KBA'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

August 5, 2021

KBA BOARD ELECTIONS

NOMINATION WINDOW OPEN 8/5/21 - 8/18/21

The Kentucky Broadcasters Association is now accepting nominations for the following Board of Directors seats: Chairman-Elect, Radio Districts 1, 3, 5 & 7, Television-Lexington Market, Television-Other Markets, Public Television and Associate Director.

Active members of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association, in good standing, are qualified to nominate and subsequently vote in their respective district. Self nominations are permitted.

LEARN MORE & SUBMIT A NOMINATION

SEPTEMBER 19-21, 2021 IN OWENSBORO, KY

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE & REGISTER

EXCELLENCE IN BROADCASTING AWARDS

ENTRY DEADLINE IS TOMORROW!!!

KBA's Excellence in Broadcasting Awards honor the hard work, accomplishments, careers and personal contributions of Kentucky's broadcasters and broadcast partners. This years event will be held on Monday, September 20th at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro.

ENTRY DEADLINE IS TOMORROW, FRIDAY AUGUST 6TH

TECHNOLOGY DIVISION

Engineer of the Year

RADIO DIVISION

Station of the Year

Best Morning Show

Best Talk Show

Best News Coverage

Best Sports Play-By-Play

Best Locally Produced Commercial

Best Digital Product

Rookie of the Year

TELEVISION DIVISION

Station of the Year

Best Morning Newscast

Best Evening Newscast

Best Sportscast

Best Weathercast

Best Locally Produced Commercial

Best Digital Product

Rookie of the Year

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY TODAY

LBS WEBINAR:

BUDGETING AFTER AN ECONOMIC SHUTDOWN

AUGUST 10TH @ 12:00 PM EDT

Presented by:

Mike Costa, Costa Media Advisors CEO & LBS Broadcast Expert

Broadcast sellers across the board are facing unusual opportunities and challenges. Being effective in the recovering economy requires us all to be even more on top of our game than we needed to be before the shutdown. Being average is no longer an option. For the serious seller, there has never been a better time to be in the broadcast and digital marketing world. Join us for a straightforward presentation about how to help your clients plan their ad budgets for the road that lies ahead. We will discuss when you should be talking with your clients, which clients to focus on, and both the internal and external advantages that are in it for you!

POYNTER WEBINAR:

REPORTING ON DEATHS BY SUICIDE

SEPTEMBER 15TH 12:00 - 2:00 PM EDT

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, in fact far more people die of suicide than homicide, yet it gets a fraction of our media coverage. This workshop will help you find ways to cover this epidemic of preventable deaths by boosting your awareness, knowledge and skills in covering this vital topic.

We will:

Expose some myths about suicide.
Document some of the most vulnerable populations.
Gun violence is a major part of any discussion about suicide.
This workshop is focused on reporting about deaths by suicide, not ignoring it.

This workshop is led by The Poynter Institute’s Al Tompkins and Kelly McBride who have taught thousands of journalists worldwide how to ethically cover difficult issues. Tompkins is Senior Faculty at the Poynter Institute. Kelly McBride is the Institute’s Senior Vice President and leads Poynter’s ethics program. Together they combine more than 65 years of journalism and teaching in newsrooms including the biggest networks and newspapers to the smallest markets in all 50 states, Canada, South Africa, Egypt, Japan, Ecuador, Iceland, Czech Republic and beyond.

This webinar is provided as a free service to KBA member stations.

JEFF SCHMIDT'S SALES TIP OF THE WEEK

ARE YOU SPEAKING THEIR LANGUAGE?

Is it just me, or have you been hearing more ads for language learning and language learning apps lately? Maybe they feel that we are all shut in and this is a great time to learn a new language, or maybe the more global diversity means that knowing another language is no longer optional.

Have you ever been to a foreign country and asked for directions or tried to communicate with one of the locals when you don’t speak the language? It’s next to impossible. You smile, make hand gestures, and for reasons I never understood, find yourself speaking slowly and loudly as though the person were hard of hearing. When you don’t speak the language, communicating and connecting is surface-level at best.

When you call on a business to try and sell them, do you know their language? I’m not talking Italian, Spanish, or French; do you know the language of the business? Some refer to this as jargon. Every business has it. Talk to someone about “spots” and “traffic” who doesn’t sell radio and they will think you’re talking about something on your clothes or cars on the road. Say that to a “radio person” and there is an instant affinity.

Every business has a language, words, jargon, or phrases that are specific to that business. If you don’t “speak that language,” you may do better than you would in a foreign country, but you’ll never get to the higher and deeper relationship levels until you learn the language of the business and industry you are calling on.

One of my personal goals is to learn Spanish, but that will take some time. Learning the language of your clients, however, is relatively easy. Industry trade publications and industry websites are a great start. When I started in sales, I subscribed to everything from Automotive News to Funeral Director Monthly. Today it’s much easier, each trade category that you call on, Restaurants, Retail, Automotive, Telecom, any category that you call on has an industry association website or newsletter. In my experience, most of the newsletters are free and delivered right to your inbox every week. You don’t need to read every word of the newsletter or publication if you have the printed version. Just start with these four things:

Review the table of contents or website tabs for the various sections
Read the cover story – the above the fold, top item on the page
Review letters to the editor or if they have a comments section
Find the “industry news update” page.

If you do those four things consistently, in a short time you will be well versed in the language of your customer. Just like media, every category of business has jargon that they use. Go to the automotive section of RAB.com and you will find a dictionary of dealer terms that include such things as Service Absorption rate, be-back, busting bugs, sled, and more; terms that only car dealers use. If you’d like, shoot me a quick email and I’ll be happy to send you the dealer dictionary. If you want to be perceived as an ‘outside insider’ someone who can help prevent their problems, there is nothing better than knowing and speaking their language.

As a bonus, you will be aware of the challenges of that industry, and more importantly, you will be privy to the solutions offered by industry experts. Imagine how having that kind of knowledge and being able to “speak the same language” of your client can help you better understand them and communicate your solutions.

If you feel like you’re not “connecting” with your clients as deeply as you could, try investing some time learning their language. In my experience, you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development at the Radio Advertising Bureau. You can also connect with him by email [email protected] or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

To learn more about RAB's online certifications, on demand webinars and Leadership Masterclass, please go to kba.org, Member Benefits, RAB Total Access. Provided as a free service to KBA member stations. If you need assistance logging in, please contact Amber Rhodes at [email protected].

NEWSLETTER QUICK NOTES

UPDATE FIRMWARE AHEAD OF NATIONAL EAS TEST

Digital Alert Systems is reminding users of DASDEC and OneNet EAS devices to update their IPAWS digital certificates. If you don’t upload it by Aug. 21, CAP alerts from FEMA will not properly validate and will be rejected. The certificate bundle can be applied to Version 3 or Version 4 software.

Sage Alerting has said a signing certificate used by FEMA to validate CAP alerts will expire on Aug. 21, so they released a free firmware update for Rev95 that must be installed to permit an ENDEC to continue to receive EAS CAP alerts from FEMA. The CR-Rev6 update can be installed at any time before then.