Defensive Programming

Declare War Before It's Declared On You

Radio is a lot like sports. In order to be a consistent winner you have to play both offense and defense. Most programmers are familiar with the tactics of offensive programming, but they may not have even thought about or been trained on how defensive programming works.

Defensive programming means taking steps and action to keep your competitors from gaining ground. When we speak of your competition, we're talking about both direct and indirect format competitors. Any format-similar stations with whom you share audience is a competitor -- when your P1s are their P2s, and vice-versa. Defensive programming is realizing where the holes are and filling them before your competition even realizes that they exist.

This time we're going to look at playing the right records at the right time, employing proper call-letter orientation -- which is going to be increasingly important as Arbitron switches from the diary to the meter -- formatic execution and perception.

An airtight defense is tough to beat. Offense is doing aggressive and clever things geared to pierce the competition's defensive armor. Initially, both Urban and Urban AC stations should have a strong offense and defense. But in most cases we've observed, even some winning stations have one or the other, but usually not both. Seldom do they have a real defensive programming strategy.

Many stations played the hits, but were terminally boring in their presentations ... this while others were fun to listen to, but had music flaws. If you look back at any great station in any format, chances are, whether they knew it or not, the station balanced offense and defense.

Defensive programming can be boring, but it is essential to winning and staying on top. The secret to defense is setting up systems that ensure air-tight delivery of the most rudimentary reasons for the format's existence. Music is the most obvious element. You always need to pretend you're under direct attack even when you're not. You have to declare war before it's declared on you. Too many stations lose because they get lazy defensively. A direct or indirect format competitor comes in, employs simple market freshness as an offensive weapon and rolls over the unprepared station in less than six months.

Defense becomes a critical ingredient when attacking a station with holes in its defense. Be blatantly clever, very aggressive and gutsy, but never at the expense of the defense. An aggressive offense that steps on its own defense cancels out the effectiveness of both.

You shouldn't' be afraid to use offense. As long as the defense is set up properly, the offense can get a bit creative and adventurous. Offense can't be too predictable, or a good competitor's defense will absorb the blow.

Face the cold hard realities: There's not much passion to defense. It's all about muscle. That's a critical attitude. The defensive plan must be separate from the offense. There's no room for overlap. Meetings and planning have to include both. Defense is all about rules and their organized execution. It's about protecting yourself and being airtight. If you are vulnerable and your competition senses it to attack, you could instantly go from a P1 to a P2 or even a P3, depending on how hard they attack. Free-thinking creativity is offense; cold-disciplined thinking is defense.

For example, did you ever attend a sold-out concert from a major artist and see the band's crew members wearing the competition's T-shirts or hats? No doubt, all the competition did was send one of their street crew to the previous night's show to hang out and distribute the shirts.

A station was giving away tickets to the same type of sold-out concert and your station buys up a bunch of them and gives them away on the air. That's another example of simple defensive programming.

Then there's psychological defensive programming. One of my mentors, Buzz Bennett, was in San Diego and had one of his guerrillas sneak into the trash of his competition and pull out a memo. He made some changes on the memo and mailed it back to each of the jocks, with the corrections on it. It completely unnerved the station, killed their morale and forward momentum ... and caused the station to lose focus and ratings.

The way offensive-defensive thinking works best is when it's balanced. An overly offense-oriented station may be fun, but it could be a vulnerable fun. Someone else can match your defense and gain a ratings advantage through a well-thought-out, well-orchestrated offense. But a station that works at both will be impossible to beat in the short and long term - all things being equal.

Perception Vs. Reality

Another very effective method of using defensive programming involves perception. Let's start with a question. Is today's Urban or Urban AC format unique and/or totally different from other forms of popular music formats? The answer is definitely not. Many of today's Urban/crossover artists began their careers on small, Urban or Urban AC stations and gradually developed into crossover artists.

Very few of today's listeners are exclusive listeners of only one format. In order to attract and appeal to those listeners, the music and its presentation must be somewhat similar to other music formats. This includes the technical quality, marketing and balance. Knowing this can give your station a real defensive advantage.

Here's something else to keep in mind. Just because some listeners enjoy Urban music as much as, or more than, any other form of music, they are not uniquely different from other listeners. They can still enjoy ice cream flavors other than vanilla or chocolate. They can own a sports or luxury car instead of a pimped-out ride or a used car. They can be college educated. They can hold an executive position in a major corporation and they can have a six-figure income.

Here's the key question. Does an adult male or female whose preference in music leans Urban have concern for what goes on in their community -- other than Urban clubs and concerts? And the answer is chances are they are very family-oriented and extremely vocal about the community in which they live. They're often the first to respond to charitable drives, to support local school functions and to participate in non-Urban activities such as marathons, bike races, softball and basketball.

Closet Urban Listeners

Finally, there is a heavy percentage of closet Urban listeners, but due to the fact that the stations they listen to often and without knowing it, position themselves in a manner that forces the listeners not to be proud of the association, that means there's an opportunity for you -- if you can become a station they are proud of. It is only human nature that we all want to be considered hip and with it. This becomes very difficult to do if your favorite station is perceived as a dinosaur.

Effective defensive programming means that today's Urban stations can't afford to employ air personalities who are considered "country," rude or embarrassing just because they "keep it real." If these characters lack experience, professionalism and a winning attitude, they can and do take their toll. If the competition has these types of jocks on the air, you can score defensively just by knowing this and making sure your audience knows the difference. Today's listener is more sophisticated than in the past, so the product must be up to today's standards. Today's Urban stations must invest in people to ensure their future success. Once you hire the correct people for the specific job, it is incumbent upon management to teach, educate and train those people.

Word.