There are a lot of postings online about the sudden and unexpected passing of my friend and co-worker Charly Butcher. I took some time to find some video’s that give a glimpse into the Charly we all know and love, but first a run-down of what happened in the past 24 hours.
Wednesday evening, August 15th, 2018, I was at home when my phone notified me that a work email arrived. It was the announcement that Federated Media Fort Wayne Market Manager Jim Allgeier sent us:
It’s with a heavy heart that I am sending this email out right now. Charly Butcher has passed away this afternoon. No details as of yet that I can share.
Over the next couple of hours my co-workers in the advertising sales team at WOWO and I were in communication with each other. Numb and shocked were the words that we used as this was totally out of the blue. We wondered how our WOWO News and Programming co-workers would handle this, as Charly worked daily with them in the studio.
A couple hours later, WOWO sent a news alert via text that Charly had died and they posted the initial story on WOWO.com and shared on Facebook and Twitter. Soon the news teams at WANE-TV and WPTA-TV had the news on their websites and I stayed up to see all three local network affiliates, CBS, ABC and NBC lead their local newscast with the shocking news about Charly Butcher. You can search online to find their stories.
Charly was on vacation this week so his usual fill-in host Steve Shine is on the radio all week.
Thursday morning it was all hands on deck at the studios. Many of us wore our WOWO staff shirts all day. The entire morning program, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher along with the entire afternoon show, The Pat Miller Program were live and local tributes to Charly. Phone calls, emails, text messages, in studio appearances, social media posts were all shared from former Indiana Governor and current Vice President Mike Pence to Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry. Current and former co-workers and others in the media took part. And of course there were plenty of reminiscing moments from listeners and friends of WOWO and WMEE where Charly first built his reputation in Fort Wayne in the 1980’s.
When Charly Butcher joined WMEE in 1983, I was also on the air at WMEE, but it was 30 years later that our paths crossed again when I rejoined Federated Media in 2013. Charly has now firmly in the news/talk business instead of the top 40 radio business and for nearly 5 years now, I’ve had the pleasure of working with him as we would brainstorm ideas for my WOWO advertising partners or just reminisce about our old WMEE days.
Sometimes when you work in local media like Charly did, you don’t realize the impact you are having on peoples lives. Over 3,000 people shared the original Facebook posting and the link on the WOWO.com website crashed as so many people were trying to find out what happened.
A hashtag #RememberCharly is being used on Facebook and Twitter if you care to join in or simply read.
I took some time to find a few videos from the past to share:
Quite a different persona than those who listened to him on WOWO radio, but still the same radio dude.
Here’s at promo clip from when WOWO began our TV simulcast:
As WOWO’s FM signal is now at 107.5FM the TV simulcast is now found on MyTV.
Charly emceeing one of the numerous events in our community from 2009:
Charly never lost his sense of humor at WOWO as evident in this clip from 2011:
Penny Pitch 2013:
Charly got the hang of being both on WOWO and TV:
Charly loved portraying himself as “The Grinch”:
Charly played tribute to another Fort Wayne institution a few years ago:
The last post from Charly on his Facebook page the day before he passed away shows one side of his personality:
Let me leave you with this clip from a couple years ago as Charly tells his story to students at Croninger Elementary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Follow the official post and comment at WOWO.com .
The President does his annual State of the Union Address, the Governor and Mayor of Indiana and Fort Wayne do their annual State of the State and City Addresses, so how about a look at The State Of Media Advertising?
As we wrap up the 1st quarter of 2018, several items are going on that you need to know about.
First off, the television industry is going thru a transformation similar to what the newspaper industry and phone book business went thru years ago.
The short story is they are suffering. And so they are making changes.
But first let me fill you in on the paper stuff I mentioned.
Phone books have shrunk because of a couple of technology changes. One was the rise of cell phone usage and the dropping of residential landlines. Next was the rise of the web combined with smartphones that now allow us to talk to our phones and have it dial the business we want to call.
