Daniel Galinski has been appointed as general manager of the international radio activities of Lagardère Active.

Daniel Galinski replaces Jean-Christophe Lestra immediately and will be responsible for Lagardère’s radio stations in Poland (Radio Zet and Radiostacja), Romania (Europa FM and Radio 21), the Czech Republic (Dance Radio, Evropa 2, Frekvence 1 and Info Radio), Germany (107.8 Antenne AC and Delta Radio) and South Africa (Jacaranda FM). He has been the CFO for the group’s music radio stations since 2008. Jean-Christophe Lestra, CEO of Lagardère Active Radio International, will devise new development activities for the company until July 2012.

“Lagardère Active wishes to thank Jean-Christophe Lestra for the decisive part he played in developing our radio business. Under his capable leadership, the Group has become a leading player abroad, in various eastern European countries and in South Africa, contributing significantly to Lagardère Active’s earnings for several years” says Richard Lenormand, the senior executive director of radio/television at Lagardère Active.

New York’s 98.7 Kiss FM (WRKS-FM) will close on Monday to be replaced by sports station ESPN New York.

Emmis Broadcasting has decided to close down its New York-based urban AC station 98.7 Kiss FM (WRKS-FM) on Monday. Kiss will be merged into former rival WBLS 107.5 and some of the Kiss presenters will move their programs to WBLS. As a tribute to Kiss FM’s 30 years history, the two stations are simulcasting until Monday.

“WBLS and WRKS have been the voice of the tri-state black community for 30 years and we plan to merge the best of both stations to create a stronger voice to deliver the best in R&B music while also super serving our community” says Deon Levingston, the vice president and general manager of WBLS.

Emmis Communication will rent the 98.7 Mhz frequency to ESPN Radio, as part of a 12-year deal worth 8.4 million dollars a year. The Spanish language sports network ESPN Deportes is set to be introduced on the AM frequency in the fall, but until then ESPN New York will be available on both AM and FM.

“Local, local, local.”

It’s a constant refrain in the radio industry.  It’s usually expressed as one of our key advantages relative to media and advertising options which are not “local” and not active in the local community.

What what does “local” mean – really?

I have written about this before, and in this video I spell out why, in many ways, there is no such thing as “local” per se – “local” is really a state of mind.

Radio’s success has less to do with being located around the corner and more to do with being meaningful around the corner.  ”Local” is a state of mind that has more to do with yourself, your family, and your neighborhood than the city where you just so happen to live.

“Local” is not a talking point or a handy cliche.  Watch this video to see what “local” really means.

The video is part of a live Q&A with Federated Media managers hosted by Federated’s James Derby (thanks to Federated and to James for a great conversation).

Watch:

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Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington was on CNN last weekend where she outlined the key elements of HuffPo’s success.  And while not every (or maybe even not any) other site can hope to become the traffic magnet that is Huffington Post, it seems to me her prescription is relevant for any local media company that aspires to truly serve the information interests of their audiences (Public Radio and News/Talk – I’m talking to you).

It is most certainly not simply about spreading our content – whatever it is – across platforms.

Arianna spells out four elements of the HuffPo formula:

1. Original reporting
2. Aggregation of content that matters from elsewhere (HuffPo’s commitment is to bring you “the best of the web”)
3. Blogging by a large fleet of independent voices
4. Commenting and participation from you and me, the consumers

Arianna acknowledges that HuffPo mixes the lowbrow and the highbrow. “That’s how people consume news,” she says, and I think she’s right.  The same person who reads the Wall Street Journal in the morning may peruse Perez Hilton in the afternoon.  That’s a useful point to keep in mind for News/Talk stations who think the news begins and ends with politics and the attention spans of potential consumers do likewise.  It’s a useful point to keep in mind for Public stations who view their digital platforms as somehow beholden to the same qualitative constraints that drive their over-the-air ones, even though time is scarce on-air but space is infinite online.

So if you’re a local media company with an expectation for news and information, I know you’re repurposing your content online and I know you’re aggregating content from elsewhere.  But what about your original reporting? What about blogs by independent (and local) voices?  What about commenting and participation from your consumers?

Indeed, is your digital platform positioned simply as a digital ad for your station?  Simply a distribution point for content and marketing material for your over-the-air brand?

Or is it designed to be the hub for local people interested in your filter, your perspectives, and their own?

The goal is not to replicate HuffPo and shrink into its shadow.  But nor is it to simply repurpose your content and promote your brand.

The goal is to leverage your brand in a fresh way and delight and engage your tribe by allowing that tribe to play together in the sandbox of your brand.

