Month: January 1997

VA-ROOM!

1/31/1997

VA-ROOM!

It’s sleek, all right…jet black and slick as a foggy evening in San Francisco. As sexy as midnight.  I held out as long as I could…longer than most.  But it was time…past time.  In Southern California, you are what you drive and I was tired of being known as a Jeep.  I was on the wagon for an eternity, but when I fell off the wagon, I fell hard.

Porsche…there is no substitute.

VA-ROOM!

I’m cruising the streets of Los Angeles, looking for everything in all the right places.  The top is down…the shades are on …daylight makes no difference.  I’m on a mission.  Make no eye contact.  Be seen, but don’t see.  Head cocked…radio blaring Atlantic’s Best R&B of the ‘70s…Vol. 13…that’s the wicked man, Wilson Pickett…tunes are perfect…they transcend age and generation…cigar gripped in the fingers of my left hand…not lit…I’m even bringing back a little of the gangster lean.  I’m so fucking cool.

VA-ROOM!

I’m on the search…the search for the perfect tattoo.  I’ve been on that search for a while.  I almost found it last summer…you remember.  But it was the company that was perfect…not the tattoo.  And I sobered up just in time to keep my left cheek from looking like a mosaic.

Of course there were other things to do this week.  Hollywood was shinning like a diamond on the soles of someone’s shoes.  The AMAs were being televised and many of the movers and shakers were doing a little bit of both.

It was high noon at the O.K. Corral as record companies strutted and preened.  Those who won proclaimed the importance of the AMAs since they were voted on by the “people,” whoever “they” were.

Those who didn’t win dismissed the AMAs as nothing more than a made-for-television event that didn’t sell records and was as reliable as any decision in the WWF.  I didn’t care.  It wasn’t the AMAs that were important, but what surrounded the event.  The “pah-tees,” my man!

VA-ROOM!

This week, I had the unique privilege of spending time with two of the brightest people in the record business…certainly the most influential record executive of the past two decades…Arista’s Clive Davis…and possibly the most influential record executive of the next two decades…Elektra’s Sylvia Rhone.

The AMAs could have almost been called the Elektra Awards since the company ran off with so many of them.  And the party at the Four Seasons Hotel afterwards was the perfect example of a typical “star-studded” Hollywood event.  With Ms. Rhone and the effervescent Greg Thompson acting as the perfect hosts, the stars shone quite brightly.

It was Keith Sweat who thanked Sylvia (on national television) for “taking me to the next level.”  The truth is, spending time with Sylvia takes us all to the next level.  The guys from Metallica were cool, but I had to duck out when the Motley Crue boys swept in.  Besides, the big, nasty redhead by my side was more than a little miffed when Pamela Lee put her tongue in my ear.

Then it was back into the Porsche to blast through the night.

VA-ROOM!

It was at the bar where she brought up the tattoo thing again.  This, of course, immediately include the others in the mix.  There was talk of stars and bars and musical notes…of whales and tails and things I wrote…of pirates and flags and even a goat…of colors and shades and even some quotes.

I hated them all.  And the people who made them.

The continuing quest for the perfect tattoo would have to wait for another, more perfect time.

VA-ROOM!

The tach is absolutely red-lined…the Porsche is straightening out the curves of Coldwater Canyon…the hood pointed toward the sky…the sound system is on Volume 11 now and LTD’s “Back In Love Again” fills the canyon.  The big, nasty redhead is catatonic…head thrown back…hair blowing in the wind…mouth agape…eyes parted like a snake.  She knows what’s coming.  I reach over and wipe a spot of corn starch from behind her ear.

VA-ROOM!

If you hit Mulholland Drive just right…96 miles per hour to be precise…all four wheels of the Porsche will leave the ground.  What a rush.  Of course, timing is the key.  There’s other traffic to consider and the traffic light at the top of the hill can be a real bitch.  Any less and only the front end comes up…any more and you’ll fly over the highway and into Johnny Rivers’ swimming pool halfway down the other side of the hill.  It’s precision, but I am a professional.  I’m fearless.

VA-ROOM!

It was in mid-air when the thought hit me like a lightning bolt.  The perfect tattoo.  Of course.  I twisted the wheel so when we hit the ground we went into a spin.  Three tight turns and we were headed back down the hill to Sunset and the “You Pick It, We’ll Stick It” tattoo parlor.

The big, nasty redhead was excited.  I was excited.  The quest was over.  I had found the perfect tattoo.

