BBC Dreams

Although I remember a fair amount of my dreams, I normally don't share them. I'm sure they only make sense to me. Tuesday night, though, I did have one worth sharing. I dreamed about the radio show I was going to do the next day (and did -- I host a program every Wednesday morning on WTJU).

***

In the dream, my program had attracted the attention of the BBC (!) and several key staff from Radio 3 (the classical service) came over to visit. I met with them, and discovered that they wanted me to come to work for Radio 3 as a presenter -- I just had to pass an audition.

I did so, successfully (hey -- it's my dream). And so the head of programming wanted me to start first thing Monday morning.

At this point I realized I would have to quit my current job to accept the position, and asked about the salary. That's when things got strange (relatively speaking). The staff became evasive, and I spent the rest of the dream trying to get a straight answer to the question. The programming head said, "Well, you know the rate of exchange is different, so there's not a one-to-one correspondence between dollars and pounds."

Right, but how many dollars -- or pounds -- are we talking about? No one ever gave me hard numbers -- but they were all very anxious for me to relocate and start work, nevertheless.

*****

Well, it was only a dream. But if you've ever worked in radio, you know not all of it was fantasy....

#stories

Podcast Review - Radio One Introducing

Image a place where the government actively encourages the development of new music and helps its citizens get their work before the public by broadcasting their recordings. You're right -- I'm not talking about the U.S.

But that's basically what happens in the U.K. at BBC Radio 1. Their slogan for their "Introducing" programs says it all: "In New Music We Trust." And they do.

The Introducing programs are all about new U.K. artists. Each region of the country has a show devoted to discovering and promoting unsigned musicians. They support them by playing the recordings the bands submit, by having them play live on air, by making first-class recording studios available to them, and by inviting them to perform at major music festivals across the country, such as Glastonbury.

And for some time now, this new music initiative has been available as a podcast from the BBC. "BBC Introducing" is a weekly podcast that takes the best bits of the previous week's 1"Introducing" programs, and presents it in a half-hour format. The show usually starts with a single, then moves to a band session at the BBC Maida Vale studios for an interview and a short live set. The last part features a profile of either a town's music scene (with audio samples of the bands) or a small D.I.Y. label (again, with audio samples).

Huw Stephens is the host, and his enthusiasm for these rising musicians is infectious.

I've discovered some great bands, such as Riz MC, Chow Chow and Plywood Dog, which has made the weekly time investment worthwhile. Plus, I heard the Ting Tings on the Introducing podcast about a year before they broke in the U.S., and Los Campesinos.

But most importantly, the show continually amazes me with the creativity and stylistic diversity of new music. Across the U.K. there are thousands of bands pursuing a dizzying array of styles, and as different as they sound, many of these groups are very, very good. And often times equal -- if not better -- than those currently on the charts.

And that's my secret for remaining a little ahead of the curve musically -- "BBC Introducing."

- Ralph

Day 236 of the WJMA Web Watch. (What's my local music scene like? I have no idea listening to these guys -- it's strictly top of the charts for our hometown station!)

Podcast Review - In Our Time

I listen to a lot of podcasts instead of the radio when I drive. Why? Content, of course. Let me tell you about one of my favorite podcasts, "In Our Time" and perhaps you'll see why I prefer it to long commercial breaks and a sparce selection of today's top hits.

"In Our Time" (IOT)hould be a national treasure. I don't think it is in its native Britain, but it should be.

IOT is a weekly radio program broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Fortunately, it's also available as a podcast, which is how I receive it. The program, hosted by novelist Melvyn Bragg, examines the important events, concepts, and people that shaped Western civilization and brought us to where we are; basically, the history of ideas.

The program's format is simple enough. Bragg invites three guest experts, and through a series of questions the topic unfolds. If I could, I would require everyone I know who's intelligence I respect to sit down and listen to this program. Why? Three reasons.

