Radio was well represented this year at the Texas Association of Broadcasters annual convention, in radio-specific sessions, at the awards ceremonies and in the exhibit hall with vendors selling products and services relevant to radio. For the third and final year it was held at the Kalahari Resort in Round Rock, north of Austin. But, I chose to stay at the LaQuinta nearby to save a few bucks (also because they have a free breakfast) and I ran into a couple radio friends who did the same. If you missed the show, here are some of the highlights from what I saw throughout the two-day event.
Speakers & Sessions
Gordon Borrell played a big role at the convention this year, giving a compelling and interactive keynote speech on Wednesday followed by hands-on workshop sessions. What I love about this approach is it allowed him to challenge attendees’ misconceptions at the keynote to get our wheels turning and then gave us real-world applications for his ideas in the sessions. Borrell shared how 87% of advertisers still want to talk to a person (an encouraging stat for radio), Craigslist was a billion-dollar business last year with 90% profit (making me think of my modernizing tradio idea) and how digital is 77% of all advertising. He also talked about how our prospecting methods haven’t changed but ended on a hopeful note about the massive increase in businesses in many Texas markets, driven mainly by services and not retail. Later my friend Brad Moran with Ramar Communications introduced an eye-opening session with Xperi’s Juan Galdamez who shared some of the insight 500,000 vehicles across Texas can deliver to broadcasters thanks to DTS AutoStage. Prompting many in the room to wonder when they’ll be supplanting Nielsen all-together. My favorite line from Juan’s presentation was an encouragement for radio to improve how we look in the dash “Car manufacturers aren’t putting 12-inch screens in cars so they’ll be blank.” JB, Sandy and Trish joined a panel moderated by Jimmy Steal and candidly opened up about their return to morning radio. Sandy shared one of his simple show prep secrets, going through the pics on your phone because you took them for a reason as he spoke about life being a great source for show content. JB had an interesting answer to a question about where the next great morning show is going to come from “Probably from YouTube” insinuating that our lack of entry level on-air jobs will hurt radio’s ability to find our next generation of great morning talent. Jimmy had a smart idea to end the session. He had the morning trio write a letter to a PD about how to coach and manage talent (something I wish every PD could read so I’m gonna reach out to them and see if they’ll let us publish it). A few other sessions that stood out were Fred Morton and Kirk Harnack‘s AI: Real-World Applications for Broadcasters, Phil Becker‘s Improving Radio’s Perception Problem and, as always, the State of Play with TAB President Oscar Rodriguez.
Exhibits & Networking
Yet again this year there were over 115 exhibitor booths at TAB! Including some familiar faces like RCS (highlighting Zetta Cloud), Wide Orbit (featuring their cloud version), Wheatstone and Music Master (debuting their new automation system, InfoAudio and some cool new MusicMaster upgrades like Music Companion), along with some I hadn’t spoke to before like Radio Gearheads, Myriad and Greenville Media. Greenville Media had a funny handout by the way, a Stereo to Mono Converter which was just a single earplug (a joke not everyone got). Like I always say, if you want to network with broadcasters find the free alcohol. The kickoff party and the exhibit hall happy hours didn’t disappoint (the line on the side bar is always the shortest).
Food & Drinks
Since I’m just three hours up the road here in the Metroplex I drove down instead of flying. On the way there I stopped at one of my favorite burger spots, Twisted Root Burger Co in Waco. Besides good eats they go the extra mile to make it fun with the Chuck Norris quotes, Ice T’s pic on the sweet tea and the Dale Doback card they gave me to alert me of my order (Stepbrothers reference). During the convention I had some great gluten-free pizza and a beer at Tony C’s Pizza & Beer Garden, some tasty enchiladas at Mas Fajitas and a less than stellar buffet lunch within the Kalahari Resort. By the way I saw the guy in the bottom right (in the above pic) on my drive home. If anyone’s looking for an interesting on air interview, I’m sure he’s got some fun conspiracy theories to share.
Overall Impressions
The tone was different this year, but not in a bad way. While there are still many broadcasters discouraged about the transition we are in the midst of, many on the radio side are excited about the challenge of navigating that transition. In previous years there were still a lot of people who were AI-resistant digital skeptics at the show. Now most of the attendees I spoke with range from enthusiastic about AI and digital to reluctantly accepting radio’s AI, data driven and digital future while kicking and screaming along the way.
If you were here, let me know which camp you are in and some of your takeaways in the comments. You can also email me your thoughts to me at Andy@RadioStationConsutlant.com or editor@radioupdate.com.
Andy Meadows is the Chief Editor of Radio Update and the owner of Radio Station Consultant where he consults radio stations across the country on programming and digital.