Mark Ramsey Media LLC - sync radio and digital media

Thanks Alan.
The kind of proof I'm talking about isn't from any sort of study. It's from a correlation of ratings with the kinds of performance measures you're describing. That data is out there, it seems to me, but it has not been compiled.
It will not prove that Tom Joyner should talk less, necessarily. But it may prove that not everyone can be Tom Joyner.
Further, the question of "about us" or "about them" is really a question of relevance. And relevance isn't necessarily talking about me, it's delivering to me what I seek from you. It's relevance to the benefits I seek, not the topics being discussed.
I appreciate the back and forth!

Mark: thanks for your coverage of the AB&A content study.
While you didn't agree with our conclusions, I'm happy to get people debating the issue.
I would like to respond to a couple of points you made. First of all:
This conclusion assumes a premise: Namely, that an audience will be passionate about a station's music if the station is passionate about its own music. Further, this argument assumes that the station will be more popular if it's more enthusiastic about its own music.
Unfortunately, there's no proof provided that either of these premises is correct. Both are only assumptions.
I feel there is sufficient evidence that the manner in which something is presented to a consumer - or a friend - can significantly influence how that person feels about whatever's being presented. The research resides in both academic journals and at advertising agencies, but I'll bet you have personal experience of it as well. Thus the conclusion that the audience will feel more positive toward elements of a station's music if the station sounds excited about them. And if that argument is true, it would follow logically that the second is true: that is, the station will be more popular if the target audience likes its music more. If not, why do we focus on playing music the audience feels good about?
The second comment I want to respond to is:
This is not to say that "connecting" to an audience is unimportant - we know it matters. It's only to say that if we're going to conclude that a station would be more successful if it talks about its brand less, then we need to see some proof that this is true - and not just anecdotal proof.
I believe that the brand is everything...and that understanding and connecting with the audience on a more intimate level would be part of a powerful brand. That's difficult to research in a phone study, but I'm comfortable with observational data: look at powerful personalities over the years - like Tom Joyner, Delilah, Kasey Kasem, etc. - and you see strong connections on music and/or personal issues.
Again, Mark, thanks for airing and challenging an important issue!
Alan Burns

hmmmm.....
a couple of thoughts on different sides of the coin. i think a lot of this goes back to the diary. reinforce the damn station and call letters as much as possible, because for the most part, the listener only hears 'wha, wha, wah..." (think charlie brown's teacher). so it's not altogether a bad thing to talk a lot about the radio station.
that being said...
radio stations are totally incestuous, especially music stations. all things previous posters said about liner card jocks and no personality is on target. music stations, especially, get caught up in the station revolving around their format. even when it's not talk about the station itself, the programmers and jocks believe that everything revolves around the format and the station. sure, listeners 'listen' for the music, but it doesn't consume them. especially today, when the passion for music has become so marginalized (due to, for the most part... me thinks, to the homogenized and researched to death music). anyway, the point i'm stammering to make here is that the listener to any radio station... their lives, do not revolve around music. they have lives that consist of problems, fun, issues, kids, dogs, cheating husband/wives, money, jobs, shampoo, cheese, weekend plans, ad infinite-um and nausea-um.
Not only do the listeners 'lives' NOT revolve around the station, it doesn't revolve around the music either. it revolves around themselves. drawing the listener into a entertaining, informed, fun and escapist 'home' on the dial is the crux of personality.
i'm living in austin these days (yes, it's great) and there are a number of great radio stations here. case in point is KGSR. It's a great AAA station and I love it for the 'music.' however, as good and seasoned as the jocks are, there is an assumption that the listeners lives revolve completely around music. while it's true that in austin, it's possible that music is a bigger part of most people's lives that almost any other american city, it's not even close to 'everything.' i rarely hear about what a great day it is or just 'stuff' that people might be talking about. so... it's more that just being incestuous about the station or the music. it's about assuming that the lives of listeners revolve around the station or the music. their lives revolve around themselves, their kids, their friends... their life. we need to work on bringing their world into ours. not just simply broadening our world to fit better into theirs.

Does today's on-air talent really have what it takes to entertain or inform in a unique or genuine way? Too many programmers only took part of the puzzle when they tried to imitate the Drake Boss Radio style. They shut the jocks up and had them read liners.
So instead of imitating the Real Don Steele's style, you had jocks instructed to be the Real Radio Robot.
Radio is great at the monkey-see, monkey-do inovation. One radio station gets it right and many follow only part of the overall production. Take the Jack format...many PD's & GM copied that concept. They fired the jocks and expanded the playlist without any real knowledge of how this all comes together to be a success.
A great lesson in personality radio can be realized by just listening to some airchecks from the 70's. Before liner cards and automation. Lots of content. Granted, some of it corny, but all genuine and exciting.

That sounds exactly right to me, Steve!