1) The topics. I have learned an amazing amount about science, history, philosophy, religion, and culture just by listening to this program. Check out some of the topics covered this season alone:

Dante's Inferno - to Hell and Back
Neuroscience - does the brain rule the mind?
The Translation Movement - Aristotle in Arabic
Godels Incompleteness Theroms - the dirty little secrets of maths
Miracles - will they never cease?

2) The organization. Take the recent program on the Great Reform Act of 1832. This was a subject I knew absolutely nothing about. And yet by the end of the program, I had a working knowledge of the event, and understood why it was an important turning point in English political history, leading to the reforms of 1848, and eventually sufferage for women.

The program is very carefully organized to quickly provide background and context for the subject within the first few minutes of the program, and as the show progresses, Bragg ably serves as the listener's advocate, asking clarifying questions and rephrasing technical information in everyday language.

3) The panelists. While there are some returning guests, the field of panelists is wide-ranging. But almost all are extremely articulate, and thanks to the aforementioned organization (the questions and the outline of the program are worked out in advance), generally stay on topic. And there's usually some nice interaction between the panelists, as minor disagreements arise, or in some cases, additional clarification added by a more expert member.

Instead of listening to the radio, for forty minutes I enjoy the company of articulate people who aren't apologetic either about their education or their field of study. Guided by the incomprable Melvyn Bragg, they examine an important topic in such a way that, regardless of how little I know about the subject, I can comprehend at least the basics.

So, for example, while I had encountered the Fisher King reading Edmund Spenser, I discovered during a program about the subject, the symbolic importance of this character in Mallory, and even his possible pre-Christian origins (and his reinterpretation for Twentieth Century writers).

If I had to, I would pay to receive this podcast. But I don't -- and neither do you. It's available as a free download from the BBC. And you can subscribe to the feed, which means that each new episode can automatically download to your computer. It's made my daily commute time well spent.

- Ralph

Day 175 of the WJMA Web Watch. (Should we do something special for day 200?)

Slamming the Post with the BBC

This post's just for folks who've been in radio -- or perhaps not. I've talked before about the Chris Moyles Show, heard daily on BBC Radio 1, and how effectively it uses the medium of radio (especially in conjunction with new media).

Chris Moyles and the team had a bit of fun with show's assistant producer, Matt Fincham. The previous week they had uncovered a tape of a very young Fincham calling in to a local radio program and talking about his own college radio program.

That resulted in quite a bit of teasing, but it also prompted the team (or at least the support staff) to dig even deeper and come up with some air checks of young Matt on CUR1350, Cambridge University's student-run station.

An important technique for Top 40 DJ's to have is the ability to talk over the musical introduction of a song and stop right before the vocals start. If you can do it and actually say something intelligent in the process, you've passed from skill to art. The technique's known by a variety of terms; the one I've heard it referred to is "slamming the post."

Moyles and company have a bit of fun with this concept as they get Fincham to relive his glory days and slam the post (or "hit the vocal" as they call it).

Chris Moyles Show - Matt Fincham Segment

Listen carefully to the adept use of the audio clips in this segment. There's no pause, no hesitation. Whenever a clip's used to punctuate the conversation, it's always cued up, and it always runs for exactly the right amount of time. Very simple audio elements, but expertly handled for maximum impact. That's what radio should be about.

And the bit at the end where Fincham intros the song? I think most people will find it funny. But only people who have been on the other side of the microphone will fully appreciate the humor.

- Ralph

Day 135 of the WJMA Web Watch.

Mark Ramsey proposes, the BBC disposes

Mark Ramsey, head of Mercury Media Research outlined in a recent post what radio stations need to do to make the shift from just an over-the-air broadcaster to a media content provider. If I was an under-appreciated cog at a big radio group right now... , I'd pitch my group on a digital video series that can be sponsored.

All at once I would be creating:
A) Content to attract online traffic and engagement
B) NTR ("New" traditional revenue)
C) Stuff for the jocks to talk about on-air
D) A reason for me to be not such an under-appreciated cog anymore

Just theory? Not really. Ramsey was talking about GlamourTV, but there's an even better example for stations. BBC Radio 1 has taken their morning team to Los Angeles, where they're broadcasting live every day.

