[Note: This was originally written for Mytoba.ca back on May 3rd] The first industry to feel the effects of the digital revolution was the music industry. It was feltl the effects because the product could be packaged into a 3 to 5 MB mp3; perfect for peer-to-peer exchange. Napster became the conduit and what transpired became the text book for how an industry should not react to a digital disruption. I remember those heady days of 2000 when Metallica's contribution to the Mission Impossible soundtrack made its way across Napster before the record company could service it. Once I saw a handful of stations jump on the song, I didn't hesitate to play it on my afternoon show I was doing at 100.3 The Bear in Edmonton. On February 12, 2000, I had Art Alexakis of Everclear on my show and we had it out on air about the effects of Napster. The conversation was not unlike this skit from the 2000 VMA's. Art's argument was very clear: "If I rent a car from Hertz, should I tell them to give it to me for free because it happens to say Hertz on the side?" The comment is ironic that so much content online today is provided for free. (Like this column for example) All that is beside the point. The music industry's reaction to Napster is what killed the business. They were so hellbent on putting Shawn Fanning's Napster out of business, that they overlooked the obvious which was to buy Napster outright rather than do a deal with the devil. (The devil in this case being Apple) What ensued was a commodity that cost $1.29 a song, relinquished control of distribution. Others have argued that the music business could have salvaged their losses simply by getting a financial piece of the iPod. The lesson here: Don't jump over a twenty dollar bill to get a five. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana (1952) Some Canadian cities like Winnipeg that have yet to be invaded by the alleged ride sharing app Uber. (It's not "ride sharing" if one of you is charging money) The Winnipeg Taxi Alliance has an opportunity to keep them out for good by incorporating the things Uber does well, rather than wasting time arguing over the ethics, regulations and legality of Uber. You know, that opportunity to just do better. I love Uber. I love the record keeping, rating drivers, the fare estimates and competitive rates. I love that I can account for my employees whereabouts and that I can justify their expense reports. (Try doing that with those poorly scribbled receipts you get from Duffy's. I love that there is no mysterious $1.50 charge for using a debit card, like the one Unicity served me up last month. In fact, there are no cards or cash at all because Uber is cashless. I also love having the option of using UberPool at a 30% where other riders get picked up along your route. I do not even mind when there are price surges because they have the decency to warn me that there are price surges. My advice for politicians, the Winnipeg Taxi Alliance and their coalition spokes person, Luc Lewandoski: Get your house in order. Get innovative and get ahead of this. The recent Unicity App is about 50% of the way there, but it still needs a number of add-ons. Take the best parts of Uber and give yourself to the end of the year to institute it. Get a cashless method where my Paypal or credit card works. Let me rate the drivers and let them rate me as a passenger. (Maybe drivers won't be so hesitant of those late night pick ups where there is an identity behind the passenger) E-mail me a receipt of the route the way Uber does and reimburse me when the driver takes a wrong turn. Allow me a few buddies to split the fare to the Jets game on the app. Let me order the car I want on the App. Something that works for the number of people traveling with me. See above where I wrote about what "I love" about Uber? What do people "love" about Unicity or Duffy's? Are the things you are fighting for the things your customers love? Every time I ask someone what they love about taxis in Winnipeg, I get a horror story about poor service. Go ahead - ask someone. My story will check out. Maybe in the end you will find the way to keep Uber out of Winnipeg the way the music industry took down Napster. However, if you remember what happened next, there was Limewire and Kazaa, and the commodity that was once $21.99 at HMV become $1.29 on Itunes. Lyft is already outperforming Uber in some Asian markets and Kangaride is already up and running on long distance hauls to and from Winnipeg. Uber has effectively given you the play book; all you have to do is execute it. #uber #apple #metallica #napster

I was invited on the Radio NL morning show to discuss the new phenomenon of Binge Watching, which has hit an all time high according to Deliotte's Digital Democracy Survey. Binge watching actually started when box sets of entire seasons first appeared at your local HMV store. A friend lent me Seasons 1 & 2 of the Sopranos back in the late 90's and I pulled the curtains shut and felt like a capo on Tony's crew by the end of the weekend. But it recent years, it has become the way we consume the show. While Netflix seems to love doling out all the episodes at once, there are costs to it that they probably don't care about, but will affect the legacy of these shows. I pointed this out in an earlier blog, before the release of Season 3, but with all the episodes being released at once - mass media cannot talk about their viewing experiences without having their viewers scurry off the station to avoid spoilers. That means no "Who Shot JR?" type hysteria. Netflix