Wake Up Radio

Sirius is finally getting serious about making headway into XM Radio’s leadership position by paying $500 million over five years to get Howard Stern to defect from terrestrial radio to Sirius satellite radio.

To say this is a wake-up call for terrestrial radio is an understatement.

On the Radio Marketing Nexus blog, Mark Ramsey provides excellent insider commentary on Howard Stern’s defection to Sirius satellite radio.

Mark's first post provided an initial analysis and included this poignant comment …

This is a sad day for terrestrial Radio. Howard's announcement means not only that Radio will be losing one of its notorious shining stars, it also represents a signal to up-and-coming and established talent: The grass is greener - and the creative freedom greater - in Satellite Radio. At a time when Radio has a tough enough time generating positive buzz - let alone positive momentum - this is a harsh body blow.

Mark’s second post is a three-point wake-up call manifesto for traditional radio. Snippets of the three-point manifesto include:

Manifesto Point 1: We must make Radio an attractive place for funny, creative entertainers to work
Even now, where is Radio's Ali G? Where is our Conan O'Brien? Where are all the funnymen and funnywomen? Are we on their radar? Are they on ours? What are we doing to attract talent? We must seek out these people. We must take a chance on them. We must do so at the highest levels of the largest broadcast groups. Now.

Manifesto Point 2: We need to keep the talent happy when we have it
To be sure, Infinity did an outstanding job of defending and supporting Stern during his darkest hours (and Morning Shows everywhere noticed), but not all talent is so lucky. Why should any talent work for a company that doesn't support, encourage, and reward them? There's a reason HBO won 32 Emmy's and ABC won 7.

Manifesto Point 3: Remember, we're in the entertainment business
There would be no Soprano's without David Chase. There would be no Sex and the City without Darren Star. There would be no Jerry Seinfeld Show without Jerry Seinfeld. If we as an industry don't open the doors to talent, recognize talent, nurture, respect, support, and reward talent, then Radio will have left its best days behind. We will become The History Channel and some other medium will be HBO.

Comments

[SpoVegas]

Anyone who prefers NPR to tv news will know that radio has inherent benefits in the medium itself that make it attractive to a certain creative type. Listening to a story can sometimes probe deeper because it requires the listener to engage with the audio and create at least a passing mental image rather than just getting audio and video from the medium. This is one of Stern's great qualities (and I don't like the show). When he began doing crazy stunts and describing them over the radio, his listeners think he's more wild than he is. And the listener isn't a voyeur as in television, the listener is in the room with the crazy antics and stunts. Try listening to Seinfeld audio without watching and see how much more there can be sometimes (Fraiser is far, far better without pictures).