Strategic Inflection

The Country is at a time of strategic inflection. In business, this is defined as the point when an organization has to change it's corporate strategy to pursue a different direction in order to avoid the risk of decline or even obsolescence. Strategic Inflection is the period of change that affects the organization's competitive position within the marketplace. Strategic inflection concerns the organization's ability to adapt and overcome to major innovations within the marketplace. This Country is in a time of strategic inflection. Change must occur.

We are prosecuting a war that has no merit. I mean, I thought we were going after Osama Bin Laden? And what happened to the weapons of mass destruction? We have got to get out of Iraq. It's wrong.

The economy is running amok. Was the boom in real estate a mirage? I mean in the middle of the Republican years, people were buying homes at an all time high, but in the end, people are facing foreclosures at an all time high...

Healthcare is a major debacle in this country. So many people cannot afford the prescriptions. So many people cannot even gain access to adequate healthcare.

The educational system in this country is embarrassing. Even though, in most cases, this is a state problem, the federal government needs to support the states in more effective ways so that our schools have the resources to best educate our children.

This election season is more important than ever. And the African American community's vote is an essential catalyst in the electorate for change. We saw the elevation of Barack Obama to the democratic nomination for the President of the United States. Our voice was heard throughout the primaries.

And yet, we know that we can speak louder. In fact, if we look at recent history, we MUST speak louder so that we will have the best chance to overcome any shenanigans that may happen come election day. We have to push the people to vote. Yes, we must vote like we have never done before. Everybody must vote.. you me, brother sister male female, husband wife, uncle June Bug, Aunt Pep, Momma, Poppa, Bubba an'em... and even Man Man around the corner.....Everybody must get registered. Everybody must vote.

All the organizations of the community must organize and mobilize to get the people to the polls. In the black church, we've got to get buses, provide transportation to the polls, consistent, accurate election information and provide inspirational encouragement and even be poll centers - opening the doors of the church to the community as an agent for change. The black church must recognize that the time for Barack Obama is divinely ordered. We must be at the nucleus of this change.

For as we study Black American history, it is the black church that stands as a consistent, firm foundation upon which our liberation as black people in America stands.

Black Media must resume its legacy as the beacon of information for the community using it's unprecedented ability to make an emotional connection with the African American people. We must provide direct and accurate information, provide ready access to the necessary voting materials. Commit significant air and print space to the relevant issues at hand, providing a fair and balanced viewpoint so that the user/listeners/reader can decide. Our access to the airwaves and the power of the printed word will activate and support change in this country.

Trade organizations, Greek organizations, Business groups, HBCU's, social clubs.... Get Up, Get out and activate change by getting your people registered to the polls.

Vote for Change. Get up, Get Out, Get involved. This country is at a point of strategic inflection.

"We've got to take this country and change it. Turn it upside down, place the first last and the last first, not just for black people, but for all people!" Kathleen Cleaver, Black Panther Party

The Soul of the Airwaves

I am a broadcast marketing professional in the urban radio industry. I work at a major market station which is one of the last independent, black owned and operated stations in the nation. I am fiercely proud of this urban radio heritage. I guess it is a by-product of my training and background as a broadcast marketing executive.

You see, I started out at Bailey Broadcasting Services, the company headed by urban radio hall of famer Lee Bailey and his then-wife Diane Blackmon-Bailey. At the time we were the premier syndicator of urban radio programs including the legendary RadioScope: the Entertainment Magazine of the Air. My experience at BBS exposed me to some of black radio's legendary Program Directors and Radio Men from whom I learned about the importance of black radio to our community. Through extensive conversation and correspondence, I was taught by a generation of black radio pioneers that Radio is often the first media choice of black people looking for culturally relevant content, music, news and information. During morning drivetime, the format is mostly the last bastion of culture for the African American driving into the workplace before they assimilate into general market America for the day. A captive audience for the exchange of information. In the home, the radio stays locked to the station for hours as the music, news and information speaks directly to the lifestyle of the African American consumer.

I have always marveled at how Arbitron measures the radio audience, particularly the black audience. The radio audience measuring company has always seemed to pride itself on its efforts to deliver accurate results when measuring the urban radio listener. I remember attending the first couple of Urban Network Conventions where Jerry "The Doctor" Boulding would host these comprehensive ratings strategy and research seminars featuring executives from Arbitron and the leading strategic research companies. They would always provide a great analysis and certainly convinced me that they put their best foot forward in the quest for delivering accurate measurement of black radio listening. In some cases, the measurement of black audience is so significant that the methodology math generates enough general market numbers to garner a significant piece of the cost per point advertising pie. The diary system was a shaky yet agreeable method by which to measure the listening audience. Now, they've come with the Portable People Meter. This new technology is being heralded as the best thing since sliced bread. General market stations love it's so-called accuracy. And Arbitron reps are really looking to convince us that it is a much more effective method to measure audience than the diary system.