Newspapers are an anorexic shell of what they used to be. And again the villain is the internet. It’s not really fair to call the internet a villain, because for us as consumers, the internet is our hero. However, both the phone book and newspapers are only possible if there are advertisers paying to be in those print publications. And they depend on readers reading them. That has dropped year after year.
In Fort Wayne, we had two daily papers that operated under a joint operating agreement for advertising but finally last year, the afternoon paper went to an online only version with the exception of getting a page or two included in the morning paper.
Earlier this month, while waiting for a meeting, I saw a couple of local newspapers in the reception area. It was the Thursday edition and I know they printed it at a loss. Less than a dozen ads in the entire paper except for the classified section. Some sections had zero paid ads.
My industry, the radio broadcasting businesses is well over 100 years old and has had to deal with technology changes. AM radio stations used to broadcast network programs all day and night. CBS and NBC radio networks operated the way that broadcast TV networks do now. As a matter of fact, some of the early TV shows in the 1950’s originated on radio. With the growth of television, and decline in network radio programming, radio stations became more local and they also discovered a new focus.
That local focus included music and records. When I was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s listening to the radio was how we listened to new music. Some stations had personalities that were local celebrities and that was what drew me into a career in radio.
I could continue this history trip down memory lane, but let’s jump ahead to 2018. The internet is no longer the bright and shiny new thing, it’s an intricate part of our lives. This is having an impact on the TV business as mentioned in some stories I read in Mediapost. For example:
Declines in national advertising revenue have occurred in 8 straight quarters. Starting in July 2016 thru this week, advertising revenue for broadcast TV has been down between 1 and 4%.
Why? Well we have more viewing choices and some are really taking off. Netflix and other web based screen options have been posting gains over the years and that has hurt broadcast TV.
Some broadcast networks are attempting to fight back by reducing the number of commercials they will air.
Fox will attempt to lure viewers back to their network by decreasing the number of commercial minutes down to 2 per hour and those two minutes will be very expensive for advertisers to buy. This might be a good move, but they are focused on the wrong problem. The real problem is having shows that people want to watch.
NBC created a hit recently with This Is Us. ABC has The Bachelor and Dancing With The Stars. CBS continues with hits like NCIS. None of these shows cut their commercials to keep viewers.
These TV networks are doing more than just reducing commercial time. They are adapting to the technology. My wife and I now watch more prime time TV on our schedule, with the on-demand feature from Xfinity. People can binge watch on their laptops or smartphones. Will the broadcast TV networks survive? Only if they have advertising support or subscription support.
The digital revolution that TV is going thru is also one that newspapers are trying to use by adding paywalls to their online content. But those dollars will never replace the lost ad dollars they used to bring in when newsprint was in its heyday.
Radio is also at risk, but for the most part it is less dependent on national trends. iHeart radio, the owner of over 1200 radio stations in the country filed for bankruptcy protection, but their downfall is not really a radio issue, it was a series of financial decisions that led to them owing billions in loans.
My company, Federated Media which owns WOWO radio and close to a dozen stations in Indiana is a privately held company and we are doing well. We also have a digital division that was started years ago because our advertising partners wanted someone they could trust to help them with the digital marketing revolution.
Which brings me to another Mediapost article and question:
The reasons are numerous. Most of the problems are related to marketing people abandoning something that is working and jumping on the digital bandwagon without fully understanding it. And the digital world is constantly changing.
I keep an eye on this stuff for my own interest and also for the best interest of my advertising partners and even before the outrage over Facebook and privacy issues that are still being sorted out as I write this, I pulled some of my advertising partners Facebook Ads and moved their digital spending to a couple of other options that have been very successful. Contact me if you want to know more.
Here’s the big picture to keep in mind. The technology isn’t going to retreat. And just because something is new and shiny doesn’t mean you should be an early adopter and abandon what is working. But neither should you stubbornly hang on to the old ways and ignore the future.
