck.’ For the same kind of money
they’d pay for a one-hour show, we can give them 45-60 minutes in shorter
doses. Not to mention they can come in once a week, or even once a month
and bang out several weekend’s worth of content, rather than having to miss
their Saturday afternoon round of golf, or waking up at Zero-Dark-Thirty to do
a live show on Sunday morning. Plus, we can also take those three, four, or five
minute segments and turn them into podcasts. Suddenly we’re now offering
them a multi-dimensional, multi-platform opportunity -- on air, online and on
demand -- that goes well beyond a single weekend show. The whole package
also comes with tools and a program to help train the experts you use on what
makes a good show and good content, along with sales training modules for
the experts and your station’s sellers.
Talk about why this increases the value of their investment for the
experts who buy into this program.
The sad truth is that most ‘experts’ have trouble after the third or fourth minute,
but then they have another 20 to 40 minutes to fill. The old saying is that the
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February 22, 2013
Page 2
Today is the final day that applications will be accepted for the position
of President/General Manager for Orlando News and Talk pubcaster
WMFE-FM. The position requires someone with a “clear understanding
of the mission of public radio,” as well as “an entrepreneurial approach”
and “experience in creative programming and content development.”
Livingstone Associates is assisting WFME’s Board of Trustees in the
search. See the full job requirements and how to apply HERE… Got a
gig open? Looking for your next challenge? Email details and your
contact info HERE and we’ll post it free of charge as a service to the
Talk media industry.
Emmis Communications gives its Indianapolis Sports/Talker 1070
The Fan (WFNI) a partial FM simulcast on 107.5. The two stations will
air much of the same programming, but will split during certain hours
including middays, when ESPN Radio’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd
and the network’s SVP & Russillo will air on the FM, while the AM airs
the local Grady and Big Joe Show and The Dan Dakich Show … In the
wake of the recent departure of Ian Punnett from the morning show
at My Talk 107.1 (KTMY/Minneapolis) due to health issues, the Twin
Cities’ Pioneer Press says the Hubbard FM talker will move afternoon
drivers Jason Matheson and Alexis Thompson to wake-ups, with
Punnett’s wife and morning show partner, Margery, moving to midday,
where she’ll co-host 9am-noon with Emma Thomas. Concurrently, midmorning team Colleen Lindstrom and Bradley Traynor will slide into
a new noon-3pm slot … Longtime WFLA/Tampa news anchor Martin
Giles told the Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans this week that he’ll hang
up his headphones at the end of the month, ending a 28-year run with the
station. The 76-year old news veteran cites the increasing demands of the
job (WFLA also provides news coverage for a number of Clear Channelowned stations in regional markets) as a primary reason for stepping down.
Former NFL general manager and personnel executive Scott Pioli has joined
the roster at SiriusXM NFL Radio (channel 88 Sirius/XM Premier). Pioli,
who most recently served as GM of the Kansas City Chiefs following a stretch
with the New England Patriots that saw the team win three Super Bowl
championships, will make his debut as an analyst during the satcaster’s coverage
of the NFL Combine in Indianapolis from February 21st through February
24th .… Get BREAKING NEWS alerts by following us on TWITTER, or
“friend” us on FACEBOOK. Find one-click links to both HERE.
C.J. Wheeler joins Istook Live! as co-host and executive producer of
the WYM Media Management syndicated talk show hosted by Ernest
Istook. Wheeler’s nearly two decades of Talk radio experience includes
stints at KURB/Little Rock, KCMO/Kansas City, KRLD/Dallas and
KOGO and KFMB/San Diego … Cumulus Media Networks’ new
affiliates this week include WWNT/Dothan, AL (The Huckabee Report);
KFMD/Fayetteville, AR and WTTP/Ft. Pierce, FL (The Savage Nation);
WLBR/Harrisburg (Red Eye Radio); KUOA/Fayetteville, AR, WELW/
Cleveland and WSVA/Harrisonburg, VA (The Mike Huckabee Show);
and KNNG/Sterling, CO (The John Batchelor Show) … FOX News
Radio commentator Todd Starnes will now also showcase his columns
on HumanEvents.com … RadioMD.com partners with the American
College of Sports Medicine to produce Train Your Body, a weekly Talk
radio show covering a wide variety of health topics, hosted by Melanie
Cole, MS. The show airs Tuesdays at 1pm (ET) with repeats throughout
the week and on-demand anytime at the RadioMD website … Talk Radio
Network host Jerry Doyle will be a featured guest at the 2013 Phoenix
Comicon, celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Babylon 5. Doyle was a star
of the Emmy Award winning sci-fi series, playing the character of Chief
Security Officer Michael Garibaldi. The event will be held at the Phoenix
Convention Center May 23rd-26th.
RYEN’S GOT GAME
During the recent NBA All Star Celebrity Game in Houston, ESPN Radio
host Ryen Russillo found himself matched up against Olympic gold
medalist Usain Bolt. Despite the obvious height advantage, we’re happy
to report that, while the over/under for Ryan was to score 5 points, he
managed to ring up 7!
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February 22, 2013
Page 3
difference between someone who can talk on the radio and a radio talk host
is that anyone can do three minutes, but who can do four? So the experts can
get into a lot less trouble in a two or three minutes than they can in a half
hour. In fact, we recommend that stations go with two-minute expert segments,
followed by a 60-second spot for their business. We also recommend that you
sell the show as category exclusive, since the ‘expert’ will be heard multiple
times across the entire weekend. That person can then also be branded as your
station’s expert. For example, a mortgage broker who can serve as the ‘go to’
expert for your weekday hosts when the topic has to do with mortgage rates,
etc. You can do this across a number of business categories to strengthen their
reputation, as well as your bench of experts to turn to for input during your
regular weekday shows.
How do you respond to the GM or GSM who says they’ve already got
a stable of brokered shows that are making pretty good money, so why
mess with things?
First, I would say if you have a show on your station that is doing well and
sounding good, you can keep it. The whole concept of America Weekend is
modular. Think of it a bit like the old NBC Monitor broadcasts, updated for the
21st century. You mix major market talent, who offer varied content ranging
from lifestyle news to current events and more, that is designed to be easily
broken away from for play-by-play sports, a local broadcast from the county
fair, or any number of other things a station might do on weekends. The modest
amount of inventory from the network runs during the week, vs. other ‘best
of’ programming where you may be giving away four, five or six minutes an
hour during the show as it airs. There are no make goods and no paperwork if
you choose to drop or bail out of any segment for sports or any other reason.
Tell us a little about your hosts.
We have two hosts named so far -- Paul Harris and Turi Ryder -- with a
third host to be announced very shortly. They are all big market talents who
understand how to create attention-grabbing content and conversation and
how to keep forward momentum going throughout the show. Generally, the
content will lean on lighter side topics, but as we all know the news knows no
weekends, so when big stories break they’ll pivot to cover that live for you.
That’s a major advantage to running pre-recorded ‘best of’ shows, or hours of
back-to-back brokered shows that are hosted by people not trained to handle a
breaking news event. Of course, we’re not a news network, but depending on
what the story is, we can cover it for you until you can move to coverage from
your network news provider. And that’s a real advantage, in my view.
So, in one sentence, what’s your goal for America Weekend?
We want to make News/Talk radio better … one weekend at a time!
Learn more about America Weekend and hear sample hours HERE
Yep, your station’s or company’s photos could be right
here in NTS MediaOnline Weekly -- but only if you send
‘em to us. So, go ahead and take your best shot -- then
email your photos to [email protected]
Al Peterson
858.486.7559
[email protected]
Brooke Trissel
512.218.8228
[email protected]
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