The Media Revolution

(By Lee Abrams) I’ve Noticed FM stations called things like “Fresh.” More stations that sound like detergents. And of course there’s NOTHING Fresh about these stations. In fact other than slogans, they’re pretty stale. Marketing by slogan. A disease….trickery. More lies, though not as absurd as Jack-“playing whatever we want” (yeah, sure…) And one wonders why FM’s have declining credibility in today’s environment. They should just call it Fabreze. At least that’s not generic. And we aren’t in a generic era.

I think we need serious (r)evolution. Revolutionizing media is a powerful modern day process. The world is absolutely crazy and confused and media isn’t helping with its dated presentation and shortness of vision in this time of madness. It’s beyond marketing change instead of executing it, or addiction to a pre internet era playbook. Its about aggressively re-thinking the big picture it so more people will re-embrace it with on an emotional/fan level with extreme modern day cred… that makes lives better and perhaps saner.
Hard? Of course it is! And so?

Every aspect of Radio, Local TV and Newspaper perception and reality can be dramatically improved and updated…in delivery, economics and actual look sound and vibe. To match the intensity of the new era we’re in

Cell phones re-invent themselves every six months. While that re-invention is often purely technology driven, Joe Citizen doesn’t care. All he or she knows is that these things in their lives keep improving. Radio, Local TV and Newspapers haven’t noticeably improved in decades. Compared to the glory days of newspapers for example, when things changed on a slow basis…things today change practically by the minute . To stay in sync, the SWAT mentality needs to be engrained. The same exists throughout media.

OPERATING AT THE SPEED OF 2020.
Revolutions are about “we”. The leaders need to engage EVERYone. And EVERYone needs to engage the cause. You are either WITH the revolution or AGAINST it. You will either be embraced by the company and win or the company will beat you. No middle ground. If you are IN—cool—Bear down for battle. If you are OUT—Cool—Good luck with your future. Just figure out where you want to be… Middle ground wastes EVERYONES time.

Need to create FANS not just users. Fandom isn’t necessarily a sports or music thing. Fox News has FANS—- like or loathe them it’s all about a conscious emotional connect. We NEED those connections today.

It would be revolutionary in itself if management talked to the general staff in real talk not business speak. In fact, I think most business speak creates an eye roll effect upon the rank and file. Try verbal empathy instead of “the voice from the top floor that doesn’t understand me” that makes any new message difficult to believe or engage in on the rank and file level.

I like some sayings to help fight this kind of dated thinking thing—or HOPEFULLY inspire thinking that’ll help move things forward:

AFDI” Actually F-cking Doing it. (Executing on ideas and big plans rather than having the big off-site, developing exciting plans…then absolutely nothing happens)

“PASSION CHARACTER & MUSCLE” The Big Three (Executing with passion…Character – where it’s done with style…and Muscle. Today’s media not a place for the timid)

“THE MTV INTERIORITY COMPLEX”. (Radio suffered from this. I imagine in other media there’s an Internet Inferiority complex—a thing where the idea that you are old and tired permeates the building and that the OTHER guys are where the excitement is)

“CLICHÉ BUZZER” (installed. Three buzzes and you’re fired…to de-condition and liberate people from tired clichés)

“MEETING TIMER” (installed in conference rooms so meetings don’t go on and on –to the point of painfully unproductive). Long meetings are OK—as long as they aren’t long for long sake.

“AVERAGE SUCKS” (Yet, it seems to be acceptable and even encouraged…)

“THE REVOLUTION IS BEING TELEVISED.” It’s on now. Tune in and turn on to it.

“DEXTER MUST DIE” (Dexter was a morning show tape we got “Dexter in the Morning”—It was SO incredibly lame that Dexter became a poster boy for everything wrong with radio…I imagine there are Dexter examples in Print & TV)

“UNDERSTAND THE PAST TO DESIGN THE FUTURE” (nod to the importance of understanding and respecting the past…but using the past to DESIGN the future rater than dwelling on the glory of the old days or the problems of the present).

“MISSIONS NOT JOBS” (Want a “job”? Fine…not here)

“SHOWS NOT SHIFTS” (pet peeve—DJ says “Got to do my shift”. Factory workers do shifts, DJ’s do shows. Even if they only read a liner card an hour—it’s STILL a show…Even if he’s only playing songs…it’s still a show. “Shift” strikes me as disrespectful to the idea of entertaining and/or informing people).

“BANNED WORDS” (‘Out of the Box” is a good example. It is SO overused, it doesn’t mean anything)

“CREATIVE BATTING AVERAGE” (Come up with 100 ideas on how to make something better…if only 30 are good—you are an all star—.300 Hitter. Most people are batting .000—content with sitting on the bench and not swinging for the fences with new and better ways to do things)

“WORLD WAR 3” (It took the American GI’s to battle the forces of evil in WW2). Nowadays, there are a different kind of evil out there—BAD MEDIA. Gotta be the GI’s of the Media War. With an attitude that “if we don’t do it” America will fall into evil hands of junk culture. Actually, it already has…so its time to E-volve to meet the realities of this crazed new world.

Lee Abrams is the CEO of Lee Abrams Media Visions and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]