The Portable People Meter (PPM) is a pager like device that is worn daily by the respondent. The device measures what the respondent is exposed to, not what the respondent actually listens to.
Consider this: Typical African American woman from the community participates in the program. We know that her primary station is the local black radio station. If she could, she would listen all day because the station is culturally relevant, and provides honest and trustworthy information on products and services, plus the news and public affairs keeps her aware of issues and concerns in her community, from her perspective.

She turns on the device at 7:30 am as she darts to her car, thereby eliminating the first two-three hours she was listening to radio while getting ready for work. Nonetheless, the meter hears her favorite station in her car. It registers the applicable info. On her way to work, she has to stop at Starbucks. The radio inside the store is tuned to the top forty station. Not her choice, but just because she visited this establishment, the meter records this as as one of her stations. At lunch, she stops at Home Depot because she needs some stuff for her home. In the Depot, the local country and western station is blaring. A station she would never listen to but because she was in the store for more than five minutes, her meter records the station as one of hers... When she arrives at her place of employment, she conforms from the chocolate diva from around the way to capable chocolate corporate.... The radio at her workplace stays on a station that she doesn't listen to and probably is not really listening to because it does not play the music she likes or provides information that matters or speaks to her directly. But the meter records this station as one of hers...

Is this theory of exposure an accurate measurement of this woman's radio consumption? Even though she is exposed to these out of home formats, does that mean she is a listener? How does this exposure translate into real advertising dollars? I mean if the station does not speak to her, how then does she really hear the advertising and take action to patronize the product or service? Is exposure an indicator of real listening? Or a by-product of where the respondent happens to go as she moves about this world.

In the diary system, the respondent was able to reinforce their listening habits through comments. They would document the personalities and times that they listen, thereby giving radio stations a seemingly more in-depth analysis of the audience. The listener could describe the emotional connection they have with their primary radio station choice. In black radio, the emotional connection is the gold. The music of the community, the news of the community and in some cases, the personalities with whom the listeners could relate because they were the brothas or sistas that lived in their neighborhood or went to church or school with. The soul of the airwaves is captured through the ability of the station to be culturally relevant.

With PPM, the soul of the airwaves is muted through a emotionless technological advancement that shows how a listener is exposed to media no matter where he or she goes.. It eliminates all consideration of that listeners qualitative proclivities. The cultural relevance of black radio is silenced. It's personalities now forced to an even more minimal on-air role as the quest to get exposed by whatever people meters are out there becomes all important. This means desensitizing your broadcast presentation to become more vanilla, transparent and soul-less. And while this may sound good in a world where multiculturalism is the goal, I submit that we can still achieve the goals of multiculturalism by remaining true to who we are as black or urban radio. Those who seek us desire the rhythm of our format. And most importantly they crave the cultural consciousness of our broadcast flow. We don't care who is listening, just as long as they listen and they listen because they can identify with the essence of the station.

Does random exposure generate results for advertisers? I mean if the respondent is only half listening to whatever radio station is ambient at the time and location they are in, then how does that spur the listener to take action at the cash register? Is the PPM holder more likely to respond to advertising on the ambient radio station? or to advertising on their P1 choice??

How many PPM's are in the field? More to the point, in a city like Los Angeles, how many PPM's are on black women 25-54? In Philadelphia, they said there were two (yes, two!) in the entire market. and each person represented more than 50,000 people. That seems like a huge guess!! I mean who validates this information? How is this acceptable?

I wish I had answers here, but I don't. What I do have is a perspective. One that is centered with the experience of marketing black radio. And like it or not, PPM is here. And so how do we cannibalize black radio to become more of the general market so that we can show up on the PPM rankers? Is the age of the personality dead? And what of the emotional connection forged by black radio through news, public affairs and the music?

Does PPM kill black radio? Do we abandon the heritage of doing black radio? Is the art form of radio dead?

These are the issues of the day. The Soul of the Airwaves is dead. Do we resurrect it? Or is it a bygone legend of the past??

Lord help us.

Regarding Jesse Jackson

In case you haven't heard by now, The Rev. Jesse Jackson was overheard dissing our man Senator Barack Obama. In a most incredulous moment of media ignorance, Rev. Jackson was preparing to be interviewed along with Reed Tuckson of the United Health Group on the Fox News Network. As they waited to go on, Rev. Jackson leaned over to Mr. Tuckson and said " Barack's been, uhh, talking down to black people, on this faith-based... I wanna cut his nuts off... Barack's been talking down to black people..."

Give me a BREAK!!! First of all, Rev. Jackson, this smacks of hateration.. Are you jealous because it's Barack and not you that has advanced to the precipice of the US Presidency?? I would think that as one of our elder statesmen of the Movement, you would encourage and counsel instead of playa-hate. I mean your accomplishments during the '84 campaign built the foundation for the prospect of a black President.

