Recently I wrote about the folly of forcing talented radio personalities to follow on-air formulas.
American radio is held in high esteem by other radio people around the world.
You’re familiar with the stereotype of a consultant as someone who can’t make it in the industry and, instead, declares herself to be “a consultant?”
While some of my best friends really are talented, successful radio consultants, the negative stereotype of the know-nothing, blowhard radio programming consultant is supported by a number of living examples.
I began consulting/coaching radio stations in North America 25 years ago. Six years later I took on my first European client. By now I’ve worked with radio people in 37 countries.
And still I’m occasionally astonished when a radio person on another continent refers to “X, the famous American radio consultant” — and it’s someone I’ve never heard of.
Or maybe I have heard of them — barely. Someone who had a fringe career in the U.S., moved to Europe or Asia and declared himself “an American radio consultant.”
Hey, a person’s gotta make a living, right?
Here’s What Happens When They Don’t Understand The Structure.
Example #1 (Music Programming):
A guy worked as an engineer for a very successful music station. The music was the star; it was a product-driven format.
He moved to Europe and, under the guise of “consultant,” put that music format on-air at an existing station. Before leaving the U.S., he had diligently copied all the music clocks, rotations, etc.
Big ratings success.
For eighteen months.
And then the ratings took a dive.
What happened?
Well, it was a product-driven format. And the product flow changed. Fewer hit songs. Fewer hit artists.
The architect of the format, back in the U.S., knew how to modify the format to accommodate the product flow changes.
That architect saw the format not as a magic pill but rather as a living, ever-changing organism. That person was able to adapt, and that station’s ratings didn’t suffer at all.
But the clone in Europe? The “consultant” didn’t know why the format worked…or even how.
He knew how to read the blueprint, but he didn’t understand how or why it was designed that way.
Upcoming: True example of a Copy & Paste, Crash & Burn radio program….
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If I could just convince everybody that ALL music formats are living, changing organisms! What killed “Oldies”? PD’s who got the “LIST” and stuck to it for year after year. Even Beautiful Music evolved. There is no “safe” list. If you think you’re safe, you’re ready for a take down!
Every time I tell non-radio people about programming consultants (having been a professional FM on-air personality myself, though certainly not daypart and not top major market, but only weekends, some overnight fill-ins and part time in medium to small markets), they laugh and shake their heads. Because the “play list” most program directors stick to, against all reason, comes from the “skills” of these consultants. And then those people, after a short and frankly accurate explanation, start to understand why they’re hearing the same narrow selections of songs, played on the hour, every hour, when so much more material is consistently ignored. It becomes especially laughable to them when they learn that most radio stations have an audio library that is hundreds of times larger than their play list, and that on-air personalities can actually be fired for even momentarily deviating from that list except to fill a few minutes if they’re running short on the “clock” (and then, still only being able to select certain material with which to fill). And if they are running long and have to cut? HA! It had just better not be the wrong song!
Most programming consultants have no real clue whatsoever about what a local populace wants to hear, regardless of any stats, marketing, etc. I COULD certainly tell the story about how, after taking frustrated phone call after frustrated phone call, which the program director instructed me to courteously wave off, by listeners expressing a wish to hear songs they actually liked and knew (which fell WELL within the station’s AOR format), instead of the modern rock/borderline alternative rock they were hearing in the play list all the time (smattered only occasionally with an actual AOR-oriented song) I started, of my own accord (and at my own risk), a set of six songs that played back-to-back during the late night hours, when the weekend clock allowed such flexibility at this particular station. The response was tremendous! Not too long after that, I was inexplicably let go (and never given much of a reason). I figured it had to do mostly with that song set I created. I was told by a friend at the station some time afterwards that the PD and the OM were not happy about it.
Some months later, I was driving down a major highway and just on a whim I tuned into the station. It was during a weekday daypart…early afternoon. And what did I hear announced? That same set…with the same name I gave it.
PDs are slaves to the big business conglomerates which control radio and television groups now. They do exactly what they are told to do in order to keep their own jobs. But these people have no clue, in most cases, what their listeners REALLY want to hear, or how to give it to them instead of bowing to pressure from a disgusting combination corporate power, major labels, marketing, statistics (based upon surveys & such, which are baloney) and the laughable things which are programming consultants.
I don’t consider myself a “consultant”, just a reasonable successful oldies/classic hits programmer who does now assist with programming a non-comm classic hits station or two.
Sticking with “lists”. Well, there’s a couple of ways of looking at this.
First: I’ve seen many music tests on oldies. And, though there are some changes here and there due to burn scores and regional differences, some songs just continue to be powers no matter where you are. Do 10 tests and most of the same 100 songs will be in the top 100. A few differences, sure…but as a general rule, what I said above applies.
Here’s the trick some programmers don’t know or understand: Yes, there were regional hits and there are plenty of songs outside the top 400 to 500 you routinely test that “can” be played. The “universe” is considerably larger…around 1300 to 1500.
But do you play and rotate them all? Hell, no! That’s a quick ticket to ratings oblivion.
How do you do it? You use them as songs for features on your morning show and other shows, and do plenty of feature weekends that include some of those songs played 3 to 4 times an hour. When sandwiched between 2 tested hits and properly explained (through imaging or jock presentation), you should be fine.
Spoon feed them in, program them at the right times, image properly and those lesser known songs become the “secret spice” that keeps people thinking you’ve got a great station with a ton of “variety”.
Anyway, that’s my take on it.