Is A Condom "Cover-Up" The Best Way To Reduce Risk? Is there such a thing as "safe sex' in urban radio? Is the condom more reliable than the pill? Well, it depends on who you ask. The real question seems to be: Is urban radio playing it too safe? And what is meant by ...

Musical Consistency Is The Key For several years now, I've been talking about the "music freaks." They are the selfish listeners who find our frequencies and use our stations strictly as a music source. One of the keys that will keep them fixed on your frequency this ...

How Is The Summer Audience Different? Obviously the question is not is the summer audience different, it is how is it different? For one thing, they have different needs in the summer. They're in a different mood. Right now they're hot. The country is suffering from one ...

Growing Content Can Yield Limitless Upside As the endless summer of 2006 sails on, it's time for a look at some of the things that can make a difference this summer and beyond. This week's editorial is dedicated to the air-personalities, part-time or full-time. If you're ...

New Game -- Same goals There is a new game that's already quietly making a difference in a number of markets large and small. It's called target formatting, and it's a combination or series of little things that, when done right, can create a sharp listener focus and make ...

Summer Rites Of Passage As we penetrate deeper into the first phase of the summer of 2006, we thought we'd offer a few thoughts on what to do with summer and show how and why it is different from the other seasons. We want to examine what we're calling "the summer rites ...

The Future of The Format As we wrap of our current series of Black Music 2006, we take a brief look at the current state of the music and radio industries. We're going to focus a little more on Black radio this time because it determined so much of the success of the ...

Even So-Called Formatic Perfectionists Can Misinterpret The Numbers It's important to know what the mission and goal of your station really is this spring. Depending on who you ask, the answers can vary from "Just get me some numbers, stay within budget, and you'll never ...

Today's Radio Often Competes By Being Concept-Oriented Without Personalities Several years ago, Steve Rivers developed a format called "Jammin' Oldies." It was an oldies-based format whose music was, in most markets, better than 80% urban. Most of the jocks were not ...