Future Radio Programming Strategies

Cultivating Listenership in the Digital Age

David MacFarland

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136686849
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Fundamental beliefs is what the reader will be exploring here -- a common understanding of what the radio enterprise should be about: entertainment and information. A major thrust of this book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and realities of the radio business in regard to entertainment programming -- a set of beliefs that may or may not be right, true, or forever, but that might at least provide a basis for developing programming strategies. This second edition of Future Radio Programming Strategies seeks to answer the question: "What do listeners really want from radio?" Some of the answers are derived from "users-and-gratifications" research in the mass media. Instead of focusing on what mass media do to people, the users-and-gratifications perspective seeks to discover what people do with mass media. The functionalist viewpoint of such research basically says that a medium is best defined by how people use it. Having looked at some of the audience research that comes from sources other than the standard ratings companies, the book then goes on to demonstrate new ways that formats, production procedures, and announcing styles can meet audience needs and desires. Although the volume concludes with several original methods for selecting and presenting airplay music based on the audience's moods and emotional needs, it does not insist upon a singular, formulaic approach for constructing or modifying a music format. Instead, it attempts to involve the reader in thinking through the process of format development. Two audio tapes are also available for use with the book. The tapes contain nearly 3 hours of important, detailed information and provocative points from the book. Exclusive audio examples include:
* the sense of acoustic space in music;
* hi-fi versus lo-fi listening environments;
* subjective perception of the announcer's distance from the listener;
* audio editing rates;
* comparison of luxury versus inexpensive car listening experiences; and
* the components of emotions that are expressed vocally. The tapes also include new sections about the threats to traditional radio from specialized digital audio services, competition for the listener's attention from computer-based media, and additional proof of how music can be chosen on the basis of listeners' emotional reactions and mood needs.

CHAPTER 1

An Overview of the Book

 

WHAT THE TITLE MEANS

It took 3 years to come up with the title of the first edition of this book—not because it was such a catchy tide, but because of the content decisions it reflected. The title Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies had one flaw, however—the word contemporary. I had hoped that the term would convey that the book was current and up-to-date. Unfortunately, some radio professionals concluded that the book was only about contemporary hit radio (CHR), a term coined by Radio and Records to displace the older music format designation Top 40. Replacing contemporary with future takes care of that problem and also more accurately reflects the book's attempt to act as a guide to the way radio programming needs to develop in the future if radio is to satisfy increasingly fickle listeners and compete successfully with competitive technologies.

The word radio seems obvious, but what we mean by radio is ever changing. My first book about radio programming appeared more than 20 years ago, as a reprint of my PhD dissertation. The Development of the Top 40 Radio Format (MacFarland, 1979/1993) was a comprehensive look at the management decision making behind radio's late 1950s shift from a program-tuning medium to a station-tuning medium. The Top 40 book featured examples exclusively from the AM dial, because AM stations were dominant in the 1950s. Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies (MacFarland, 1990) dealt with radio programming as of 1990 and thus drew many of its examples from the FM band, because FM signals generally are this decade's dominant stations. Future Radio Programming Strategies also concentrates on FMs, but considers other transmission channels, including direct broadcast satellites and the Internet. We are at the end of the era when broadcast radio is the only significant method of delivering an audio service simultaneously to a mass audience.

The term programming reflects my belief that the most important thing to manage in radio is the programming—that if you get the programming right, a lot of other necessary things will fall into place. That is what the people who pioneered Top 40 believed, and it still makes sense today. Prior to the advent of Top 40, many stations played what owners or announcers decided to air, with little regard to what listeners actually wanted to hear. Top 40 pioneers changed that, by trying to track music popularity as a way of satisfying public taste. The impulse to “let the people decide” with their requests and their wallets what music should be played was basically right, but the selection process has become corrupted in the intervening years. Thus, this book challenges the assumption that merely airing the most popular music is still adequate today. By asking “What is it that listeners really want?” this book attempts to take the next step beyond Top 40-type formats in which measures of music popularity predominate.

