Month: February 1994

2/11/1994

I was talking music with a programmer last week. When I asked about a particular record, he told me he couldn’t play it because “…it would confuse my core.”

Say what?

This programmer is a male, in his late 30s, programming a radio station that targets 16-26 year-old Hispanic females. And he’s making conscious decisions about what will confuse his core? Excuse me, but I’ve got to believe that he is probably a more confused than his core.

More often than not, we have people in programming positions who are not only older than their target audience, but haven’t a real clue as to what their target audience does and doesn’t like. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that you have to be a part of your demo and psychographic group to program to it. I do, however, believe that you have to be familiar with your core’s habits, lifestyles and emotions to make objective decisions about what they like and don’t like.

If you are not a part of your core audience in age, sex and lifestyle, you have to spend a lot of time among them to connect. And if you’re male, white and middle-aged, you’re not going to be able to hang in the hood with 16-26 year-old Hispanic females. Not without getting jacked up by somebody. So if you can’t make up-close and personal observations, you must have people around you who do. And those people must have the power to make decisions based on what’s popular within your core audience.

Too often we depend exclusively on audience research to tell us what our core likes. Relying on that research, we begin to reason accurately to inaccurate conclusions. When we have to use computer print-outs to answer lifestyle and emotional questions about our audience, we’re in trouble.

Why? Because audience research is all to shallow and impersonal. Audience research doesn’t have the time or ability to delve into the true lifestyle of the respondents. Radio must do that, because choosing and listening to a radio station is an emotional experience. You must connect with their emotion or they won’t connect with you.

Too often in research, we ask the wrong questions. As with all computer programs, if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. How many programmers design their own questionnaires? If you talk with members of your audience, you ask the questions. If you’re commissioning the research, should you design the questions? Many times, we’re getting the right answers to the wrong questions.

Case in point: When the aforementioned programmer told me a particular record might confuse his core, I doubted his ability to know his core. I think a lot of program directors truly believe they know what their audience wants, but they don’t. So, The Network Forty commissioned an audience survey of our own. See, I believe in research. I’m just adamant that it be used properly.

We chose Power 106 and The Beat in Los Angeles for several reasons: They’re both programmed by people who are not part of their demographic core; they’re both programmed to an ethnic audience most perceive to be narrow in their musical tastes and they’re in Los Angeles, so I am familiar with each station and how the stations are positioned. What’s more, programmers Rick Cummings of Power 106 and Keith Naftaly of The Beat are both in tune with their audiences, both here and in stations they’ve programmed before. They are rarely guilty of “confusing” their core. Although they both do a lot of research, they are intensely aware that emotion plays a large part of a winning radio station. And neither was the programmer who gave me the “core consusion” answer.

I picked a record that neither had played and probably never considered playing: Meat Loaf’s I Would Do Anything For Love. Certainly not a record either station should play, right? Their audience wouldn’t like it, right? It would confuse their core, right?

You decide.

The facts are: 93% of the people who cited Power 106 or The Beat as their favorite station were familiar with Meat Loaf’s I would Do Anything For Love. Eight-one percent said they liked it and wouldn’t switch stations if they heard it. Forty percent said it was one of their favorite songs. Although over 50% said they wished their favorite station would play the song, nearly 100% said they didn’t expect to hear the song on Power or The Beat.

In a market the size of Los Angeles where positioning and image are often as important as the music, both Power and The Beat were probably right not to play Meat Loaf or other Rock songs. Audience slices in major markets are so slim that formats must be narrowcast in many instances. It also must be noted that Rick wasn’t surprised at the results of this survey.

But, if you’re in a less competitive market, don’t be too quick to make an objective decision based on what you think your core audience wants. Especially if that decision is based on your perception of research that is further and further away from your input and control.

Don’t think. Come to a decision based on several factors: research, input from your staff who interacts with your core, your observations of your core, specific research outside the norm and your own, professional opinion. Do not become a victim of your own limited environment and perceptions of what you think your audience wants…especially when you’re programming to an audience whose lifestyles are so different from yours.

Anyone for tennis?

2/4/1994

I was racking 80 miles-an-hour down Interstate 5, two hours late for the freak fest, radio twisted higher than the rpm’s when it hit me. The absolute purity of my perception wa so devastating that I almost took out the semi in the adjoining lane as I pulled off on the shoulder to think it through.

