Radio Programs: Industry Banter Hits Airwaves

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 8/8/2005

The industry is no longer silent, thanks to Assn. Nation and Meetings Radio — two entrepreneurial radio programming groups bringing banter about tradeshows and meetings to the airwaves and Internet audio.

Although the two companies primarily target associations and meeting planners, respectively, the tradeshow industry is catching an increased share of their sound bites. To boot, both groups devoted shows to TS² — The Trade Show About Trade Shows last month.

But even though Assn. Nation and Meetings Radio came about within a few months of each other, they're not one and the same.

The Washington, D.C.-based pre-taped program Assn. Nation, a production of the Assn. Internet Radio Network, is broadcast each Sunday at 10 a.m. on WMET-AM 1160 for the 3,500-plus area associations. The segments are also available on the group's Web site (http://www.associationnation.com) for on-demand post-show listening.

Since Assn. Nation hit the airwaves last October, the hour-long shows have featured several prominent industry executives, including Chris Brown, senior vice president of convention and expositions for the Natl. Assn. of Broadcasters; Professional Convention Management Assn. President and CEO Deborah Sexton and Chairman Gregg Talley; American Society of Assn. Executives President and CEO John Graham; Center for Assn. Leadership President and CEO Susan Sarfati; and Convention Industry Council President and CEO Mary Power.

During TS², Assn. Nation interviewed Natl. Trade Productions President Tamara Christian, Hargrove President Tim McGill and Exhibit Surveys President Skip Cox.

Brown, who also serves as chairman of the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management, was interviewed in February for the show's Your Meeting Matters segment and discussed the challenges and opportunities for the NAB show.

Brown said the radio program "can be an effective medium, somewhat because it is a different vehicle for communicating news and information surrounding associations and their business."

Christian agreed. "It makes a lot of sense to have a radio program focused on this large market." (She was also interviewed by Meetings Radio during TS².)

Assn. Nation taped additional segments during Springtime in May, and it will conduct interviews at the ASAE and CAL annual meeting this week at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

Assn. Nation's on-air Sunday audience isn't measurable, since the station doesn't subscribe to a radio ratings tracking program. However, its number of online on-demand listeners has more than quadrupled — from 400 unique Web site visits to 2,000 — since October.

"After nine months, the thrill is still there," said Kevin Murphy, Assn. Nation's creator and executive producer. "It's a refreshingly different way to receive information. It's what we think is easy listening."

Murphy also founded AIRN, an Internet-based broadcasting network that produces talk show programming for specific associations, including the Disaster Recovery Institute Intl. and Assn. of Career Professionals. AIRN recently struck a deal with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Assn. Committee of 100 to develop an on-air and Internet show for the group.

"It's a nice (association) member benefit," said Al Rickard, host of the Assn. Nation segment Communication Success Stories and president of the communications firm Assn. Vision.

When Murphy and his team launched Assn. Nation, Meetings Radio Owner and Producer Bill Wulff was collecting his thoughts for his own venture, based in Fort Lee, N.J.

"The idea started back in October 2004 when the hurricanes were hitting Florida and the Caribbean," Wulff said, because he had some RFPs out to vendors in the region and couldn't find information on the condition of its meeting space.

Plus, he added, the "technology was ripe for talk radio targeted to our industry." And after a few months of letting the idea "simmer," Meetings Radio began airing in April — solely online — live weekdays at 9 a.m. EST.

The half-hour to hour-long Web-only show averages 385 listeners, and is growing by around 20 listeners per week, Wulff said, from as far away as Canada, England and Mexico.

Wulff, who is also a meeting planner, said he is optimistic that word of Meetings Radio will reach far and wide, with its industry updates and humorous approach. "We don't have any listeners in Asia yet, but they just don't know about us yet," he said.

The live call-in Meetings Radio shows got a dose of extra attention on July 7 — the day of the London bombing — when several U.K.-based listeners called in with their thoughts. "The courage we saw from them was fascinating," Wulff said.

The program also broadcast live from Meeting Professionals Intl.'s World Education Congress in July, with three days of four-hour shows from the showfloor.

Wulff said he hopes to expand Meetings Radio's coverage of the tradeshow industry soon. "We have just scratched the surface of the tradeshow industry, and it was a darn exciting scratch," he said.