You never know where inspiration will strike, but it helps to get outside your daily bubble in order to really spark the mind.
A few annual events have become requirements for me to understand where radio is and how to best cover the industry.
For one week a year every April I immerse myself into the engineering community at NAB Show and the preceding Public Radio Engineering Conference. Seeing where the industry is going on the technical side has become beneficial in monitoring where radio will be going on the business and programming end in the coming months and years.
August’s Radio MSBC (aka Morning Show Boot Camp) has become the other go-to for inspiration. If you ever need to feel as if anyone in radio in any form is part a true community you need to make your way to this year’s event in Cleveland. From the biggest stars and leaders in the industry to the college kids looking to start their careers, I’ve never seen a conference that purposely works to ensure that everyone is on equal footing and leaves there feeling motivated and inspired.
I added a new event to my itinerary this month attending WXPN Philadelphia’s Non-Commvention for the first time. In a way it is a more nuanced Country Radio Seminar combining music showcases with learning for the AAA format focusing on the non-commercial side of the format. While only a handful of panels are held over the three days, they were some of the most nuanced I’ve experienced at a radio conference. There was no talking down to the audience.
As someone who is staunchly anti-AI in terms of using it they way many in radio do for on-air content and graphics, (something I’ll get into in a future column), I was not expecting to leave after the first day having a new willingness to dig into some uses, but Radio Milwaukee Director of Strategy and Innovation Tarik Moody did just that.
Moody showed some of the software tools he developed using Claude including the music research tool Crate and some programs he’s built for political use. After talking to a currently out of work software developer friend from college, who told me he too is learning how to use Claude for coding, I spent last weekend building code to fix a layout issue on a client website that I and others were unable to solve alone the past few years, beginning to develop an idea to build what I want to see in a streaming audio player for radio stations, and most importantly for the readers here adding a graphing tool to our Nielsen Audio ratings charts.
Debuting today for the PPM monthlies, I have added six charts to each market page that better visualize data and trends for each market as well as charts to insert into our daily recaps. Additional charts will be added to our publication of diary and Eastlan Ratings markets over the coming weeks.
Tarik’s presentation was what I needed to hear at the right time. While I’m not aligned with much of the use of AI in radio, I believe that building tools that can build concepts that make the job of those of us in the industry better without taking jobs away (and that is something we must all be aware of when building) is always a good thing.
Did I expect to hear it at a AAA programming conference? Not at all, but Non-Commvention’s panels were perfectly aligned for those that needed to hear it and I expect the same at MSBC and others.
Since Non-COMM, Triple-A WXRT Chicago, whose PD Michelle Rutkowski was part of Thursday’s programming panel, has notched a second record month atop the market. Triple-A stands almost alone now as a format devoted to music discovery, with a healthy radio/records relationship, and that made Non-COMM a lot more vital than the average radio convention now.
Thursday panelists talked about the importance of continued local acts and local music decisions, as well as the challenge of dealing with an increasing number of politically-themed songs. (“I think you put those songs in and let them speak for you,” was one response.)
Adam Weiner, whose Low Cut Connie has become one of XPN’s favorite bands had the best comment of Thursday’s panelists when he attacked DSPs. “I think of streaming as the equivalent of heating up a crappy meal in your microwave at home.” Speaking to recent disclosures of DSP hype, he added, “It has the illusion of being democratic and organic. It is neither thing.”
Non-COMM’s signature event was Friday morning’s “Music Meeting,” in which all attendees vote on more than a dozen releases unaided. (There were also WXPN listeners involved, something I’ve been encouraging in Ross On Radio for years.)
The crowd favorites reflected the evolving nature of the format. The Womack Sisters’ “Chauffeur” stood out among several neo-soul titles. Swapmeet’s “I Know!” reflected the harder-rocking female singer-songwriter offerings. The biggest stir, however, was created by former Beastie Boy Mike D’s “Switch Up,” released minutes earlier.