Sharon Taylor – ByrnesMedia
From the Canadian Music Week program: “What Women Want – 2017 Insights into Radio, Music and New Media. Highlights and headlines from the most recent national survey of women who listen to contemporary music formats in the U.S. by Alan Burns and Associates and Strategic Solutions Research. Alan Burns and Strategic’s Hal Rood distill this giant study of 2,000 women into 50 minutes of deep insights.”
I was looking forward to this event at Canadian Music Week. I noticed that Alan Burns and Hal Rood were presenting the analysis of the research they had collected. I know them both by name and by reputation and respect their work. I had expected that by event time more people would be added to the presentation and discussion.
The findings of the research might have been fascinating, but as the minutes ticked by, the voices in my head started to drown out the voices of the two men delivering the information.
With not a woman on the stage, with not a woman referred to as part of this research and its analysis, with not so much as a nod to the ‘mansplaining’ environment and its obvious awkwardness; my frustration with the situation only grew and the distillation of the information was lost.
This is not a rant on political correctness. I’m not talking about outdated language, or a silly oversight that needs correction. It’s worse than that.
This is an industry that I love, one that can be so creative, progressive, responsible and educated, and yet, one that allowed a panel entitled “What Women Want” to exist and didn’t even think about addressing the obvious dichotomy. It’s just so incredibly tone deaf and out of step.
Radio, you can disappoint me so.
Flip the script. Would it be wrong to have a panel called “What Men Want” and have the presenters be all female? No. The phrase “What Men Want” is not a damaging stereotype. Men are not a visible minority. Men do not have a history of being “taken care of” and “told what to do”.
Having only men on the stage discussing “What Women Want” perpetuates an ugly stereotype and it reinforces to all the professional women in the room (which looked to be about 50%) that no matter how hard you try, men are still the ones in the driver’s seat.
Fix the attitude and generate an authentic platform for this info. What do women want? Can’t tell you what that research said about female listeners. But I can tell you what the women in this industry want – inclusion, representation and equality.
To all the men and women up and down the line who didn’t see this seminar as problematic, gender bias can happen even when you think you are doing the right thing.
Just put one woman up there with credentials presenting the same stuff and I’d nod my head and agree. It would feel inclusive and interesting. All you need to do is fix the optics and you’ll get all the low hanging fruit like me.
Even if you don’t get it, just pretending that you do would be appreciated.
Sigh.
Sharon Taylor is a radio consultant at ByrnesMedia and is the first to admit that she has no idea what anyone wants. Nonetheless, she is woman hear her roar at sharon@byrnesmedia.com.
Sharon Taylor – ByrnesMedia
I have a confession. I don’t like the way “mentoring” has been bandied about in the last few years. If you’re a professional woman, just try telling anyone that you’re not keen on the overall “mentoring” thing and they will look at you like you hate kittens.
People can teach, coach, manage, consult or advise, but I say mentoring is different from all of those.
The dictionary defines a mentor as “someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person”. Nothing wrong with that. I used to be one of those less experienced, younger people, and mentors helped shape the professional I became.
Part of my hang up with “mentor” is that you can’t just be one. It shouldn’t be on a business card. No one is a mentor unless the mentee says so. I contend that being called a mentor is subject to the same rules as nicknames. Nobody gets to choose their own nickname – it’s picked for you by others. You’re not a mentor until someone else calls you one.
I can clearly see through the rear view mirror the mentors in my career. The very first one, Sandy Davis, helped guide me, counsel me, teach me and gave me the infamous “attitude adjustments” whenever I unfortunately required them. I looked up to him, he was the smartest radio person I knew, and he had lots of time (and work) for me. However, back then he would never have called himself a “mentor”, and conversely, I would not have thought of myself as a “mentee”. He was my boss, my friend, and the things that he did for me he did for many others as well. He was a Program Director and helping his staff figure out the who, what and how of radio was part of the job. It was our chemistry that made our relationship different. I was an eager student, and my teacher appeared.
Since then I have had other colleagues who became mentors. Almost all of them were bosses and all of them wonderful men. The dynamic developed organically, with shared values and a genuine respect and regard for each other.
Over the past number of years, many professional women’s groups have promoted and assisted the mentoring exchange. Women are urged to have a mentor, preferably a female one, or at the very least join a women’s group that has mentoring as part of their core values. Women with a few years’ experience under their belt are asked to mentor younger females. Mentoring has really become a business – a business targeting women.
I wonder if in fact women created mentoring. It’s our kind of thing, right? It’s about nurturing and being supportive and at it’s very core it’s maternal and social and about giving back as well as paying it forward. But I digress. While mentoring is certainly meaningful and worthwhile, I don’t believe that organized mentoring has moved the needle for women in our industry one little bit.
Women are not showing up enough in our studios, offices and boardrooms because there is a lack of mentoring. Mentoring is icing, and we’re still trying to source ingredients for the cake.
It should be clear. Women are not the weaker sex so therefore they need more support, women are the underrepresented sex because of gender bias and inequitable pay.
