Tag: Todd Storz

Industry Views

SABO SEZ: Common Sense is Always the Solution

By Editor | by Editor

By Walter Sabo
A.K.A. Walter M Sterling
WPHT, Philadelphia
Sterling Every Damn Night
Sterling on Sunday Syndicated, TMN
Another Side of Midnight, WABC, New York

imgIn 1952, the success formula for today’s radio was discovered and put into practice by two hungry entrepreneurs:  Todd Storz and Gordon McLendon. Both men owned dying radio stations in medium and major markets. The industry was suffering from a lack of purpose or solutions due to the advent of television which drove the migration of hit network radio shows to television. Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, and Gertrude Berg were on radio first.

Storz and McLendon developed “Top 40” with their own brains and money. Top 40 was research and focus group based, as well as. Storz tried it first in Omaha, then Kansas City and Miami. McLendon in Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, and New Orleans. The formula was simple but not obvious. Their common-sense solution worked in all formats: music and talk.

Ruth Meyer was Storz’s PD in Kansas City and I worked with her at ABC. She was very clear when outlining the Storz history, “It was all Todd.”

Success ingredients

The formula: Target one demographic. Play their hits – often. Call out the names of as many people in the audience as possible – make the listener a star.  Present with enthusiasm. Promote at every local crowd event possible. Repeat.

All of the McLendon and Storz stations grew instantly, usually to number one.

That ingredient list works repeatedly for station after station for decades. But, and here’s the but, all of those ingredients have to be in the recipe. Leave out promotion, for example, or research, and it doesn’t work. But the full ingredient list does work for every single format.

I asked Mickey Luckoff, who ran talker KGO as the number one station in San Francisco for most of our lives, how he selected his on air talk hosts to which he replied, “They all come from top 40 because I can teach them talk but I can’t teach them radio.” His promotions were non-stop and smart, TV campaigns were non-stop and research, yes, research – non-stop!

When Adult Contemporary was evolving, my team was responsible for the NBC FM properties. Corporate finance people who went to Wharton urged me to go slow, layer in expenses when launching this odd new format. I knew layering was a recipe – for failure!!! All the ingredients had to be rolled out at once. In 1981, WYNY in New York had a $2 million dollar cash and a $2 million barter promotion budget. Result, a $3 million profit and a 5 share.  Thanks to PD Pete Salant and GM Al Brady Law. We used the Storz/McLendon recipe with AC music and Dr. Ruth, it obviously works.

WGMS-FM was a classical station in Washington, DC. When it was owned by RKO and run by visionary Jerry Lyman, it applied the Storz/McLendon recipe to classical music. Their promos announced that WGMS played “Real Oldies – Your favorites from the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s!” WGMS aired a tight playlist of hits. Special weekends were popular, such as a “Beethoven Weekend” with t-shirt giveaways. The station was a profit monster, top 10 in Washington DC.

Five years ago, WABC-AM was about 28th in NYC as a result of cutting costs, by god the cost cutting was epic and so was the failure. Today, John Catsimatidis, the owner, and Chad Lopez, the president, have grown the station to a 4 share and number eight in New York. An AM talk station, number eight and growing. What? How? They put in all the ingredients. The station is data driven. The talent is live. External paid ads run for WABC almost every single day. The air team goes to local events to meet the crowds. WABC airs live listener music requests and dedications on the weekend with Cousin Bruce Morrow and Joe Piscopo – live. Did I mention live?

Today not history

The team is happy. They are making radio. This isn’t nostalgia. Mr. Cats is a very current based businessman who expects results. Like Storz and McLendon he is an entrepreneur, a private owner deploying common sense. He’s doing what is proven, what works. Bravo.

Conclusion: There is nothing wrong with radio. Just stop. Include every ingredient in the proven recipe; expect stunning results.

Walter Sabo has been a C-Suite action partner for companies such as SiriusXM, Hearst, Press Broadcasting, Gannett, RKO General, and many others. His nightly show “Walter Sterling Every Damn Night” is heard on WPHT, Philadelphia. His syndicated show, “Sterling On Sunday,” from Talk Media Network, airs 10:00 pm-1:00 am ET, and is now in its 10th year of success. He recently began hosting “Another Side of Midnight” weekends on WABC, New York. He can be reached by email at sabowalter@gmail.com or phoned at 646-678-1110.