We are well into 2018 and I have a very important question:
How’s Your Online Visibility?
When was the last time you did an overhaul of your website? If it’s been more than 18 months, your business is hurting.
I sell a variety of radio and digital advertising solutions and there are times when I tell people before we can send people to your website, you need an update.
Here’s a few key items to keep in mind in 2018:
Mobile has overtaken laptop and desktop. This means instead of sitting down with our computer to look for stuff, we are more likely to grab our phone. Your website has to be more than “mobile friendly”. Think Mobile First.
Responsive websites are the new norm instead of having a separate mobile site and a more robust desktop website with the exception of e-commerce sites. When I say Mobile First, assume that the first visit someone is going to have to your website is that tiny screen on their phone, not the big desktop monitor.
So design your website for the best UX (that’s User Experience) on Mobile First and then include a full experience for the minority of folks who will use their computer to visit your site.
Next up, is Voice Search is taking over the world. All the Apple Fans thought it was cool that they could have a conversation with Siri until I showed them how I could also get what I needed by talking to my phone with the “Ok Google” technology.
But that was just the beginning of voice activated devices. With Alexa and all the others battling it out to be our best buddies in the artificial intelligence world, is your website and company up to the latest standards?
Search Engine Optimization is part of it, but if you are only using methods that were the gold standard in 2015 or before, you risk getting lost online. Searches are based on so much more than keywords these days. Search is personalized to each of us. Your previous browsing and search and your location is all known and while that helps you find what you are looking for when you are browsing, it has also changed the rules for a business to be found online.
Google continues to penalize old and outdated websites and web-pages and is always looking for the best content to serve you and I as consumers, not you and I as business owners and marketers.
How are you using Social Media for your business? Are you using Facebook Live? Do you know how to create engaging content? Do you know the differences between Likes and Engagement? Is your LinkedIn profile set up properly?
When was the last time you Googled yourself? Do it. Also on Bing, Yahoo, and YouTube and Facebook.
Are you listed on the review sites? Are you monitoring and responding to reviews?
I know this is a lot to consider but it really is important stuff.
Some of these things you cannot do yourself, you will need to pay professionals to do it. And even though I’m a professional at some of this, and I can help guide you, most of my recommendations will involve hiring people and companies besides myself. I have contacts and connections to people and companies that are good at these things and stay on top of it so you can focus on what you do best in running your business.
Remember my original question: How’s Your Online Visibility?
Need some help or guidance on what we’ve talked about today? Reach out to me.
If I asked you to Name Your Favorites in a number of categories, depending on the category, you could easily rattle off your top two or three, right?
Here’s an example:
Name your favorite food.
I’ll wait a second.
Depending on where in the world you live, and how specific you want to get, you were able to name at least three things you like to eat.
My top three list would include:
Seafood (including shrimp, crab and scallops)
Chicken
Salad
Your list is probably completely different, but that’s okay. There are thousands of options. And yet each of us have narrowed our personal choices down to a handful or two.
Radio and Television is like this too. So is the internet but I’ll save the way this works on the web for another day.
I still have cable TV and with that there are over 100 choices. But personally, I stick to about 5 or 6 channels for most of my viewing. They are my favorites. Can you Name Your Favorites?
A dozen years ago, I was talking to a local auto repair shop owner about advertising. He hemmed and hawed and finally said there are too many radio stations out there for people and that was his reason for not picking mine.
I did a search for Auto Repair in my area and found there were nearly 10 times as many auto repair shops as there were radio stations and he conceded that he was wrong.
But no matter how many choices there are, we have our favorites in nearly any category.
Nielsen, the company that specializes in radio and television listening and viewing habits around the country recently released a study that shows how this works with radio listenership.
Radio listeners are either extremely loyal or extremely selective, depending on one’s perspective. Whichever it is, the data remains the same: listeners devote the majority of their tune-in time to their favorite station, according to a recent Nielsen study.
