Creating Better Radio

New Programming Strategies For The New Year

As we say goodbye to 2006 and charge into first month of the new year, we're ready to remove the bumps and smooth out the ride that radio takes us on and, in the process, create better radio.

Personal insight can make a difference if you're a programmer. You also have to become a problem solver. Problem solvers have to take some chances. Understanding how to apply research results can reduce some of the risks, but it can't eliminate all of them. The key is to suffer disappointments gracefully and honestly and share credit for achievements. The really sharp programmers always remember that people are more important than dollars.

There is a change in thinking of today's generation of listeners. Whether it's generations of character, harmony, sophistication or style, they are evolving. This is where variety meets spontaneity. This is where strong programmers have to develop a willingness to consider risks. They can't be afraid to look at the downside and answer the hard quesitons. And you need a back-up plan. Such a plan should address questions like "What if the present programming strategies don't work?" This is where some foresight comes in. Some PDs seem to have an uncanny ability to predict the future. They seem to be able to find the best music, the strongest talent, the right contests, and they keep winning. Are they lucky? Maybe, but consistent luck is eventually rewarded. Good PDs are prepared to create some of their own luck by cultivating their ability to see opportunities others may overlook and then convert those opportunities into ratings.

Some things that may appear to be the result of amazing foresight are actually the result of hard work and discipline -- the kind it takes to constantly look forward and build. Foresight is also the ability to hire, develop and keep the right people. And it also means realizing where the holes exist, inside and outside the format.

One of the areas of obvious growth is with Hispanics. Last year the Urban stations that were able to attract Arbitron-weighted Hispanics did well. The growth of Hispanic-targeted stations and those stations that were able to develop a strong Hispanic folowing in many cases came at the expense of English-language Top 40 and Rock stations. A new report shows in some markets these stations posted a fourth straight year of delcines. But the decline in share these stations experienced coincided with gains in audience share for Urban-formatted stations among listeners 12-24 and even for adults 24-49. Audience shares in the 18-34 age group, however, have been dropping. Interestingly enough when the average median age bumped up to 29, some Rock and Top 40's median-age Hispanic listeners remained strong. As they have been for years, in many markets last year Urban-formatted stations did very well and placed second with an 8.3 average market share. This was followed by combined Spanish-language formats with a 8.2. So it would appear Hispanics still really get off on hip-hop and R&B.

Growth And Consistency

Whether it's through a period of unemployment or just a reaction to the stress that's part of our daily lives, what we're all trying to do is create better radio -- in other words, have a nice run on a well-paved road before our luck, sales or ratings run out.

What can we do to capture and maintain better ratings? The truth is that often we have to force the "bean counters" to have patience. Growing an audience takes time. And then we have to remember "Arbitron lag time" can be as much as six months.

There is something that can help lighten the load and shorten the time it takes for the growth to show up in the ratings sweeps. That is musical consistency. While we're not trying to discount the value of variety in any station's mix, there has to be a synthesis of the different styles so that it sounds like it all belongs to one radio station. This means both from shift-to-shift as well as song-to-song.

Now the question turns to which songs? How do you find them? The answer is research. And right here we can say that neither call-out nor auditorium testing, done under the most optimum conditions, is completely accurate.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't attempt to do some testing. Rather, it means that you should understand that music testing is going to be distorted. It is going to be distorted by the artificiality of playing the hooks. (And unfortunately, some consultants and researchers not familiar with Urban radio can't find the song hooks with a road map. Many of these guys can't even clap on the beat.) What we mean here is that playing a 7- to 12-second segment of a song with minimal airplay and then attempting to get the respondents to project and articulate their response to the song as a whole, resulting in some intellectualizing of an emotional response, is not only an inexact science, it's a pure guessing game. So before you bet the bank based on some flawed research, maybe you'd better think again.

There are three basic types of research that most stations do on a regular basis: Auditorium Music Test (AMTs), Focus Groups and Call-Outs.

AMTs are conducted with a carefully screened group of target listeners who evaluate portions of songs called hooks. Each song is scored according to its familiarity, appeal and passion.

Call-Out research is an evaluation process wherein target listeners evaluate 30 or more songs weekly, again indicating familiarity, appeal, fatigue and passion.

Focus Groups are smaller, carefully selected groups of target listeners who discuss and identify key issues and set priorities for quantitative research and are designed to enhance the overall value of perceptual research.

Over the years, I get a lot of programmers and even GMs who ask, if you have a limited budget and time, which form of research should you choose? I personally feel that it depends on the station. For example, if yours is an Urban Adult, gold-based station, an auditorium test would be the best choice. If you have a mainstream, current based station, call-out research is the way to go.

It's important that the questionaires be carefully reviewed so as not to confuse the respondents. And it helps if the moderator looks like those he/she is moderating.

We cannot put absolute faith in a research process without understanding what the limitations are.

The worst thing we can do is base our music decisions on flawed research. This means that the participants have to be screened carefully to ensure that all lie within the station's cume. I strongly recommend using updated ZIP code data to determine where the respondents should be drawn from. I also like to make certain that all the ethnic considerations, including Hispanics, are reflected. In other words, there should be balance. A lot of companies assume, for example, that an Urban station should only have African Americans in the sample. Then, despite any age skewing in the sample, it has to be demographically balanced. And, finally, the sample has to be of sufficient size to give some stability to the results. I like a sample of at least 400 persons.

Many managers and owners feel that they can save some money by reducing the sample size. After all, if they are paying an average of $35-$40 per person, the fewer people they have to pay, the more they can save, right? Wrong. You need a minimum of over 150 completed calls per week and over 600 per month just to have a chance at some actionable results. The larger the sample, the more reliable.

Perhaps the most actionable information that this research can provide is burnout -- finding out if the songs being tested are overexposed. Then, if your results show you have some titles that are tired, you should retire or "rest" them and go on to the next group of fresh songs in that category.

Creating Better Cume

One of the other things that can achieve better radio is to fully understand how cume building really works. There's an old saying that you can't sell anybody anything until they come into the store. (This saying preceded the Internet, downloading and iPods, of course.) As it relates to radio, it means you can't generate cume ratings until you get your listeners to write your call letters in a diary. Once they do, they become a potential part of your weekly cume. I've said this for years now. The biggest single problem many crossover and Urban radio stations have is failure to build and maintain cume. It doesn't matter if you have great average quarter-hours (AQH) or time spent listening (TSL) if you've only got 10 listeners!

It would be impossible in this editorial for us to attempt to sort out all the things you might need to know regarding cume, but we will at least attempt to point you in the right direction. What we can say here is that you should at least analyze your station's cume and compare it with both your competition and the previous sweep or book. If you find that your competition, regardless of who they are (the station or stations that you share the most audience with will work for now), has doubled its cume while you remained the same, you're in trouble and you'd better do some strategic planning to figure out how you can take a piece of their cume and put it on your side. Urban stations should be cuming at least 10%-15% of the total audience in their market.

Creating better radio is more than just research, musical diversity and recognizing character differences that translate directly into audience growth and swollen cumes. Usually it's all of those things combined with the talent of strong, hard-working personalities that eventually develop a loyal following. Also, you have to use some good judgement and caution, because if you try to be too fresh, too hip or too slick you may fall victim to overkill, and that can defeat your very purpose. It's kind of like the problem with being famous -- if you stop being famous for while, it's as if you never were.

Word.