is willing to give up all that free publicity in lieu of binge watching. By the way, Kristin shot J.R. and everyone watched it together. For better or worse, there's not a lot of shared Netflix experiences. With fewer water cooler talk about what happens on these shows, you get more people missing out on subtle plot twists and less people with the ability to recall favourite episodes. Whatever happened to that Russian guy on the Sopranos? And was the Pine Barrens the best episode of the series? If Seinfeld were released on Netflix, could you control yourself to not talk about the "Master of your Domain" episode? With less people talking and recalling the finer points of each episode, viewers are less likely to fall in love with characters on the show. And that will affect its legacy. You can hear the full conversation with Peter Olesen of Radio NL 650AM right here. REPORT A TYPO #Netflix #NLRadio #TV

All too common: You worry about the time and effort you put into social media versus the on air product. It's hard not to feel beaten down by the plethora of digital discussion. In a typical day, you will get a memo from the Program Director, a second from the head of Digital, followed by an about face from the Program Director and then the General Manager chimes in asking why the Facebook insights page is all red. Then the feelings creep in: Overwhelmed. Mental paralysis by analysis. Frustration. These are the moments where you just need to take a step back and simplify the noise. Stay with me because more confusion has been added to the mixture. This time on how your station should be promoting its podcasts. Before you read any further, know that National Public Radio (NPR) does podcasts extremely well and they have invested a lot of their efforts and resources into podcasting. It started when Nieman Labs shared this memo from NPR saying they won't be promoting their podcasts on the air. Their Ombudsman, Elizabeth Jensen, also filed a statement on their reasoning, and detailed some of the in house discussions surrounding the decision. Fred Jacobs from Jacobs Media Strategy noted that the toothpaste was already out of the tube, and ignoring podcasts was futile, especially with Millennials finding them on their own. Mark Ramsay, (whose blogs are a must read for anyone in the audio business) suggested that NPR's decision had layers of underlying brilliance. Fred Jacobs then followed up and made the most important reminder that most podcasters struggle to get the word out about their podcast, so why would NPR not use their greatest advantage to their benefit? Now, you are probably not too worried about NPR's path as their revenue comes in different forms including funding, pledge drives and corporate underwriting. NPR also has to satisfy the needs of their affiliates; it only aggravates them to send listeners to a podcast when their local station are running or re-running a program. If you work at a radio station - here's what you need to consider: (For now) The larger portion of revenue is derived from in broadcast commercials. Thus setting up a dichotomy of Orwellian proportions: A terrestrial listener is more valuable than a digital listener. Or, some listeners are more equal than others. If they are streaming your station live, then yes they are equal. Unless they are listening from out of the region, then they are overvalued. (See? It gets confusing) If you're in a PPM market, you value both the terrestrial and the streaming listener, but there's no true measurement for time shifting or online consumption after the show. And what happens if you are watching the show live on Facebook? Can you have an honest conversation with yourself about what would really happen to your bottom line if you treated both the digital and traditional listener equally? (Then have the conversation) Are sales people saying digital has no value, but their last five sale proposals had the website and Facebook mentions thrown in for free? Ask them to remove it. See? It has value. I have provided links to all the above articles because the right answer about promoting your brand online lies somewhere between the two. Take some time to consider the value of both your traditional and digital listeners. Then take the steps to increase the value of both by not using everything available in the digital toy box. Every station is in such a rush to differentiate themselves from one another; how you digitally promote yourself has become one of those ways. REPORT A TYPO Matt Cundill is a radio consultant who works with radio stations of all market sizes in Canada and the United States, creating ON AIR and ONLINE marketing strategies that make branding and selling sense to your company. #digital #revenue #NPR

