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By Walter Sabo
A.K.A. Walter Sterling, Host
Sterling Every Damn Night, WPHT, Philadelphia
Sterling On Sunday, TMN

Chris Licht was executive producer of the Steven Colbert show. Then he took the job of CEO of CNN. There was unpleasantness. Thanks to our shared position on the Newhouse School Advisory Board at Syracuse University, I learned how he is advancing his career while seeking the right job.

Chris isn’t brushing up his CV or tracking down references, he is taking a strategic action that will enhance his career and his life!

Everyday he cold calls people he would like to meet or talk to. He reaches out to executives and decision makers at all levels of corporate decision making. Yes, dozens of people are happy to meet him, talk with him and share the introduction. It’s mutual. Chris thinks the people he is calling are powerful, useful, smart, positive. They also think the same of Chris. There is no downside or risk to this adventure.

No, he doesn’t pitch them for a job. He doesn’t have to. The “pitch” is in the call, the conversation, unspoken. After the call, Chris is top of mind to another decision maker, another ally, another peer. PEER.

Licht says he has contacted about 150 people who have become new friends, new colleagues.  He might take a job with one of them, but more importantly when he does accept a new position he will have a new, sizable network of pros to help him achieve his goals

 
Consultant Walter Sabo A.K.A. Walter M Sterling has a nightly show “Sterling Every Damn Night” heard on WPHT, Philadelphia 10:00 pm – 1:00 am. His syndicated show, “Sterling On Sunday,” from Talk Media Network, airs Sundays 10:00 pm – 1:00 am ET, and is now in its 10th year of success. He can be reached by email at waltermsterling@gmail.com or Sabowalter@gmail.com.

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

Pick a market, any market, in which one local TV station’s newscasts crush the competition. Experience that station’s – and its competitors’ – smartphone apps. You will find the winner’s app more helpful and user-friendly that competitors’ apps.

Nine-in-ten Americans own a smartphone, up from 35% in Pew Research Center’s first such survey in 2011.

So, although not mathematically in-tab to ratings, online content contributes to on-air numbers. Local TV’s linear broadcast product earns your trust, and the station empowers you with on-demand convenience. It won’t confine its use case to living room consumption, and radio shouldn’t settle for in-car + listen-at-work.

Chunks

That TV station likely live-streams its local newscast, just as radio station apps play what’s sent to the transmitter. And in my experience, radio station apps that autoplay when launched get more traffic than apps that ask you to click more than once to listen live. No need to explain portability to Baby Boomers who are lifelong AM/FM listeners, and whose first radio fit in the pocket (and whose annual USA retail spend is a demographically disproportionate $548.1 billion). And anyone younger already lives on a smartphone.

TV has a head start fitting its work into the phone, because 6:00 and 11:00 pm newscasts are already stacks-of-stories, easily repurposed online as short, searchable, single-topic videos. But too often, a news/talk radio station’s on-demand content is merely hourlong airchecks, not the moment within that hour that somehow enables listeners. Got “three ways to avoid [dilemma]” or “…to save big on___?” If you isolate those clips for easy access on apps, use your air to say it’s there, and link that mp3 to your social media, it gets shared, and you earn more Time Spent Listening.

Another opportunity to make the audience the show.

Recently, one of the stations I monitor had a technical glitch with its text system. Normally, listeners can use that same call-in number to text OR send a voice text. But for several days, the text function malfunctioned, so hosts explained that listeners could leave voice messages, and what they got was GOLD.

“Use the QR code on your screen…”

Another TV advantage. Radio doesn’t have a screen, but should put its QR code everywhere it can. Link it to your app install.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

Do you wish you could get in just one more hour of focused work… but your brain won’t cooperate? You’re not alone.

21st century productivity – especially for those of us in talk media where the action never stops – demands that we work against the way we’re wired. “For the brain to produce work of quality,” physician and neuroscience researcher Dr. Mithu Storoni says, “it needs to work in its own way.”

She observes how we’re expected to solve problems as though we’re feeding an industrial-era conveyor belt. But ideas can’t be manufactured in assembly-line fashion. Her solution? Rather than imposing the rhythms of work on our brains, we should impose the rhythm of our brains on our work.

Simple tips from her book, Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work:

• Keep shifting gears. Our brains function like a car’s engine, different gears for different mental challenges. We’re better-off doing short bursts of intense work followed by longer periods of light work.

• Take a walk. Have you noticed that you have some of your best ideas when you do? Sitting upright in an office chair staring at a computer doesn’t let the mind wander.

• Coffee is a friend. Storoni finds “no evidence that caffeine ingestion upon waking is somehow responsible for an afternoon ‘crash’ — or that delaying consumption would somehow prevent this if it did occur.”

• Tech can be a foe. Screens are making us jittery. The quantity of information they deliver can hinder the quality of our ideas. Did you ever read an email… see red… then fire-off an ill-advised reply? And social media “has this power to distort space and time,” causing us to feel “that something we are seeing is happening now and near to us. The problem is if this event is taking place halfway around the world, you cannot do anything to make the situation better.”

• Practice paying attention. “It takes some effort to focus. If I were to say, ‘Focus on that spot on the blank wall’, you’d need to work at it,” Storoni says. “Now information is cheap and attention is expensive, so everything is competing to grab our attention.”

• Never ignore mental fatigue. If you do more than four hours of “mental heavy lifting” every day, Storoni says the mind can’t recover even after a night’s rest, and fatigue drags into the next day.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

Here’s a sales lead, based on an all-out on-air radio war underway in the Providence, RI market I hear when I’m home. These advertisers are doing well enough that they are also now using TV; and I am now hearing this category in other areas. Because two aggressive sponsors here are using these same copy points, verbatim, they must be working, so rip ‘em off:

“There are no fees, no showings, no clean-up or repairs needed. We buy junk houses, abandoned houses, condemned houses, foreclosure houses, and even land. We buy several houses a month, in any condition, and we want to buy more. We buy inherited houses, behind-in-payment houses, divorce houses, we even buy my-tenant-won’t-pay-the-rent houses. Call today for a cash offer on your house!”

