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Is Måneskin Bad for Top 40 Radio?

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Last week, someone posted about a new song in one of the Facebook groups I’m a part of that’s full of radio geeks like me. In short, this individual claims “Beggin” by Måneskin is a terrible song and bad for the CHR/Top 40 format.

Wait, what?

Of course, you don’t have to like the song. That’s subjective. But bad for CHR? That’s just plain wrong.

As timing would have it, I listened to consultant Loyd Ford’s interview with legendary programming guru Guy Zapoleon on the Encouragers Radio Rally podcast the other day. Besides being thankful that Guy hasn’t slowed down his pace of dropping  knowledge during his semi-retirement, I took note of this quote towards the end of the episode related to the role of crossover songs at CHR:

“As important as Pop is for Top 40, you shouldn’t be forcing mediocre Pop songs in the format. Billboard shows Pop is not more popular than the combined amount of Hip Hop/R&B, Country, AC, and Rock/Alternative added in together. There needs to be a better balance on Top 40 that includes the other styles.”

Media consultant Guy Zapoleon

Guy explains how some of the skittishness that the CHR format has in veering outside of Pop goes back to 1989, when the format leaned too heavily into Hard Rock, then overcorrected to the AC side in 1994, a shift that resulted in a third of stations leaving the format.

It was a classic example of Radio’s move from the Extremes to the Doldrums phase of the CHR music cycle, a concept Zapoleon pioneered. In Birth/Rebirth, CHR plays mass appeal music from Pop, Rock, and R&B. In the Extremes, core listeners adopt a trendy music style. Stations lean too heavily into that style, alienating Cume coming from other formats. In Doldrums, the format overcorrects and gets too safe. But, as Zapoleon says, a balanced current music mix can reduce the length of the Doldrums period. As this R&R interview with Joel Denver from 1992 would suggest, he’s been saying it a long time.

As it happens, the Top 40 chart today is looking more cross-format than it has in quite some time.

Kacey Musgraves, a seven-time CMA award winner, is about to crack the Top 40 with “justified”. Elton John has his first Top 40 hit since 1999, thanks to “Cold Heart” with Dua Lipa. Pop Country star Kane Brown’s team up with Blackbear is in the Top 20. “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes can celebrate with some Bourbon Street Steak as he heads from the Country chart towards the Top 10. And Måneskin –good ol’ “bad for the format” Måneskin–an Italian Rock band formed five years ago, is in the Top 5 with “Beggin”.

Is this good for the format?

I reached out to Guy a few days ago to discuss. While crossover songs can be very good for CHR, the answer (as you might expect) is way more layered.

Guy explained that the Extremes cycle, which leaned into Core Hip Hop in 2018 and 2019, gave way to the Doldrums in 2020. And while he doesn’t expect an overcorrection the likes of 1994 (“I think enough Top 40 programmers [understand] the Music Cycle and buy into [the fact] that Pop is the glue for Top 40”), he does think there’s a disparity between the most popular songs and the most played songs at CHR.

Check out this chart that Guy created and shared with me:

The top shows the percentage of songs by sound code in the Billboard year-end chart (which includes streaming and sales.) The bottom shows the percentage of songs by sound code in year-end CHR airplay. Note how in 2010, a year most would call a very successful one for Top 40 (think Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas), there was an 82% duplication between the most popular songs on the Billboard chart and the most played songs at CHR. The last few years, it’s closer to 50%, as stations force the two-thirds percentage of Pop airplay and underrepresent the combination of Hip Hop, AC, Country, and Alternative/Rock.

How long will the Doldrums last? Guy believes it could be until at least 2023 but explained there are a few key strategies CHR stations should focus on as they navigate the Doldrums phase.

  1. Stick to the basics. “Follow the Coleman Image Pyramid. Clear music position, great personalities, invest in marketing, [including being great at] social media.”

 

  1. Don’t lose the hits that are in front of your face. “Don’t overfocus on national charts and be patient. Last year, Top 40 had only 28 consensus powers, the lowest I’ve seen after studying radio for 60 years. This year there are 21 so far, and it is already mid-October.”

