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The Straight Skinny
"He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune" Eminent format pioneers/innovators consider creativity, courage and the passion-factor. Do such factors still matter today?
By Carol Archer |
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If – no, when -- you confront spirit-sapping stress and a smorgasbord of challenges, you don't "process" your feelings with a clerk at 7-Eleven; instead, you seek the good counsel of enlightened, trusted peers or superiors for feedback and insight. This is no time to resist suggestion. As one prominent radio personage observed recently on condition of anonymity, improvement in Smooth Jazz's ratings picture, particularly under PPM, "won't happen without meaningful change." This broadcaster "doesn't see people making serious attempts to remedy the situation, other than changing format, which often leads to…lower ratings, while allowing them to claim that, hey, at least they've made a change."
The conversation continues on the role of passion in Smooth Jazz, which most of you consider the linchpin of the format's success to date. This column concludes our exploration of the issue, which kicked off last week with insights from Michael Fischer and Blake Lawrence. For additional perspective, we turn to two of the most influential figures in the format's enduring, quarter-century history: Frank Cody or Steve Williams, who weigh in, without a given topic or collaboration. It is interesting that a unifying thread runs through their remarks, like a stitch that echoes the warp and weft of last week's column. Please ponder the perspectives of people who crafted the original format now known as Smooth Jazz, and then propelled it to stunning breakthrough ratings and revenues.
Esteemed as perhaps the preeminent format sinecure (joined by such titanic figures as Christine Brody and Paul Goldstein) and point-person of the founding team behind KTWV(the Wave) in L.A.'s genesis, where Smooth Jazz first launched as a fulltime format on Valentine's Day 1987; and among other stellar credits, is former Broadcast Architecture CEO and Rendezvous Entertainment's founding CEO; who began his radio career spinning jazz vinyl at night in Albuquerque at the tender age of 13: Frank ("Bebop") Cody
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"He who pays the piper calls the tune." People, water, and electricity take the path of least resistance. License holders -- station owners, that is -- are no different: they chase money. The Wave in L.A. and the format now deemed Smooth Jazz were born out of an unquenched thirst for music that wasn’t exposed on mass appeal radio, as well as the need to turn unprofitable stations profitable.
Fifteen years ago, in my first interview with Carol Archer [June '94], I predicted Smooth Jazz would have at least another 12-year run as a prominent format. Change is the essence of progress; and like it or not, today many ad agencies and sponsors view radio as passé. Unfortunately, perception is reality.
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Change is the essence of progress. –Frank Cody |