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John Hogan breaks bread with buyers in NYC

Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan has been in NYC this week meeting with agency buyers, answering all questions and concerns. It culminated yesterday with a lunch that included: Lourdes Marquez, Horizon Media's head of spot buying, Coreen Gelber, SVP Local Broadcast Director of PHD, NY, Jeff Howard, Regional President/Clear Channel Radio Sales, Alan Korowitz, Clear Channel Radio Sales Northeast President, Rich Russo, JL Media's SVP/Director of Broadcast Services and Matt Feinberg, SVP/National Radio, Zenith Media Services.

Hogan tells RBR about the meeting first: "Just doing what radio people are supposed to do...meet with key clients and agencies, listen to their concerns and insights, and communicate with them on what Clear Channel Radio is doing to help grow their business. Meeting with our clients is a priority for me and I was fortunate to meet with a number of key customers today and will meet with more going forward. That is part of the CC culture and all of our senior managers are getting client focused and involved. In fact, all 10 SVP's for Clear Channel were in NYC today making calls on our customers and we will have seen over 25 key customers by the end of today. Getting candid, actionable feedback on how we can better present, sell and follow through with radio and Clear Channel stations from our NYC advertisers and agencies will help us better serve them going forward."

Russo and Feinberg's comments:

Said Feinberg: "It was an interesting lunch with Hogan-a good lunch. It was in a wine cellar-I thought for a minute we were all walking in to sample 'The Cask of Amontillado.' John was going to get us all down there and brick us in!

Essentially, John, I think, was very interested in seeing how he can improve Clear Channel Radio. He was asking about specific issues that we have that would make his product better. He was very receptive to hearing what we had to say. He had some thoughts on it, but it was more him listening to us and saying he's going to act on what he can."

Said Russo: "First of all, as a gift, I wrapped in Clear Channel rate submissions the board game of 'Sorry,' because after his appearance on Capitol Hill where he apologized for everything short of the Vietnam War, I figure it would be a good game for him and his nine year old daughter. He's a good guy. I like events like this. I think they need to be more in-tune. He did a great job of taking our comments seriously, but not personally. 90% of the conversation also turned into what's wrong with the industry, not just Clear Channel."

So what was discussed?

Feinberg: "He talked about electronic invoices, affidavits, accountability. He talked also about bigger issues-perception in the public's eye, perception in the advertisers' eye. He talked about programming perception as well."

Russo: "He outlined what he thinks they have to do at his company in terms of accountability and some of the other things. He pretty much sat there like he was wearing a chest protector and let everybody just bounce things off of him. I give him credit-he didn't get flustered or defensive. He took a lot of notes on things. He talked about how they're pushing hard on training their people. I think it's a good thing he did this. Doing this thing on a regular basis to follow up on some of the things he thinks he's implementing would be a good idea.

He also talked about how Clear Channel had a lack of a solid PR department until a couple of years ago. And a lot of the stuff they took heat on-voice tracking, etc.-was because they never put the right spin on it. Which is probably why when he went on Capitol Hill, he probably over-compensated.

Did he address the indecency stuff?

Feinberg: "Actually, we didn't-there was so much stuff going on. Time was limited."

So what did you all suggest John do?

Feinberg: "We talked about having electronic invoicing systems that are compatible for the industry-not just Clear Channel. He understood that and knows it has to be an industry-wide cooperative effort for it to succeed. We talked about information on invoices being correct and clear. We talked about having salespeople who are very well-versed in their clients' businesses and who were very up on their markets and communicating market happenings to the buyers. We talked about running schedules accurately-about really coming through and how that all leads to the accountability issue and the perception issue that he needs to feel that Clear Channel is making a concerted effort into delivering what they sell. However, it's a cultural thing. No matter what John dictates overnight, it's not that easy. It's not just John Hogan saying so, it's a whole cultural thing that's going to take time to change, by teaching people in radio.

This is the first time we've had that much one-on-one time with John, if you will. He strikes me as a guy who listens and understands. We'll see in a year how much of it works and how much of it doesn't."

Feinberg adds: "I thought it was very positive and it was very much a meeting in the spirit of partnership. John was very forthright in addressing the challenges and problems Clear Channel is facing."

Said Russo: "This was very educational on all ends. But it all came down to the usual things-trust. We got into the share mentality BS-'Hey, what good is it if you do all these things and the guy across the street runs 20 units? Then you counter-act it by running a fire sale.'

We talked a little about voice tracking. We all hammered him on that. I said it was ridiculous. I said what's the difference if you make $600M in profit or $588M? As long as you make the product better. We also talked about how radio needs to be something that advertisers feel comfortable with doing. Clients should not be considering going over to cable as much as they are. These guys need to be more cognizant of what they need to do to protect their medium."