And, of course…

 

  1. Play a balanced music mix. “Top 40 has to be open to crossover hits from AC, Country, Alternative, and Hip Hop if its melodic and catchy.”

So yes, Top 40 radio should be playing Måneskin, but don’t lose sight of why you should… and remember to take into account Guy’s other elements required for format success.

 

 

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How Local Radio Should Use TikTok

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If you oversee the operations of a contemporary radio station in 2021, you’ve likely had a conversation that includes a line that goes something like this:

“Do we focus our strategy on younger, harder to reach people that we know aren’t listening as much to Radio? Or do we skew older to the upper end of the demo to reach those that we know are listening more and that Nielsen has a better chance of finding?”

It is a real challenge, and it isn’t going to get easier.

The fact that many younger listeners are more likely to consume music via streaming services like Spotify and YouTube rather than local radio stations more than older listeners isn’t a secret, nor it surprising. Now that most local radio stations are available on a multitude of platforms, programmers can reach younger listeners on their devices. The big question of course, is “Are they gettable?” That very question, while completely valid, is also a gateway to a very dangerous self-fulfilling prophecy for the industry.

First things first, make sure you’re not referring to your younger listeners as Millennials, because they’re not so young anymore (sorry, Millennials!). Born between 1980 and 1996, Millennials now squarely occupy the young and middle range of the coveted 25-54 demographic. (Side note: I’m in denial that us Gen Xers are on the older end, but I’ll get over it. ☹)

Gen Zers were born between 1997 and 2012, so today these 9- to 24-year-olds occupy that special area of influence (and it’s worth pointing out that, while they may both carry the same generational label, today’s nine-year-old and 24-year-old are hardly the same.)

Hey, wouldn’t it be great if there were somewhere local radio stations could hyper target their marketing to Gen Z consumers?

If you ask Chipotle, Guess, the NBA, Levi’s, and The Washington Post how they reach them, TikTok is going to come up in every answer.

Wait, back up. Yes, I just said THE WASHINGTON POST.

You know, the traditional old guard media publication founded in 1877? The Washington Post adapts its content by platform. It posts serious journalistic content on Facebook and Instagram, but its TikTok page is filled with memes, skits, and behind-the-scenes videos. Dave Jorgensen, the man behind the company’s account and unlikely star of many of the videos, starts every day making a TikTok video. The Washington Post–THE WASHINGTON POST!­–has over one million followers on TikTok

Watch this interview during which Jorgensen discusses why The Washington Post invests so much time and energy on TikTok:

While we were all in stir-crazy mode during the pandemic, TikTok was experiencing a flamethrowing growth curve. This time last year, the platform had 667 million users worldwide, while today it reports over a billion. Leaning about 60% Female, 28% of TikTok users are under 18 and 63% are under 30.

One of the ways legacy brands have adapted to using TikTok is by specifically tasking employees with the responsibility. Chipotle has a team of “culture hunters” that seek out viral trends and turn them into social media campaigns. So many of these successful campaigns integrate music, like Chipotle’s Guac Dance Challenge. Used to promote National Avocado Day, the campaign resulted in a 68% jump in avocado usage at Chipotle locations. Holy mole!

Challenges are a core component of TikTok’s brand, and so often they use music that contemporary radio stations play. The “Beautiful People Challenge.” The “Old Town Road Challenge.” The “Blinding Lights Challenge.” The “Toosie Slide Challenge.”

If contemporary Radio’s biggest challenge is attracting younger listeners to the format, and those potential listeners are on a massive, often music-based, platform for an average of over an hour a day, shouldn’t strategic discussions involve that platform?

Here are six ways contemporary radio stations should incorporate TikTok into their strategic planning:

  • Designate a younger member of the team (and heavy TikTok user) as a “culture hunter.” Have them monitor trends on a daily basis and report to the team.

 

  • Create channels to regularly brainstorm ways to integrate the station into the trends. If there is no time for formal meetings, use tools like Slack, Chatter, and Teams to bounce ideas back and forth.

 

  • Find TikTok users that already love your station. You may have influencers with robust followings in your audience. Find them and find ways to use them. Include them in the previous idea. And pay them (use trade if you need to!)

