I just came from breakfast at McDonald’s, where they offered me one of their new Premium Roast Coffees…not a sample, mind you, but a free regular-sized one. ”Mickey D” is trying to move onto Starbucks’ turf, so getting consumers to try their product is a very good idea.

Well, it could have been a good idea…

I’m not much of a coffee drinker…Diet Coke is my caffeine source of choice.  But I occasionally drink the stuff.  Most often, I’ll get a frozen Mocha Frappuccino at Starbucks (or, as Bill Maher would say, a “that’s not coffee, it’s a milkshake“).  McDonalds doesn’t offer a similar product, so I got the next-closest thing — an iced mocha.

It was horrible.  I still have the bitter aftertaste in my mouth as I write this (and I heard others complain as well).  I threw it out, and I’d never even consider ordering coffee at McDonalds.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”  Trite but true. It is especially true when it comes to food products.  The restaurant business is a tough one, because I suspect most people are like me…one bad experience, and they’ll never return.

Fortunately, we’re not in the business of food and drink.  We sometimes get more than one shot at potential listeners. Still, especially if we’re launching a new format, the initial impression we make is usually a lasting one.

That’s why it is essential to get it right. It means testing positioning lines, to ensure they truly communicate the positioning we’re seeking.  It means testing music, so we’re playing the best cuts with the fewest negatives. It means starting out with the kind of presentation our target listeners want — be it high energy, clean and uncluttered, or whatever.  It means advertising that grabs attention and says what we need to say about the station.

None of this effort is cheap, but it is the most important investment you can ever make in your new format’s future.  At launch is the best opportunity you’ll have to make it successful, so that the listeners you’re seeking come back again and develop a positive image of your station.

Now, back to my Diet coke…

It was 40 years ago this week that The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the U.S. Many critics think it’s the most influential album of all time. Rolling Stone ranked it number 1 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003.

Sgt. Pepper was considered the first “concept album” in the world of pop and rock. It had a coherent theme from beginning to end, unlike the albums that preceded it — collections of hit singles (or worse, one or two hits and the rest throwaway cuts). Sgt. Pepper paved the way for other great concept albums — like the The Who’s Tommy and Pink Floyd’s The Wall – as well as a bunch of not-so-great ones (like Chad & Jeremy’s Of Cabbages & Kings, which, I’m ashamed to admit, I bought!).

News of Sgt. Pepper’s 40-year anniversary grabbed my attention this week. So did two other items which suggest that digital technology has rolled us back to a pre-Pepper mindset, when the hit single was king…

“The convenience of digital music has made sound quality an afterthought” states the article Is hi-fi history? by Ron Harris of the Associated Press. Harris writes about the quality of digital audio files — “noticeably inferior to that of compact disks or even vinyl,” he says — and that fact that most users don’t care. So, sales of CDs and higher-end audio equipment are declining as users rip their current collections to put them on iPods and buy their new music online.

“I really can’t tell the difference between CD, tape and digital,” says one consumer. “I’d even accept a lower quality as long as it’s digital and portable.”

Then there was something I noticed when reading the music reviews in USA Today. Perhaps they’ve been doing it for awhile, but I first noticed yesterday that after each CD review, they suggest cuts to download and others to skip. In other words, selectively buy the best tracks, not the whole collection…

Just like we did when records were seven inches wide and had a big hole in the middle (i.e., the 45)!

This is good advice. We felt ripped off when we bought an album with one or two good cuts and the rest…trash. Sgt Pepper changed this. But 40 years later, he’s a relic of the pre-digital age.

Watching the Pistons beat the Orlando Magic last night, it got me thinking about the Magic’s Grant Hill and his years in Detroit… 

The Pistons drafted Hill in ‘94 after he spent four very successful years at Duke, where his team won back-to-back NCAA championships. He won the NBA Rookie of the Year award and was a perennial All-Star.

Hill played hard and played well for the Pistons, and he did his best to reach out to the community, yet was never embraced by Detroit fans. I think the reason was his “vibe.”  From an article on Duke basketball by Carron Phillips:

Hill has always been the poster child for the upper middle class Black Man with playground basketball skills and a Brooks Brothers wardrobe. Grant Hill was the prototypical Duke BLACK scholar athlete. He came from a wealthy home where his father was an ex NFL football star and his mother was involved in politics. Hill even played the piano and was fluent in different languages, he was Duke University. Smart, handsome, intelligent, athletically talented, well liked, and the child of the AMERICAN DREAM.

Sounds good? Yes. Sounds like Detroit? No. 

Detroit is a gritty, hard-working, underdog town with a chip on its shoulder. Detroit embraced players like Ben Wallace (ironically, who the Pistons got in a sign-and-trade for Hill). Wallace played for a junior college, was undrafted, and had to play in Italy before working his way up to the NBA through sheer determination and hard work. Before Wallace, Detroit embraced Isiah Thomas — the 6′1″ kid who escaped from the bleakest Chicago ghetto neighborhood through talent and an indomitable will.

Every market has its own “vibe.” Thomas and Wallace (among others) resonated with the vibe of their market and were beloved.  Grant Hill – great player and great person that he is — didn’t.

So this got me thinking…What Detroit radio stations resonate with the essence of the city?  Maybe WRIF?  Maybe WJLB? I’m not certain any do.

What is the essence of your market?  Does your station resonate? Or does it just deliver programming that some listeners want?