For this special run "The Chris Moyles Show" has upped its podcast frequency from once a week to one a day. And they're also producing a series of videos.

And they're using the strength of each of these formats (radio, podcasting, and video) to cross-promote each other.

Listen to this segment from Tuesday's program. Chris Moyles and company basically spend the time promoting the videos. But listen to how they do it.

They use audio excerpts from the videos. They build interest and suspense by not revealing how the video ends (you'll just have to watch it). And they play off of the audio clips, creating new content in the process.

Now before you write this off as something only the big boys can do, look at the underlying concept, and ignore the superficial details.

Let's take our favorite test case, WJMA-FM in Orange, Virginia. They certainly don't have the budget of the BBC, but that's not important. They've already shot some video (sort of), so we know they have a potential cameraman. But instead of Los Angeles, JD Slade and the other WJMA jocks could do a live broadcast from the Orange County Fair.

Instead of sending members of the team out to find Jackie Chan's house, JD could go look over the livestock. In both cases, the video camera's rolling. And in both cases there are broadcast professionals in front of the camera who are used to being extemporaniously funny -- and can take advantage of the comedic possibilities of their respective situations.

Now you've got video to post on the website (perhaps with sponsorship?), something for JD Slade and company to play with on their own shows, and -- more importantly -- some compelling reasons for listeners to go to the website, driving up traffic and consequently ad rates.

The Chris Moyles Show has shown how it can be done. Look again at Mark's checklist. Check, check, and check. Anyone getting this?

- Ralph

Day 93 of the WJMA Web Watch.

One more from the Beeb

Yesterday I talked about how the BBC is using YouTube as an effective marketing tool by incorporating videos of their radio personalities into their new media mix of blogs, text messaging, podcasts, and website pages. Yes, the BBC has resources far and beyond most radio stations in this country. But their tactics can be used by just about anyone -- because most of these new media resources are free.

The Chris Moyles Show, on BBC Radio 1, generates a goodly amount of videos. And so they've taken the next logical step, which is to create their own YouTube channel. Now there's a single destination where listeners and fans can go to get all of the Moyles' show videos.

Again, this is something just about anyone can do -- but you have to do it right. Take a critical look at the page. It's effectively branded, and as you can see from the ratings, traffic is brisk.

For any station (or any other business, for that matter) that generates more than five videos, having a dedicated channel can be a great way to further focus the message.

You don't need to have a lot of money to survive in this changing media landscape -- just the imagination to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. Like the BBC.

- Ralph

Day 47 of the WJMA Web Watch.

A few tips from the Beeb -- with numbers

On one of my radio listserves, the subject of YouTube videos came up (after a radio announcer posted some videos). My contribution to the discussion, how a station can use YouTube as a marketing tool, was the basis of my post "Radio for video websites -- the easy way."

In the listserve discussion, I cited the BBC Radio 1's "Chris Moyles Show" as an example of how to integrate the various media. I linked to one of their videos involving the staff trying to talk while eating Pop Rocks, and explained how the show used this one skit on the radio, on video, as a text message topic, and a blog post.

Response from the listserve? "Eating Pop Rocks is dumb. What's the point?"

The point wasn't the content itself, but how it was being used to reach a wider audience through different media (as I further explained in another post).

Recently the Chris Moyles show did another video stunt worth paying attention to -- not necessarily because of the content, but because of what they did with it -- and the results.

The show's newsreader, Dominic Byrne, set out to make the world's most boring YouTube video. And the Moyles team set out to get that video as many views as possible. A silly stunt, sure, but let's look carefully at the execution -- and the results.



Listen carefully to the original segment. Although Moyles and his team are talking about a video (and a deliberately boring one at that), they use a wide range of audio tricks to make it interesting and fun on radio. When the segment starts, they note that the video has around 10,000 views -- by the end it's 100,000. Over 400 text messages come in during the segment, and the energy level of the segment is high throughout.