Finally, the word strategies should be an easy one for a broadcaster to feel comfortable with, because radio has been a viable business for more than half a century. For much of that time, radio practitioners were so busy making radio that the basic question “What is it that we are trying to do here?” simply fell by the way. If, through this book, the reader can begin to answer that question, conventional radio broadcasting may have a better chance of prospering into the 21st century. In modern times when new media appear, the older media adapt and manage to survive. But the pace of that change is accelerating, and the pressure to carve out a niche makes it tougher to produce a profit. I am convinced that in hard times, the com-panies that have taken the time to ask themselves “What is it that we are really in business to do, and what means are we going to use to achieve that?” will be ahead of the game for having gone through the process. It is radio's very “dailiness” that keeps too many program directors and managers from getting around to the apparently postponable but actually vital business of defining the station's mission.

WHAT THIS BOOK OFFERS

The theater has had Aristotle for more than 2,300 years and Stanislavsky for more than four decades. Because the theater has these thinkers and others to point to, theater professionals are better able to express themselves. They can identify with one or another system of beliefs as they continue a search for a general understanding of values and reality. But there are few such rallying points in the radio business. There are people whose specific contributions to radio are admired and emulated, but those particular gifts are hard to fit into a gestalt of fully defensible, fundamental beliefs.

Fundamental beliefs is what the reader will be exploring here—a common understanding of what the radio enterprise should be about—entertainment and information. The term information has grown to encompass so many things that it is almost fruitless to argue about what is and is not information anymore. Similarly, entertainment continues to be an elusive concept, one that appears to be heavily dependent on the eyes of the beholder. A major thrust of this book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and the realities of the radio business in regard to entertainment programming—a set of beliefs that may or may not be right, or true, or forever, but that might at least provide a basis for developing programming strategies.

Most other books on radio programming describe the formats and programming that already exist. This edition does that, too, but then it starts with a clean sheet of paper and the question “What do listeners really want from radio?” Some of the answers to that question are derived from uses and gratifications research in the mass media. Instead of focusing on what mass media do to people, the uses and gratifications perspective seeks to discover what people do with mass media. The functionalist viewpoint of such research basically says that a medium is best defined by how people use it. That is also the approach of this book.¹ Having looked at some of the audience research that comes from sources other than the standard ratings companies, the book then goes on to demonstrate new ways that formats, production procedures, and announcing styles can meet audience needs and desires. Although the book concludes with several original methods for selecting and presenting airplay music based on the audience's moods and emotional needs, the book does not insist upon a singular, formulaic approach for constructing or modifying a music format. Instead, it attempts to involve you, the reader, in thinking through the process of format development. Rather than merely observing a format element's obvious form, there is an attempt to make you a partner in appre-ciating the underlying function that that element should perform.

To borrow a concept from computer programming, this book is not intended to provide algorithms (a precise series of steps that lead to a precise outcome), but rather heuristics. Heuristics are exploratory, sometimes trial-and-error problem-solving techniques that deal with probable (not guaranteed) outcomes given a certain relationship. A book that takes a heuristic approach does not attempt to establish mathematical formulas but rather seeks to explore likely relationships, including the inevitable exceptions. The practicing broadcaster, and the student about to enter the field—who comprise the dual audience for this book—will not find all-purpose solutions here. Instead, you will find new ways of thinking about programming and its effects. Those new ways of thinking should then lead the thoughtful reader to develop his or her own strategies for a given station. Throughout the book, the assumption is made that the reader either already is—or intends to be—a radio professional. When a reference is made to “your station” an FM running some kind of a hit-based music format is usually the imaginary model.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

Part I of the book considers radio's arena, attributes and audiences. Chapter 2, “Radio's Arena,” looks at the highly competitive environment radio finds itself in today, both in terms of audience fragmentation and the new technologies that challenge radio as a delivery system. Chapter 3, “Radio's Attributes” explores the several things that radio does better than any other medium. Chapter 4, “What Radio Audiences Want,” discusses the expectations radio listeners have today, and lists needs and desires not usually considered in audience analyses.

