Make The Streets Come Out Of The Speakers

Give Them More Of What They Listen To Radio For

The challenge in 2008 for those who want to continue to win is to step out from the crowd, stop running with the pack and rise above the other stations. These challenges are going to be met by just a few calculated risk-takers. They're the guys who specialize in making the ship go faster, as opposed to just keeping it afloat. With all the research, all the statistics, all the demographic information and concerns regarding cume, the secret to winning for Urban formats is to find a way to make the streets come out of the speakers.

Radio is different today. In spite of what you might hear from other sources, it's still important to an awful lot of people. People go to radio to find out what new music to download onto their iPods. At one time you could simply look at people and identify a station they might listen to based on their complexion, age and profession. That's all changed.

Today those obvious characteristics don't necessarily reveal musical tastes. The barriers that once existed have broken down. Construction workers and cab drivers, post office workers and students of every race and origin listen to Urban music, including hip-hop. Radio still reaches a huge number of people. It's not just in the car, on the way to work or on the night table while you get dressed to go to work. Radio is in the workplace, from the office to the construction site. It's a headset on the ears of a college student, a lawyer as he/she jogs and it's a hand-carried boom box on a teenager's shoulder as he thumps down the street to the beat. It's played so loudly in some rides that everyone at the bus stop or on the street hears it -- except the pizza man on the bike who's listening to his own radio that he wears on his belt.

It's what you hear on the commuter train from the headset of your seat companion and it's blaring from the next picnic over in the park. Radio is what wakes you in the morning and lulls you to seep at night.

So the question becomes what are we going to do with a power that strong, that pervasive? The answer is to find that great unheard-of, unfamiliar song, uniquely performed by that unknown artist and schedule it in your music mix in such a dramatic fashion that you quickly popularize it with your listening audience. New songs like this have to be pre-promoted, front-announced or back-announced. If you do this, you will create excitement around the music you're playing and excite your listeners as well. You will have made the streets come out of the speakers.

In the process, you will have increased the listening audience of your station. You will be unique and different. You will be even more successful as a programmer. Demographics will soar, whether they are 12, 20 or 50 ... white, black, brown or yellow ... male, female, gay, transgender or even undecided. People love to hear great, unique music. It reaches their souls. It speaks to their spirits. So as we ramp up for the most important ratings period of the year -- the spring Arbitron sweeps -- these are some things to keep in mind.

Now the question is ... just how do you do this? How do you make the streets come out of the speakers? And the over-simplified answer is: You go and talk to the audience. They'll tell you what they like and don't like - what they want and don't want. While it's not that easy or simple, it can be done. Part of the reason it's not that simple or easy is that we all have egos, and we tend to allow our egos to get in the way of what the audience really wants. We have all these preconceived notions that what worked five years ago, or even last year, can still be made to work today.

All that baggage gets in the way of our thinking. The trick is to get out from under that baggage. Throw all that crap out and go talk to your target audience. Find out exactly what songs and artists they really want to hear. While you're probing them for musical answers, ask them what kind of prizes they want to win, and what do they want the morning show to be talking about (in case you still have a local morning show you control)?

For years I have been an advocate of some type of in-house research. You can usually develop an intern program with a local college or university to get some interns (preferably second-semester juniors who are marketing majors) to help you do this. Research takes many different forms. Naturally, there's callout research, finding out what is selling in stores and online, watching the requests, hitting the streets and talking to regular listeners about what their favorite songs are.

There is the constant fight to make sure that what you're doing is not being influenced by the opinions of people inside the station. There is an ongoing goal to make sure everything you're doing on the radio is what the target audience wants. You've got to filter out the calls from the actives in your audience. If there's a new audience that is starting to develop that is not compatible with the old audience, you've got to know and adjust to that as well.

Some programmers are totally research-driven. That can be dangerous, too. You have to balance the research with the other factors, including heritage, gut and instinct. The other thing about research is that you can't research what you haven't played. Anyone who says, "Well, its just not researching for us," probably hasn't played the song enough. When you get enough spins to force the passion scores kick in, you get an indication of whether it's going to work or not. Research ends up being a report card or a batting average for your station -- if you use it properly.

The new street philosophy is not "Don't give them a reason to tune out," but "Let's give them a reason to tune in." You want the audience to feel if they didn't turn the radio on to your station every day or every night, they would miss out on a whole lot of the cool stuff that was happening. Some successful stations we've followed have finally returned to that kind of thinking, along with a music mix and a presentation that listeners can be passionate about and really involved in.

Is "making the streets come out of the speakers" the way to win in 2008? Absolutely, if you do it right. But winning also means having a great aim and knowing when to pull the trigger.

Word.