 

  • Mobilize your personalities on TikTok. Personality has always been a key differentiator between local radio stations and streaming services. Make sure your talent is inviting TikTok users to your station.

 

  • Advertise on TikTok. Up until recently, advertising for local brands was a challenge due to the lack of DMA targeting. That changed this past May. TV and outdoor should not be the only media that are discussed when precious marketing budgets arise. Run some test campaigns on TikTok, track them, and see how they do.

Just because Radio is “legacy” or “heritage” media, it cannot be an obstacle to reaching younger consumers. None of the brands mentioned in this blog are particularly new (the newest is Chipotle, founded in 1993 – 28 years ago.) If The Washington Post – THE WASHINGTON POST! – can figure out a TikTok strategy, I feel pretty confident Radio can do it too.

 

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Everything is a Marketing Decision

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When you’ve been at the forefront of media research for as long as our company’s founder Jon Coleman has, you’re bound to have lots of “quotables.”

Of course, not everyone at Coleman Insights today can spout off every one of Jon’s nuggets of wisdom. But there’s one most of us have burned into our memory: “Every song you play is a marketing decision.”

Why is this one so sticky?

“Every song you play is a marketing decision” is a simple way of explaining how important your brand is to the success of a music-based radio station. The answer to the question to “Why did you play that song?” should never be “Because it tests.” The answer should be “Because it tests” and “Because it fits.” As Warren Kurtzman wrote when Coleman Insights introduced the FACT360 Strategic Music Test almost exactly six years ago, “to be right for your station, a song should absolutely be popular among and familiar to your target audience. It should also, however, reinforce the brand essence of your station or at least the essence of the brand you’re trying to build.”

Warren explained that it’s not just every song that makes a statement about your brand; it’s the positioning and imaging efforts you employ as well.

But that’s not all. Everything on a radio station is a marketing decision, and that very fact is what makes programming one so daunting and complex. It starts with a song, and expands to the positioning, the imaging, the personalities and how they present the brand. But it further spreads to elements like specialty hours and weekends. It includes the look of external marketing. The content of the website. The tone of the social media pages. The appearance at remote broadcasts. Even the spots played on the station, and certainly the sound of a station on its stream.

There’s no question that the demand on a programmer’s time makes it incredibly difficult to put every piece of content under the brand microscope, and it is realistically impossible to ensure that everything on a radio station meets the brand standards of the PD.

Just don’t ever say these three words: “It’s just one.”

It’s just one song. It’s just one specialty hour of music that’s completely different from what the station is known for, rather than an hour that expands and deepens a positive image. It’s just one­­ – ahem – “enhancement” commercial on an AC station. It’s just one remote with terrible audio. It’s just one talk break. It’s just one social media post. It’s just our stream (In a future Tuesdays With Coleman, we’ll address one way streaming content can adversely affect a station’s brand.)

The attitude of “It’s just one” leads to a piling up of “ones.” And that can end up creating a cumulative issue over time.

Every moment counts. Everything is a marketing decision.

 

 

Press Releases

Coleman Insights and Advantage Music Research Announce Strategic Partnership

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC AND BRIDGEWATER, NJ, September 8, 2021 – Coleman Insights and Advantage Music Research announced a unique new strategic partnership today that is focused on serving the radio industry.

Since Deena Hollander founded Advantage Music Research and its flagship ScorecardSM music testing service in 2017, her company and Coleman Insights have built an informal partnership where each firm refers potential clients to one another when it is deemed the other’s offering may be better suited to their needs. According to Coleman Insights President Warren Kurtzman, “We’ve referred a number of clients to Advantage over the last few years, as their Scorecard service is the only one we’re aware of that provides online library testing that meets our methodology and data quality standards. When our FACT360 Strategic Music TestsSM have not been a suitable option for those clients, Deena has delivered something that we’ve received great feedback on.”

Under the terms of the strategic partnership, Advantage Music Research will refer clients who require a deeper level of insights and recommendations provided by a FACT360 Strategic Music Test to Coleman Insights. Meanwhile, Coleman Insights will refer clients with whom it has competitive conflicts or whose budgets and/or needs are better aligned with what Scorecard offers to Advantage Music Research.