In fact, AM/FM radio listeners spend fully 58% of their time with their preferred station. All told, their three favorite stations combine for an impressive 86% of all their listening time.
Due to my working in the industry, I have access to specifics for Fort Wayne radio listener habits and here’s what I discovered:
News and Talk Stations have the most loyal audience according to the amount of time spent listening. WOWO radio and WBOI are the two stations considered news/talk. WOWO is the commercial station I work for and WBOI is the National Public Radio station in town. WOWO’s audience size (the number of people listening) is huge, more than double the public radio station, and the time spent listening to the shows on WOWO each week is also greater than WBOI according the the Eastlan Fall 2017 rating data.
What’s the difference between being someone’s favorite and their second or third favorite radio station?
Nearly 60% of a persons radio listening is to their favorite station.
Less than 20% of the time, a person listens to their second favorite station.
They only spend about 10% of their radio listening time tuned into their personal 3rd favorite station.
A couple of takeaways for you to remember:
Everyone can name their favorites in many life categories
Radio stations have a core audience of listeners that are loyal to their favorite stations and you should keep that in mind when deciding where to advertise
And a bonus tip for you:
Some business categories have not been developed with clear leaders or favorites. There are multiple factors for this but mostly it has to do with creating a memorable brand and marketing it to buyers and influencers. Advertising can help establish your business as a favorite and if you want to know more, contact me.
TV Audiences Are Shrinking was the title of a story I wrote a decade ago, and unfortunately, the major television broadcast networks are still getting clobbered.
There was hope for some Television folks that in the age of cord cutting, as people dropped their cable TV subscription and started watching channels over the air, like “the good old days” that ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX would see an increase in viewership.
But not so fast…
Many of the cord cutters are not watching the traditional TV networks, some don’t even have a TV like my son and his wife. Netflix and Hulu have been making gains. meanwhile according to a story from Mediapost last week:
…in prime time, broadcast networks were down 16% (to 8.3 million); and cable networks, lost 11% (to 15.5 million).
To my business owner and marketing manager friends who are wondering why your television ad campaigns have been struggling… this could be a factor.
As many of you prepare your business for 2018 and are wondering about Social Media marketing, here’s some numbers that were shared by Mediapost. Remember that these are just numbers and you really should talk to a professional about what this means for your individual situation. If you are in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, reach out to me.
That’s the latest number’s from the Mediapost article. But what does any of this mean to you the local business person? It’s nearly useless data for deciding how to reach people and invite them to become your customer.
However here are a couple of considerations…
Facebook has officially moved to a pay model. In other words, it is nearly impossible for a company to get exposure for anything considered advertising or marketing unless you pay. I saw this first hand in 2013 when I worked full time in social media and it continues today.
Instagram is owned by Facebook and many including myself crosspost between the two.
Twitter is still better to use by the customer service department than the marketing department of a business and Snapchat, well it’s demographics are below the ages of people I target for most of my advertising, so I personally don’t care. I even deleted my own Snapchat account this year.
Social Media is still the bright shiny object that marketing people are trying to figure out and tons of businesses are dumping their advertising budgets to online stuff like the platforms mentioned here. However you and I as consumers are not fond of the ads that interrupt our newsfeed when we just want to see what’s going on with friends and family.
This is why we use social media.
One platform mentioned in that Social Media Report is different and if you are in retail, you should give it consideration.
Which one?
Pinterest. It is an online wishlist and shopping list for the heavy users. It takes time and knowledge to build Pinterest Boards that pay off financially as I immersed myself in it a few years ago and saw the largest measurable Return On Investment that was trackable for my social media activity.
Let me leave you with this. Advertising and marketing is best done by those who are professionals and that also includes social media platforms. Don’t be swept away by big numbers like I shared at the beginning of this article and think that you can have instant success. The folks behind the scenes at these social media companies are constantly tweaking and changing the rules of the game and what worked last year may not work next year so you need to be sure the person handling your social media is staying on top of the changes every week.
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