WJMA,, VAB - How to unFAIL

Wondering about how to handle updates on the Interwebtubes? Read on.

Yesterday I commented on the lack of coverage for the Virginia Association of Broadcasters (VAB) awards -- from the VAB and one of the recipients, WJMA.

It's easy to point out something gone wrong. It's a little harder -- yet far more productive -- to offer up some solutions. Here is mine.

How the VAB should promote their awards.

1) Post the results on the VAB website (and home page) immediately after the announcement at the conference. This should not be difficult. The winners have already been determined. Just cut and past the list to the home page -- or better yet, have it hidden, ( is the appropriate HTML code, btw) , and just have someone make it live. It should take about two minutes.

2) New media is like working in a sausage factory: it's all about the links. Said list should, at the very least, have a link to all of the winners' websites. Make the call letters the link. It drives traffic to the stations, which gives them an additional benefit for being a VAB member and an award winner.

3) Have a graphic for the award. There should be a simple graphic for the VAB award that winning stations can post on their website. This graphic should come with a link back to a part of the VAB site that explains what the award is, and the criteria for winning. It's good for the stations to have such an image for their homepage, and it helps raise awareness of the award -- good for the VAB.

How WJMA should promote their awards.

Let's assume that the VAB won't be doing their part, so there's no graphic to place on the WJMAFM.com homepage. There are still some very simple, yet effective, things WJMA can do to promote their win (and help themselves in the process).

1) Have a text announcement with a link to the News page. Suggested text:

"Congratulations to Phil Goodwin for winning the 2009 Best Feature Reporting and Best Newscast, Small Market Radio Awards from the Virginia Association of Broadcasters."

At the very least, this will help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for anyone searching for "VAB, award, 2009" This should take 5-10 minutes.

2) Build an awards page. This will take longer, but well worth the investment. WJMA has a long and distinguished history of winning awards for their news coverage. It's one thing to have a wall covered in trophies that no one can see (although you can kind of see them behind Phil's portrait). It's another to put it all out on the web where everyone can.

At the very least, you could have a simple laundry list in a grid of the dates, awards won, and the winning journalist and story. But it shouldn't stop there.

Whenever possible, there should be a link from the title of the award-winning story to an MP3 of said story. Now to go back and fill in 20+ years of these stories would take quite a bit of time and probably won't be at the top of anyone's "to-do" list. But what about this year's entry?

Phil Goodwin had to create an audio file to submit to the VAB judges, Why not post that on the website? Most of the work's already done. And while creating a full-blown awards web page would take time, for now, a simple text-based page shouldn't take more than an hour. Here's a serving suggestion (this took about ten minutes, thanks to ISSDNTek)

Year	Award
2009	VAB	Phil Goodwin	Best Feature Reporting, Small Market Radio	"Dog Finds Wallet"
		Phil Goodwin	Best Newscast, Small Market Radio	Noon News, 1/15/09

(The links aren't real - it's just to give you the idea.)

Now why is this important? Simple. Ad $$$$.

I could say this is an "award-winning" blog. And it is. I just gave it the "C.E. Conversations Award for Best Blog Written by Two People Named Ken and Ralph."

Big deal.

"Award-winning" is vague and meaningless. A link to a string of real awards by professional organizations is something else again. And if you're trying to persuade someone to sponsor your newscasts, it's a great way to show the value of the investment.

One final thing. I'd change the artwork for the podcast. OK, WJMA still don't have artwork for the podcast, but let's say they had something like the graphic below. (Pretty snazzy, eh? It took about ten minutes with Photoshop.)

I would simply add a line below it, (like I did on the graphic below) and then the award would be front and center on everyone's iPod, or MP3 player, or media player.

(That addition took five minutes. The secret is to save the original as a PSD, so you keep all the layers. Then it's very easy to make changes -- next year I could just change the text to read "2010 VAB Award-winner" and start using that graphic.)

So there it is, some constructive suggestions on how to get the word out without using a lot of money or human resources. And if anyone from Piedmont Communications is reading this, please feel free to copy and paste those images.

I'd love to end the WJMA podwatch!


- Ralph

Day 85 of the WJMA Podwatch.

WJMA, VAB - Epic FAIL

Last July I posted "Radio in Virginia -- just how old is old media, anyway?". A friend had alerted me that WJMA FM had won some news awards from the Virginia Association of Broadcasters -- but there was no way to confirm that through the Internet; the VAB's website was several weeks out of date, and WJMA's website was still under construction.

Today I got another e-mail from the same friend -- with the same info. Through a second-hand source, they had heard that Phil Goodwin, news director for WJMA-FM had "won something."

Well, it's been a full year since the last awards. During that time people citing the Internet as their primary news source has grown from 40% to 50%. WJMA finally got their website up and running, and according to their blog,

Creative broadcasters, and we hope we’re in that class, are working to create targeted online promotions and features that leverage cause and event marketing, social networking, and other tools in order to provide real value to existing and potential customers.

Cool. So let's see how much things have changed.

I first visited the Virginia Association of Broadcaster's website, to check out the posting of the VAB Award winners of 2009. Nope, sorry. As you can see from the screenshot below, their most recent post is the banner for the conference that's already over.

Surely, though, WJMA -- rightfully proud of their award-winning news director -- as a "creative broadcaster," would let everyone know about this singular honor.

As you can see from this screenshot, there's nothing on the WJMA home page. According to my friend, Phil Goodwin mentioned the awards in one of his newscasts this morning. But it's not in the podcast for today, nor on the news page.

I checked the general manager's blog -- the last post was May 4, 2009. OK, what about the Piedmont Communications Weblog? Last post, June 17, 2009.

Cue the crickets.

