The Day the Music Dies
There are not many people out there who will argue the premise that the majority of new music in the USA is discovered by consumers while listening to broadcast radio. Music radio is the dominant programming format. Listeners expect to hear their favorite music stations when they turn on their radios or station streaming apps. Station audiences expect their preferred music to be on when they want it 24/7. I believe that the road to higher sales starts with establishing demand of one’s product. And what better way to do so than to demonstrate how radio can globally instantly create national demand on any day it chooses. Welcome to “The Day the Music Dies.”
Here’s how it works. The broadcast associations get together and establish “The Day the Music Dies.” Now, another name could be used instead, but we will leave that up to the organizers. A day is chosen at least 3 months in the future that will fall during the Monday-Friday work week. Then, every music station in the USA starts promoting it across all platforms. For example, a liner could read as “On October xx, KXXX presents, “The Day the Music Dies.” No other details are given. Can it be sponsored? Why not? I would sell it. “The Day the Music Dies.” Sponsored by Bob’s Auto Plex. Sounds good to me. On the day of the event, every music station in America switches to a spoken word format for 12 hours from 6am-6pm. During this time, liners and drops will connect the event to a national cause that needs audience support. For example, “KXXX is participating in The Day the Music Dies to call for your support to help keep the music you know and love on our airwaves. Right now, the US government has started considering legislation that if passed, will impose expensive additional royalty payments on music heard on radio stations across America. Should this proposed legislation become law, playing songs on the radio could become cost prohibitive, effectively killing music radio. What could be the result? You’re hearing it right now. All talk, no music. Please help by calling congress right now at xxx-xxx-xxxx and tell them you want to keep hearing music on the radio and want them to stop trying to levy more music fees on your favorite station. Thank you for helping KXXX remain your home for the metro’s hottest hits.” They say that you don’t realize how important the invention of the fork was until you don’t have one for your plate of spaghetti. Suddenly, an item not very relevant in the grand scheme of things has all of the relevance in the world. I like to equate radio as the “fork” of technology. A product so ingenious, easy to use and a part of almost every life in the civilized world, one does not know how important it is until they don’t have it. By executing industrywide events such as The Day the Music Dies radio can help to enforce its relevancy, not reestablish its relevancy. This is an important point. Radio never lost its relevancy. If it had, there would not be over 90% of adults still using it every week. By enforcing its relevancy, radio has the potential to leverage this significance to help improve its business. And, they need to start leveraging now.
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