Last week I had the joy of speaking to high schoolers about the history of radio. With all presentations, I like to conclude by asking anyone if they have any questions about my picturesque PowerPoint that always keep teenagers engaged when a guest speaker comes in on a Friday afternoon. When no one asked any, I took the liberty of asking a few as a conversation starter: Q: "Who here listens to the radio?" Every hand went up except for one. The one person who did not put up their hand had already identified themself as a musician and wanted to be on the radio. Q: "Can you remember who you listened to on the radio?" One morning show host and one local classic hits stations was named. Q. "Why do you listen to the radio?" To hear new music and because my parents have it on in the car. What I was hearing from these students is exactly what is going on in the radio business today. An incredible reach with very little attachment to what is being broadcast. It is really easy to blame their generation for not loving radio, but it is really their fault? The answers were actually inside the presentation I had just made. Radio has been a mainstay in people's lives because of "emotional connection" and "portability". When people needed FDR's comforting words throughout the depression and Second World War, it was radio that delivered it. When the car radio became standard, the experience became portable. Today that portability truly lives on, but is radio providing the emotional connection? Before the turn of the century, music was an easy and effective way to bond with listeners. No rock station? Just play rock music and get the right personalities in play. The problem today is music has always been a commodity. It has been devalued to such a low level that your station is in a liability position by playing devoid of an element of "discovery" or "entertainment". The song on the radio used to cost $21.99 at HMV, then it became $1.29 on iTunes, it can be leased for near nothing on Spotify and Pandora, and an app a teacher showed me on the weekend that one of his student's made, makes the music totally free. (Watch the Dragon's Den Episode Here) I know this comes as a shock to those who just re-branded their station by getting a few voiceover liners and a library of music that was already available on another station, but what you did is paramount to a struggling local business altering the wallpaper in the store, and hoping to sell more widgets. The fact is that radio stopped trying to attached themselves to 12-24 year old's in the early 90's. However, the supply of music kept them in tune. So we can forgive radio people for not knowing how to connect to young people; the last personalities and programmers who did that are long gone. Today, Millenials have that emotional connection - but it is to their phone. No worries - chances are good your station is available on their phone, but have you told them how to listen to you? Is your station's best content available after the show? Are you sharing the availablity of the best material after the show on all forms of social media? Are personality's engaging with listeners after the show? Are personality's sharing their lives online or is social media just something they do at work? Are you promoting the many ways people can listen to your station online? Another mistake radio stations make is not providing a link to download the TuneIn App instead of just your station app? Keeping them involved in the medium as a whole is more worthwhile than offering another app listeners won't remember they downloaded. The radio ideal to "go where your listeners are" has never been more true. So make yourself available on their terms. Any questions? Just click the blackboard. Matt Cundill is a radio consultant who works with radio stations of all market sizes in Canada and the United States, creating ON AIR and ONLINE marketing strategies that make branding and selling sense to your company.

Two recent studies about people's media consumption habits show that while radio listening is still strong, behaviour is shifting. One thing that is inarguable, the amount of time people spend listening to radio is in decline, while the reach remains strong. The first is a Canadian study conducted by Audience Insights titled "Radio on the Move", that focuses squarely on usage in the car. Its biggest findings indicate usage has not changed in the last five years. However, the company's president Jeff Vidler pointed out on his LinkedIn page, that other countries have a head start when it comes to tuning to Pandora (not available in Canada) and Spotify. (Since September 2014) "New alternatives such as podcasts and streaming audio are growing, but still represent a tiny fraction of in-car listening." says Jeff Vidler. The other study is American and it is the annual media usage study from Edison Research, entitled the Infinite Dial 2016. My two biggest takeaways from the study are: Podcast usage is up 17 to 21% for those who have listened to one in the last month and Online Radio listening has now eclipsed 50%. I would strongly encourage you to watch the presentation below and familiarize yourself with how your available audience is consuming media. Your show or radio station needs to be available on their terms. If you are still doing things the same way as you did in 2008, then do not skip the slide that shows the number of homes without a radio has jumped from 4% to 21% since 2008. Please make sure your streaming signal is beautiful. Buy all the necessary codecs and upgrades to make the sound as pristine as possible. You should be treating your transmitter and streaming technologies with equal care and attention you would give to your transmitter. This is a rehash from last summer, but you need a Podcast Strategy. Now a podcast strategy could just be a "time shifting" strategy for your listeners where you make the best parts of the broadcast available to them after the show. It does not have to be a physical podcast. Over the next week, take the time to watch this video and then think about the how you are going to broadcast differently over the course of the next year. Matt Cundill is a radio consultant who works with radio stations of all market sizes in Canada and the United States, creating ON AIR and ONLINE marketing strategies that make branding and selling sense to your company.