So what's changed from last year? From audience makeup, quite a bit. From radio's apparent understanding of new media -- not much at all. Chances are they don't even understand the headline reference.

Epic FAIL, indeed.

- Ralph

Day 84 of the WJMA Podwatch.

Case of the Mis-Representin' Representative

Two tweets came through on my Twitter feed -- both political in nature. One was the President, urging me to call my representative to ask him to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454).

The second was from said representative, Eric Cantor.

Now this is a massive bill -- about 1,200 pages and the issues surround it (and even the question of whether anyone voting on it has actually read it) are complex.

I'm not going to call Rep. Cantor just because the President (or rather his staffer) asked me to, even if I didn't know his stance. I need to research this a little bit and find out what this bill will do, or won't, first.

But what really cheeses me off is Rep. Cantor's tweet.

First off, it's technically not even from him! It's a retweet (the Twitter equivalent of forwarding an e-mail). So does Rep. Cantor not have an opinion about this bill? Why not talk directly to me instead of passing on what Rep. John Boehner says? Granted, Boehner's the Republican leader in the House of Representatives. Cantor's the minority whip, and as such should support the leader. But surely in his leadership role Cantor has something to say besides "me too."

Secondly, it's misrepresenting the issue. Look carefully at that tweet. It doesn't call H.R. 2454 a "bill." It calls it a "tax." And that's not a mistake. "Bill" is a neutral term; "tax" is not. And of course (to a certain segment of voters) all taxes are evil. Therefore, if this is a tax, it must be evil -- especially 1,200 pages of new taxes! 'Nuff said. No need to think anymore about it.

We've seen the same kind of misdirection with commercial radio crying about the "performance tax."

Just for fun, I called up the text to H.R. 2454 and did a word search for "tax." Almost all of hits were for "tax credit" "tax refund." When the word "tax" appeared by itself, I looked the word in context and didn't see anything about massive, unfair, and oppressive taxation.

But don't take my word for it! Here's the link: H.R. 2454 text. Do a text search for yourself. And please let me know if you see anything differently.

So here's the thing: Cantor -- or rather Boehner called H.R. 2454 a tax, instead of a bill. Of course, it was to stir the emotions and get people to call in.

But I had a different reaction. When you use misdirection to win me to your cause, it tells me that your cause is too weak to stand on its own merits. And choosing to employ that misdirection tells me that you know it, too.

- Ralph

Day 81 of the WJMA Podwatch.

eBay Reality

I just purchased a rare collector's item for only $0.01 on eBay!

That's how many people would characterize my most recent eBay transaction (but not me).

Sounds great when it's phrased that way, but the reality is far different.

First off, I was bidding on a Lledo 1:43 scale Morris Mini 1000 (pictured, right) for my O-gauge Zen garden. Now not all diecast cars (like any kind of collectible) are created equal. Some, like the Tootsietoy Grahams of the 1930s, are both hard to find in good condition and highly desirable aesthetically. Others, such as the Road Champs vehicles, are cheap toys sold in discount chains, and while they can have a certain appeal, are not necessarily rare or valuable.

Lledo kind of falls in the middle. It was started by one of the co-founders of Matchbox Cars (and some Lledo models bear strong resemblances to their Matchbox counterparts). Lledo specialized in inexpensive models, primarily for promotional purposes. A company could have a Lledo vans, for example, painted in company colors and their company logo decal on the side.

I was looking for a vehicle or two to add to my train layout. I wanted something a little unusual, but I didn't want to spend a lot. The auction I participated in for the Lledo Morris Mini fit the bill perfectly.

Now the bidding opened at $0.01, and never went any higher. It would seem I got a real bargain. Except shipping was set at $7.49 (and I believe it's shipping within the U.S.). Actual shipping costs are probably around $2.00. I don't begrudge the inflated charge -- it meant the seller was guaranteed to make something on the deal, even if the worst happened (which it did).

I think the real value of the Morris (at least for me) is around $7.00-$10.00, and so I set my maximum bid at $3.00. Which meant the most I would be required to pay would be $10.50 -- well within my comfort zone. At no time did I consider the cost to be the amount of the highest bid. I always looked at the total amount I needed to pay, which was bid plus shipping.

Some people ignore the shipping charges, and that's fine. For them, this highly desirable collectible was sold for a penny, and what a bargain!

Well, it wasn't a rare collector's item. Lledo vehicles, in general, have only modest demand and the lack of bidding is a direct correlation to the market's lack of interest. I spent more than a penny, but I think I paid a fair price.

So I'm not ecstatic, but I'm realistically happy. And, for $7.50, that's just fine.

- Ralph

Day 79 of the WJMA Podwatch.

Run-PRDMC

In a couple of weeks, I'll be heading off to the Public Radio Development and Marketing Conference. Should be an interesting event. Mark Ramsey of Hear 2.0 (who I've quoted frequently) will be there, as will some other media mavens.

The large questions that commercial radio faces (or rather ignores) are also in front of pubcasters.

• Where is the next generation of listeners coming from?
  
• Are we radio broadcasters or media content creators?
  
• Sure, we can offer more online, but how do we monetize it?
  
• How do we sustain (or increase) giving levels in a down economy?
  

Big questions -- I'll be interested to see what some of the answers are.

In several ways, public broadcasters are ahead of the curve, and in others very far behind. Sometimes when I try to discuss new media concepts with my colleagues they react as if I'm speaking Esperanto.

Will this year be different?

We'll see. I'll be blogging -- and Twittering from the event.

- Ralph

(My business partner and I used to call this the Run-PRDMC conference when we talked with attendees, but we eventually stopped. No one got the reference. Good times.)

Day 78 of the WJMA Podwatch.