The Simplest Way To Grow Share

Richard Harker's a smart guy, a great research partner, and he proved what is obvious about how to grow your station's share in the PPM age.

He says your cume is roughly 10 times more important than TSL in building your share.

In his blog, "Beating PPM Is Easier Than You Think," Richard shows how the relentless focus on listening occasions is a waste of your time and resources.

How do you grow cume?

The way it's always grown: create a remarkable, compelling product and then market it.

I know, I know. It's a radical thought. Your radio stations need marketing!

And your stations need something good enough, unique enough, impactful enough to market.

Pretending something isn't true doesn't make it untrue. It makes you naive until you learn the truth, and then it makes you a fool or a liar if you don't accept the truth.

All this cost-cutting, all this mutli-tasking, all this blaming results on not getting enough recycling -- in effect, blaming it on programming and air talent for not doing a better job -- is a giant load of crap.

Radio needs the artistic coffers replenished.

We need more and better air talent, and we need to pay them enough so they don't have second jobs voicetracking five other markets.

We need PDs who run one station, and are compensated well for running one station well. They need time to listen to their stations, and think, and create, and coach -- things they can't do when they also have to do an-air shift on top of their full-time job.

And we need the magic of promotion and marketing. Real marketing.

Yes, it's expensive. It's called the cost of doing business.

Following the Bain Capital/Cumulus model is NOT creating better radio, anywhere. You know it. And so do they.

They just don't care, not as long as they hit their bonus and cash in their stock before the collapse.

So, pull your head out of ... uhhh, the sand ... and start fighting back.

Harker's given you the stats; he's yelling loudly that the emperor has no clothes. Take up the chant.

Build your radio station for the future. Invest in it!