Time and energy could go into lobbying broadcast companies to create programs that assure women get more “at bats”. For example, quotas suck but they get the job done. What might happen if a company had quotas on hiring women, as well as incentives for any manager (male or female) who champion women in their department and tangibly assist in their growth/promotion? What might happen if the pay for women was more than the pay for men?
Before you scream UNFAIR and look up the extension for HR, tell me please what we are supposed to call the current state of affairs – you know – paying women less?
When we disrupt the status quo in a way that attracts more women into our industry, when we are truthful about the shameful double standards that exist and then change them, when we challenge “I just want to hire the best person” then maybe all of us can have both the cake along with the delicious icing, and eat it too.
Has mentoring made a difference to you? Have you had opportunities that would not have occurred without a mentor? Although I’m critical of the results, I love mentoring and want to write about some of the success stories!
Sharon Taylor is a radio consultant at ByrnesMedia. She’s been bringing home the bacon and cookin it up in a pan for more years than she’s willing to count. sharon@byrnesmedia.com
by Sharon Taylor – ByrnesMedia
Recently, a client asked what I thought would happen to radio in 2017. Given recent events (Trump) I just couldn’t bring myself to even try to predict the future. Instead, I’ve come up with some resolutions.
1. Stop freaking out about the competition. Every time you look sideways you lose time. Straight ahead – always.
2. Remember what brought you to the party. If you hear yourself complaining about having to work evenings, weekends, having to leave late or return early from a vacation – stop and smack yourself in the head. This is, and always has been a 24/7 job and that NEVER changes.
3. Broaden your narrow definition of radio. Unless it’s coming from another planet, it’s all “terrestrial”. Radio can be found on a receiver, an app, it can be beamed by satellite, it’s podcasting, it’s Facebook live, it’s digital and sometimes it has pictures! Embrace the diversity that technology is bringing to radio, it’s making us richer, not poorer.
4. Call BS on “there’s no good talent out there anymore”. That’s complete nonsense and one of the ways to separate the lazy from the diligent. Talent did not go away with the all night shift, or suddenly now prefers to sell insurance over radio. Great talent is still out there. If you’re not interested in finding it, then that’s on you.
5. Accept that loyalty is very 1992. The minute that is was okay for companies to terminate every employee for “reorganization”, it was over. Once owners stop being loyal to employees, it was every man for himself. You should be a whole bunch of things – confidential, ethical, hardworking, but you no longer should feel indebted.
6. If you hate your job, get a new one. Entitlement in radio is an alternative fact. Unless you own the joint, you are always answering to the man. If you are the litigious type, if you like to round up a posse to support your beef, if you get all butt hurt and want revenge on your manager. Don’t. Get a new job stat.
7. If you love your job, double down. There are people who have been “retired” or “reorganized” that are smarter than you, more talented than you and better looking than you. (OK that last one is REALLY subjective) Point is, if you’re working in radio right now, you’re breathing rarefied air. We are at an incredible place in the historical timeline of broadcasting. Make a difference.
8. Solve one of the oldest problems we have. 30 years ago, one of the biggest problems in the business was that we made buying radio really complicated for the client. Um, it’s like, getting embarrassing already.
9. Stop pretending that it’s so terrible that people who have been in the business for a million years are let go. Radio is a merger of art and business, and right now the pendulum has swung hard over to business. If you last 25+ years in radio (a youth powered industry), you have something special and that should be celebrated and recognized. Radio was NEVER a secure career. We all knew this once and had little problem with it. How unbecoming and terribly convenient that we suddenly find it horrific.
10. Try to be a little less greedy. You know who felt bad for the record companies when their business collapsed? Nobody. That’s because record companies (deserved or not) had a reputation of ripping off artists and overcharging customers. Radio is risking similar sentiment with our drastic cost cutting, slashing of employee counts, reduction of local services and the choking number of commercials. At this point in time, we’ve never needed less self-interest, more.
Finally, one prediction that I can stand behind. 2017 is going to be one hell of a bumpy ride. Thankfully, most of us like bumpy rides.
Sharon Taylor has spent her entire adult life in a radio station and is now a consultant at ByrnesMedia. Any new business with Sharon will receive face painting for the kids and a carnation for the ladies. sharon@byrnesmedia.com
A very long time ago in the 1980’s, a brilliant article by Harvey Mednick appeared in the trade paper Radio & Records (may it RIP). That same piece was reprinted in R&R on January 1, 1999 with an intro by Cyndee Maxwell.
I copied the article and have carried it around since, from time to time passing on to colleagues and friends who I thought might appreciate it. Not only did I find it impactful and actionable, this article actually made a difference in my career and shape-shifted some of my values and behaviour.
I pulled it out to see how it did against the test of time. I still think it’s brilliant. Written before HR appeared on the scene, it’s common sense mixed with straight talk. So, with all respect and thanks to the original author, here it is again. I hope some part of it will resonate with you.
Do you think this article passes the test of time? Is today’s world more political, more complicated? If you have any feedback in agreement or disagreement, let me know at sharon@byrnesmedia.com.
Sharon Taylor is a radio consultant at ByrnesMedia and can be reached right this second @ 437-992-9202.