Advantage Music Research Founder Deena Hollander adds, “One thing we’re always confident of is that Coleman Insights shares the same commitment to extremely high-quality data that our clients require. I’m excited for our companies to share best practices regarding fielding and data collection, and to ensure we can help radio stations achieve stellar results that are appropriate for their needs.”

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Signs of Unpredictability

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This past weekend, my wife and I walked around downtown Raleigh, North Carolina and checked out some local shops. One had a chalkboard easel outside that read, “I’m not going to make good music anymore. – Kanye.” Whether you believe Donda is garbage or a masterpiece is irrelevant. The sign made me laugh, I walked inside to Black Friday Market, and ended up purchasing two products.

Nook Neighborhood Coffee in Stockport, England received a negative review on TripAdvisor after a customer complained the porridge was overcooked. The restaurant did the right thing, offering a replacement dish and responding on TripAdvisor with a thoughtful response. But then they put this sign outside:

I don’t know about you, but if I see a sign like that on the street, I’m going in and trying the porridge. All day.

The shop’s irreverence didn’t stop there. Instead of boasting that they had the best coffee in town, they boasted that they…well, have coffee.

These signs use unpredictability to activate Broca’s Area, the part of your brain that is triggered by surprising things. You expect a brand to tell you they are the best at something, first for something, or the leader in something. You don’t expect self-deprecation. While it probably should be used in moderation, you can see how effective this brain pivot can be. Too many superlatives are far more likely to activate our BS meter.

Signs like this also remind us of the power of humor and irreverence.  I immediately knew within seconds of reading the sign at Black Friday Market that I was going to have fun inside, and I did. The owner was likeable and friendly, and the store was interesting. I got the same feeling about the UK coffee shop when I found their signs online.

Irreverence, attitude, fun­­­—those are the things that give so many radio stations their brand essence. Those that already love you may already have a clear understanding of what your brand is all about. But if you’re trying to attract new listeners into the fold, just putting the same old sign out front all the time isn’t going to cut it.

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Artificial Intelligence Is Coming for the Audio Industry

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Recently, I was targeted on Facebook with an ad for a company called Speechelo.

Considering I actually do voiceovers part-time, I’m going to guess that’s why the algorithm chose me. Though, based on the content of the ad, I’d have to conclude their targeting misfired. (I may or may not be one of the angry faces among the 5.3K reactions.)

It’s not the first time the voiceover industry has been attacked with low-rent solutions. Head on over to Fiverr, for example, and you’ll find people happy to record some lines for you for a few bucks.

But this ad didn’t catch my attention because it saves you money. No, I think it was “Create Human-Sounding Voiceovers with 3 Clicks.”

The website boasts that you can have access to over 30 human-sounding voices in 23 languages for a one-time fee of $47. It claims you can paste your copy, select a voice, then change the pitch, emphasize words, add inflections, then simply click and generate your voiceover. It boasts integration with recording software including Premiere Pro and Audacity.

Not surprisingly, Speechelo isn’t the only game in town.

WellSaid Labs just raised $10 million for their AI “synthetic voice” business. You want a synthetic voice to match the cadence of yours? WellSaid can create “AI Voice Avatars.” The article envisions the technology being used for “engaging in complex real-time interactions with consumers, and reading scripts on computer-generated news programs.”

WellSaid Labs

WellSaid Labs just raised $10 million for their synthetic voice business

Whoa.

So it starts with simple voiceovers. Segments like e-learning are a no-brainer transition; you can easily see companies using these voices for things like online courses or company onboarding. But it sounds like many folks in customer service should pay attention to the line “complex real-time interactions with consumers.” And news anchors should heed “reading scripts on computer-generated news programs.”

Like it or not (and I’ll bet many of our readers don’t like,) artificial intelligence is coming for the audio industry. Imagine how this technology could transform local radio commercial production, and maybe it’s not all bad. Production directors no longer chasing down jocks after their shift to voice spots they didn’t want to do anyway. Using the avatar feature for clients that want to be in the spot but have trouble getting through a script.

But admittedly, it can be challenging to find bright spots.

