What My 11 Year Old Taught Me About Broadcasting

I'd like to subtitle this as "Video Killed The Radio Star?!?!?"

I'm going to throw out a few names that might not mean anything to you....but mention these names to a preteen/teen and they will be impressed with you. They probably won't express it to you...but they will be.

• MrBeast - 47.6M YouTube subscribers and he is well-known for his large giveaways and viral challenges. He recently bought an island and gave it away on his channel. His current net worth is $8.5 Million
• PewDiePie - His popularity on YouTube (currently 108M subscribers) and extensive media coverage have made him one of the most noted online personalities and content creators. In 2016, Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. As of 2020, PewDiePie's net worth is estimated to be $30-$50 million.
• Jacksepticeye - Is an Irish YouTuber, best known for his vlogs and comedic Let's Play series. As of December 2020, his channel has over 13 billion views and 25.9 million subscribers, and is the most-subscribed Irish channel. He has participated in fundraisers that have raised millions for charity.

Get this. There are more than 37 million YouTube channels out there. The number of channels is growing strong: last year it grew more than 23%. People all around the world are creating a YouTube channel, and uploading 500 hours of video every minute! But is it good content?

I'm going to focus on Jacksepticeye as he is a central part of this article.

On April 4th, 2018 (a day after my birthday) my son was as excited as I would be if I was heading to a Paul McCartney concert. Instead, we has going to see his hero "Jack" perform in Boston during a tour called "How Did We Get Here?". The official tour announcement went like this:

“Join us as YouTube star Jacksepticeye tells stories of growing up and answers the question: How Did We Get Here? Don't worry - he'll also be playing some of his favorite games on stage, so come join the party."

Luckily, I got tickets early to the Boston's Chevalier Theatre a 1,900 seat theatre. Historic, old, and beautiful and filled with pre-pubescent and seasoned teens for this sold out show. It sold out the same day. My son and I were lucky to have seats 6 or 7 rows back.

The excitement in this theatre was that of a rock concert. People wearing t-shirts with Jacksepcticeye. Girls crying in anticipation and my son was part of the pandemonium.

During the show....a lucky audience member would be called on stage to "play" with Jacksepticeye. Remember, to these kids....this would be the equivalent of being asked to play bass with Paul McCartney. It's THAT big of a deal.

As luck would have it - the child picked to get on stage was none other then my son, Parker.

Once the "shock and awe" of seeing him head to the stage....out comes my trusty smartphone to record this history moment. If you listen carefully, you can hear security tell me to put my phone away as video was not allowed. Listen more carefully and you can hear my reply of:

Sorry. Not happening. I've got to film this for him. Do what you gotta do but I'm filming this!

Luckily, that's as far as it went. I survived without being "cuffed and stuffed". Now, I'll admit...I can see how uploading this footage to YouTube was probably adding insult to injury but....I couldn't resist.

This is my 2nd most popular video on my personal YouTube channel with 13,678 views. My professional channel (which I just started this month - so I need the subscribers HINT HINT is here: Parker Springfield Online) My most popular? An interview I did with "Norma Stitz" - the 1999 Guinness Books of Records Largest Natural Breasts....

....or as she would say "Worlds largest natural breast-es-es". I'm not kidding.

She calls them "breast-es-es".

Check it out. Oh, you're curious on how many views?

22,457 views!! Bazinga!

The point is...these YouTubers have tapped into something that all good broadcasters do - they KNOW their audience and are relatable and vulnerable. Radio broadcasters can learn a lot from this new generation of stars.

Social media is the primary method on and off-air for communicating with your audience and improving radio listener attention. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are where people will look for updates on content, pose questions and learn about you personally. It is important to post regularly to let audiences know you’re around; people can and will assume you’re gone if they don’t hear from you for a day or two. For some, this can be a difficult habit to get into, but if you treat it as part of the job to be your own social media manager it will become second nature. It really isn't easy especially with so many hats worn at stations these days.

YouTubers also have perfected the art of being approachable. Listeners/views want to know that the voice on the other side of the radio/web is a human being just like them. Remember PewDiePie from above? He reached over 10 million people after posting his wedding photos on social media. How many wedding photos do you see daily? How many got 10 million people to view them? Yeah. That's what I thought. Come to think of it....I think my ex-wife has all my wedding photos. Hmmm. She's probably burned them by now. Anyway...I digress.

YouTubers have the luxury of direct interaction with their audience. They also have the luxury of being hyper niche focused. For example, Jacks has thousands of videos of him simply playing video games with commentary. Now, most radio stations still engage listeners with a call to the studio line or social media....but something about that doesn't seem as intimate. Talent on a music focused station can't afford to stop the music to "chat" with their listeners.

Does this all signal that it's finally happened as The Buggles predicted? Will "Video Kill The Radio Star"?

On the contrary. It will only strengthen your talent and station....if you engage your audience in a more intermate way they will stay with you. So, I am taking a page from the "millennials" and stepping it up a notch.

I've always enjoyed interviewing people. I've been fortunate enough to have close to 100 celebrity interviews in my archive over the years. From Presidents to reality tv stars. Still, the lady with the big boobs is my most popular interview - go figure.

As a side project I have created Parker Springfield Online to store some of my interviews and work on a few concepts that I've been thinking about doing for a while. I have a new idea that should merge what YouTubers do with the content creation talents that all broadcast talent have. After all....that's what broadcasters do! Create content! I call them "Interactive Interviews".

I'll keep you updated on the journey of expanding into the online content creation world more seriously. Maybe I need a cool YouTuber handle? Hmmmmm.....