I’m Mad As Hell And I’m Not Gonna Take This Anymore

6

(By Mike McVay) Enough News/Talk radio stations are seeing erosion in the ratings that Managers and Programmers need to question the message that they’re delivering to the audience. They also have to question how the audience is using their stations. When there’s no new message … when the drum beat is the same everyday … is there reason to listen to see if you missed anything? It’s this that causes the famous “audience burnout” that we’ve all heard about in our careers.

When reality is more absurd than what the movie Network displayed, it’s time to reassess where we are, and ask ourselves “when do we arrive at doing what’s right?” Isn’t that more important long-term than increasing profits short-term? I’m not questioning making a profit. Most radio stations are “For Profit” businesses. We are mercenaries. I’m questioning why some News/Talk stations continue to pound a message over-and-over when the audience is listening less.

If you’ve never watched the movie “Network” … then you need to find it online and watch it. The 1976 movie by Director Sidney Lumet and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky was said by some to be a satire, but the two gentlemen insisted it was what they believed was a reflection of what was happening and what would happen. They were so very accurate.

It’s a movie about a TV news anchor who is managed by a female show developer. Much of what you’ll see in the film, like having a film crew behind the police lines interviewing a kidnapper in the middle of a bank robbery, was laughable in those days. Now it’s reality. The same for having an astrologer on the news sharing horoscope readings. They had loud production elements and flashing colors during the newscast. Today that “spoof” is a reality. You see it on TV and hear it on the Radio. This is magnified by Citizen Journalists. Everyone who has a cell phone, has a camera and a recorder, in their hand.

You have likely heard Beale’s famous urging for people to shout out their windows “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!” Many people, who are familiar with that quote, were unfamiliar of the origin of the phrase. The phrase is better known than the movie.

There’s a great line in that movie where the old-line newsman Howard Beale (Academy Award winner Peter Finch) is told by the head of programming Diana Christensen (Academy Award Winner Faye Dunaway) to “articulate the popular rage.” Now this movie, written by Pulitzer-prize winner Paddy Chayefsky, premiered at a time in the mid-late 70s when “rage” was at the nations core.

Many are starting to “feel” the rage of humanity again. A large number of us are feeling as if we’re about to repeat the shutdown of 2020. Some have never bought into the seriousness of the Coronavirus. There are many social issues being batted back and forth. The thought of ‘articulating the rage’ is valid—although I would modify that and suggest that talk personalities view it as “Articulating the Popular Emotion.” Rage is only one emotion, and you don’t want to be just another angry voice on the radio.

The idea is to be the voice of what your listener is thinking. Not what you’re thinking. What are they thinking? Be that joy, sadness, grief, silliness, disbelief, patriotism, being supportive of one another during this health crisis, skepticism, being thankful—all these (and more) – make up the palate from which you can verbally “paint” the Content of a show. You should use all of the colors in that palate. If you lock-in on one color (one topic) it leads to being boring and predictable. That leads to less listening versus repeat listening.

Mike McVay is President of McVay Media and can be reached at [email protected]

6 COMMENTS

  1. The comment from Radiostars is a reminder that the “consultants” that use their free articles on RadioInk to hawk for business rarely understand the truth of what is really going on in our industry.

    Radiostars has spoken truth and obviously understands the radio business today more than the dinosaur that wrote the original article.

    • Do you have ANY IDEA, Radio stars or Matt who wrote this article. I agree some consultants are overrated but for the love of God you’re speaking about one of the most respected men in our industry. Dinosaur let me tell you something if he’s a dinosaur it’s because he’s one of the biggest and baddest most informed people in this business. It’s clear you don’t know him at all as someone who speaks to him on a regular basis I can affirm that he believes in content and he is not unplugged from stations. Is every consultant I can’t say but I would suggest you take an industry wide poll of the three most respected people in this business and the “Dinosaur“ is the top every list. He may not be 30 but I can tell you he’s more plugged in and smarter than most people I’m sorry I just can’t allow such stupidity to be echoed about somebody who you clearly never ever have met. I get the industry sucks right now but this is not the guy to shit all over. He’s part of the solution and far from the problem. As for people not calling maybe radio stars isn’t compelling because in my 15 years in this business I’ve never had a problem is the industry changing sure but this isn’t some hack trying to get free publicity! Sheesh?

