Converting Radio Likers To Lovers

Programming Strategies For Touching The Right Spot

For those of you in Urban radio or music who are fertile, imaginative, full of wonder and curiosity, this Bud's for you.

One thing we've noticed right away as stations prepare to deal with the remainder of the fall sweeps is the need to find a way to touch the right spots and smooth out the ride that radio can take us on. There is a change in thinking of today's generation of listeners, whether it's generations of character, harmony, sophistication or style that is evolving. This is where the rubber meets the road, where variety meets spontaneity. For some reason many Urban stations feel a need to keep reminding us of the fact that they claim they're offering variety, but with the same old lines -- "Today's R&B and classic soul" and "Number One for Hip-Hop and R&B." Somehow, it just doesn't have the same meaning it used to. It's kind of like the problem with being famous: If you stop being famous for a while, it's as if you never were. It's all part of the perception and the system.

Trapped by the system, many programmers, consultants and air personalities put down their companies. Promotion people wring their hands in frustration. "How come we can't get the decision-makers at radio to really listen to music instead of waiting for some research guru to tell them what to play? How can so-and-so call themselves a music director, and they can't hear that hit?" And then, for the radio decision-makers, there's the fear that if you do step out on your own and take a chance, if the Arbitron digits drop, the station will drop you. Unfortunately, for most of us who have been in the business for a while, it's all part of the game.

Stretch Marks & Musical 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 smooth out the ride; in other words, have a nice run on a well-paved road before our luck, sales or ratings run out. We're all trying to lead some kind of normal life. But we're not in a normal business, and life keeps taking its toll on us. We're left with scars or "stretch marks." Then we search for some miracle fabrics with which to treat or cover them.

A close examination of the trends in the last few years shows that what may have been silk blends are really polyester. Yes, it's true, the fabric of American life shows a surprising resilience born of traditional values and while this fabric, regardless of its content, may cover the "stretch marks," it can't erase them or let us forget the reason they appeared in the first place.

What can we do to get rid of or reduce the "stretch marks" in our business life? The truth is that often we can't get rid of them. Most of the time, we can't effectively reduce or mask them. And much like women who have to endure real stretch marks as a consequence of the stress of giving birth, we may have to learn to live with and endure them for a while.

There is something that can help with some "stretch marks" for those of us involved with radio programming. And that is musical consistency. While we're not trying to discount the value of variety in a 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 song? How do you find it? Naturally, the answer is research. And right here we can eliminate some potential "stretch marks" and maybe some ulcers by saying that neither callout nor auditorium testing done under the most optimum conditions is completely accurate.

Now 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 some consultants and testers can't find urban song hooks with a road map. Many can't even clap on the beat.) What we mean here is that playing a seven- to 12-second segment of a song with minimal airplay and then attempting to get the respondents to project and articulate their response to a song as a whole, resulting in some intellectualizing of an emotional response, is not only an inexact science, it's a pure guessing game. And yet, companies devote hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each year and base their programming decisions on the results of these tests.

Testing The Tests

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

Auditorium Music tests 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.

Someone once asked, if you have limited budget and time, which form of research should you choose? I personally feel that it depends on the station. For example, if the station is an urban adult, gold-based station, an auditorium test would be the best choice. If your station is a mainstream, current-based station, call-out research gets the nod.

It's important that the questionnaires be carefully reviewed so as not to confuse the respondents. And it helps if the moderator looks like those he/she is moderating. And my biggest gripe is that when well-known, reputable research companies do a research project for an Urban station, invariably every respondent is African-American. In Los Angeles, for example, where only 8% of the audience is African-American and 40% is Hispanic, companies still use a sample base comprised of nothing but African Americans.

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

The worst thing you can do is base your music decisions on flawed research. This means that the participants have to be screened carefully to ensure that all meet the qualifications and lie within the station's cume. I like to use updated ZIP-code data to determine where the respondents should be drawn from. I also like to make certain that all the ethnic considerations 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-$45 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 the results show we 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.

Cume Building

One of the other things that can cause instant marks and lasting scars is the failure 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. (Eventually, once Arbitron's PPM comes into play, electronic measurement will change all that.) Once they do write your station down in a diary, they become a potential part of your weekly cume. I've said this for years. 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 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.

Bells & Whistles

Another thing we've discovered that can make a lot of difference when you're stretching -- and let's face it, we're all stretching a little -- is to have some new state-of-the-art equipment. While the equipment in and of itself may not mean instant ratings success, it does have a direct effect on morale and has been known to inspire creative minds and voices to do their best work. A little thing like engineering maintenance can go a long way. Simply making certain all the equipment is working properly makes air personalities feel like putting in some extra effort. There's nothing worse than finishing your break and hitting the button or screen for the next element, only to have it fail to start or misfire. Unfortunately, it's still happening far too often.

It's not just research, musical diversity and recognizing character differences that translate directly into audience growth and convert "likers" to "lovers" of the format. It's the combination that can touch the right spot and lead directly to longer TSL and swollen cumes. Often it's all of that combined with the talent of strong, hard-working personalities who quickly develop a loyal following. And when the format's potential has reached a plateau, a funky, funny fixture or two can help keep those fickle fingers faithful this fall.

Word.