Whatever the truth behind Johnny Vaughan‘s abrupt departure from the London Breakfast Show in mid-November, Capital is in good shape to take on the most challenging of tasks for any radio station: changing the Morning Show.

Dave Berry presented his first Capital Breakfast Show on January 3rd with Lisa Snowden.  It’s a big gig but he is an experienced TV and radio presenter, and she has been on the show since the end of 2008.

So we have a strong radio station, experienced presenters, but a new show and big boots to fill. How does the new Capital FM Morning Show shape up?  We monitored the show for an hour on a regular day, Tuesday 24th Jan, to find out.

Morning Show Clock: 07.30-08.30

Last year in Copenhagen there were nearly 700 participants from 45 different countries. The 2012 conference in Barcelona promises to raise the game again.

This year Francis Currie will be chairing a session with four of Europe’s top radio people.

The Panel:

Hans van Rijn
Group Programme Director & Nordic Business Development Director
SBS Broadcasting, Europe

Christian Schalt
General Manager
RS2 & Kiss FM, Germany

Kevin Palmer
Promotions Director
Cadena 100, Spain

Ivars Embrekts
Owner & General Manager
Radio Skonto, Latvia

If you can make it we’d love to see you there. Here’s what we have in store:

Session Outline:
The population profile in parts of Europe is ageing, yet a lot of AC radio stations have a growing problem: Listeners don’t want to admit they listen and top talent doesn’t want to work there.
So what can you do?

This session answers the key questions with some the most talented Programmers across Europe who have turned AC radio stations round in challenging market conditions, and dramatically increased ratings and revenue:

• What are the secrets of redefining AC radio to make it more relevant, more attractive and more powerful than ever?
• When should you modernize your AC radio station?
• How do you turn around an old-fashioned AC radio station and make it the radio station that gets talked about and drives passion and loyalty amongst both listeners and colleagues?

In AC 2.0 you will get practical advice, concrete examples and trade secrets from the people who have successfully led their own teams to reinvent AC radio.

The book has been in development for a long time and is now finally in production.  It builds on over twenty-five years of successful competitive radio programming intelligence gathered from London, the UK and around the world.

You can get your hands on free pre-release drafts of each chapter as soon as they are ready to go.

To get hold of your exclusive advance RADIO WARFARE content, you need to do just three things:

• Sign-up to RADIO WARFARE with your name & email address.
• Enjoy reading the chapters as they arrive.
• Give us feedback on how the drafts can be improved.

In return you will:

• Get exclusive advance programming insight and know-how.
• Get credited in RADIO WARFARE for contributing your feedback.
• Get the entire book, in draft form, for free.

How do you get the mighty UK media industry talking about your brand new digital radio station before it has even launched?

How do you create a talking point that spans the generations and becomes a major topic of conversation?

Well, take a lesson from Absolute Radio 60s.

They did  it with perfectly conceived, perfectly planned and perfectly executed PR.

The timing was good: Sir Cliff was doing the rounds, promoting his latest calendar and Soulicious DVD.  Of course he is known for being proud and protective of his contribution to UK Rock’n'Roll.

And after so many years in the business, he also knows how to work a story when he’s on to a good thing.

It was a beautifully simple, tried & tested timeless story:  Good versus evil.  Young versus old.  Hip versus square.  To sum it up very simply:

“Absolute Radio 60s ban Cliff Richard for being boring”

Here are some of the highlights:

Tuesday 15th

• Radio Today publish a story about Absolute 60s banning Cliff Richard.

Tuesday 16th

• Clive Dickens starts Twitter commentary on the developing story.
• Daily Mail runs a story about Cliff’s fury
• Lorraine on ITV runs a phone-in asking “which artist would you like to ban from the radio, as Absolute 60s have done to Sir Cliff?”
• Paul Clements writes in the Telegraph about how ‘Cliff Richard makes uncool cool‘.
• The BBC report that Sir Cliff Richard hits back over radio airplay snub.
• Absolute Radio stoke the fire by releasing a Youtube video of Nile Rogers supporting the Absolute Radio position.

• Sir Cliff is interviewed on ITV’s Loose Women and reveals he knows the station is just drumming up publicity:

‘I think it’s a great scam, don’t you think it’s a scam?,’ he asked.