Industry Views

SABO SEZ: Award the Future

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Walter Sabo
Consultant, Sabo Media Implementers
A.K.A. Walter Sterling
Radio Host, “Sterling On Sunday”
Talk Media Network

imWhen reviewing our industry’s awards such as the Crystals or Marconis there are two categories missing. They are: “Best New” and “Best Innovation.” Imagine if winners were announced for these prizes:

“Best New Talent On Air”

“Best New Talent Off Air”

“Most Creative Sales Solution”

“Most Creative Station Promotion”

“Most Innovative DAB or Podcast Format”

“Best New Talent – Podcast”

“Best Innovation In Engineering”

Those awards aren’t fantasy, they are actual awards given annually by Australian Commercial Radio (ACRA). They are presented at a magnificent well-produced event for the entire country – attendance is SRO. The subliminal message to Australian radio personnel is powerful: Innovation is expected and rewarded. NEW is expected and rewarded – no need to wait for you to become legendary (!) to be recognized. “NEW” is a powerful reward and promise to the talent you hope will find a career in radio. Face it, our “on boarding” leaves a lot to be desired. (Hey, work in the promotion department while you live at home, and we’ll let you pick up pizza that you can share!)

The best gift the late PD Al Brady Law gave me was he greeted all new ideas with, “It might work.” Most other executives kill innovative thought with the worst question possible: “Who else is doing it?” The industry has a lame record of assessing new ideas. New ideas are systematically despised:

Bill Drake’s format was damned in jock-for-hire classifieds that warned, NO DRAKE JOCKS. Yes, dozens of stations wanted NO DRAKE JOCKS. Quickly Drake’s strategies slaughtered those stations and revolutionized music formats to this moment. Recorded music on the radio was actually thought to be illegal until WNEW-AM, New York fought that court fight in the 1940s and won. All news on WINS and WCBS certainly was not going to work after the 1960s New York newspaper strike ended. WFAN could never succeed as an all-sports station – soon after launch it became the highest biller in NYC.

When AC was launched in 1978 at the NBC FM and RKO FM stations, it had no future. FM was only for beautiful music and hard rock and besides who else is doing it?

Album rock, AOR, …why we have research to prove young people only want hits! Targeted FM talk – combining a hot format with hot talent would absolutely fail at KLSX-FM, Los Angeles and thanks to Bob Moore became the number one local biller – turn it back to the failed classic rock format please begged one research hit squad! “New Jersey 101.5” has a one million cume talking all week, playing music all weekend. Which award category suits that giant station? “Best New” would have been appreciated.

Todd Storz, the inventor of Top 40, passed away at 38 and his father who owned their stations in Miami, Omaha, and New Orleans couldn’t wait to change his Top 40 format creation to MOR when the kid died. As a result, when Todd died the stations died, too.

Innovators like Bill Drake, Jeff Smulyan, Allen Shaw, Bob McAllan, Alan Mason, L. David Moorhead, and Howard Stern are first ignored, then marginalized, then vilified… then hundreds fight for their credit.

The only way radio stays relevant and grows its place on the media landscape is with a constant flow of “Best New” and “Best Innovation.” That’s when younger listeners are attracted to radio – the same way they are attracted to everything – if it’s NEW. The radio you and your friends were drawn to, talked about at school, listened to constantly was saturated with new contests, new daring DJs, new promotions, new hits, new energy.

The delicious daily challenge of on-air talent and management is what can we put on the air today that has never been done before? If it’s new, even if it doesn’t work forever, generates buzz, attention, youthful audiences.  Of course, 20-year-olds will listen to radio, it’s at the end of their arm! But they are not going to salivate at the promise of “20 of your favorites from the 80s, 90s and today.” Or a national contest.

Why not test a NEW award in just one awards category? “Best Innovation in Engineering” The Marconi Award.

Walter Sabo is a leading media industry consultant and syndicated talk radio personality.  He can be emailed at Walter@Sabomedia.com. Website: www.waltersterlingshow.com

Industry Views

ENOUGH! The Selling Culture Has Failed Radio

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Walter Sabo
Consultant, Sabo Media
A.K.A. Walter Sterling
Radio Host, Sterling On Sunday
Talk Media Network

The creeping culture of sales-determines-all has brought the industry to this moment of despair. The selling culture has failed the medium. It is time to, once again, segregate the sales and programming departments. Take the budgets away from the program directors and inspire them to create exciting UNPREDICTABLE programming.

