Lessons About Radio and Brand Management
Chapter 10
As I’ve been trying to navigate the music industry for the last little while, I noticed that we rarely ever hear the stories of Radio hosts, personalities, and DJ’s. Even professionals like Charlemagne The God and Zane Lowe, who are some of the most popular personalities in the world, have had limited opportunities to share their stories with the people that look up to them. If you’re an aspiring radio personality or DJ, more often than not, you’re going into the game blind, hoping to figure it out as you go.
We changed that narrative with our first Radio and Brand Management Panel, which was hosted by Travis Gregory and Chris Carter, and featured Amanda Elliot (from Hott935 in Trinidad & Tobago), Crystal Rosas (from Wild949 in San Francisco), and Julian Neva (from 997Now also in San Francisco).
For the first time in my life, I got to learn about how much goes on behind the scenes of a radio production. It wasn’t until I learned about music directors, program directors, assistant directors and more that I realized how many people were involved in producing a radio show. Learning about these positions and understanding how roles can differ from stations to station, were also backed by our panelists helping us understand that a lot of the people that worked their way up to these positions, started as interns who “got their foot in the door”. The panelists reminded us that interning is a great way to figure out what roles you’d like to have, and the first step to that is getting in the building. Once you’re in the building, it’s about working hard to get to where you want to be, while adapting to the opportunities that present themselves to you.
In addition to discussing how our panelists got to where they are today, Travis Gregory and Chris Carter, on behalf of the artists on the call, asked about musicians could go about getting radio play. The panelists kept it all the way real by reminding us that there was no easy way to do it. They were clear about the fact that radios are not in the business of “breaking” artists as much as they are about supporting them. Still, our panelists encouraged “polite persistence” in reaching out to the radio stations but emphasized finding the right person to reach out to. Because this could be different at every station, they recommended doing your research. For example, sometimes the radio DJ chooses what gets played, but other times, it could be the music director or program director. Being polite and active in your research can help you find the right person to talk to – but to make their job easier, it’s important to have already garnered your own buzz in the industry. In most creative endeavors, leverage is your best friend. Your music should already have the attention of the fans, because radio stations play the music that people WANT to hear. Just like Chance The Rapper, and other artists like him, gaining leverage independently is the most important thing you can do for your career.
Because of this understanding, our Radio and Brand Management panelists talked to us about how artists could work to build their personal/independent brand online. As with all Finessed Media events, it became clear that seeing the community win became the top priority for everyone involved in the call
The panelists wanted us to remember that our social media profiles should reflect the person you are, and what you are doing/trying to do. Even early on in their careers, our respected panelists had to learn that they were stunting their growth by not utilizing their profiles the right way. Our panelists recommended that artists put their music up everywhere – snippets on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are great ways to build hype and show people what it is that you do and what it is that you’re working on. Another tip our panelists gave us was to reach out to local creatives and ask them if they needed music backings to their videos, or offer to help provide them coverage on their work. At the very least, reach out to them, and talk to them, because building a personal relationship can eventually turn into a healthy opportunity promote each other’s work.
Whether you are an artist or not, it’s important to consistently create and share content. For artists, if you’re struggling with the idea of sharing music snippets, taking quick photos and videos of your life makes being consistent easier. Then, being open to ideas that will help bring value to your followers is the next step. It’s important to remember that you have to build your brand from the bottom, so you can’t expect things to happen quickly. Consistency is the only way to see growth, and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to generate a buzz locally first, which is all you need. Once you garner respect within your friend circle, then your community, growth becomes easier, but the steps stay the same: provide consistent and valuable content.
The last bit of advice our panelists left us with was finding someone you like or look up to in the industry, then embrace the things you like about their brand and content. If you’re able to put a personal twist on ideas that they’ve inspired, and you’re consistent, you’ll see the results that you want to see. Still, it’ll take time, but creating an online brand and producing content is a skill that needs to be developed through experience, so treat these things the same way way you would any other skill – with time and patience.
Next week, we’ll discuss the Wellness in Music seminar that was hosted by our Founder (and Yogi/Holistic Healer) Alexi Rabadam. The event was incredible to experience and arguably one of our most important events to date… but more on that next week.
Talk to you then!