https://bit.ly/3s1WKp2

You should watch this video.

Although you probably won’t. It only has 138 views so far, and one of them is mine, and it was released back in August. But it’s not out of date, it’s just waiting for you to discover it.

Lee Abrams ruled rock radio in the seventies as a consultant. People believe either he killed it or he built it into a monolith. Yes, it was Lee who got rid of free-form, whittled down the playlist, made FM more akin to AM, albeit hipper and with better music.

Lee constructed the original channels at XM. And was focused on respecting the audience, taking them on a ride, not replicating traditional radio tropes. But then he got squeezed out.

And then he and his radio buddies gained control of Tribune, and it ended in a disaster, the mores of radio are quite different from those of news, radio is down and dirty, news is all about respect. End of story.

And since then…we haven’t heard much from Lee.

But Lee has been thinking, he’s never stopped thinking, you can lose your job but still not turn off your brain.

In this video Lee divides the public into four quadrants, quite accurately, although at the end even he says the divisions are not hard and fast. But these divisions will help you focus your viewpoint of the audience. And one thing Lee says is you must pick one quadrant, and your work must be appalling to the other three.

The radio clichés, who do they appeal to, who do they turn off?

This is marketing in general.

One of their greatest mistakes is the Grammys branding their awards show as “Music’s Greatest Night.” Half the audience is turned off immediately, it’s not music’s greatest night, it’s a lame claim, and it’s too broad and general, trying to appeal to all when it appeals to so few.

I waited days, till I had some time to watch this video after Lee sent an e-mail. And then I just checked out a minute. I found that snippet interesting, and then I had to wait for a time to play the entire thing and pay attention and digest it. It’s shy of twelve minutes long, but that’s a big chunk of time in my world, in today’s world, in everybody’s world.

And with so many messages in the marketplace, it’s hard to get traction, especially if you’re new to the game. Abrams is not new to the radio/psychographic game, but he is new to the internet, social media. And if you’re coming on board now, it’s harder than ever to gain an audience, so only start if you’re prepared for the long hard slog, irrelevant of content, irrelevant of greatness.

Unlike so much media, this clip is not background, you won’t, you can’t multitask while you watch it, you’re either in or you’re out. But the truth is we don’t really want to multitask, we want to be in. But very few things demand our complete attention. This does.