Radio Ink Magazine – May 06, 2019

32 RADIOINK•COM MAY 6, 2019

engage in these deep conversations often

enough. The pace of our business tends

to rush us for results, instead of taking

the right steps to be successful.

Stone: We compete in two markets with the

big guys. Honestly, we don’t operate any

differently because we compete with either

of them. A competitor is a competitor.

That said, in our markets, it is the

independent competitors that tend

to help the market with driving rates.

That is not always the case with larger

companies. We often walk away from

business that is unfairly priced, and then

we hear the clients on the competition. As

an industry, we have got to learn to work

together on maintaining quality pricing. It

does no one any good to see market CPPs

fall through the floor.

Patrick: The key for smaller independent

operators is to focus on what you can

control. Be hyper-involved in your com-

munity. Do events that are good for the

community even if you do not generate

revenues, because sometimes that is just

what you should do. It always is about

live and local. The big guys often do not

have the flexibility to move quickly nor

to focus on smaller markets. They look at

the large and medium markets. We play

in the non-rated markets, but do very

well by being the community leaders.

Fuss: Be local as much as possible.

Promote your radio stations heavily.

Radio Ink: How important is live and

local, and why?

Fuss: It’s important, but I don’t think it’s

the ultimate solution. Good syndicated

programming, executed properly, is still

better than sloppy local programming.

And I hear lots of sloppy programming

when I travel around the country.

Becker: Live and local is very important.

It is what has kept radio thriving over

the years. You can find music in multiple

places, but radio is the one place that

gives you music, information, entertain-

ment, and more. Plus, radio continues

to promote their communities and put

money back into the community. The

more you are live and local, the more

your announcers can create a relation-

ship with the listener and be able to take

requests, enjoy interaction, and stay on

top of the immediacy.

Goldsen: It’s number one, because it is

the only critical difference between what

we do and everyone else who claims

the word “radio.” But simply being live

and local without offering content that’s

relevant to local audiences won’t ensure

continued success.

We have never subscribed to the

“lean and mean” approach. We have 20

employees, we have local news, and we

superserve our market with four differ-

ent formats on six signals. We also voi-

cetrack at some points during the day,

but it’s all done that day (time-shifted)

with folks in-house. If we have a break-

ing news event, we’ve got folks here who

can cover it.

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