There are those who will say, “What I do can’t be replaced by automation,” and that will be true for many. For others, it won’t be. Voice AI will improve over the coming years, and it will improve dramatically. The reasons why certain audio talent is irreplaceable is the same as it’s always been. Great talent generates unique, compelling content that emotionally connects with an audience.

AI can’t do that. At least not yet.

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Blue Ocean Strategy for Podcasting

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Coleman Insights founder Jon Coleman introduced Blue Ocean Strategy to Tuesdays With Coleman blog readers late last year in “Should Radio Go Back to Normal.” In short, brands that find themselves in heavily competitive crowded market segments are in metaphorical shark-infested, blood-laden waters. Hence, Red Ocean. On the other hand, some brands have established unique points of market differentiation in the minds of the consumer. This clear lane is the Blue Ocean. A few months ago, it struck me that podcasting resembles a Red Ocean in a number of ways. It is dotted with millions of shows whose names, logos, hosts, structure, and production sound similar. I wondered if there was an opportunity for podcasters to apply Blue Ocean techniques that brands in other market segments have successfully used to differentiate and make the competition irrelevant. That’s how the idea of my presentation, “Create A New Lane: Using Blue Ocean Strategy To Get Your Podcast Noticed,” which I shared at the Podcast Movement conference in Nashville last week, began.

As Jon pointed out in his December blog, Blue Ocean Strategy may have value for underperforming radio stations. Is it better to live in the shadow of a dominant competitor or blaze your own trail? When, for example, a station in your cluster is the third highest-rated CHR or second highest-rated Country station, is it more strategically advantageous to choose an untapped or underserved lane?

One way to look at available opportunity in podcasting is by reviewing the number of shows in each category in Apple Podcasts. For example, the general Science category has over 30,000 shows. Chemistry, a subcategory of Science, has only about 900. Should you publish a general Science podcast that may cover Biology in one episode, Physics the next, and Chemistry the next…or do you publish one that focuses specifically on Chemistry, hyper-targeted to those interested in the topic?

The Religion category is a massive Red Ocean, with over 150,000 shows. Christianity is a subcategory of Religion but is its own Red Ocean at over 90,000. Yet Hinduism, observed by 15% of the world’s population, represents less than two percent of the Religion category. Not to mention that India is the third largest podcast listening market. Whereas Religion and Christianity are Red Ocean, Hinduism is Blue Ocean. The most underserved categories? That belongs to swimming and volleyball, at only about 130 shows each. Total. As James Cridland of Podnews likes to say, “If you can’t rank in the Top 150 for swimming, you’re doing it wrong.”

This Red/Blue Ocean exercise can also apply to topics as opposed to categories. The Golden State Warriors are a hugely popular NBA franchise. If you search for “Golden State Warriors podcast,” Google’s algorithms will offer you many suggestions of shows that cover this topic. But do the same thing for “Stephen Curry podcast,” and you’ll find none. Zilch. Zero. But Google will recommend a golf podcast. Curry is one of the most popular athletes of all-time, yet there is seemingly no podcast focused on him. If you launched both today, which would have a better chance at acquiring new listeners? A general Warriors podcast amongst a sea of established Warriors podcasts or a Steph Curry one? The Golden State Warriors are Red Ocean. Stephen Curry is Blue Ocean.

Stephen Curry Podcast

A Google search for “Stephen Curry Podcast” shows a wide open Blue Ocean opportunity

Apply this exercise to your content, as a sales consultant that attended my session did. He explained to me that his podcast offers broad sales advice. The name of his show implies broad sales content. Now, he’s thinking about how to focus his show. He’s considering his target listener. Is it C-suite level? Sales managers? What market segment? A company that sells software for used car dealers has a podcast called – you guessed it – The Used Car Dealer Podcast. It’s a great brand building and lead generating show for them, though they wisely don’t use the show as a commercial. A podcast for car buyers (or even car dealers) is Red Ocean. A podcast for used car dealers is Blue Ocean.

When deciding to adopt Blue Ocean Strategy for your podcast, it’s important to remember you should not just pick a category or topic because it is underserved or narrowly focused. The content still has to be great. You must have a level of expertise, and put in the research and the work to make it so. But if you do, and the category or topic are Blue Ocean, you are increasing your chances of success.

