How To Conquer Clutter

Clutter And Limited Loyalty Causes Cume Problems

To better understand today's Urban audiences, you need to realize that we're the only group in history raised during an era of continuous technological and social change. We never really get the time to catch our breath. We became a generation who figured the only way to get through this quagmire was to continue to experiment. But wait, part of the problem is the quagmire and the impatience of today's generation to tolerate it. Yes, we can experiment, but there are certain risks we simply can't take. We can't afford to get stale and we definitely have to get rid of the clutter.

Generation Y'ers and Joneses have grown up with VH1, MTV and "106 and Park," and they know how to surf, download and Tivo. We have to do something to keep them enthralled. One of the first things we need to do to hold their interest is to "take out the trash" ... and then learn how to win between the records. Whatever our goals, recycling audience into other dayparts, establishing a signature sound, selling the station's key benefits and trying to develop a consistent station personality are the keys to future ratings success.

As we approach the diminishing moments of the summer 2008, now is the time to look at some of the problems caused by the garbage on the radio. The problem for some programmers is that they may not know exactly what is clutter or trash ... and what is not. Here are few thoughts on wrapping the garbage that offends those listeners who are fond of our frequencies. If we don't toss out the trash, eventually the U-Haul will appear in our driveway. Our listeners want the format to be funky, but they don't want it to stink. When it does, the garbage has got to go.

Should we spray it with disinfectant chemicals or simply cover it with "fresh jams"? Where and how can we store it until the tainted trash is removed? It's a question of answers.

Auditorium tests and focus group studies constantly reveal that music freaks are especially irritated by anything that is not fresh new music. They are not only less tolerant of trash, they also don't care that the station needs commercials to survive and that you have to take time out now and then to inform them. They're not empathic to your needs to serve the community ... if it means stopping the music. You'd better be either funny or jamming.

Let's face it: Today's listeners, especially the "music freaks," are selfish and spoiled. Most just want to be entertained. "Just make me laugh and play my favorite songs" is how most listeners feel. They want to hear just their favorite songs over and over again -- and to have fun. Anything else is strictly trash ... a tune-out. When we run for the ratings, cleaning up the clutter should be an important part of what Urban stations that want to win must do. First we've got to clean up the kitchen ... and then we have to get down to some really creative cookin'.

The Benefits Of Horizontal Recycling

One of the best places to begin getting rid of the garbage is through regular airchecks with the jock staff. How may of them still attempt to be funny or informative, but only end up being boring and silly? An air talent who adds clutter to the format is a liability who must be eliminated. Otherwise, the whole station's format is in jeopardy.

Dealing with talent is always a major issue, and it takes a different approach for each personality. In spite of having huge egos, talent usually wants everyone to listen to and like them. The key is to get their egos to work for them. Don't criticize them directly; find their strengths and focus on those. If you can make them understand and show them where they're shooting themselves in the foot, they'll take out some of the trash for you.

As a consultant, one of my pet peeves and one of the areas that I always find sorely lacking is how personalities handle the phones. Many still put callers on live. That is an absolute no-no. Listener calls should always be recorded and edited. That way, bad or risky calls never get on the air and long callers get edited down. This is just one more effective way of "taking out the trash."

Personalities should be made aware that callers exist only to set up the talent and make them look good. They are essentially props. If Tom Joyner, Rickey Smiley, Steve Harvey, Russ Parr, Doug Banks, Donnie Simpson or Marc Clark never took callers, the audience wouldn't notice. Callers are such a very small percentage of the audience that they are not a critical response factor, providing the other elements are in place.

Once you have taken out the trash, you have to replace that garbage with compelling programming. Just what is compelling programming? Compelling programming is when the air personality tells the listeners something they don't know when they speak very frankly about it -- and it better be something they already care about. Then, if they can do with a touch of humor, and do that consistently, you've won the game.

