Since launching Martini in the Morning back in 2006, at some point over the holidays I always play one of our artists doing David Foster and Linda Thompson’s “Grown-Up Christmas List,” and wind up contemplating a list of my own. In David and Linda’s song, the grown-up’s heart can still dream. In my grown-up Christmas list, I’m living my dream, and while not insuring world peace, wonder if in some small way we do contribute to peace. Maybe not world peace, but perhaps a little peace in the midst of a hectic day, a young Mom trying to juggle family, work and the many curve balls life throws her way. It could be the breath of fresh air a harried business man or woman needs in the middle of an intense work day, or the voice of a friend you don’t know, but who provides company, insight and even a laugh now and then.

Our friend Ana Maria de La Bruyère from Geneva, Switzerland, wrote me once suggesting we add an adjective to the line we use to describe the music on MITM; “Healing.”  She said “This music with its lyrics heals the soul.” So while my grown-up Christmas list might seem a little less lofty, I do think, together, we can reach new heights in several important areas. So, what follows is my grown-up Christmas list.

1. A New Home for Martini in the Morning
   • On January 1, 2015, we ‘celebrate’ 4 years in our current location. While moving from a $7,000 a month office and studio suite to a (then) $700 a month facility made good sense, it is simply too small. We have broadcast studio equipment, servers and racks of encoders, and infrastructure hardware plus Mother Miriam’s desk (actually more like a 4-top restaurant table), a bar, cameras and computers all crammed into about 165 square feet. We’ve done amazing things in this space, but if we’re going to do new things, different things, and do the things we’ve been doing differently, we need more space. In the current space, there’s no place to meet, plan, think, retreat to neutral corners, which leads to very limited space for visitors, performers, and artist guests. We need space for a piano so when guest artists come in, they can perform. Some have argued the importance of having a piano in the studio, but a local L.A. news/talk station used to invite artists into their studio for a late night interview after playing a gig at a local jazz club or venue. They’re in the news business and have a piano – music is our principal business – we definitely need a piano – and a piano sponsor to provide the piano, which leads me to the next item on my grown-up Christmas list.
2. A Sales Department (A sales PERSON, would be a good start)
   • We lost two major opportunities during 2014 because Brad doesn’t have the sales gene. I can’t ask for the sale, I can’t close the deal, I can’t sell. Some people can, some can’t. Now, I know a lot of sales people who think they could program a radio station as well as I can. But that’s probably what makes them good at sales, if they can convince themselves of something so silly, they can probably convince an advertiser to spend money with them. We need a solid sales effort so we can get out of the endless cycle of beg-a-thons and money grubbing. It is likely that as the way we consume media and entertainment changes, there will always be some element of listener support in the way we fund this business. BUT, there are myriad opportunities for advertisers, sponsors, promotional partners in a way that brings you products, services, events and destinations that you actually care about, and we need someone who knows how to open those doors (I don’t even know the address, much less how to open those doors!) And to build that kind of sales program, we need to grow our audience, which leads me to the next item on my grown-up Christmas list.
3. Sharing the Martini
   • For 8+ years, YOU have been our marketing department. You are the reason we’ve grown and become the leader in this genre. We are growing daily, one listening inviting another to tune in, that new listener inviting another, and so on. But to facilitate that sales effort I mentioned earlier, we need to speed up that process. Our goal is to reach 1-million regular listeners. We know in the USA alone, there are close to 10-million. We know not everyone will like our approach to this music, but we’d like for them to at least know we exist and be able to decide whether or not to listen.
   • There’s another motivation here; we’ve been invited to get involved with many institutions and businesses with deep ties to Hollywood and Broadway which are the origins of much of the music we play. There are folks from the traditional broadcasting business who have done everything in their power to discredit MITM. One has been particularly harsh. One of my very short term goals is for us to surpass the audience of his current radio home. I’ll let you know when we get there. Hopefully during 2015! Now, how we achieve that leads to the next item on my grown-up Christmas list.
4. A Bigger Net
   • Our band of loyal, hardworking, unintentional volunteers have come up with good ideas to keep the music playing, to grow, and to constantly improve the listening experience for you. But to grow the audience and improve our sales and make MITM even better, we need to cast the “Idea Net” across a wider pool of ideas. To do that, we have begun a search for a group of Martini in the Morning friends from various parts of the country (world!), friends from diverse backgrounds, bringing to the table a wide range of experience in life and in business, contributing their knowledge and expertise to help us come up with new ideas, new resources, new friends to help achieve our goal of being the leader in this genre, for music, information, events and other activity that fits the lifestyle and music for which it is the soundtrack. This wider net, this expanded pool of ideas, expertise and relationships will lead to the next item in my grown-up Christmas list.
5. Rewards
   • It is my wish that as we achieve these things in 2015, that same band of loyal, hardworking unintentional volunteers are rewarded. There are some who have day jobs they intend to keep. There are others who, if we were able to make it happen, would become regular employees. It is my fervent wish that in 2015, we’re able to make that happen. The steps we’ll have to take to achieve that lead us to the next item on my grown-up Christmas list.
6. Stress Reduction
   • Those new ideas, doing different things differently, having a staff to execute the vision of the company, will allow us to come full circle on many things; catch up on royalties, taxes, bills, to know where the money is coming from, knowing we can take care of people who take care of us and people who’ve taken care of us along the way. That leads us to the next item on my grown-up Christmas list.
7. Delivering
   • The goal of Martini in the Morning is to provide you with entertainment; the music you love, delivered in a fun package that, while light-hearted, also has a serious side. As a group, the MITM audience can achieve great things, like we do in our efforts against breast cancer. But there’s another very serious part of our business – making sure this music is around for generations to come. Having achieved the other things on my list, we’ll be better able to make sure that the artists who perform this music have a place to expose their art and an audience to hear and appreciate it, ultimately buying it so the artist can make a living and continue to perform these songs. We want to insure those responsible for securing the legacy of their famous predecessors, whether songwriters or recording artists, that the music will always have an outlet, and an audience eager to hear it on the radio, see it performed in live entertainment venues, and be purchased by those fans to keep fueling the process.
8. Next (Concluding a list of 8 things to coincide with our 8 years on the air)
   • That you’ll read my column in next month’s newsletter with my promise that it won’t be as long as this one.

 

RETURN TO NEWSLETTER