A couple of days ago I gave an example of what happens when radio programming consultants don’t understand what I’ll dub “The Structure of Success.”
That example dealt with music formats.
Here’s a radio morning show example.
Someone once worked as a “producer” for a successful American morning host.
“Producer” has a different meaning in the U.S. than in many European radio stations.
With few exceptions, in the U.S. the producer works for the star. Regardless of who writes the paycheck (the station or the star), the star is the boss.
But many European radio people perceive the producer as the boss.
’Taint so. But it has helped a couple of people who were hired hands in the U.S. position themselves as morning show experts on other continents.
One guy took the entire program log of one successful American show and transported it to a European morning show.
That market never had heard a show like it. It was a big hit.
But by now I had seen the pattern, and I said to one of the station’s competitors, “Relax. In two years they’ll be history.”
It was sad to see: from #1 to “just one of the pack” in two years.
Because the American star whose show was copied understood how and why the show worked, his show continued to evolve.
But the clone couldn’t grow or evolve, because it wasn’t a living thing. It was just a copy of the way the American show used to be.
Copycats can succeed in the short run. But if they don’t understand what makes what they’re copying work, invariably they’ll be forced out of the race.
