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?

Is the daughter of a former Republican vice-presidential candidate. And she is, in the words of Rush Limbaugh, “a babe.”

I’m talking about Stephanie Miller, who’s dad ran for V.P. on Barry Goldwater’s ticket back in 1964.

Somewhere along the line, Miller broke with her family’s politics and has become the best political talker out there, because she’s entertaining. Stephanie was a comedian, and she’s still funny. Her show has drop ins, sound effects, and a killer “voice deity” in impressionist Jim Ward. On the West Coast, Stephanie Miller airs live in morning drive, and it definitely is a “real” morning show. Miller describes it as a mix of highbrow and lowbrow: “Fart joke, Senator, fart joke, Senator.” Etc.

Miller makes her political points, but they come across as satire, holding GOP-ers up to good-natured ridicule rather than venom. This makes her very different from all the angry radio ranters on the right and left, who preach to their respective choirs. Miller’s show could play on any kind of Talk station…it doesn’t have to be part of an all-day liberal talk orgy.

But what about the all-day liberal talk orgy, otherwise known as Air America Radio? It’s gotten a lot of bad rap, and right wing pundits keep talking up its demise, but it’s not a ratings flop…

AAR has overtly successful affiliates — most notably KPOJ in Portland, which pulls around a 4 share 12+. But more of its stations perform like WCPT in Chicago. Here’s a daytimer with an absolutely crap signal in most of the market, yet it pulls a 1 share. That puts it on par with FM Talker WCKG (with Opie & Anthony Steve Dahl, etc.).

Can you think of another format that could deliver a 1 share to a facility as challenged as WCPT? Me neither.

Or, here in Ann Arbor, WLBY has a 1.5, equaling WAAM — the market’s heritage AM with a decent signal, a local morning show, real newscasts and some promotion. WLBY has a poor signal in much of the market, no promotion, no local shows, and it runs the same recorded newscast all day long.

But, even though it’s mainly Air America programming, WLBY does have Stephanie Miller. So does WCPT.

Hmmm…

That’s why I started my own research business 22 years ago (wow!) I was working for a big research company and, having shown that I could talk and knew what I was talking about, they took me out of doing projects and into sales. I would meet with potential clients, sell them a project and then turn it over to a junior staffer who had little experience or knowledge. Then I would travel with that person to deliver the research. Essentially, I was a “front” for the project.

This didn’t sit well with me. I found myself presenting research with holes in it. I didn’t have enough time to thoroughly analyze it. The work just wasn’t good enough, and I was asked to put my name on it.

That’s why I went off on my own. If I was going to sell, I had to have total confidence in what I was selling. I had to be in control from start to finish. I had to deliver outstanding work…my clients deserved nothing less.

Now, this is no way to build an “organization.” In any given year, there are a limited number of projects that I’m going to be able to invest the time necessary to deliver outstanding work. But it is the way to deliver great research.

Which is a lot more satisfying than “cranking it out”!