Second, you let your lips fly on the set of the Bill O'Reilly s show!!! Bill O'Reilly??!!! Dag, you know this was going to get out... But then again this is not the first time you attacked Barack as if he were a Bourgeois Negro... Last year, you said he was "acting white" because you did not agree with his reaction to the Jena Six action. Now, I have come to believe that there are blacks who are afraid of the blacks who hit the books and read and write well.. and so the defense mechanism that pops up is to accuse them of "acting white. I am certainly not accusing you of such, I'm just sayin'...

Rev. Jackson, please... don't hate, congratulate!!...

Marathon Man

Yesterday, I completed the Los Angeles Marathon.

It was a grueling exercise in fitness, focus and fortitude. Although it was my second marathon (I completed the 2006 Marathon), this one was particularly challenging as I did not train as vociferously as I had in the past and I had a lot on my mind.

I began the morning at around 4:30am. Sharon J. dropped me off at the Crenshaw/Imperial Green Line Station. MTA offered free transportation to the runners of the marathon. It was dark and cold, but I was ready. The train took about 20 minutes before it arrived at the station, and I was the only one at the platform - save for the homeless/crazy guy who wandered up there... The solitude and the view of the area from that elevated platform gave me pause to begin forming my concentration for the task at hand.

The train finally arrived and I boarded. I saw other runners on the train. The group of Suburbanite-looking folk... The young latino guy with his wife/girlfriend... we were on that Green Line heading towards the mega-event. As I observed the suburbanites, it was a culture clash to see them on the Green Line especially in the areas where we were and even more so as they transferred with the rest of us at Imperial/Wilmington station in Watts. The mixture of suburbanites, gangstas, hoodrats and brothas was profound. I wonder if these folk regarded us as curiously as we regarded them.

I struck up a conversation with a brotha who was on his way to work. He spoke in wonder about the prospect of running 26.2 miles...

Heading Towards Downtown Los Angeles

The Blue Line arrived and we jumped on - heading toward downtown... I estimate it to be a thirty minute ride from Watts to Downtown Los Angeles. I watched the sun rise as we rolled through the diverse communities of LA - 103rd Street, Firestone, Slauson, Vernon, Grand Avenue, Pico, and on into 7th Street/Metro Center. There, we joined the flow of hundreds of thousands of runners and their supporters packing the Red Line heading north to Universal Studios... It was a surreal experience at the 7th Street Metro station.. all those runners, plus massive security.. LA County Sheriffs with dogs and all kinds of officers.

My Ipod was bumpin' as my eclectic mix of gospel, r&B, classic jazz, neo-soul and hip-hop blazed into my eardome. Like a professional boxer or football player, I was getting myself psyched for the experience. We finally arrived at Universal Studios station and the doors of the train opened to let us off. "Time to Get it On!" I yelled out and moved with the throng to the starting line.

I had my backpack ready to run with it on my back, although I had preferred not to, and if I had to, all I was carrying was my jacket and an extra t-shirt. But the Marathon folks had that figured out too as UPS collected your stuff. You gave them your bib number and they filed your gear accordingly. You would be able to claim your stuff at the end of the marathon...

At Cahuenga and Lankershim, there were what looked like millions packing the streets to participate in the Marathon. I was getting more and more hype as the start time approached. And, wow, what a sight to behold!! There was a guy who painted himself green all over. There was a brotha with a blue afro. There was a guy who dressed up like some sort of superhero with Mickey Mouse hands. There was a guy who ran the marathon dressed in his native indian(american indian) attire. Elvis ran the marathon as did a squad of guys dressed up like Slash of Guns N Roses complete with top hats, long curly hair and fake cigarettes. It was a festive yet crazy scene.

The opening ceremonies got a little long-winded to me, I just wanted to get it on... You know, the National Anthem, the happy talk congratulating and acknowledging the VIP's and special elements of the Marathon. I loved to hear that the LAPD was running a torch relay in honor and memory of Randy Simmons, the first SWAT officer ever killed in the line of duty. After all that stuff it was finally ready to get started and we were off...

From Universal, over the hill through Hollywood, Hancock Park, The Wilshire area, Koreatown, South Los Angeles, Exposition Park, through the east side, all the way east to Eat LA/Boyle Heights... Coming out of Boyle Heights brought me to one of the most awesome sights I have ever witnessed. The panorama of the skyline of Los Angeles was magical even at 20 miles... It was here that I realized that I was about to complete this sojourn...

Within these miles, my mind, body and spirit were brought to submission. I found myself asking for the strength of my creator and I was convinced that He is the source of my strength. I re-evaluated my life. My situation in life, my career, my marriage, my spiritual walk.. everything. I prayed, I cried, I laughed, I danced. The experience was beyond cleansing. It was impactful and created yet another level of consciousness within me. There's physical strength and ability. Then there's will power and determination. And then there's the universal life force that I know is the Creator.. Almighty God himself.

I am so grateful for the experience of running the Los Angeles Marathon. We ran 26.2 miles. Through the diverse communities of Los Angeles. I did it on my own. All by myself. I hit it and hit it hard. What a ride...