Program The Way Your Listeners Listen

You Can't Create An Audience For The Format ...You've Got To Create A Format For The Audience

As programmers we are often criticized for programming for our peers instead of our listeners. This time I thought we would take a look at programming the way our audience listens.

Urban radio's definition keeps changing and our competition is changing, too. That's the beauty of not leaning in one particular direction.

The age of the average listeners hasn't really fluctuated that much. What we're looking for in most markets with long-term players is consistency. There are those who say Urban and Urban AC stations in 2008 are too female-friendly. They're saying that the male audience senses that and doesn't identify with the radio station even if they listen. Format pundits are saying that Arbitron's PPM will change that. They claim that whether they say they listen or not, if they're carrying a meter and the device picks up your encoded signal, you score. We're saying that while that may be true, by changing the testosterone level we can make our stations more listenable to the total audience.

Trust The Audience

A well known, highly rated station in a medium market in the South recently completed a perceptual study that looked, among other things, at how their 25-49 year-old listeners perceived the station -- and whether or not the station was important. What came back was that those listeners spend more of their time listening to other sources. They did listen; they just listened less. This in turn affects the station's Time Spent Listening (TSL).

When asked what would make them listen more, the participants in the survey said, "We want to hear some new songs and we want to know about these new songs and new artists." As programmers we have to trust the audience when they say they want to know about the music and artists we play.

With all the similar sounding records released over the last few years, the lack of artist identification can be terribly frustrating for a listener who is listening to terrestrial radio and using it as a music and information source. In other words, they use radio to help them determine what to download onto their iPods. We don't need to provide a long dissertation about the artists and where the song was recorded, etc. every time. We just need to identify the artist and title of the jams we're playing.

Part of Urban radio's "new game" has to be credibility. To forsake identifying 80% of the programming content is irresponsible. When radio only plays new songs in light rotation and doesn't front or back-announce, yet expects instant gratification like top-10 phones, sales and 90 or better in familiarity in callouts after just three or four spins, it's virtually impossible without identification -- particularly with new artists and songs.

This isn't just for the benefit of the labels and artists. It's also to give radio that extra touch of credibility and instill listener's confidence that they can find out title and artist information from their favorite station.

Another problem is that today many Urban stations have several dayparts that are syndicated, which means local stations have little or no control over them. Many of these syndicated shows are being done by personalities who have never paid their radio dues ... and some of the professionals whose job it is to guide them and make sure that these things get translated and passed on are either afraid of angering these superstars, or they've forgotten those lessons or never learned them in the first place.

Front-announcing and back-announcing are very important to not just the "music freaks," but to the total audience.

The Challenge Of Fresh Alternatives

Sometimes established artists burn out quickly because they're made to look outdated by new artists and new styles. Today's programmers have to watch for anything that makes the station's core audience's music sound dated. Competitive situations and positioning naturally dictate a station's library size -- tested or not. Some Urban AC stations may have libraries as large as 500 titles. Others may have trimmed them at around 300. Most successful Urban ACs in crowded markets are getting away with tight libraries that are tested often. Keeping the station sounding fresh and providing fresh alternatives are very critical to a station's success.

Some major acts don't test well anymore. We've overexposed them to death and now they account for a huge percentage of station libraries. Urban AC doesn't have the same national power it had a few years back, when its ratings were much higher and its rotations tighter. Competition is a big factor. The issue at hand for some Urban AC stations is aggressiveness.

It is not surprising that Urban has been able to reassemble a wide demographic coalition in many markets, given the publicity for younger-skewing artists coupled with an increased amount of tempo-driven tracks. It's still impressive, though, considering how the format's previous coalition scattered in the late '90s and the early part of this decade when Urban AC stations become hyper-focused on upper demos.

Anecdotally, most programmers know adults personally who want to stay current and hip. Indeed, any attempt to talk to these Generation Yers and Jones among your friends or family about the music they like becomes almost a discussion that now includes their parents as well, who start reeling off a list of current songs and artists they like -- perhaps, if nothing else, to prove they still can connect.

What's happening here is that Urban and Urban AC stations found they could cast wider nets, targeting both men and women in many cases, giving them more out-of-target demo listeners to draw upon.

There are other factors at play. One is the fact that Urban and Urban AC's mother-daughter coalition wasn't just disrupted by the way the music has changed, but also by the constant turnover of artists and changing music styles. That would help to explain why some early and mid-'90s Urban titles didn't move into the Top 40 and Hot AC world in any significant way.

The Fun Factor

Finally, we have to include another of the things that can make a difference in programming the way today's audience listens. It's what we call "the fun factor." While today[s generation wants hit music, they also want fun on the radio -- and they want it fast. They're in a rush. Their parents were in a hurry.

What kind of fun? Topical fun. Fun with music and the artists. Where it's placed and how it's handled and even how topical the bits are, outside of morning drive, can add to the strength of the station or contribute to the weaknesses of the station ... once you stop the music

Researchers say many listeners now listen in noisy environments. So maybe we shouldn't turn the energy down so far that we can't compete with soap operas and traffic during middays. These same researchers have also developed a new term for early academic stimulation: "hot housing." This is the increasingly popular notion of force-feeding young intellects. It may produce emotional root rot, but these speed-freaks know what they like. At the core of the debate is how the value of early childhood affects intellectual stimulation. Many parents are exerting the pressure on their offspring to learn. Unnatural levels of stress can lead to confusion and, ultimately burn out.

What happens is these children grow up and become easily dissatisfied with everything that affects them during their time of leisure. They tire of video games, television, the Internet, their own iPods and even some of their friend's company. They go back and forth between their two favorite stations searching for a song or two they like. If they're in the car where there are more options, push buttons that offer quick audio solutions to the problem, it's just a one-button motion to switch channels. So, when their favorite song ends, they want another favorite song fast -- or they'll switch again. If they can laugh or chuckle a little between challenges or get off on hearing their favorite station share some fun with them, that can be the difference. Translation: Feed 'em full doses of fun between the jams.

Personality and promotions are two more things that can be used to stimulate the audience beyond the hits. If your station has personality jocks they should be encouraged to let that personality show. Obviously, there isn't a lot of time to be a personality on today's radio. But there is time to prepare short bits which, when planned and scheduled properly, can really contribute to the station's personality. If you're an air talent with a flair for humor, you must keep your material topical, fresh and short.

It's not enough for you to have just two great shows in a week, and the rest of the week you simply wing it and are boring. Unfortunately, this is the case with a lot of today's talent. Why, you ask? Because they were never properly trained. Many of their PDs were ill-trained themselves or were too busy watching two or more stations, doing an air shift and trying to watch their own backs.

A quick look in "The Urban Answer Book" shows that the best way to program the way your audience listens is to take into account all the things we mentioned above and then add attitude and enthusiasm. Combined they are the propelling forces necessary for climbing today's ladder of success.

Don't forget the people who are holding the ladder while you're climbing to success. You know, of course, the hardest thing about climbing that ladder is getting through the crowd at the bottom.

Word!