Finally, it’s important to remember that Blue Ocean strategists don’t differentiate with just one thing. The greatest Blue Ocean brands differentiate in multiple ways. That means thinking about all the things podcast listeners see when they search for shows. The thumbnails look alike. The descriptions sound the same. The structure and production value is similar. Make a list and consider how you would Blue Ocean each item. The show name. The logo. The description. The sound. The host. The category. The topic. And so on.

Next stop: Blue Ocean!

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The Agony of the Specialty Weekend

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If I didn’t show up at my house until 8 or 9 on Friday night, my wife knew one of two things had taken place at the radio station I was programming. It was either Option A: the sales department turned spots in late, which delayed the traffic department, which delayed the merging of the log, which delayed my ability to time out the log for the weekend. Option B: I was scheduling the music for a specialty weekend, and the complexities of components like specialized clocks and imaging that I didn’t have time to get to earlier in the week were holding me up.

When it comes to specialty programming, there are many directions in which a radio station can go. Recently, I’ve listened to some stations that have aired specialty programming nearly every weekend. One was a “Superstar Artist Weekend” on a Classic Hits station, which focused on some of the big artists the station played. Other examples of specialty weekends I’ve heard across formats include a Live Music Weekend that spotlighted live tracks, a Summer/Beach-themed weekend, and an All-American weekend that brought extra attention to artists that were born in the United States.

On the one hand, there is no doubt that radio stations often excel at capturing and reflecting the moment. From that perspective, you can see how a Beach-themed weekend to kick off the summer and an All-American Weekend for the 4th of July could have some value. The million-dollar question: Is the effort you put into your specialty weekends worth it for what you’re getting in return? The answer: it depends. Let’s look at specialty programming from a research perspective.

The Coleman Insights Image Pyramid

As you’ll see on Coleman Insights’ Image Pyramid, Specialty Programming has a reasonably high position in the hierarchy of importance. Ensuring listeners clearly understand your station’s Base Music or Talk Position is job one. Building brand depth beyond the base position is incredibly challenging if the base position is not understood. Impactful personalities help drive listening to the station beyond the base position, which is reflected by its important position immediately above it.

So, we know Specialty Programming’s presence on the Image Pyramid can benefit station images. How it benefits your station depends on a few things, including: a) what the programming is that you’re airing; b) how often you air it; c) how well you promote it; d) whether it supports your base position.

This comes back to the Outside Thinking principle we often refer to. We know from decades of research studies that listeners have shallow perceptions of brands. We know they aren’t paying close attention. That’s why it takes so long to build images (and why it takes so long to shed them.)

When Specialty Programming shows up positively in research studies, it is generally because a radio station has aired something that’s memorable, that clearly supports the brand, and that is done deliberately and consistently over time.

A Mainstream Adult Contemporary station may, for example, air an 80s Weekend once a month, but only highlight the 80s songs it plays within regular rotation. A programmer of another station in the same format may have concluded that 80s is important enough to the strategy and an image he/she wants to build, so they run an 80s Weekend every weekend. Every single song is from the 80s and the imaging is significant. Which one do you think listeners will remember and have a chance to show up in research?

This doesn’t mean that stations that consistently run the same specialty programming each week are the only ones that can be successful from a research perspective.

Many Classic Rock stations have been running “A to Z” and “Top 500 of all-time” event programming on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends regularly for decades. But it’s the fact that they’ve run them for so long during the same times that make them so memorable. If they switched it up each year, whether as a different feature or at a different time, it would lose its effectiveness. Two For Tuesday may sound played out and cliché to a radio person who has heard it the way radio people listen to it, but for the station it may be a memorable benchmark that may also help build the Base Music Position.

All of this is not to say you should throw away one-off topical features. They certainly have a place and time, but they serve a different purpose. They are called one-offs for a reason. Specialty programming is different with different criteria. But success from a research perspective still relies on a “yes” to these three questions: Is it memorable, does it build the brand, and are you doing it consistently? It applies for every format, from 90s Weekends for a Classic Country station or mix shows for a Hip Hop station. The next time you consider specialty programming, consider how you’ll use it to build an image. That’s the way to ensure a positive return on your time investment and lasting value for the brand.

