Removing The Bumps

Programming Strategies For Smoothing Out The Ride

One thing we've notice right away as we say goodbye to the first month of the new year is the need to remove the bumps and smooth out the ride that radio takes us on. 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 spontenaeity. 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. Liners such as "Today's R&B and classic soul" and "Number One for Hip-Hop and R&B" just don't have the same meaning they used to. It's kind of like the problem with being famous; if you stop being famous for while, it's as if you never were. It's all part of the system.

Trapped by the system, many programmers, GMs, and air-personalities put down their bosses. 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 cover them.

A close examination of the trends in the last few years show that what may have been marketed as silk blends are really polyester. While it's true that the fabric of American life shows a surprising resilience born of traditional values, this fabric -- regardless of its content -- can only cover the "stretch marks"; it can't erase them or the pain that caused them to appear, though.

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 the 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 to eliminate 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 call-out 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). What we mean here is that playing a 7-12 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 pay thousands of dollars each year and base their programming decisions on the results of these 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 a limited budget and limited 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 questionaires be carefully reviewed so as not to confuse the respondents. It also 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 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 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-$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 our results shows 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. 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 ten 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 make air-personalities feel like putting in some extra effort. There's nothing worse than finishing your liner and hitting the button or screen for the next element only to have it fail to start or misfire to kill your spirit. 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 swollen cumes. Often it's all that combined with the talent of strong hard-working personalities which quickly develop a loyal following. And when the formats potential has reached a plateau, a funky, funny fixture or two can help keep those fickle fingers faithful. Use some good judgement and caution though, because if you try to be too fresh, too hip or too slick, then you may fall victim to overkill and that can defeat your very purpose. Unlike Carlos Santana's Grammy-awarding winning hit, you actually can be too "smooth."

Word!

(Next week, we begin our series of columns honoring Black History Month with an article entitled, "A Century of Soul." Don't miss it.