More From AMPPR – Part Deux

Some continued reporting from AMPPR attendees.  Valerie Stains is a freelance producer who spent many years at NPR doing a variety of jobs.  She reports on two sessions:

FRED  CHILD, host of Performance Today (Air Talent Training)

As he has done for past radio conferences, popular PT host Fred Child had sent out a pre-conference call for sample air checks to be critiqued at his session, “Air Talent Training.”  When absolutely nothing arrived before the gathering, Fred worried aloud to a colleague that he had no idea what he was going to talk about.  Pro that he is, the time flew by with Fred’s insights on hosting:  be interesting, compelling, and brief.  Prepare.  Make your comments timely—know what’s happening (do a Google news search for music stories).  Be local (very important—identify a local area of interest).  Be funny at times. Mix it up.  And do it day after day, week after week, year after year! 

[Near the end of the session, a couple WDAV staffers offered some of their work for critique.]

ANYA GRUNDMANN, Executive Producer, NPR Music (Making Best Use of the Web)

Anya stressed that the current NPR Music site continues to transform as it seeks new ways to provide useful, creative content that partner stations can make “local,” if they wish to do so (no pressure).  In addition, NPR Music wants to create a vehicle with the potential to create a worldwide community.  Anya cited Song of the Day and the Tiny Desk concerts, two entities with a strong following.  She pointed out that the classical music infrastructure online is not as sophisticated as that of the rest of the music industry, so there’s a lot of work to be done in that area, especially working with CD labels.
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LABELS
And speaking of CD labels, Bradley Althoff, Senior Producer at American Public Media reports on the session with the CD label representatives; he has some concrete and useful feedback for the labels:

I was hoping that the panel of representatives from the record labels would be more willing to listen about how public radio stations consume (acquire and transmit) classical music.  It reminded me of current trends in the recording industry.  Because more and more consumers purchase music files, instead of CDs, the labels have lost a considerable source of revenue.  But, instead of meeting the demand for easier access to music files and the meta data associated with those recordings, they simply keep producing hard copies. 

Compounding the problem is that when classical content that is acquired as an audio file it is rarely accompanied by the same information available with a hard copy.   Instead of requesting the meta data from the label, most on-air personalities simply go to the web for information about a piece, composer or performer.  That said, I don’t think that the labels have their heads in the sand, but I do think that they’re missing out on a large group of consumers by not addressing how they present and distribute their product.   My 2 cents.

Bradley Althoff, APM
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PR
Finally, a very interesting session with David Srebnik and Cindy May of Virtuoso Voices and some of the classical music industry’s leading publicists and public relations pros.:  

Panelists were: Louise Barder, Senior Publicist for 21C Media; Rebecca Davis, Rebecca Davis Public Relations;
Angela Duryea, Shuman Associates; Christina Jensen, Christina Jensen PR; Tina Pelikan, ECM; Amanda Sweet, Bucklesweet Media

Summary: PR Pros still view classical music radio as one of the best and most viable ways to serve their clients.

PR Pros do more than promote new CDs: they are deeply invested in getting to know their clients creative and professional goals and aspirations.  They develop day-to-day and long term media activities and strategies.

Performer interviews – with hectic travel schedules, it’s not always possible to get a performer to visit a station when they’re on tour.  PR Pros work it out. They say performers want to be engaged in a discussion about the music they play, rather than being asked about their personal lives.

The Panelists love “New Release” programs or regularly scheduled new release segments.   Radio stations that have a new release show, podcast, online (including a blog) are encouraged to make that known. 

Press Releases – stations recommended making them shorter – just the facts and some suggested the idea of email press releases over the traditional press-release-by-mail package. 

Most of the PR Pros on this panel are using social media – Twitter and Facebook – for themselves and for their clients.  This may be one additional way Radio and PR can collaborate.

And finally: Angela Duryea (each all panel members nodding in agreement) asked all stations to “Just Say No.” For new releases, interviews and other projects – radio stations need to know it’s okay to just say “no” if they’re not interested.  The PR Pro will not be offended and will still call you the next time for a different project.  Just saying “No” saves everyone time, energy and makes for better time management planning for all concerned.