Consultants Make Great Sounding Boards

All About Country's vent section is lit up like Lilly Tomlin's switchboard about consultants. I truly respect consultants, especially in Country Music Radio. It seems the biggest gripe is about music, consultant's not letting stations play or suggesting they play certain songs. If this is the biggest bitch you have with a consultant, you need to get over it now.Country Music Radio consultancies are great sounding boards and most of these firms are run by great Country Music Radio programmers who teach the basics of great radio programming regardless of the format. you should be in sync with the consultant and you both need to be team mates. It really blows if the consultant is hired and brought in and their is friction at the start between the PD and consultant.

Some of the quotes from AAC: "There are a lot of times that neither the PD OR the Consultant knows what's going to work in the market. "Play Love & Theft, play Gloriana, they are hot."

"I will say, some consultants are not the best and at one time some of the best have now become dinosaurs and living on the past or their memories of how great they once were. If would be in your best interest if you have a consultant, make sure you document everything you are doing for them in regards to the station and document any ideas and issues you give them/"

"Too many stations lose the battle when they rely too much on a out of town PD who knows nothing about your market or what trends are developing. Show me a sharp programmer who doesn't have to go running to a consultant everyday but use him as one of several weapons in the arsenal. Same with research. The smart GMs know to go get them a experienced PD and LET THEM DO THEIR JOB without too many chefs."

"Sorry don't buy 90% of what you're saying. You MUST be a consultant. Too many times i have seen a consultant throw a potential pd candiate under the bus because he had lots of experience. Can't tell you how many good pds out there that are not on the CONSULTANTS List.Its pretty obvious."

Think of the consultant as a group PD and bring him or her in on everything you do. Make sure you communicate with them. There has to be harmony in the relationship and you both need to be striving for the same thing: Fun for profit.

A consultant (from the Latin consultare means "to discuss" from which we also derive words such as consul and counsel) is a professional who provides advice in a particular area of expertise such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law (tax law, in particular), human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public affairs, communication, engineering, sound system design, graphic design, or waste management.