VA-ROOM!

Nobody Loves You

1/17/1997

“You’re nobody ’til somebody loves you…”

This week’s interview is one of the most riveting in Network 40’s history.  Gary Stevens, who has been involved in more major station sales than any other broker, speaks candidly about the realities of mergers, swaps and sales.  It is a must-read for all radio programmers who will be effected by a station sale.  It is also important that all in our industry read this interview to gain an understanding about how the current climate causes reactions from those within the radio community.

Gary shares the back-room strategies among those who buy and sell radio properties, but he also touches on the human aspects of these mega-deals.  Gary is in a unique position to discuss how these deals effect the day-to-day lives of those in radio.  He has one of the most respected resumes in broadcasting.  Gary was a big-time deejay back in the days when being a deejay was the ultimate pinnacle of success.  He was one of the WMCA “Good Guys” in the glory days of radio in the 1960s.  He became a general manager in the Doubleday chain and later was president of Doubleday Broadcasting.  I was fortunate enough to work with Gary twice—in Phoenix at KRIZ and later in New York at WAPP.

Gary is one of the best management executives I’ve ever worked with.  He was one of the few managers who put talent on the same level as sales…in many cases, even above.  Gary always recognized the importance of people in this business.  He was quick to point out that it was the talent of the people inside the walls that made the building worthwhile, not the paint on the outside.  I learned a lot about managing people from him.  He was as quick to praise as he was to blame.  He worked hard on creating a family atmosphere and fought hard for his people when company edicts from the home office tended to ignore the human element.

Indeed, Gary Stevens was the first “Human Resources” person I ever met.  So I felt a great degree of pain when I read his perspective on the current climate of station group owners.  According to Gary, most owners are looking only at the hardware when contemplating future purchases.  Whether a station has talented people or even whether it is successful ratings-wise has less to do with the potential purchase than the hard worth of the station.

“Love is here and, oh my baby, now you’re gone.”

Ouch!

The main reason that drives people into our business in the first place is love.  Nobody becomes involved in radio because it’s easier to achieve big success and extraordinary money than in any other business.  We all began because we loved it.

Why?  Who really knows.  Why was I staying up all night, listening to distant stations from across the country while my peers were getting up at the crack of dawn to fish?  Why was I drawn to the station promotions, so I could meet the deejay, when most of my friends were going to a movie?  Why did I think the deejays on my favorite station were so cool?

I have no idea.  I only know that the love of radio drove me into the business.  In my career, I’ve had the opportunity to program a lot of great radio stations.  Not a week goes by without a couple of programmers telling my they used to listen to KFRC San Francisco, WAPP New York or KHJ Los Angeles or another station I programmed—and they fell in love with radio because of it.

We began because we fell in love.  Unfortunately, the reality today is that the lady we’re  in love with has a heart of stone.

“You broke my heart, you made me cry, you dropped a bomb on me.”

Decisions inside radio stations are made for reasons that have nothing to do with a love of the business…most of the time the decisions have nothing to do with the radio business.  Many companies are buying stations as commodities…as far removed from human reality as trading for sugar futures.

Does this mean that we, as programmers, should develop a hard attitude in our approach to our jobs?  Yes and no.  We should face reality.

This isn’t a mom-and-pop business any more.  When someone speaks to you about a “family” atmosphere, be careful.  The “radio family” of today is mostly dysfunctional.  Daddy might be too close to that chainsaw and mom’s spending way too much time with those clothes hangers.

We still should work in this business because we love it—mainly because we have no choice.  You can’t snap your fingers and fall out of love any more than you can change your feelings because the one you love doesn’t share your emotion.  But our love of doing a great job should manifest itself within each of us.  Do not expect that love…the attention to detail…that willingness to work long, hard hours…the ability to be there until the job gets done…don’t expect that to be rewarded in kind by most managers or owners.  They don’t have the liberty to share the emotion.  They are driven by other forces.

Do your job and derive your pleasure from what it gives you inside…not what it gets you from others.  The truth of the matter is that most times, they don’t care.

There was a time when a station’s worth was judged by what it accomplished.  Today its worth is based more on its location and how it fits with others in a future chain than its success.  This can make it extremely frustrating for those who work to make their place of employment a winner.  But fear not.  The time is coming when stations will have to begin paying off.  The prices paid will then be judged on actual worth rather than what someone else wants to pay for them.