By Matthew B. Harrison
TALKERS, VP/Associate Publisher
Harrison Media Law, Senior Partner
Goodphone Communications, Executive Producer

As a media creator, incorporating copyrighted material, such as video clips or actualities, into your content can enhance your message. But when using someone else’s work, you need to consider fair use, a legal principle that permits limited use of copyrighted material under certain conditions – without needing permission from the copyright holder. Understanding when and how you can safely use this material is critical to avoiding costly liability – whether it’s a copyright strike or complicated copyright litigation.

What is fair use? Fair use is the legal principle that allows copyrighted material to be used without permission for purposes above and beyond the original version – like criticism, commentary, news reporting, education, or parody. It’s not an absolute right but rather a defense you can claim if challenged. Courts assess fair use based on four key factors, all which creators should carefully consider.

Purpose and character of the use.  Is the use of the material transformative? This means that you’re adding something new or giving it a different purpose than the original, rather than just copying it. This is more likely to be allowable. On the other hand, simply reposting someone else’s video with little change is not transformative and could be seen as infringement.

Nature of the copyrighted work.  Not all content is treated equally under fair use. Factual works (such as news reports) are more likely to be subject to fair use than creative works (like movies or music videos). Why? Courts recognize that creative works often involve a higher level of personal expression, so they deserve more protection. Plus, society has an interest in being able to quickly disseminate news and other important information – therefore, facts generally have little to no protection themselves.

Amount and substantiality. The more of the original work you use, the less likely it is to qualify as fair use. Using a brief clip or excerpt is more defensible than using an entire segment or the “heart” of a work, which is often the most memorable or critical part. This becomes less of an issue when using factual material, though immediately can get complicated if the material being used is someone elses opinion and commentary. This is where taking less is going to be more – in terms of preventing potential liability.

Effect on the market. If your use of the copyrighted material could replace the need for the original courts are more likely to see it as infringement. In other words – is your use of the material taking money out of the pockets of the original creator? This isn’t a moral judgement but purely an objective analysis. If your use does not impact the market for the original work, such as in a news or educational context, it’s more likely to fall under fair use.

Practical Takeaways for Media Creators

Use brief excerpts, not whole segments. The less you use, the more likely it’s fair use.

Make sure your use is transformative. Add commentary, criticism, or parody to distinguish your work from the original.

Be mindful of market impact. Avoid using copyrighted material in a way that competes with the original.

Credit is not enough. Even if you give attribution, it doesn’t exempt you from potential liability. Fair use depends on how you use the material, not just on crediting the original creator.

While fair use provides flexibility, it’s crucial to apply it carefully. When in doubt, consult with legal counsel to ensure your content remains within legal bounds.

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

By Walter Sabo
A.K.A. Walter Sterling, Host
Sterling Every Damn Night, WPHT, Philadelphia
Sterling On Sunday, TMN

Like you, my guideposts come from innovators, leaders in our business. These are the words I “work” by every day that have led to consultant and host success.

“We will just have to improve security of the building. Next time you are going to stir people up, let me know so I can tell the sales department to raise the rates.” –  Bob McAllan CEO Press Broadcasting, original owners of New Jersey 101.5.

“It’s a simple business, people make it hard. In any situation there are three options: Yes, No, Do Nothing. Do nothing is usually the best option.”  – Edward F McLaughlin president ABC Radio Networks, founder of Rush Limbaugh syndication.

“Local news is the most important thing a radio station does. It must be accurate, and it is our business.” – Nick Dirienzo,  New Jersey Radio Hall of Fame inductee; owner WCRV Radio, Washington Borough, NJ.

When asked why he never discusses current events on his # 1 nightly WOR show, Jean Shepherd said, “Because that’s too easy.”

While others found trouble with every single new idea, Al Brady Law, program director always said, “It just might work.”

“There is no reason a station can’t own the ‘news’ image and the ‘cool music’ image.” – George Gilbert, PD WARM, Scranton – who pulled that off.

Being offered a significant marketing budget, Donnie Simpson PD of WKYS, Washington replied, “No thank you… if we put out one wrong image or message, we could ruin our relationship with the listener”  Mr. Simpson earned # 1 in DC with an Arbitron 10.0 share.

About Spotify and Pandora: “There has always been a box of records next to the radio.” – Bob Pittman, CEO, iHeartMedia.

“If they’re not fearless and having fun, they are useless.” On high powered, talented DJs. – Ruth Meyer, Radio Hall of Fame inductee and PD of New York’s top 40 WMCA, WNEW, and WHN.

“For WABC, as a top 40, 7:00 pm to midnight was their morning drive.” – Steve Goldstein, CEO Amplifi Media.

“Imagine if TV started on a cable distribution system. Then one day, it became possible to distribute without wires… over the air! That would have been considered a spectacular advancement!” – Michael Harrison who gives us daily permission to think different!

“No, please we don’t need to hear that story. We hear your show all day in the house. Save it for your show.” – Any one of the four women who have to live with me.

Your turn.

Consultant Walter Sabo A.K.A. Walter M Sterling has a nightly show “Sterling Every Damn Night” heard on WPHT, Philadelphia 9:00 pm – 12:00 midnight. His syndicated show, “Sterling On Sunday,” from Talk Media Network, airs Sundays 10:00 pm – 1:00 am ET, and is now in its 10th year of success. He can be reached by email at waltermsterling@gmail.com or Sabowalter@gmail.com.