My station of choice of late has been KCBS, the new “Arrow 93 FM.” The CBS O-and-O has failed at more formats than the Buffalo Bills have Super Bowls, but recently, (more I’m sure through blind luck than any formulated plan) they’ve come a cropper.

The station has shot to the top of the prized 25-54 and 18-34 demos and even shows strong teens and 18-24 support. And it’s been n the air for only a few short months.

A typical Arrow promo says, “You know every song we play.” And I do.

Of course, I fall into their “core” age group. It’s easy to just pass the station off as a “hip” Oldies station appealing only to the Baby Boomers. I wondered about the younger demos and their perception, but I didn’t wonder long. At the party later that night, everyone I asked was familiar with the station and at least three-quarters said it was their favorite. It was an unofficial survey at best, but this group spanned the demographics from 18-40. And trust me, they were from all walks of life. And sub-life. And all said they liked the station because of the music.

Well, what’s the big revelation? It’s a good station and people like it, right? So?

Because in our over-researched world of take no chances, play it safe radio, the most popular radio station in Los Angeles is based entirely on music that in 95% of the cases was never researched.

No research!

Arrow plays Rock And Roll Oldies. Their library consists of Rock hits from the late ‘60s and early ‘80s with the majority from the ‘70s. And, boys and girls, during all of the ‘60s and most of the ‘70s, radio didn’t do music research. They let their audiences make decisions for them.

No music research? My God, how did we wind up with so many hits? It must have been stone, blind luck. There isn’t any other explanation. It certainly wasn’t ability or feel. Those attributes don’t exist.

Now, I’m not condemning music research. I’m just saying that music research, any research for that matter, is a tool…a part of the puzzle…certainly not the be-all and end-all for making final decisions. Music research can certainly shed light on the burn factor of most titles. But it can never predict.

Never.

Contemporary radio programmers must rely on their ears and gut instincts to make decisions on new music. Because more and more of us are depending on research, we avoid hard decisions, start drawing conclusions on what is not wrong rather than what is right, begin programming defensively and add fewer songs to our playlists.

What’s wrong with that, you ask?

In the short term, for a short time, nothing. Over the long haul, your radio station becomes stagnant, boring and predictable. And your audience leaves for something else.

We must add excitement to our radio stations and we must et particularly excited about the music we program. We have to get emotional about the songs we play. Hey, here’s a novel idea…we have to start actually listening to new music. Now I know that’s a scary thought for many of you, but it is necessary. Those of us in radio should be here because we have a passion for the music we play, not because we have a passion for the computers we program.

It is a fact that two of the most profitable radio stations in Los Angeles, KRTH and now Arrow, are based on songs that became hits without research.

Wow. Mind boggling, isn’t it?

The biggest problem with music research is that it puts too much emphasis on the negative. Seldom does new music test great. Often, we need to hear a song a few times before we can determine whether we like it or not. Music testing relies on one short hook. Given the narrow choices of the normal music test, new music will always test worse than the more familiar songs.

Had music research been done on Rubber Soul, it wouldn’t have been released. Forget Sgt. Pepper. More recently, what about Meat Loaf? The research would not have predicted Meat Loaf could have another hit. But the passion for the music bade believers; first out of MCA, then out of radio, then out of the audience.

The recent success of Alternative stations such as KROQ, Z100, WNNX and others is proof positive that the ratio audience is willing to listen to a radio station that exposes new product. It’s what Top 40 radio is all about. Familiar music, blended with what’s new.

We have to trust our instincts. We have to take chances. Why? To give the record companies a break? No. To excite the audience about our radio station. In many cases, we are boring them to death. And we’re boring them because we are over-researching our product.

If you are a program director, you are special. You have a gift. You have the ability to recognize hit records more readily than others. Use your gift. Take a tip from the Doobie Brothers: Listen To The Music. You know what your radio station should sound like. Listen to it. Stop judging it by a computer print-out. If you believe in a record, play it. Then research your audience to determine whether or not they like it. You should be right more than you are wrong. If you’re not, find another line of work. I would suggest something that requires no personality or original thought. Like computer programming. Or research.

If you’re unsure about a record after listening to it and after listening to the information from the record company, talk to others in radio who are playing it. Network. Make decisions using data from people who are in our business, familiar with what we do and are successful doing it.

Art cannot be categorized or predicted. Music is art. Radio is an art form.

Make a great frame and display it passionately. Your audience will react favorably.