‘In a funny, strange way they’re using me to advertise their station’.

‘And I hope they are going to be really successful because then I can say, “Could they have ever done it without me?” and the answer is probably “No”.’

• The Biggest news website, Daily Mail Online – rustle up support for Sir Cliff from other wrinkly rockers … and Tony Blackburn.
• Media Monkey report Sir Cliff is on Radio 2, and call Absolute Radio ‘meanies’.

Saturday 19th November

• Saturday’s Daily Mail gives away a free ‘Christmas with Cliff’ CD.

Sunday 20th November

• Smooth Radio create a promo saying that they DO play Cliff:

Cliff Richard on Smooth Christmas? by royfm

Tuesday 22nd November

• Absolute Radio 60s Launches in a blaze of publicity and a remarkable level of awareness for a brand new radio station.
• Clive Dickens reveals on Twitter that the Absolute Radio Player had the highest ever ‘visits’ in the previous week.  The hashtag is #ThanksSirCliff.
• … and Sir Cliff has probably had more headlines, features and interviews than he ever expected when he began his own PR offensive.

And what can we learn from this?
1. Simple things done well can be very powerful.
2. You rarely need to reinvent the wheel.
3. You can’t keep a good story down.
4. No matter how strong the plan, never forget the importance of execution.

Congratulations to all concerned.

Post Script

A couple of weeks later on (12th December), and Absolute Radio are obviously so pleased with the campaign and its response that they have now produced a great compilation of some of the highlights from the PR campaign:

The poll was conducted through a nomination process, with input from Programme Directors throughout the radio industry.

Thank you so much to all of our clients for the support through votes, recommendations and testimonials.  We really feel very honoured and very grateful.

Here’s what Editor Ed Ryan told us:  ”You have been chosen by your peers … as one of the most successful and admired consultants in our industry.”  Wow!  He also asked us a question and we thought you might be interested in our answer:

What advice can you give others who want to be Program Directors?

Get really interested in people.  Figure out what makes them tick and how to influence their thinking.  Include your listeners, co-workers, sales team, boss and your competitors.

Develop your emotional intelligence, your communications skills, and your ability to get along with all kinds of people – even when you disagree with everything they say.

Hang out with smart people.  It’ll rub off.  Learn to love research but don’t ever be a slave to it.  Make lots of mistakes, and learn from them.

Thank you once again to all our clients and, of course, to Radio Ink for the support.  We will continue to do everything we can to live up to the title of ‘one of radio’s top consultants’!

P.S. Thanks also due to Radio Today – the best radio website in the UK –  for their support in reporting our exciting news.

Of course it continues to be more important than ever that whatever comes out of the speakers is interesting, entertaining and useful to the listener and effective for the advertiser, but radio can – and should – deliver more.

Francis Currie was recently asked to contribute via video on this very subject to the Medientagen Congress (Media Days Conference) which took place in Munich last week.

One of the key sessions organised by Radiozentrale (the German equivalent of the RAB) was about the potential for radio to take advantage of location-based services.

Here’s a two-and-a-half minute extract, focusing on a practical example of how technology can benefit radio stations, listeners and advertisers IF they are brave enough to do it:

You can see a longer version of the same contribution at the Medientage page of the radiozentrale web site.

• working for a PD
• aiming to become a PD
• already a PD
• hiring a PD

What makes a successful Programme Director?

When we were recently asked the same question, this is what we came up with:

The most successful Programme Directors typically have strong leadership skills: vision, ambition, determination and communication skills that help them to capture hearts & minds and inspire others.

They often surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are, though they are also typically smart themselves.  They are usually grounded, curious life-long learners who know when to take action – and when to seek help.  They hire great producers too.

More than anything though, the very best Programmers ‘get’ their listeners.  They know them and where to reach them.  They have a real insight into their listener’s emotional responses, their habits, attitudes, values and beliefs, not just towards radio, but also life itself.

If you have anything to add or any changes to suggest them please let us know … we’d like to polish this and improve it if we can.

The team also have a real energy & passion for playing with video, and consistently produced remarkable results.

Their latest video speaks volumes about the brand, the radio station and the team, and it does it in a way that draws you in and makes you want to have a part in their fun, smart, savvy world.