Here’s the full interview with Arianna (note to CNN – Please enable my ability to clip and share the highlights I want, not the whole video (just like MSNBC does)):

“Will you talk to me?”

I mean, one-on-one?

It’s my observation that most program directors spend infinitely more time talking to the ratings reports than talking to actual listeners.  Needless to say, this confuses input (listeners) and outcome (ratings).

As a practitioner of consumer research, I’m not foolish enough to believe that one conversation with one listener represents a fact, but it does represent a story.  And the sum total of all listener behavior is the sum total of those stories.  So if you don’t start asking for stories, you’ll never understand why people do what they do, and God knows the ratings will never tell you.

So talk to your listeners.

Ask them what they like and don’t like about your brand.  What could you do to improve?

Ask them if they can imagine living without your brand, and if so, why?

Ask them what your brand provides to their lives that they don’t, can’t, or won’t get from any other place.

Ask them how they use radio today relative to all the other techno-distractions of everyday life.

Stop waiting around for trends to lead you and start leading the trends.

Because before a trend is a trend, it’s a story.

And stories happen one listener – one consumer – at a time.

GigaOm bottom-lines this week’s NAB with this:

If this week’s National Association of Broadcasters Show is any indication, by 2020 “broadcasting” is a term that will be foreign to anyone under 40. Based on the show’s programming this year, as well as the general vibe that multiplatform delivery is the future, it seems that pretty soon no one will be concerned about how content is distributed — just if it’s good or not.

To repeat for emphasis:  ”…pretty soon no one will be concerned about how content is distributed — just if it’s good or not.”

This is an important takeaway, particularly as we obsess on AM or FM, Online or Radio, HD or pretty much anything else.  All of these obsessions are misplaced.  Control is in the hands of the consumers who demand content. We can create great content or mediocre content – that’s up to us.  But how consumers get it is very much up to them.  They don’t care about our heritage platforms and our monetization models – they care only about themselves and they’re open to any disruptor who cares as much about their wants as they do.

Just recently, SiriusXM updated their mobile app.  Typically such updates are associated with improved features or functionality.  Not this time.  Until now I had been able to go back in time up to five hours on CNN or other Sirius news channels and listen to shows from earlier in the day while skipping commercials.  But no longer.  Sirius is charging more and providing less and standing squarely in the way of what this consumer – and no doubt others – wants.  It’s as if Time Warner stole into your house in the middle of the night, removed your DVR, and called it a “service update” in the morning.  That kind of regrettable behavior, regardless of its cause, sets the stage for a disruptive competitor, and all I can say is “bring one on.”

Give me the good content the way I want it, please.  Or I’ll get it some other way or from some other source.

“Broadcasting,” Schmoadcasting.  A recent piece in Advertising Age called TV “just a state of mind” and put it this way:

Web-video producers have been waiting years for TV dollars to move where the eyeballs increasingly are — online. But what if TV dollars were to stay where they are and online were to become TV?

The same could be said about radio.  Everything is everywhere and everything can be anything nowadays.  We are limited not by distribution and technology but by the attention of the audience, their specific tastes in content, and the ideas we produce to connect the right content with the right consumers and the right advertisers.

In this zone, the cream will rise to the top.

And those who limit themselves to narrow bands of distribution will get creamed.

Washington D.C.’s public radio WAMU is now the number one radio station in the U.S. capital, according to the latest montlhy audience figures from Arbitron.

WAMU increases its marketshare from 7% to 8.2%, while Hubbard’s commercial competitor WTOP FM drops from 7.5% to 6.9%.

WAMU is the second public station to become a market leader in the top ten markets in the March ratings. San Francisco’s KQED returns to number one and increases its marketshare from 6.1% to 6.6%, replacing CBS Radio’s KCBS AM as number one.

In New York, Clear Channel’s AC station Lite FM widens its lead over CBS Radio’s class hits-formated WCBS-FM. Lite FM’s marketshare is up from 7.3% to 7.5%, while WCBS-FM drops from 6.6% to 6.3%. Clear Channel’s Z100 stays at number three with an un-changed 5.2% share and sister station KTU increases .3 to 4.7%. The SBS-owned Spanish-language station Mega FM is in fifth place with a 3.9% share.

Clear Channel’s talk station KFI AM is the market leader in Los Angeles for the third consecutive month with a flat 4.9% share, ahead of sister stations KIIS-FM with 4.8% (+.4), KOST with 4.4% (-.1) and My FM with 4.3 (+.1). Emmis-owned rhythmic CHR Power 106 is at number five with a 4.1% share (+.3).

