A few times during my full-time commercial radio career, I was lucky enough to be a guest of Disney to produce live programmes from their theme parks, and some of the things I saw have stuck with me for years and remain a benchmark for certain aspects of running a radio station.
The way the 100-year-old brand conducts itself is not without controversies and anyone who has queued for hours for one of its most popular attractions may not be entirely enamored with it, but I want to mention a few things that I picked up from my visit to Florida in particular.
As a visiting member of the international media, the company was very keen to ensure I had the best experience, and I was assigned a media liaison person to collect me from the airport and be my chauffeur and guide for the week.
Having this insider with me also allowed me to discover some best practice from the world’s most famous name in entertainment – and informed some policies that I took with me to small-scale radio.
Key to this was protecting the brand. This meant everything from how the company and everything it does it described. It was not ‘Disney in Florida’ or even ‘Disney World’ at the time of my visit, but always ‘Walt Disney World Resort Florida’.
Even the radio station’s sponsor for our visit to Disney had to be approved to ensure that it was the right fit for their brand.
Attention to detail
This attention to detail is less important on the surface to a small radio station than it is to a global entertainment brand, but the principle is the same. Make sure your presenters and anyone else connected to the station (including listeners where possible) use the brand you want to establish.
If the station’s name is RADIO CREATORS, you don’t want it referred to as Creators Radio. It’s a small but really important point if you want to establish yourself solidly in the psyche of your community.
This is especially important when your station brand is portrayed visually. If event organisers or sponsors are using your name/logo or you are being covered in other media, ensure they get it right, otherwise it’s your station that looks bad.
Another thing that impressed me at Disney was how they are very strict on how ‘cast members’ (i.e. all employees) conducted themselves.
Not only did this mean that characters in costume were not allowed to speak or be seen by the public with, for example, their costume head off, but also how any employee was expected to behave.
When stations I have been a manager at have been at events, I have remembered the focus on how a team member’s conduct looks to the public. That should include no smoking, drinking alcohol, swearing, etc. while in station uniform or at the station’s gazebo, etc.
It’s vital if your team is at an event that they are seen as approachable, professional, and responsible. I’ll write more about events in next week’s blog.
The takeaway I hope you get from this post though is that, even when managing a volunteer organisation, there have to be values and standards that everyone buys into and sticks to.
Whether they are on air, representing the station at events, or even helping behind the scenes – what Disney would refer to as ‘backstage’ – there should be no difference in how committed every member of your team is to the ‘mission’.
We’ll visit this in more detail in a future episode of the RADIO CREATORS podcast.
