It wasn’t quite like pre-Pandemic years in terms of size and scope, but it was a clear return to the road to normalcy, if you can call it that. It was Radio Row and the ancillary activities in and around the LA Convention Center, and after a year away for us at least, it was good to be back.
For a myriad of reasons, there were many who seemed to back out. Some were COVID related, some were budget issues, some were outlets that had decided they could save the trip and just zoom and phone people just as easily, but for those who went, and there were over 100 outlets on site, m you actually had a better, and even more robust experience, than the craziness of past years with over 300 outlets and hundreds of spokespeople big and small looking to be chatted up over the course of the week.
If you had the right message, the right person and picked your time and spots, there was amazing storytelling to be done, and lots of goals to be achieved with platforms more than willing to listen, engage and discuss…in person.!!!
Now what we didn’t have more of this year was the range of the sublime to the ridiculous. It is truly an open marketplace of storytelling, a place where you would see Miss Universe sitting next to a WWE champion next to a Harvard physician next to…Shaquille O’Neal. From convention centers to hotel ballrooms to the Mall of America, there has been nothing quite like Radio Row. While there were some double takes…a guy in a royal crown hawking sneakers, more than a few players talking Weed and CBD, the entourages and the spectacle were still a it scaled back, and frankly that was the loss of the creative.
But from actor Joe Mantegna on Tuesday talking about a new show he is working on (and his Cubs fandom) to Joe Montana and Russel Wilson on Friday, there was plenty to discuss, see in person, and get stuff done.
Some observations:
–Gambling is here to stay as a content platform. The Fanduel stage, especially when The Pat McAfee Show was streaming, dominated part of the room, and was a constant draw for guests. There were also at least a half dozen platforms set up around the room gathering content either sponsored by gambling platforms or gathering content to push out to platforms with a gambling tilt. That will, for sure grow, as well funded gambling sites continue to create more consumer value, and if you are talking football, there is no better place to gather content and draw buzz that radio Row.
–Audio platforms keep growing their presence. We have had the large presence of Sirius over the years, and the traditional networks…CBS and NBC and Fox always have had their national spots. This year you added in I Heart, Entercom and others who rimmed the room with their own hosts and their own draw, all looking to create conversation for their own niche verticals. Will we see them all back without mergers? Maybe, but the spend to build the brand independent of others seemed to be valuable, and it was much easier to draw talent away from a semi-crowded room by having a destination for guests.
–Colleges Gain A Spot, But Still Could be More. This year there were five entrepreneurial college outlets that made it to LA…Penn State, Arizona State, Syracuse, and mainstays Fordham and St. Bonaventure. But where were locals like USC, UCLA and Loyola Marymount? It remains a missed opportunity to bring in young new voices to capture content of all forms and give them a taste of the networking and the job opportunities…and even to have them share best practices with others. Maybe next year in Arizona, the host committee can do the outreach and work with the NFL on identifying the best in class form a 100 mile radius to experience and build personal storytelling. Those young people are the future, so why not let them in?
–The foreign touch we lost: We had a little bit from the UK, a platform from Mexico and some Canadians, but that was it. As the NFL grows globally, why not find not just multilingual outlets from abroad (who were probably restricted still with COVID protocols), but multilingual outlets based in the US to proactively come in and grab a spot? Again going to Arizona, how about finding and leaning forward for outlets to come in and story tell in multiple languages? German as well anyone? Translation tools are not that hard to come by, and the rainbow of experience would be beneficial in reaching a wider demo now getting used to all things NFL.
–Quality of audio, and the ability to bring in video. Most outlets have been able to pivot to using everything from Zoom to Microsoft teams to bring in guests far and wide. The ability to see people, not just hear them, has actually led in many cases to very focused and more expansive storytelling. There are less chances to be distracted when someone is looking at you, not just talking at you. The ability to stream video has also led to more opportunities for sponsorship for outlets, because video just lends itself to more opportunities to snapshot content. Now bring along the adaption of 5G in the coming months and year, and the quality just keeps improving, and that’s good news for those on both ends of the connection.
–Randomness Returns. The beauty of Radio Row is not the interviews, it has been the people, those you would see once a year, but also so many you would know, or know of, who you would cross paths with roaming the aisles of talk going on. The chance meetings, like with the original “Rudy” or with a media member you have only connected with on email or a call, and the partnerships and opportunities that came out of that encounter was really the beauty of what makes Radio Row such a special event, and that was certainly back this year.
–Social sharing: Something that has grown for the good is the use of social tools for expanded storytelling. If you are ESPN San Antonio it’s great to have a Hall of Famer join you for a conversation, but when the HOF guy shares a picture on his social accounts, and tags the station, it amplifies the message and the narrative to a much wider audience. It also helps grow the presence of the midlevel players or celebs and spokespeople well beyond just an audio or video interview. A nuance, but a valuable one become more and more of the process, and that’s a good thing.
–Anyone, any time. Not being tied to people walking around and physically being in the host city has also led to more expensive storytelling opportunities for brands and athletes and the like. While in past years being in the room at a certain time was a necessity, now platforms and outlets can pull people of note in from around the world as schedules permit. Yes before the old phone was an option, but being present was so much more valuable. Wider lists of topical guests more consistently on such a critical week has seemed to have been amped up and accepted.
You also miss the innovative…the guys from Cornhole bringing in boards, random pizza deliveries, even one year the Girl Scout selling cookies or the Northern California Wine growers pouring a few glasses, were in a bit of a void this year as the uncertainty of who would actually show up was in question, really until the last few days. And while Twitter had a scaled down presence…other tech based platforms…Amazon, Twitch, YouTube…all of which started to have a Radio Row presence in Miami and prior, were all out of the mix this year.
There is always Arizona though, right?
So what will the lessons learned bring us for the future? We are well on the way back for next year, the lessons and immediacy of streaming interviews, be they on small screens or large ones, will be here to stay. What won’t be lost hopefully is that mix of interactivity and relationship building that only comes from being there in person, mixing with colleagues young and older, and learning in an exhaustive, but fun, several days leading to the big game.
That mix, of tech and traditional, is the path we can go down to be impactful. We can’t look back, and looking forward can be pretty exciting. .
