Thursday, November 5, 2009

KNOW YOUR NEEDS Chuck Geiger


Entercom took their time and will announce a great hire in SF to the staff shortly, to join Mike Preston a perfect hire in Seattle. We are seeing a trend of proven program manager’s being hired who get the market, due to their past longevity in the city, understanding of PPM metrics and one who gets the mission and vision of the station. Tidwell in Hartford, Allen in Wichita, Medina in Phoenix, and Lindy in Atlanta and Gamble in Chicago - all hires that fit the needs of the stations. There are hundreds of applicants and only a few jobs; Companies can take their time to find the “perfect hire”.

Managers have to know their needs and trust the corporate programming team to aid them in their hires. Great hires verses team induced hires. Do not hire based on the staff and trying to appease the staff. Hire on the super human strength the programmer brings to the process. If they are successful programmers, they got that way with their people skills and ability to coach, motivate and counsel. Programmers; don’t apply for positions where they are looking for something you are not and you pass like two ships in the night. The industry employment picture is not that bleak, that you have to jump at the first offer, to quote my wife.


This works with the hiring of talent and the programmer’s basic needs, what they need and how to capture that in the applicant. You cannot teach radio, the X-factor and vibe to a rank and file staff – It never works, Programmer’s need to be hired to program and talent hired to bring show biz to the product. New talent coming to a station needs to take on a fast, imprint, audience bonding and administrative acumen like Superman would have had if he worked at the paper and Clark Kent leaped tall buildings and STL’s in a single leap.

Yesterday – PPM’s showed earlier gainers down, as the PPM panels shift out after 6 months in these markets. Build up the brand so these replacing panelists come from the life group and love your station. Lose some and add some more, almost like cumulative listening. Keep the shift in life group PPM panelists down by mirroring your station to their expectations, not the music industry or yours. Great morning show and a staff of entertainers who don’t have to be spoon fed fuel the fire. A new group of Country programmers, some veterans and some rookies are carving a landscape in the sonic sound of Country radio. And it sounds awesome and will help in the return of ad dollars in bulk to Country radio, Miller-Kaplan reported a few years ago that agencies loved Country radio (25-54 P) because of the ROI and life group appeal and use of their products. We’re on the way to get right back to where we started from. (Maxine Nightingale).

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