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Beer, Bourbon, and Hummus

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When visiting family in San Francisco recently, we passed a small corner store, of which there are many in the city. But as we drove towards a particular one, I noticed three words on the front that grabbed me—“Beer, Bourbon, and Hummus.” Riding in the drivers’ seat in a car going around 40 miles an hour, it struck me with enough emotional impact that I had to whip out my phone and take a picture.

I’ve seen a lot of things in my 48 years. But never a sign for beer, bourbon, and hummus. And before you discard the hummus message for being completely not like the other two, you should know the name of the store is “Healthy Spirits.” So maybe it’s not so far off brand.

The point is, San Francisco has countless storefronts that look exactly like this. They are on a corner. They have wine and liquor in the window. A few signs are pasted on the outside. The names are non-descript. There is typically nothing that would make one of these stores stand out for me over another. Nothing that would make me grab my phone as fast as I could to take a picture to share on social media.

Until hummus.

And so it goes with your audio brand. Maybe it plays the hits, kicks out the jams, has soft and relaxing favorites, delivers the news, or talks about sports. And you may do it very, very well.

Just don’t forget your brand’s “hummus.”

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Wanted: Radio’s Music Experts

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In an October 2000 interview with Rolling Stone, television producer Gay Rosenthal tells the story about the time he was at lunch with VH1 Executive Vice President Jeff Gaspin and the conversation landed on Milli Vanilli. The two started wondering out loud whatever happened to the massively successful duo that was brought down and disgraced by a lip-syncing scandal in the summer of 1989. Rosenthal said to Gaspin, “I don’t know, but why don’t you let me take the ball and run with it, and let me see what I can find out?”

That’s how Behind The Music was born.

The VH1 docuseries that examined each artists’ history from their origins to their peak of success, and took a deep dive into their struggles and hardships (no BTM was complete without the struggles!) started in 1997 and lasted 274 episodes.

Thanks in part to the streaming content explosion, Behind The Music is getting a reboot on Paramount+ with eight new episodes starting July 29th. Those that remember the glory days of VH1 will also recall Storytellers, which lasted all the way until 2015 with artists telling stories behind the songs. The diverse lineup of 98 episodes started with Ray Davies of The Kinks and ended with Ed Sheeran.

But surprise, shawty! The desire for fans to learn more about their favorite artists never went out of style. In just the past few years, Netflix alone has churned out popular docs on artists representing just about every genre of music.

“Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell” features rare footage captured by The Notorious B.I.G.’s childhood friend Damion “D-Roc” Butler.

“Homecoming: A Film by Beyonce” offers a rare intimate look at Queen B’s life.

Taylor Swift admits her PR missteps and transparently talks about how her need to control her brand corresponds with her obsession of being perceived as good in “Miss Americana.”

Want to know how ZZ Top crafted their sound and image? Watch “ZZ Top: That Lil Ol’ Band From Texas.”

Care to worship Dolly Parton for an hour and a half (spoiler: you do)? “Dolly Parton: Here I Am” has you covered.

If you’re not paying attention, you may be missing the fact that music documentaries are coming at you in all different directions. On multiple video streaming services to be sure, but even Spotify had a four-part music documentary series.

Consumers have always craved more information about the artists they love. They read liner notes in the vinyl, click the button on Shazam, and type in lyrics on Google.

It is disheartening when personalities on music radio stations either a) don’t offer information about their core artists or b) don’t offer anything very interesting or engaging.

Of course, it doesn’t make sense for most stations to run long-form documentaries and “musicology” doesn’t belong on every format. But if there’s any medium that should be serving the craving for artist connection, shouldn’t it be radio?

By default, listeners will assume air talent on music radio stations are experts. Air talent have a unique platform to both introduce artists to the audience and build emotional connections with their listeners. You can provide basic general knowledge listeners can find anywhere or you can be the “insider” the listener relies on for engaging content. Taking the extra time to find this content can build important images for the station and the air talent.

Engaging artist information and connections is radio’s space. It’s also radio’s to lose.