A Better Pill Improves Performance

Programmers Also Want Their Own 'Morning After' Protection

There's a new form of birth control on the market, but its manufacturers are doing little to spread the word. Citing potential liability, manufacturers of birth control pills have decided not to amend their labels to tell consumers that birth control pills can be taken in higher doses to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex. It all comes down to a matter of the risks and the rewards.

The only difference between that and this is that this is radio, but it, too, has its risks and rewards. And like everything else, radio's changing too. It's changing hands. It's changing formats, and it's changing how it shows it cares.

On one hand, you might say, I can't blame 'em. Risks can be a very scary thing. One thing is clear: With the huge multiples that were paid for what turned out to be some under performing stations, in some cases, operators will have to cut costs and staff just to make ends meet. But there's also hope. Previously strapped stand-alone operations now have the financial backing of larger multiple-station or mega groups, to fund future investments in product and people improvement. And in some cases, large cash-strapped conglomerates have managed to sell off lesser-performing stations. Still others are determined to simply make their product better.

In our business one of the best ways to make the product better is to hire better people. A close second would be to give them some creative freedom and some time to show what they can do and then, make sure the research, engineering and live air-staff measures up.

While urban formats have differing "flavors" and styles as well as varying degrees of success, at least they traditionally have more similarities market-to-market musically than some other contemporary music formats. For some, that has made urban and urban AC formats very difficult to understand. It's also difficult for the record labels.

Some top record executives who we've spoken with as part of our research for this editorial, bemoaned the impossibility of getting a record added at all the stations considered straight ahead urban or urban AC on impact day. They said the panels themselves seemed to be a random selection of stations, with little in common regarding demographic targets or stylistic approaches.

In the past few years, we've seen ratings and revenues for a handful of stations soar, but we've also seen format flips to a variety of flavors. The myriad reasons for format changes often boil down to a reluctance on the part of management teams to properly develop the correct brand of urban for the market over a long enough period of time. The best programmers in the format have already concluded that it's not a one-book, or even a one-year fix. In fact, many of these programmers will tell you that it can take at much as three or four years in some cases, to see real growth in the format. Not many owners are willing to wait even half that length of time to see their investment start to pay off. Add to that the postulate that some form of urban radio had to have existed in the market to feed the desire for this unique type of radio by the audience.

Also wed to those facts are the lower budgets that all stations have today for marketing and promotion due to consolidation. Suddenly, you have a situation that appears to be getting worse for stations existing on the fringes of success.

Label reps too have expressed increasing concerns over the last couple of years about the costs of working a format that doesn't always impact record sales. This has slowly translated into less promotional support for artists that don't seem to have a chance of using the format as a "bridge."

One well-known and very successful urban promotion executive put it this way: "The stations that actually affect sales in their markets won't ever have to worry about promotional support from the labels. Most of our reps are aware that eight spins on a successful station with high time-spent-listening (TSL) and an impeccable image are worth more than 20 or even 30 spins on a corporate cookie-cutter station. Their audience is active and invested in the station and the station has credibility with their audience that can't be bought."

Production & Tech Tricks

What can be bought, or at least, bid on are the talented people that can give a station not only ratings, but that impeccable image. These talented people though, must have the latest tools. Some urban stations are already using the benefits of digital technology to create a stronger brand. Their digital tactics range from semi-automatic smaller market flanking to satellite delivered programming and even using blocking or "spoiler stations." In some medium and large markets timing and the competitive landscape just won't allow for the use of these procedures. So it goes back to what we said earlier about the research, equipment and the people and how it affects the attitude of the station.

Now, let's make a brief pit stop in the production room. By now it should be at least partially digital. Many are not. So there is some production and effects that can't be done in house. But even the "phat" stations who love "flava," shouldn't have to send every winner promo out to be produced.

Then there's the whole issue of training on the inside. A production director should have a combination of skills. He/she needs hands and tonsils. And it's probably not a good gig to have if you're married, either. It's not just the odd hours, it's the odd people. It's the odd copy, written by some odd salesman who ripped it out of a newspaper add. I mean there's just so much creative you can get with item - price, item - price.

Aside from the fact that this type of thing has been going on forever, whose fault is it that the production director is so ill-trained that this copy gets on the air, over a hip-hop music bed? It's ours. It's ours because we failed to train, nurture and develop the talent pool necessary to satisfy the demands of the revitalized growth of our industry. The top air-talent who have proven skills and awesome Arbitrons will be sought out, and hired. And it goes beyond just personalities. The best programmers, news people, production directors, promotions directors, engineers and morning show producers will all eventually find themselves in a sellers market.

But those are some of the ingredients in that better pill that we're seeking. - the ones we have to swallow. And the malady that we want this pill to treat is dwindling Arbitron digits. Sometimes we take pills to prevent diseases from returning, but healthy ratings are the eventual aim of every commercial radio station.

Quintiles & Ratings Swings?

What causes the biggest swing in ratings? Heavy listeners whose diary contributions (and soon whose PPM scores) are 100 or more quarter hours to the station. This audience is a small minority, about 8.6 % of your total audience, but they account for almost 40% of your quarter hours.

On average, about 8% of a station's diary keepers are exclusive, yet they contributed 18% of all quarter-hours and listened an average of 75 quarter hours weekly. The more loyalists and fans the station has, the less likely it can be hurt by external marketing. Now for some markets, the PPM is going to change that, but the ratios are still going to be close to those of the diary. But since the PPM measures what listeners are exposed to, rather than what they actually listened to, cume will be up, TSL will be down.

Radio's portability shows in the locations of quintiles or listening levels. According to our studies, on average, 31.5 % of all quarter hours occur at home, 30.5% in the car and 35.9% at work. What all those numbers mean is that if you really want to score, you've got to take the better pill - one that offers "morning after" protection. And it means one more thing: Even after you've started on the pill, you've still got to be careful and touch all the bases, from a distance.

Word.