The Morning Show: Do The Listeners Care Where It’s Based?

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It’s 6 a.m. Do You Know Where Your Morning Show Is?


Is this a question you and your C-Suite colleagues ask? If so, here’s another question to ask: Do your listeners?

Those, of course, may not be the most appropriate questions to seek the answers to. The one question that may be of utmost importance is this: Does it matter where your morning show is?

Down the hall or across the country, when does a local or syndicated morning show make a difference?

Going local or syndicated is one of the most difficult decisions a manager or programmer can make. Syndicated talent brings the buzz of a well-known name, the access to major artists and entertainers, and high production quality to your listeners.

Yet, that national star cannot drive your top auto dealer’s big sales event or serve as a celebrity host at a community fundraiser or gala.

Conversely, while local personalities can generate hometown loyalty, sponsorships, and endorsements as they represent the station in the community, their resources are limited. Local stars need time to develop fans and numbers.

What are the factors to consider? Is there a “honeymoon period” that can minimize the alientation of listeners and sponsors?

Does a station sacrifice continuity and “synergy” when combining in-house and syndicated talent?

At the Hispanic Radio Conference, the panel discussion “Behind the Radio Mic: Live and Local or Syndicated?” will feature total market experts who can help you and your programmers make sense of the benefits both local and syndicated offer, and what to expect after the dust has settled. It’s a session of benefit for radio industry executives regardless of their station’s format, or the language they happen to use for their programming.

Moderator:
Mike McVay is SVP/programming for Cumulus Media and Cumulus Media Networks. His career spans over 35 years as a programmer, with consulting, management, ownership, and on-air experience, and he has developed and launched several nationally syndicated programs. He has programmed over 300 stations around the world. Among his numerous awards, McVay is a recipient of the Rockwell Award and was named one of the Top 40 Most Influential People in Radio by Radio Ink on its 2016 annual list. He is a member of the Country Radio Broadcasters board of directors and serves as an adviser to several media organizations.

Participants:
Jose (Gonzo) Otero is national Hispanic brand manager and program director of WZTU (Tú 94.9)/Miami. He was born in San Diego, and started his radio career in 1998 in Tijuana, on air and in the creative department. He joined Univision Radio in 2004 and later worked at MVS Radio and Grupo Uniradio. He came to iHeartMedia in 2009 and has served as an air personality, PD, digital brand coordinator, operations manager, and national Hispanic brand manager, as well as supervised and developed multiple brands in Chicago, Fresno, and most recently Miami. Otero was instrumental in branding the iHeartRadio app to the Hispanic community nationally, working closely with local and national sales teams, and has produced iHeartMedia’s international tentpole event Fiesta Latina since 2014. Otero recently moved to Miami to program TU 94.9 and work with the recently created iHeartLatino platform alongside Enrique Santos.

Jesus Salas is EVP/programming and multi-platform coordinator for Spanish Broadcasting System. He began his career as an air personality and got his first programming job at age 19. In 1997, he was named PD for WSKQ-FM & WPAT-FM/New York. Salas has also held a post as senior PD with XM Satellite Radio. While at XM he spearheaded a successful national marketing campaign to grow the Hispanic subscriber base. In his current post with SBS, Salas oversees stations in the top U.S. Hispanic markets of New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Puerto Rico.

Eduardo “Piolin” Sotelo is host of the nationally syndicated morning show El Show de Piolin, which debuted in 2015 and currently airs on 60 stations across the country. His career in U.S. radio personifies a modern day cross-cultural success story. After catching the attention of Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. in 2002, his show Piolín por La Mañana soon dominated the ratings and was syndicated coast-to-coast. In 2006, he was credited with mobilizing the largest civil demonstrations in American history through massive rallies in Los Angeles and other major American cities on behalf of immigration reform. He has been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and was named Top Spanish Format Personality by the NAB for 2006, 2008, and 2010.


Click here to register for the Hispanic Radio Conference.

 

Hispanic Radio Conference
Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six
Fort Lauderdale, FL
March 28-29, 2017