Last month I conducted a digital session with two medium market stations. (One country and one news) Each session participant receives my contact infomation because question and answer could go for two hours. I find that many in radio going through the digital process do not have complete buy in on social media or their current digital strategy. (Hence all the questions) I encourage participants to send me questions anytime. Hello Matt, I didn’t bring up my concern in the meeting because we had used up a lot of time already and I felt it may not be a straight forward answer. My concern with putting full news stories on Twitter and Facebook is that I don’t see how it helps our actual customers (the advertisers)? I understand that if we are only worried about the audience and getting them informed then we should be getting that info to them however we can, but when I tweet something or it is posted on FB our advertisers get nothing. For example, my friend's company used to buy ads from the news station. He would pay for ads to run during specific newscasts with the understanding we will do all we can to make people listen to that newscast, but then said advertiser sees that all our stories are available online without the need to hear or read advertisements. Essentially, my question is does it matter that we are turning our backs on the advertisers by creating content they can’t sponsor or do companies not care about that? Thanks for taking the time to write and being passionate about radio. This is going to be a long answer. First, your customers are both listeners and advertisers. Our job is to connect the listener to the advertiser. The best way we can serve the advertiser is to deliver as large an audience as possible. The first reason your news station needs to have an online presence, is because its brand pillars of “News”, “Local” and “Now” also exist online. Without an online presence, the station wins none. Let me first address the chasm that exists in radio. Apologies in advance for the age stereotypes but let's work with the data we have in front of us. Everyone over 45 has the same old radio habits with a few modern day distractions; they know they can get their news from the local station at the top and bottom of the hour. There’s also some supper hour TV news, and a local daily newspaper. This article is almost a year old but I would encourge you to read "How Millenials Get Their News" from the American Press Institute. Many people under 45 consume news via a cell phone. Twitter, Facebook, and whatever way they stumble upon it. The end goal is for your local news radio station is to get the branding credit for distributing the “Local” “News” “Now”. If your station does not participate in any online news distribution, which one of your three news competitors will take your brand pillars for anyone below 45? TRIVIA QUESTION: What percentage of users of your news station's audience site in January are in the 18-44 demographic? The Answer is at the end of this response. Your General Manager indicated to me that the best opportunity for the station is in the 35-64 demographic. Without an online presence, the station will become virtually unknown to anyone under 50 in less than 5 years. That will make it hard to sell advertising. And while we are on the subject of advertising, those younger listeners your station has don’t even bother sitting through ad blocks. So we need to reach them a different way beyond the traditional 30 second ad. I know you have heard a lot about radio stations making cuts. Know why? They are still trying to jam 30 second ads into the ears of younger demos who have grown accustomed to surfing and fast forwarding. My session with the sales department present new ways to replace that money in the aggregate by selling your valuable digital properties. Newspapers are having cutbacks because every section of the paper is being unbundled. Sports is live and online 24/7. News is on Twitter right now. Classifieds is called Craigs List or Kijiijii. The Entertainment section is called TMZ and every local bar and movie theatre foolishly believe their Facebook page can replace traditional advertising. Unlike Radio, Newspapers have not figured out that their best chance is perspective from trusted journalists. Radio HAS figured out that keeping strong personalities on the air makes money and brands the station effectively. I would argue that newspapers are the ones having the problem of “giving away” their news for free online without being able to monetize it. Now let me address your friend's local business. He can buy 30’s if he wants. But it really comes down to who he is trying to reach. Because the business is a sporting goods