Earnings calls for most radio companies were held this week. Not pretty. Declarations of the demise of radio are constant, emotional, and desperate. Bleak conditions in the radio industry have occurred before. A review of past crises and how they were overcome is constructive, urgent, and essential.

For example, in 1952, network TV was launched and showed signs of success. NBC, ABC, and CBS moved their money from radio to TV. Longform radio shows were cancelled leaving stations across the country with a problem. At the time, most radio stations were small shops, usually family-owned, therefore the need to add hours of local programming was a financial challenge. The solution was presented by a programmer.

Todd Storz’ family owned stations in Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New Orleans, St Louis and Oklahoma City. He was young and obsessed with radio. His stations were losing money and the future, without network show blocks, was uncertain. Todd ate at a diner daily and noticed that even after it closed, the waitresses put their own money in the jukebox to hear the same songs they had heard all day. Hit after hit. Todd created a list of the top 40 songs, built a production sound and put it on his Omaha station. The station was #1 overnight. His top 40 format was aired on his owned stations with the same results.

Ruth Meyer was the program director of WMCA, New York where she established the GOOD GUYS dynasty. Before WMCA Ruth was the PD of Storz’s station in Kansas City. I asked her who did what at Storz and she said, “It was all Todd.” Todd was a programmer who never spent a day in sales. Storz’s programming idea changed and, yes, saved the industry.

When Todd died at 38 years of age his father – a businessman – took over the company. After Todd’s death, the stations died too. Why? Storz station manager Deane Johnson explained, “Todd’s death [and the control of the radio stations falling to Todd’s father] brought about a shift from a ‘programming company’ to a ‘money company.’”

Radio’s next challenge was FM. It is a popular myth that the shift from AM listening to FM was driven by the higher quality of the FM signal. FM’s signal had been available since 1948. No one listened.

You don’t go to iMAX to watch the huge, superior white screen. You go to watch a movie on the huge superior white screen. When the FCC mandated an end to AM/FM simulcasts, the general managers had no idea what to do and isn’t it time for golf?

Obsessed, very young radio fanboy programmers such as Michael Harrison and Allen Shaw joined with frustrated senior programmers like B. Mitchel Reed, Scott Muni, Murray the K and Tom Donahue to EXPERIMENT with new programming techniques. They imagined and implemented progressive rock, free-form, album rock. THEN the crowds came to FM to hear exciting UNPREDICTABLE programming.

In 1966, Tom O’Neil, the founder/chairman of RKO General owned many money-losing, major market stations. The solution? Better sellers? Better sales training? A sales master course? No. The answer was Bill Drake. O’Neil hired Bill Drake and allowed him to create exciting UNPREDICABLE programming. Drake’s programming saved many RKO stations and was copied by hundreds of stations across the country. Drake’s programming saved them, too.

ALL of radio’s challenges today can be solved with programming invented by programmers free to program. Enough with “it’s not in the budget.” Enough with “it will bring in money.” Enough with “it’s good for sales.” Enough with talent having to generate half their salary in billing to be retained. Enough!

Unleash today’s program directors to follow their instincts, their facts and no more having to check with corporate. Why? Because checking with corporate hasn’t worked. Checking with corporate stops the flow of ideas, it freezes them in time. Radio is live, in the moment. When radio programming is frozen in time it MUST fail. Give up corporate engagement. Let programmers surprise you.

To quote a mentor, ABC Radio Network’s VP Dick McCauley (a sales guy), “A great salesperson is one who has a great product.” He said it a lot.

Walter Sabo was the youngest executive vice president in the history of NBC. He was the programming consultant to RKO General longer than Bill Drake. According to a Sirius corporate EVP, “Sirius exists because of what Walter Sabo did.”  He hosts a Talk Media Network radio show as Walter M. Sterling, “Sterling on Sunday.” Find out more here: www.waltersterlingshow.com  Contact him at walter@sabomedia.com or 646.678.1110