Moneyball: Fall Book Starts – Are You Ready?
• Some of us still recall the “Tornado” episode of WKRP in Cincinnati from 1979 in which newsman Les Nessman is caught without plans for such a weather emergency. Mr. Carlson instructs him to adapt a script from a fictionalized version of the Emergency Broadcast System, by substituting the word “tornadoes” anywhere the script says “Russians.” The result is hilarious and touching — and it’s a good reminder about the need for station planning.
The Nielsen October monthly starts Thursday, September 12 and marks the beginning of the “fall book” for many broadcasters. If this were Broadway, we’re at the point when the audience is eagerly awaiting the start of the show. Everything needs to be as perfect as it can possibly be over the course of the next twelve weeks. Tight budgets mean some stations aren’t yet committed to promotion and marketing plans or are still waiting for research results (or even to commence a hoped-for research project).
Nevertheless, every programmer and manager worth their salt knows the significance of the date and what’s at stake for the station(s) in their charge. Even without a marketing plan laid in, they’ve opted into their companies’ collective contest for the fall and are working to make it sound like a contest originating on their station(s). Even without the benefit of fresh local research, they’ve checked their music against similarly formatted stations on Mediabase and/or employed a “safe list” from their company or consultant.
Of course, there are always contingency plans that need to be made. Presumably, the station’s engineer is aware of the high stakes’ nature of the ratings period, so every part of the audio chain is in tip top shape, redundant systems are at the ready, generators are fueled up. In the studio there’s the matter of who will be put on the air if a key member of the morning show (or other key talent on the station) gets ill or has a personal emergency.
If you’re in a part of the country where weather can become an emergency (which is increasingly everywhere), you need to have your plans set. We’re aware of stations surprised by nighttime tornadoes that kept rolling their regular pre-recorded music format during the local emergency. How about non-weather emergencies? What are the plans in case of a chemical spill, explosion, widespread power outage, or worse? Reputations — along with community service images — are won and lost in these moments.
If the emergency strikes, who will respond? What if the emergency occurs late at night or on a weekend? What are the resources you’ll have at your disposal? Would you want to be able to rebroadcast audio from a local TV station? The time to negotiate that is before the emergency occurs, of course. Station news departments used to drive this type of planning, but few stations have a news person, never mind a news department. In case of an actual emergency, you may need everyone on the station payroll to become part of the programming team. This will require training — which is a great reason to make time to do it now.
If research funding comes through at the last minute, NuVoodoo is prepared to help. We can deliver results from a library test or perceptual in about 4 weeks, with prices starting under $10K. If marketing dollars get approved, we can have a digital campaign up and running in as few as seven business days. For more information, please reach out to Leigh Jacobs at Leigh@nuvoodoo.com.