store, I would encourage other selling points outside the commercial blocks. The business also has a nice website so it clearly believes that digital is important. How about making the website apart of that? Many purchasing decisions are made just buy scoping out the website. The big challenge for radio is having other things to sell beyond the traditional 30. Podcasting is proving that people are willing to put up with live reads and spot mentions in return for great content. I suspect the only ones uncomfortable with this change is talent. I hope this has addressed your questions. TRIVIA ANSWER: Remember when I asked a question? What percentage of users of your station's site in January are in the 18-44 demographic? The Answer is 76.5% So go where your listeners are. They want news and are coming to you for it in droves. Serve them. Matt Cundill is a radio consultant who works with radio stations of all market sizes in Canada and the United States, creating ON AIR and ONLINE marketing strategies that make branding and selling sense to your company. #digital #socialmedia #radio

You probably did not spend your lunch hour watching CRTC Chairman, Jean-Pierre Blais address the Canadian Club in Toronto on Wednesday. The session was titled: “Staying informed: TV news in an era of change". The Chariman's overriding theme served as a reminder to TV and Radio owners that they are the curators and trust holders of licenses. The event kicked off the latest CRTC video and then the Chairman spoke for close to a half hour. "I fear those who manage media: The corporate executive, accountants, lawyers and MBA's, have lost touch with their audiences. Analysts on Bay Street focus on quarterly results, Profits, Balance sheets, share prices and other calling cards of private wealth. They do not care nearly as much about the health of costly endeavors that preserve the wealth of our democracy. What they must appreciate and must be reminded of, is they hold an asset in trust; an asset that is not otherwise available through regular commercial channels. The value to society of vibrant, free and responsible press is immeasurable. It is a public trust; it is a public good. Television news belongs to the marketplace of ideas. Not the marketplace of higher dividends for investors. May we never lose sight of this truth." "I am here to tell you that broadcasters hold a social contract with Canadians. In exchange for using public airwaves to bring the productions into the homes and onto the devices of Canadians across the country, these enterprises also have a duty to serve the public interest." The full video of the speech is housed on CPAC. The Livestream Link is here. But this is even better. Text of the Speech is here. Or you can fumble around with the embed job I inserted below. If you're in broadcasting in any form, it's a worthwhile half hour watch. The CBC wrote an article about his comments here. The livestream embed link did not play so I removed it. #crtc #broadcasting #rogers #media

At 10am Central Time on February 5th, Fab 94.3 Winnipeg became the New 94.3 The Drive. For the last two weeks, the Pattison owned station had been using their billboards to promote just the brand. There are a number of reasons for the change including ratings potential, and aligning the brand with other stations in the Pattison Radio family. The launch was conducted in about 2 minutes and was brutally honest. The name Fab refers to an era more 60's and early 70's and the station had ceased playing the majority of their music from that era over two years ago. The website redirects to the audio player. Hear the audio from the launch. The first hour featured these songs: Tom Cochrane - Life Is A Highway * Launch * The Beatles - Drive My Car Boston - More Than A Feeling Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Rod Stewart - Da Ya Think I'm Sexy John Mellencamp - Jack & Diane Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop Queen - Another One Bites The Dust Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing Van Halen - Jump Eagles - Heartache Tonight Men at Work - Who Can It Be Now? Abba - Dancing Queen ELO - Evil Woman Paul McCartney - Band on the Run Eurythmics - Here comes the Rain Again #radio #Winnipeg #thedrive