Registration of consumers on radio’s web platforms is a hot topic at this week’s NAB.

In this video I lay out some of the key arguments as to why broadcasters should absolutely positively require registration in exchange for value (and yes, those last four words are key).

We are in a world of registration.  Are you ready, able, and worthy to be part of it?

Watch:

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In Bia/Kelsey’s annual list of the top billers in U.S. radio, the Washington D.C. news station WTOP is once again number one. The Hubbard-owned station sold advertising for 64 million dollars in 2011. That is 7 million more than in the previous year.

CBS Radio has five stations in the top ten, with Chicago’s WBBM-AM now outperforming sister station WCBS-AM in New York. Clear Channel has four stations on the list, including Los Angeles outlets KIIS FM and KFI AM at number two and three.

1. (1) WTOP FM (Washington D.C., news, Hubbard) $64 million
2. (2) KIIS FM (Los Angeles, CHR, Clear Channel) $57 million
3. (4) KFI AM (Los Angeles, talk, Clear Channel) $48.1 million
4. (7) WBBM-AM (Chicago, news, CBS Radio) $48 million
5. (3) WCBS-AM (New York, news, CBS Radio) $47.5 million
6. (6) Z100 (New York, CHR, Clear Channel) $46 million
7. (10) KROQ (Los Angeles, alternative, CBS Radio) $42 million
8. (-) 1010 WINS (New York, news, CBS Radio) $42 million
9. (5) Lite FM (New York, AC, Clear Channel) $42 million
10. (9) WFAN AM (New York, sports, CBS Radio) $40.5 million

Radio Ink made a classic mistake last week when it celebrated the strength of AM radio by trumpeting the financial success of the top radio brands, many of which happen to be on AM.

Why is this a mistake?  Because it confuses the band with the brand.

AM radio is not what makes stations like WFAN so successful.  WFAN is what makes WFAN so successful.

Indeed, the trajectory for AM radio in general is not pretty.

We generally assume that AM, like FM, is universal simply because it exists everywhere.  But existing everywhere and being used by all people are two completely different things.  And the usage of the AM band varies quite widely by market.

Arbitron was kind enough to run some numbers for me.  They gathered a “market basket” of 15 medium and large PPM markets to answer this question: What fraction of the population in each market listens exclusively to FM stations (and not to AM at all)?

Among persons 6+, the answer was an average of 65%.  That is, two out of three persons 6+ across these markets listen ONLY to FM. AM radio may be available to them, but it is not being used.

These numbers obviously vary widely by market – from a high of 81% FM exclusive in one market to a low of 49% in another (Arbitron has asked me not to share the identities of these markets, but if you’re a subscriber you can ping your nearest ARB rep).  Your mileage will vary.

But note that the HIGHEST proportion of persons in any market in my sample who use AM radio was only half.  And while I didn’t plot long-term trends over time, can there be any doubt what direction they’re moving in?

Well, you might say, but if only there were better things on the AM band then more people would listen to it…Says who?  Are you in the business of attracting consumers to your brand – or to your band?!  I suggest that the former is infinitely easier than the latter.

Just look at how this compares to online radio….

The most recent Edison/Arbitron stats indicate that 39% of persons 12+ listen to online radio in the last month.  While the bases aren’t quite evenly matched (the ages differ slightly and the sample frame for Edison is monthly while for PPM it’s weekly), it’s almost possible to argue that online radio today reaches more consumers (39%) than AM radio does (35%, based on my sample of markets), and the trends are moving in opposite directions.

So the strength of many AM radio brands are testaments to those brands, not the band they live on.  It is inevitable in my view that these brands will fare better on FM than on AM over the long run, simply because the distribution potential is greater on FM than on AM.  There’s more “there” there on FM than on AM, and from this point forward there always will be.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that you can throw an FM competitor at an AM institution and kill it dead.  Distribution may not be more important than institution – at least not yet.

It means that institutions deserve to breathe.  They deserve the greatest possible distribution to maximize their audience potential, and the distribution on FM beats the distribution on AM.

The reason Pandora wants into the cars is because of the massive distribution potential there.  The reason TV networks get higher ratings than cable nets do is because of distribution advantages.  The reason why Living Social is better off with Clear Channel than without it is due to distribution.

Distribution, not “availability,” is what matters.

The future of AM radio is irrelevant. What matters is the future of your brands. Your clients buy your brands, not your tower.

You should favor more distribution over less.