Good Golly, the Folly of Losing Miss Dolly
Didja hear that Dolly Parton died a couple of weeks ago? Of course you did. Everyone did. Her family released the news and it owned pop culture for several days.
I enjoyed the back-and-forth between people believing radio did a good job with it and those who feel we missed the mark. From my listening, we mostly did good. But I’m not hearing everyone. One show I heard played “9 to 5” at 7:20, came on after, and told me what I already knew. Yikes.
Can we pause for an unsponsored Steve Story® that starts with my least favorite phrase “back when I was on the air”?
Back when I was on the air, a big story broke the night before. We had an intense general manager who was just coming out of a sales meeting (bonus tension there). He stopped by the desk of my partner and me and asked what we did with that topic that morning. I said, “We talked about it at 6:50.” He said, “Well, I didn’t get up until 7:00.” Then I said, “Well, get up fu$#ing earlier.”
No, I didn’t say that. But I did think it. Because I was a cocky know-it-all morning guy.
The super-smart GM then reminded us how listeners use radio. They all come at a time that works for them and only stay for a short while. His point was that we do a series of 15-20 minute shows and that those who weren’t there from 6:50-6:54 had no idea we had a take on the big story of the day.
I have never forgotten that encounter and remind shows I work with who use this excuse to try and convince me they “were on it!” that I can’t give them relevance credit for what I don’t hear them do.
Same for Dolly. Great shows were on it a lot over a few days. Her unexpected passing was everywhere and near everyone felt emotionally connected to her, compelling us to find many treatments of that highly relevant topic.
Here’s my point: when you have an all-consuming topic (like Dolly, or the 25th anniversary of 9/11), we must, as content creators, come up with things to do that fit your brand and reflect your take,
The riveting things I saw around 9/11 were all new things. It’s easy to do “where were you when” or relive that day. But that’s lazy and we must be better than that in the Attention Economy to hold fans through the content.
It’s on us to come up with tons of camera angles so it’s not simply conveying information. And that begins and ends with you. The rabbit hole appeared. Know how I knew? Besides it being all over social media feeds because of the algorithm, Apple Music and Spotify shared that people streaming her music was up 2840%. That ain’t a typo and indicates to us the topic is huge and we must come up with many ways to align with it.
Great breaks start at your curiosity. What do you know and what do you wonder about that big topic? Did you fall down the rabbit hole and read all that you can to stimulate your imagination?
Here are five things I came up with that would have created more Dolly-centric content:
- Finding listeners who’d met her and having them on to tell their stories.
- Her Imagination Library is in almost every town. Having on the person who runs it.
- Doing a fundraiser of money or used books to give to the local Imagination Library.
- Doing a mass singing of Jolene with co-workers in the studio.
- Convincing three local drag queens to stand on a bridge with signs telling people in cars below to turn on your show.
How’d I do? If you thought on any of them, “Damn, I wish I’d have done that,” then my point resonates with you. Spend more time on prep or, if you do, change how you to it to come up with more camera angles.
But, every one of those ideas could suck to you. Maybe I went 0-5. But then I’d ask, give the enormity of that topic then and the subsequent conversation about whether radio did well or not, what are your ideas?
I wonder so that your show isn’t just a break or two and your fans don’t miss all that relevance.
Radio’s strength is to emotionally connect with whatever is going on right now. But understanding how we’re used – that series of 15-20 minute shows when a big topic appears – is critical to securing an image that you’re relevant. You’ll then be more efficient meeting listeners where they are when that happens.
Dolly’s probably done as a topic. But something else will appear soon that will be everywhere and own the news cycle. To do one content break is a big mistake. What’ll be your game plan around it so you can do lots of breaks and be in the rabbit hole just like your listeners?
The Monday Morning Free Idea page might help you here.