Part II examines formats, soundscapes, and voices—the basic components of radio. Chapter 5, “Formats: Developmental History and Recent Trends,” looks at the way all hit music formats have evolved out of Top 40, considers audience differentiation and niche programming, and summarizes the current “state of the art” of the major U.S. radio formats. Chapter 6, “Format Innovation and Management,” investigates how format innovations come about, and suggests how some present-day formats fall short of meeting the full menu of listeners' needs. Chapter 7, “The Structure and Appeal of Acoustic Space,” considers the parameters of sound and produc-tion elements, and argues that too much of radio happens without regard to an acoustic sense of place. Chapter 8, “Air Personality: The Structure of Spoken Gesture,” explains the ways in which actors and announcers share technique and invites performers to be more cognizant of factors of time, space, and force.

Today, the majority of listeners turn to radio primarily for music. Thus, Part III, on music programming, begins a close examination of program content, beginning where the average listener begins: with music. Chapter 9, “Choosing Radio Music—Today,” explains how listeners choose music stations, and how music stations choose records for airplay. It focuses on the primacy of popularity in all airplay decision making, and offers definitions and alternative understandings of terms such as popularity, liking, favorability, and familiarity. Chapter 10, “Choosing Radio Music—Tomorrow” delves deeply into research on how music evokes certain emotions and generates certain moods in listeners; it lays the groundwork for the consideration of the uncommon music selection and presentation sytems in chapters 11, 12, and 13. Chapter 11, “The Components of a Mood-Evoking Music Progression” pulls together many of the elements introduced in the earlier chapters, to show how airplay music can be selected on the basis of mood. Chapter 12, “Factors in MOST—Mood-Oriented Selection Testing,” demonstrates the elements of a non-popularity-based system for selecting or rejecting any given piece of music. And chapter 13, “Factors in MEMO—Mood-Evoking Music Order,” displays and describes use of the composite mood curve, a comprehensive system for ordering and presenting all of the elements in a music-oriented station's programming.

Finally, chapter 14, “Toward MERIT,” offers some of the elements of an evolutionary format that depends on—and in turn promises to generate—high audience involvement.

A list of major points follows every chapter in the book except this first one. The major points summarize the important arguments of the chapter but necessarily condense the discussion. Readers who would like an “executive overview” of the book can consult these pages but should keep in mind that important detail will be missing.

The book builds many of its later cases and assumptions on material that is presented earlier. The logic, viewpoints, and arguments are intended to be cumulative. Therefore, the sections and chapters are best read in the given order.

 

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¹ For a further description of uses and gratifications mass media research, see Rubin, A. M. (1986). Uses, gratifications, and media effects research. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Perspectives on media effects (pp. 281–301). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

PART I

Radio's Arena, Attributes, and Audiences

This first section of the book considers radio's arena, attributes, and audiences. Chapter 2, “Radio's Arena,” looks at the competitive environment radio finds itself in today and the ways management and staff need to respond. Chapter 3, “Radio's Attributes,” explores the several things radio does better than any other medium. Chapter 4, “What Radio Audiences Want,” discusses the expectations radio listeners have, and lists needs and desires not usually considered in audience analyses.

CHAPTER 2

Radio's Arena

WHAT BUSINESS IS RADIO IN?

The answer to the question “What business is radio in?” is not as obvious as it seems. This is not a matter of images or public relations. Rather, it is a question of actualizing a positioning statement; of discovering the unique thing that radio does that other media do not do as well, if at all.

It is a cliché that a fish never realizes it is in an aquarium until it jumps out and dies in the air. When you are working in the radio business, it is very hard to see what it is that radio does best. It is easier to figure out what other businesses do well, even if they do not think of those attributes as strengths. As a way of understanding the problem of “examining your own navel,” take the example of the daily newspaper.

The Local Daily Newspaper Example

Today, many communities offer a wide choice of news ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 An Overview of the Book
• Part I Radio's Arena, Attributes, and Audiences
• Part II Formats, Soundscapes, and Voices
• Part III Music Programming
• References
• Index