Hey radio. It’s not me, it’s you.

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Chris GolubDear FM radio, Oh how I loved thee. In 1980 you turned me on to The Clash’ London Calling and I was changed forever. I remember walking down the street, boombox planted firmly on my right shoulder, volume at 9 cranking WMMR 93.3 making sure anyone within a football field distance could hear this new discovery that this great rock station turned me onto. There were plenty of other moments…The Talking Heads remake of Al Green’s Take Me To The River just before that and back in the early eighties I owe my discovery of local artists to Philadelphia FM stations. Bands like The Hooters, The A’s and Schooly D never would have been known to a teenager who could not get into the club shows or have that luxurious thing called the internet to discover these great acts, thereby opening my world to exciting new music.


Fast forward to 2014, where we now have the internet, thank goodness, as well as good ol’ commercial FM radio. Still huffin’ & puffin’ amidst a bevy of music listening options. I imagine I am not alone in that I rarely use radio for discovery. Radio for me has become nostalgic. Where else do I get to hear Howard Jones, Steely Dan and The Eagles besides maybe the outdoor patios of Colorado ski resorts? Sure, the Billboard top whatever is in full effect with most genres represented across the dial, but exciting discoveries? Hardly.

FM radio, for me, has become this big gorilla with broken flip flops. Regurgitating a steady stream of producer created music in high, medium and light rotation. Zzzzzzzzz. OK, if my rental car does not have an iPod connection, Blue Tooth or satellite radio (becoming more and more rare these days) I’ll tune in, scan and rock another ‘Hotel California’ or the latest from Lady Gaga. Ugh.

It’s not all bad though. Inevitably I get turned on to something I did not know and really like. This always happens below the 92.1 part of the dial though. Never above it. Ever.

Maybe that is why the nice folks at RBR-TVBR asked me to write this piece so FM radio might be able to fix the current state of their world.

Well, who am I to be throwing a couple pointers to the industry that raised me? First off, a very passionate music lover who just happens to have one of the great jobs in the world. I create music identities for brands. Selecting the coolest beats that engage customers and drive traffic not only to stores and restaurants but online where they can take the music experience they love about their brand home with them.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of my clients and the folks at RBR-TVBR thought it might be helpful to pass along some of the ways I put together their program as we enjoy a pretty rapid following not only for the food with integrity but for the playlist in stores and online where over 900K people tune in every day.

While much of the structure for the Chipotle program is similar to radio programming with day parting, rotation levels and frequent change to the program, that is where the similarities end.

When I first took the program over, Steve Ells, the genius founder and co-CEO of Chipotle, gave me only one guide in creating the soundtrack, avoid what is currently being played in commercial radio. That may seem to be a risky proposition to most marketing directors and CEO’s as at first glance one might think creating a music program that will appeal to a broad age group from very different parts of our world would need to embrace the current pop charts but Steve is far from typical.

To understand the program I created for Chipotle we need to go back to the start, to borrow from the very successful Chipotle short film of the same name.  Not only did commercial radio raise me, my father, a passionate music fan had a large part in that musical influence sphere as well. Month long road trips every summer starting in the early 70’s, far before personal listening devices, had me in the back seat of a Ford LTD with little chance of escape from my fathers soundtrack, a vast collection of custom curated mixed cassette tapes. Lucky for me, my Pops had mad skills in the area of good music. Ray Charles, Nat King Cole Trio, Nina Simone, Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra (The Capitol Years) had me knee deep in the school of amazing arrangements and songwriting. These road trips had me fall in love with these and many other artists I would never have been exposed to otherwise.

As I grew older, I had an openness to discover artists from all different genres. Yes, Van Halen, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin were prominent in my youth but so were Miles Davis, Les McCann, Marvin Gaye and Hank Williams. I remember being the only kid in the ‘hood with mixed tapes that crossed genres, thereby limiting fellow 12 year olds from asking me to ‘spin’ at the various birthday parties. Although, that changed pretty quickly as the late teenage years arrived.

This love for multiple genres and understanding the emotional response that happens when some of these diverse artists are put together to make this patchwork quilt in a mix tape, allowed me to see a whole new light in the curation of music. Unknown to me at the time, the curating of those mix tapes for the past 30 years was the foundation for what is today the Chipotle music experience.

 

Beyond the B Sides

When selecting the artists and tracks for the program I look for a couple of things. How does the track make me feel? While life is not always a bed of roses I think it’s important to accentuate the positive whenever possible. Does the track hold up to the famous American Bandstand frequent answer when Dick Clark posed the question to so many dancers “what do you like about this song?” and the ubiquitous “It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it”. While I’m not creating a modern day American Bandstand, I am looking for songs that will get toes tappin’, whether the customer is 5 or 50, and all in between. Fela Kuti is never played on FM radio but is a frequent contributor to the Chipotle vibe.

I also never eliminate an artist from consideration, regardless of popularity. There are some wonderful cuts that have never made it out into the radio world from best selling artist that excite listeners far more than their classic hits. Elvis Presley had a little known track called ‘Crawfish’ recorded as a duet in 1958 with the jazz singer Jean “Kitty” Bilbrew for the film King Creole. I featured this song in high rotation and hands down this track received more emails from people around the world asking who is this, I love it! A great example of how music is making a difference in Chipotle and providing another area for fans to further engage with a brand they love.

 

Architecture of Sound

What makes the Chipotle music program work? Taking chances. Stepping outside the traditional norms to program exciting sounds that sound wonderful in the Chipotle environment. Last year, during an interview with a weekly newspaper, the journalist asked me if there was any particular songs that don’t work in the Chipotle environment to which I responded, yes, a number of them, many of which I love dearly but the way they are recorded just doesn’t sound great with the various hard surfaces that make up a Chipotle restaurant.

The selection of tracks has to pass the ‘sound test’, a run through of potential tracks, tested in a live Chipotle environment. While this part of the programming equation doesn’t really directly relate to the conversation about radio, it is important in the larger picture of curating the program.

 

What can radio learn from the Chipotle program?

I think the take away here is that the Chipotle program has broken rules and is not afraid to take chances with the selection of artist, genres and the mixing of those to make up a fresh, exciting and engaging program that works for the 18-25 demographic as well as any other demographic. In fact, I never use the word demographic except for articles like this. I never consider ‘what will work for this or that group”. The program reflects the world we live in and those people who chose food with integrity. I often liken it to a great big fruit salad where grapes can live in harmony with grapefruit, bananas and guava without having to be blended together in a smoothie.  Each fruit stands on its own and sings their great solos while living in this wondrous place of different tasting things. Except here the various fruits are Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Beastie Boys and David Byrne.

–Christopher Golub

Owner-Studio Orca

www.studioorca.com

twitter.com/orcastudio