Now that broadcast has come and gone, but there's more to the story. I don't listen to the BBC live, but I did hear about this on the Chris Moyles Show podcast. And it pursuaded me to watch the video. I could have also read about it on the Chris Moyles Show blog. And played the Flash animation game. And watched the trailer.

As of this writing, the video has over 350,000 views -- which represents about 5% of the show's audience.

This video is silly, but what if these same tactics were used to drive traffic to a different kind of radio station video? What if it was a video designed to strengthen the brand of the station? What if it had an advertiser's message incorporated into it? Now you've got something that's working for the station in a medium outside of over-the-air broadcast. And what if listeners were directed to a page on the station's website to view the content? A page with additional advertising opportunities.

While 5% of an audience may not seem like much, consider this: a realtor shared a success story on our listserve. She was excited because advertising an open house on our local radio station resulted in 24 people showing up to the event. How much happier would she have been with ten times that turnout (closer to the 5% mark) -- or more?

- Ralph

Day 46 of the WJMA Web Watch.

WJMA and the RSS Morning Shows, Part 2

Friday I shared some thoughts on Jerry Del Colliano's idea of a station serving niche audiences with RSS morning shows (or podcasts, if you will). Over the weekend I spent some more time thinking about the idea, and how the average station with limited resources could produce such programming.

The great thing about podcasts is that they can be anything you want them to be. And because they're not live, a podcast morning show has many more options than a live show. For example:

Topical programming -- just because its canned doesn't mean it has to be stale. A local issues/news podcast could work very well. Just produce it in the afternoon working off of the morning news. Listeners could call or text with their comments (calls going to a dedicated voice mail box). Mix commentary with call playbacks, and/or text commentary. Naturally, all the text messages would be shown on the show's website page.

Music programming -- there's more to indie music than shoe-gazers and sullen post-punkers. There artists making great music in all genres from jazz, folk, country and bluegrass to rap, heavy metal and electronica -- and everything inbetween. Pick the genre you want the music morning show to be in, and go to it. Many indie artists make their music readily available for podcasts. And all of the earmarks of a music show -- artist interviews, listener requests, battle of of the bands, even in-studio performances -- could all be part of the mix.

Themed programming -- just mix the appropriate elements from all of the above. If, for example, a station decided to produce a local morning show for females 25-34, then it could be a mix of news, features and music all of interest to that audience. Work with a local hospital to provide an expert for women's health issues, for example, answering text and voice mail questions. Feature the music of Alice Peacock, Gum, and other appropriate indie artists (with interviews, etc.). Talk with organizers of the Breast Cancer Walk and highlight other local events and issues that would be of interest to that audience.

And remember -- it's not live. The expert for the women's health segement could come in once a week (or perhaps every other week) and record all of her segments in one sitting. The same is true for interview subjects. Have a day scheduled for back-to-back interviews. And take those finished interviews and spread them over a couple of shows (if appropriate).

Most indie bands do their own recording, so if you can't get them on the phone, send them an MP3 of your questions, and let them record their answers. Then mix it down for a seamless interview.

And here's another advantage of this kind of format -- segments can be stretched. Here's an example from the Chris Moyle's Show podcast from BBC Radio 1. Now this is a weekly "best of" podcast, but the concept still applies.

The Moyle's Show team brought a male massusse into the studio to work on Chris' back. Live, this would have been just one long segment. But in the podcast, it's broken up into smaller chunks, which do two things. It maintains interest with its brevity, and because the segement ends unresolved, it compells the listener to keep going to hear the next part.

In the excerpt, we hear part 1 of the massage, followed by something different, then we get part 2. And two other members of the Moyles team get massages as well, interspersed with other bits from the show.

This is a golden opportunity for stations to unlease their creative talent. And if they already haven't fired them all, now would be a good time to start.

- Ralph

Day 12 of the WJMA Web Watch.