Annually, the good people at Career Cast release their list of the ten most stressful jobs for 2016. The methodology of the survey is listed as follows: Travel, amount of 0-10 Growth Potential (income divided by 100) Deadlines 0-9 Working in the public eye 0-5 Competitiveness 0-15 Physical demands (stoop, climb, etc.) 0-14 Environmental conditions 0-13 Hazards encountered 0-5 Own life at risk 0-8 Life of another at risk 0-10 Meeting the public 0-8 It's no secret that the industry has been forced into cutbacks, restructuring and downsizing - while the workload has increased. Just examining the criteria up above, meeting the public, competitiveness, deadlines and growth potential have made the job more stressful. Unlike other stressful jobs that involve tangible and visible stress factors, broadcaster's stress is abstract. While a fireman has to deal with the fire in front of them, broadcaster's have many smaller fires that they cannot see. The risk of failing publicly, while not immediately life threatening, wreaks havoc on one's nervous system. So what are you doing about it? When I ask broadcasters how they deal with stress or blow off steam, I would get varied responses. There were some who said they blow off steam with alcohol or marijuana. Not surprisingly, those people had little creative juice to offer at the Monday morning meeting. Very early in my career, a program director asked me what "my release" from radio was. His was gaming. Wait. I need to find something else to do outside of radio? Radio was the release from everyday life. This all seems very standard but you would be surprised how we bypass this great advice because we're too busy or figure we don't need it. 1. Get Your Sleep : You cannot function at your best without a well rested brain. 2. Drugs / Alcohol: Limit this or remove it outright. You know I am right. Stop yelling at your computer. Also your sleep is essentially destroyed by drugs and alcohol. 3. Exercise: At least an hour every other day. 4. Something Quiet: On those days when you don't do exercise, do this instead. It can be anything you want but it cannot involve a computer, the internet, a TV, Netflix or a movie. Why? Because TV screens emit a light that stimulate the brain and keep you up at night. You do not have to decrease your consumption online, but don't do it and call it down time. Read a book, walk the dog, take yoga; it's really about time to yourself. 5. Take Advantage of your company's Insurance Plan: Some plans cover massage. Get one. Want to spout off about work? Get a therapist and have them listen to how screwed up your workday is. It's money well spent. It's probably also covered on your insurance plan. 6. Vacation Smartly: Plan it well in advance and use all your vacation. Don't wait until your completely exhausted before planning to take one. By that time, it's too late. Any suggestions to add? Please e-mail me and I will add it. Broadcasting is stressful; managing that stress is the key to career longevity. #radio #career #health #therapy

One of the things I really enjoy about working with on air people, is seeing them succeed. I received a really nice e-mail from an afternoon drive personality I have been working with on a regular basis: Hi Matt, I hope you're doing well. One of things I did during my long flight back was listen to our air check along with reading over your analysis of my breaks. First off, thanks for being such a great mentor and I really do appreciate your feedback and suggestions. I want you to know I do enjoy your air checks, as not everyone enjoys always listening to themselves. I take a lot from your air checks and I try to bring your suggestions and advice to my future shows. These airchecks are a good reminder or 'eye-opener' to help me stay on track in my quest to sound more natural on air. Thanks again for your feedback Matt. I'm going to see you another scope of one my shows so when you have a moment please give it a listen and give me a call this week if you can. Cheers, Jordie I have had a chance to work with Jordie for a few months now and already he has seen great progress in his ratings and in his delivery. Some of the things we worked on during this session was: A) Teeing up the necessary parts of his show more than once, in more than one way. It's a 4 hour show. Listeners need to be reminded about the great things coming up. B) Finding balance between positive and negative stories. What is the feeling that is being left behind after each break? Is it balanced? C) Ways of training callers to get them to say what you need them to say. Leading the caller and screening the caller are two methods that lead to great phones. D) When you do a break featuring the local SPCA Fundraiser, what advantages of social media did you take advantage of? By posting the short interview on air, you could mention the SPCA Fundraiser, "mention" them online, complete with a link to the interview on the station's Sound Cloud account. You'd be amazed how many new listeners will hear you for the first time this way. E) Crutches: The best way to get away from your verbal crutches is to listen back to your show and acknowledge that you are making them.