That’s when talent will again become the important commodity.

Until then, “Love Stinks.”

It’s Who You Know

1/10/1997

Gather around children and let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, an important, influential person in our business…okay, a very important, influential person in our business…all right, who am I kidding…an absolute icon in our business was asked by the Dean of the UCLA Film School to give a lecture to the film students at the university.  This icon, whose modesty in matters like these precludes me from giving his name, politely declined.  Why, he asked, would film students be interested in anything he might have to say?  But the Dean of the UCLA Film School was a fool…and persistent.  He asked again…and again…and again.  The icon kept declining until to continue to do so began to draw more attention than if he accepted.

Reluctantly, he finally agreed.

When word go out that the icon was going to speak to the film students, the demand for seating was so great that the lecture was moved to a different, much larger auditorium.  Since the icon was speaking, more time was needed than for a normal lecture.  Three hours were set aside.

As the time approached for the icon to speak, the mood on the campus was electric.  The auditorium was “standing room only” and even the admission tickets were being scalped.

The hour drew nigh.  The auditorium was packed.  The introduction hushed the crowd.  When the icon entered, the room erupted into a standing ovation.  Once everyone finally took their seats and quiet was again restored, all eyes were on the icon and each ear was pricked to pick up the first words of what had to be an incredible lecture.

The icon walked to a blackboard behind the podium.  Taking up a piece of chalk, he wrote the following:

“IT’S WHO YOU KNOW.”

Returning to the podium, he looked out across the sea of faces.  “Are there any questions?” he asked.

So ended the lecture.

In once sentence, the icon had summed up the essence of our business.  Or had he?

There is no doubt that who you know is important.  But in today’s atmosphere, it’s not enough.  Actually, it’s not nearly enough.

I submit that it’s not who you know, but who knows you that ultimately makes the difference.

The parking attendant at the White House knows President Clinton.  The more important question is:  Does President Clinton know the parking attendant?

Admittedly, this is taking the premise to the absurd, but there is merit to what I’m saying.  It’s who knows you…and knows about you.

In today’s climate of corporate take-overs of gigantic proportions, it’s not good enough just to do your job.  It’s not even good enough to do your job well.  It is important…no, imperative to be acknowledged by your peers and the industry as a whole as someone who is a cut above the rest.

There was a time when one could make their magic in a vacuum.  No longer.  Renegades once “did it their way” and let the chips fall where they may.  Today, you need everyone pulling for you.  And why not?

No matter who you are…and how big you are…why do you want to be known as an asshole?  Is arrogance so important?  Careful, or you’ll be known as that “out-of-work jerk.”

There is a saying:  “Be careful.  The people you meet on your way up are the same people you’ll meet on the way down.”  Today, it’s more apropos to say, “You’ll meet the same people on the up that you meet on the way up.”  Think about it.

Fortunes have a way of turning quickly.  Why antagonize those today who may be needed in your camp tomorrow?  Does the name Newt Gingrich ring a bell?

In the past year, there were several occasions in radio where programmer A was beating programmer B in the same city in similar formats.  Programmer A didn’t care who knew it.  He only cared that he knew it.  He was to busy beating his chest, returning no phone calls and declaring himself a genius to be bothered with anything else.

A funny thing happened on the way to the MENSA meeting.  Programmer B’s company bought programmer A’s station.  When the stations were combined, guess who was put in charge?  Programmer B, of course. What happened?  Programmer B knew the owner of the new company.  What is more important, the new owner knew programmer B.

So, how does this relate to you?

In today’s world, you have to do much more than market your record or your radio station.  You must market yourself as well.  Of course, this has always been the case.  But it is truer now than ever before.  How do you do this?  By taking the same marketing tools that work with your record or station and apply them to yourself.

Network with your peers.  Call your fiends.  And even more important, call your competitors.  Tomorrow they may be your co-owners.  You may not like them…hey, you might not like yourself…and maybe they don’t like you, but that’s never stopped you in your job.  Don’t let it stop you in your personal life.  You need to expand your horizons.  Embrace new friends and ideas.  Broaden your universe.

It’s not enough to try and get next to the icons of your industry.  Hell, we all want to know David Geffen.  It’s a given he doesn’t have the time to know all of us.  So we must get to know others who can introduce us to others…who can in turn take us one more step up the ladder.

It’s who you know?

Nope.  It’s who knows you.

And the more people who know you, the better chance you have of becoming an icon.