A few tips from the Beeb

While I'm waiting for the WJMA website to come back online, I've been thinking about features they could add to improve the integration of the site into their core business. As Mark Ramsey recently wrote:

The challenge for Radio in general and your station in particular is to create a bona fide digital strategy that allows us to realize the potential value of the zillions of ears (and eyes and clicks) that radio can so effectively move on a moment's notice.
A digital strategy is not a collection of new media toys affixed to your web page with the digital equivalent of masking tape.

So how do you do that? I hold up the BBC as an example. I've listened to a lot of BBC radio thanks to the Internet, and their usage of it just continues to grow their reach. Here are some specific BBC tricks any station can use.

1) Text messaging -- many of the BBC Radio One programs use text messaging as the primary avenue for listeners to talk to the hosts. Questions are thrown out by the presenters (announcers/DJs on this side of the Atlantic), and the audience texts in their responses. The DJs provide a running commentary on how many messages they're receiving, and from where. They also call out the most interesting ones and read them on air.

It's exciting, interesting, and engaging. It is NOT the same as having listeners call the station. When someone calls, someone has to answer the phone -- and that person can't really be doing anything else (like talking on the air). Texting can be done with a minimal staff -- you just need a computer monitor in the control room to display the texts as they come in.

And it's instant gratification for the listener. They can fire off a comment immediately, instead hanging on the phone listening to a busy signal. And note to the radio biz: texting skews young.

2) Repurposing air content for podcasts (quick and dirty) -- BBC's Radio 4 has a daily podcast based on the 8-10 minute interviews they do in the morning. It's timely content, but there's not a lot of time spent in post-production, so the podcast can post as soon as possible. Basically, they have a pre-recorded opening and closer, and they just drop the segment -- warts and all -- into the middle.

This is podcasting anyone can do. WJMA's owners talk about the quality of their local news reporting (really). OK, so make the 8:00 newscast a daily podcast. It's fresh content, and it's a way to get the word out about this feature. Plus, there's an opportunity for ad sales.

Sell the middle of the newscast in two parts: the on-air and the podcast. For a little more money, the ad stays in the podcast, which means the advertiser's message is going out to a potentially bigger audience. The opener and closer of the podcast could also be sponsored (as long as it wasn't too intrusive).

3) Repurposing air content for podcasts (extended production) -- I don't have time to listen to the Chris Moyle's 3-1/2 hour morning program everyday on Radio One. But I do have time to listen to the half-hour "Best of Moyles" podcast once a week. And I'm now a fan of the Moyles program.

Now part of the program is just like the concept outlined above. The best bits of the morning program are pulled out and run basically intact. But the difference is that the Moyles team goes into the studio on Thursday after their show and record new openers, closers and a middle section for the podcast. So even if you've listened all week, there's some original content to sweeten the pot. And because it's not broadcast, the humor can be a little more raunchy than it could on-air.

This obviously requires more work, as you need a producer to decide what bits are going to be used, and the morning team has to come up with some additional material for the podcast. But if a station really thinks their morning team is that good, then this is a great way to get the word out. And again, there's no reason ads can't be sold for the podcast.

And it doesn't have to be a big production. Podcasts can be as long or as short as you like. So if you just want to do a three-minute "Joke of the Week" (as heard on the Morning Zoo) podcast, then do it.

4) Blog about it -- The Chris Moyles Show also has a blog that's worth checking out. The morning team all share writing duties, and goofy pictures and videos of the pranks pulled in the studio get posted to the blog. For smaller stations, a single blog featuring all the air personalities might be appropriate.

One more thing -- when something visual happens during the show, Chris Moyles usually says "we'll have pictures of it on the blog (or website)." So people who listen to the radio have a reason to go online. Now if the BBC was a commercial enterprise (like WJMA), they could sell ads on that destination site.

It's not rocket science. The BBC understands that it's in the content business. Some of it goes over the air, some of it goes over the Interwebtubes. I wonder how many stations understand that over here?

- Ralph

Day 7 of the WJMA Web Watch.