Program Director. Brand Manager. Director of Content. All terms that companies use to describe what used to be known as the Program Director.
Over the years, I have asked and been asked many times what that means when I told someone I was the radio station Program Director. The answer that I typically used to condense it down was, “I am in charge of everything that comes out of the speakers.”
Simple enough answer, right? The fact is that the number of speakers a program director is responsible for has increased significantly over the years.
Earlier this week, I sought a specific radio station online. One that I knew did well in the ratings and was a good corporate citizen. They did great cause marketing and were overall successful.
I was astonished by what I heard. The stream was unlistenable. The levels were inconsistent between music, sweepers and commercials. Reentry between commercials and the morning show was terrible.
The audio was distorted. Before you say it, yes, I tried it on several platforms. It was bad to really bad across all of them. This was after I was forced to endure six minutes of commercial pre-roll before I got to the miserable content.
The morning show was apparently covering some commercial inventory with promos. The problem was that it was the same one every single break. Additionally, there were outdated promos for events that had already happened. The show was either clipped out of the break or upcut coming back in.
Being a Brand Manager means overseeing every aspect of the brand. You need to think of your stream as another radio separate station.
When was the last time you opened your station app? Are you just assuming that the listener is getting a positive experience? How about your YouTube channel? Have you checked your social media lately to ensure you’re on brand?
I spoke with Jimmy Brooks this week at 100.7 The Tiger in Baton Rouge. He and a teammate had just rebuilt and launched the station website. The website is true to the brand, top to bottom. The colors, fonts and content are consistent with what you would expect from the brand.
Click on the stream, and it sounds clean, loud, and properly processed.
This level of detail didn’t arise from assuming someone was taking care of the details.
I get it that “Brand Managers” are busier than ever before. If you have a trusted Assistant PD or staff member, there is nothing wrong with assigning the duties. But you must use the old President Reagan philosophy of “Trust but verify.”
In larger companies, web templates often originate from a top-secret location, characterized by a one-size-fits-all mentality. Can we assume that what they are pushing out is what it should be?
Would it surprise you to know that the station where I heard the horrible stream was owned by one of the “big companies?”
When I was programming before the proliferation of streaming, there would be times, especially heading into a holiday weekend, when I would try to schedule all the music and get everything in order for the long weekend. Taking a shortcut would cross my mind.
I had something that would always pull me back to reality though. There is someone in the industry whom I have admired since I began my career. Someone I had the pleasure of working for as I advanced through the industry.
My thought would always be, “What if this is the weekend that John is driving through town and listening to the station?” I wouldn’t want him to think, ‘Wow, Jeff’s station sounds like that?’
With streaming, “John” can listen to your station at any time from anywhere. Don’t make him wonder why your station sounds sloppy.
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Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