Another thing new programmers need to recognize is the value of horizontal recycling. It works better when you use it to promote tomorrow at the same time, rather than trying to promote the rest of the show, even though both are important. Even the most loyal listeners (hopefully those with a diary) are only listening to one of five hours of a show. Morning shows have a tendency to come on the air with guns blazing, doing the passionate, personal stuff they're excited about at six o'clock. But the power hour doesn't begin until seven. If you structure and schedule the content on the morning show with this in mind, that can make a huge difference.

This whole concept of editing and eliminating the "trash" is a special problem. It often involves a lack of training. It's a known fact that the demand for qualified air talent, particularly in the mornings, far exceeds the supply. Today's programmers and consultants have to spend more time listening to airchecks (and music) and less time in front of their computers. The reason is obvious: If we can't find talented on-air personalities, we have to train them ... and nobody wants to do that. We want someone else to find them, just like we want someone else to find our hits. Research can't find them. It can help to sort out those titles that are burned or don't achieve high passion scores, but it can't find them. And a consultant whose forte is not Urban (those aliens from another format) often can't find them either.

We all want to play it safe. But you can't put the station on automatic and expect ratings to rise. That's simply not going to happen. There are reasons why training and talent development continue to be major problems for Urban radio. The reasons go far beyond the basics of just getting the music right.

Some of today's decision-makers have problems training others because they weren't really trained themselves. Many came from stations where the PD was on the air, moved up and never knew how to use talent development to remove the trash. If that's your situation, you can't ignore the problem and wait for it to bite you. At least once a week, sit down with your air talent and really listen. Listen critically for one hour a week. Transcribe the show in detail, catching the missed formatics, wrong sequences, lack of meaningful content, poor voice transitions, etc. It you note just one little thing that you can tell your air talent, they'll think you listen all the time.

Technical Air Pressure

After we've taken care of the air talent trash, we have to look at the overall sound of the station. Even if you've got the perfect playlist, if the station sounds like it's being filtered through a wind tunnel, you've still got big problems. If your engineer can't tell that the sound of the station is flat, shallow and "muddy" compared to your competition, you've got a tough fight. It will be noticed right away by your listeners, who constantly make comparisons -- even subconscious ones -- between you and your direct (or indirect) format competitors. You've got to take care of it. You must convince your chief engineer, GM, owner, consultant or group PD that there is a need for some new audio processing equipment -- an area that is all too often overlooked in Urban radio.

Now let's check out the signal itself. Whether you are AM, FM or HD, you want to sound as clean and crisp as possible. One of the ways Urban stations often lose, especially with the blurring of formats and music lately, is when your competition plays the same song. often at the same time you are playing it, and it sounds better over there. All of a sudden, It doesn't matter who plays 10 songs in a row, because all that hum, hiss, cross-talk, vibration and distortion in your audio signal are going to take a toll. It affects and causes something called audience fatigue.

Let's face it: Tuners and other audio equipment in homes, cars and portable versions are now digital and getting better, cheaper and smaller all the time. This is making even the younger members of your audience somewhat purist, if only by comparison.

If you're skilled, persistent or fortunate enough to get rid of the garbage, and you get your station lean and on top, naturally you are then expected to keep it there. Your GM may even add more commercial units and promos, remotes and garbage and ask you to understand. They've got pressure, too. Cluster strategies are rarely concocted solely at the local level and given the chance, the people on the ground would not program this way. Every program director and many of the general managers have an incredible amount of pride and drive to make their station #1. But this is big business and "doing radio" these days is less about who and what you hear on-air and more about meeting budget numbers. The financial pressures are greater than ever in a faltering economy.

The problem is when those Arbitron digits drop, so will you. So invite your GMs to read this editorial, and don't let them do that to you.

Getting pumped up over "air pressure" or "garbage" can be either healthy or dangerous once you understand it. Remember when we once took a long drive and then often settled our problems over coffee and cigarettes? Suddenly, the prices have gone up and now they're all part of our problems.

Word!