  2. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s News/Talk or Sports/Talk, many hosts pick a topic for a segment and although they cover the topic in the first 3-4 minutes of the segment, they continue say the same thing for 10 more minutes and beat it to death. One host actually said, “I’m the last word on this subject whether you like it or not.” Actually, no you’re not. Anyone who turned the dial had the last word. In my career, I discovered that when it’s been said or it’s not working, move on to the next subject and keep moving. Just because you thought your subject would cover 15 minutes, doesn’t mean it will. And yes, that means you’ll have to come up with more material and work little harder. That’s what successful hosts do.

  3. Radio never created it’s own measurement tool. No one shows up to Remotes. No one calls request lines. Nielsen taps less than 1% of the market and calls them “Panelists”. “Live and Local” is going away from the same companies that say “We serve our local communities.” The reality is that advertisers are spending less money on Radio. Stone cold fact that every CEO admits. So, as the money is running away, we see no new positioning, no new strategy. 99% of radio employees are running scared, doing anything to keep their jobs. Expecting great content from people who are just begging to make it until Friday is unreasonable. Likewise, these same people dread Sunday nights. While I think this is a great article, too many of the “Consultants” aren’t aware of the actual environment inside the walls. Worrying about messaging, ratings and connection points with the audience should be important, but the daily noise of inside politics is usually what’s top of mind…actually creating great content is now a second tier issue of importance.

    • While I agree that could be true in some instances I just can’t fathom this comment. If you don’t have people calling or showing up to remotes maybe the content isn’t compelling because I can tell you that we always had quite the loyal following following lessons I learned from not only Mike but other people of his ilk. The man is hard-working sleeps three hours a night and as someone who knows him personally some people write articles and focus on the wrong thing but Mike has been a big advocate for change not only with content but for digital Facebook and innovation. He is who he is because he’s been an innovator since he started.

      Radio isn’t suffering and it’s not dying radio is transitioning now if you run your station like a music box and you have below average talent then yes but if you invest in the market it’s people connections and great talent who can do social media create content on and off air and be part of a community there’s no reason no matter the format that success should allude you and I mean that in the proverbial sense. There are plenty of innovators out there it’s just a matter of finding them networking and being open to innovation to yourself. Yes old time contest things and whacky stuff is out and radio may not be the same but callers love to engage people love to interact people love videos on Facebook and LOVE to be PART OF AN EXPERIENCE (aka a good show is A daily experience creating FOMO) I am stunned. I see you said it was a good article but then said most consultants don’t understand what it’s like inside the walls of the station do you realize that most consultants started out as programmers and on our talent? This particular person were speaking about who wrote the article has literally done it all. I’m not saying you’re wrong there are some consultants that really don’t know what they’re doing but the oks consultants are ruining radio bit is not always true. In my experience it’s bad talent bad decisions and bad consultants combined with no innovation and companies not willing to take action and invest in talent which is the only thing that differentiates radio from Spotify or a music player. Work harder sweat more if you’re giving 100% give 120% this is a passion driven business not a job when people start looking at it as a job that’s when they should move out of the way because a lot of people are trying to find work and I read comments like this and it makes me so upset! Finally as for money spent on Radio Jacobs media does a wonderful job Fred and all of his crew at cultivating data about spending and yes the last year or so has been down and revenue has plateaued but it’s not dropping off to the point where Radio is dying we just need to innovate. I’d just pitch the station or show the other day and I gave them a 12 page report on revenue generation using social media and different forms of content.

  4. Ratings are eroding because the content is either rage, irrelevant or tired.
    Podcasts have been described as “interesting audio content that is available when you want it”. AM drive and PM drive seem to be when people are receptive to audio content. Listeners are curating their material because radio is unable to do that for them.
    And perhaps there there is the question of integrity. Which will erode faster – the number of listeners uncomfortable with the pivot about the “hoax virus” and “stolen election” or the number of advertisers who can’t afford to be associated with the popular spread of misinformation?
    Radio used to be as American as baseball and rock & roll. Now it seems more likely to burn the flag than raise it. Good day.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here