Final installment in a series excerpted from Fundamentals of Radio Programming by Randy Michaels….
As a program director, you should think through your Clock Technology.
Typically we build categories, and most of the Selector databases I see have Power Currents, Secondary Currents, New Currents, maybe some Night Currents.
When you get to a certain test score, you move it to Power. Then when it falls off a little, you move it back to Secondary.
I say, “Don’t do that. That’s goofy.”
Let’s say you score music on a scale of 1 to 100. And let’s say 80+ will be your “Power.”
Well, there are two very different kinds of “75’s.”
There’s the 75 that is in the “Adoption” phase. And there’s the 75 that’s in the “Decline” phase.
They might have the same value to your audience.
But Flow is one of the multiple variables in the science of radio programming.
Let’s say I’m introducing a new record.
I want to cradle it between two familiar records. Maybe a Power Current plus one of those 75’s that’s on the way down but is very familiar; it’s good to put that new record between those two.
But if also in that category I’ve got a bunch of climbing records, and now I’ve got two new records in a row.
Wrong!
By the same token, I may not want to play two sort-of-tired records back-to-back.
So it’s fine if I have a sequence of Power/Climbing B/Recurrent.
But how about Power/Declining B/Recurrent? Now I’ve got two rather tired records back-to-back.
I don’t know why every radio station in the world has a “B” category with both up and down records. You need to split them.
A “75” with higher “unfamiliar” than “burn” goes into “Climbing.”
A “75” with higher “burn” than “unfamiliar” goes into “Declining.”
I think that makes a lot of sense.
And by the way, what determines that is not Mediabase.
It’s your audience.
Do not be embarrassed if a song has been out nine weeks and is still climbing because it’s still unfamiliar to your audience.
If something the record company is still working is over or declining for you, don’t be embarrassed to move it.
You’ve got to look at your scores. But PDs in America lack the confidence to do what’s right:
“Mr. Famous PD moved that record down? I’d better move it down, too!”
I talk to PDs who are so proud: “I did just what Mr. Famous PD did.”
“Really? His market is heavily Puerto Rican with no Country listeners and you’re in the South and the Number One and Two stations in your market are Country, and you did just what he did??”
Do what’s right for your audience.
Don’t worry about national trends.
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no offense Dan, But this day and age, is this type of programming even relevant anymore? Im personally frustrated as a radio listener, but the repitition on the radio. I WANT variety, I WANT to hear independent music. I know radio stations are in it to make money, and cater to the almighty 14-year old girl demographic. But at some point we have to find a happy medium where people can start hearing new break out artists who arent necessarily backed by a massive label or distribution. I wish we could take it back to the old days of radio. The wild wild west where dj’s actually were allowed to pick their music *GASP!* and god forbid, break new records without the prior approval of the program director.
JMack – you mean like Amazing Radio, the only station that plays unsigned artists?
Dan is referring to PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES in the way that traditional music rotation is handled and this is his only point. It makes a lot of sense to me and I never thought about it. Now, you have a point in the relevance of this type of procedures to appeal (and please) listeners and I don’t think that this kind of measures has a future since the amount of groups and tendencies is amazingly huge. There is no time for repetition. Period. The Internet platform has opened the Promised Land for the music artist and it is impossible nowadays trying to keep with the latest groups. New music is everywhere and this generation refuses repetition. If someone wants to repeat something, individually will decide to buy or to store any particular song in its iPod or mp3 player but for God’s sake!!, … not in radio!!
Emilio, I think radio listeners dont want repitition on radio because most of the time they have absolutely no control. I understand the way cume is calculated and listeners are constantly on and off the radio. But when you hear the same chris brown song 4 times on a 1 hour drive home, its getting ridiculous. On a side note, I dont know anyone who will load a song on their ipod to listen to it 3 – 5 times an hour. Once a day? Maybe. All im saying is that its no wonder radio is falling apart and podcasting and internet radio continues to grow. EVEN the stations that are spinning and paying their ASCAP/BMI fees successfully. Why? it’s easy, and the music selection is VAST and theres a ton of variety. For example where Im from, theres a station called “Doug FM” and they pride themselves on spinning EVERYTHING across the board. Granted its all mainstream successful music but they spin music from all across the board… and they are one of the fastest growing radio stations in the area, beating out the local top 40 station. It just seems to me, the “Power” and “Secondary” formatting is on the out… people want real variety. If they want a single repeatedly, they will download it.
JMack, Dan and everybody who may be reading this:
What Mr. O’Day wrote here has a lot of sense. Is something that would be effective and should be considered and even more, corrected. A programmer cannot have “Climbing” songs in the same Category of the “Declining” songs, so for me Dan is correct.
If we were in the Seventies.
Gentlemen, we are in 2010!!!
JMack, I cannot agree more with you and sadly, the decline of radio is because the industry keeps thinking like we were decades ago. On those years, that was the lethal weapon!! To use categories in order to please the audience and have better programming than the competition but in this era of overwhelming advances in technology and developments …..
My little niece, who came to visit Los Angeles this past Summer, noticed exactly what you JMack said: “Uncle, … this radio station repeats a lot of songs”. She was talking about KIIS-FM.
She is just eleven years old and knows nothing about radio programming.
What better example like this you want?