About Radio: Programming Number #1

People have always had an interesting relationship with radio. Radio has been instrumental in breaking the careers of many a musician. Regardless if the musician is a performer, composer, or [other], the relationship of that musician with the audience is due in part to the amount of exposure on radio stations. The radio audience has also enjoyed an interesting relationship with both the radio station, and the artists that are played on in. This may be in a direct way through calls, emails, or other communication, or caused by the secondary influence their musical purchases yield on the radio stations themselves.

“The radio networks of North America … provide one of the most important promotional outlets for recorded music, setting programming agendas at radio stations and influencing the talent acquisition policies of record labels throughout the world… American radio stations are defined by the type of music they play and the size and scope of their listener profile. Whilst providing an outlet for the recordings of record companies their income is derived from delivering very specific audiences to advertisers.”[1]

The music played on the radio station is organized by a playlist. This playlist consists of all of the stations songs, set to play on air, organized by a schedule. A song on the playlist is said to be in “rotation.” Those songs in rotation help to define the sound and identity of the radio station. Music selected radio airplay can be chosen for a number of reasons.

Somewhere in the middle of this is the radio station program director. There are many different people who may attempt to influence the musical choices but “At American radio stations it is the music programme directors who decide the tracks to be broadcast. Their first concern is inevitably whether a particular recording is compatible with the station's format. After this the programme director considers the 'support' a recording is receiving from the record company. The first indication of support is the 'story' being used to promote the artist. This may be about the sales success of the artist in the USA or around the world, might be details of outstanding tours and personal appearances, or it could simply be newsworthy anecdotes. The most persuasive story, however, is the one about other radio stations programming a particular recording.”[2]

I had a desire to gain a deeper understanding of the choices, rationale, and methods used to select the music that I hear on the radio. I decided to interview a program director of a station well known in my geographic area (and in the industry), to gain further insight into this process.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE

My interest in examining the relationships between the led me to conduct an interview with Michael McCoy. Mr. McCoy is the program director of WNCI-FM, a CHR (Contemporary Hits Radio[3]) station located in Columbus, OH. In addition to his programming duties at WNCI, Mr. McCoy also conducts programming duties for WZLT-FM; a Adult Contemporary (AC) station in the same market. Mr. McCoy has held this position since 2004.

Mr. McCoy’s philosophies about programming, his decisions about the music on the air, along with the on-air talent and the selections of music are all used to keep his stations high in the rankings, and his audience (and advertisers) happy. His methods appear to be working, well. WNCI (97.9 FM), one of McCoy’s stations, is consistently the #1 rated radio station in Central Ohio. The station itself is one of the oldest continuously airing CHR stations in the format. WNCI was named the 2007 Station of the Year in the contemporary hit/radio/top 40 category for it’s at the National Radio & Records convention. [4] He has held his positions since 2004 and has led WNCI and WZLT to #1 and #7 ratings in the current Arbitron rankings.

THE COMPLEXITY OF PROGRAMMING

To a casual observer, programming radio stations can seem very bewildering, especially since “Music-programming is not the main commodity produced by radio, but is rather the means to the production of radio's real commodity - the audience - to be sold to advertisers in exchange for revenue to the broadcaster. With the intensification of competition in big urban markets, the combined identification and production of the product (the sound the audience) becomes a more industrially rationalized process.”[5]

“Every format follows a complex set of rules the for programming, including style and range of music selections, size and origin of playlist, quotas for musical repetition, numbers of current and past hits and their usual sequence, conventional relationships between music and speech, and so forth. Through formats, stations are organized and differentiated on the basis of listener demographics, advertising content and revenue, and internal administrative and technical relationships. A major change in any one of these is inconceivable without a resulting change in all of them and in the relationships amongst them. For instance a switch from easy listening to contemporary hit radio (CHR) would demand (besides a new music director) a new on-air style, different news, a smaller playlist with higher rotation and faster turnover of hits and, above all, a successful transition to new sources of advertising revenue, since luxury car manufacturers or insurance companies would find little advantage in paying for CHR audience time. Urban markets support an increasing number of pop-music format stations, which compete for listeners and advertisers on the basis of finely researched distinctions notwithstanding some considerable crossover of music selections.” [6]

“Responding to a competitive, media-saturated and increasingly de-regulated environment, programmers seem more likely to buy computer programs for administering the schedule, or syndicated programs to cut programming costs, or digital audio tape to compete with compact discs, than to flex the boundaries of musical taste. New audience measurement devices, computerized playlist distribution, programme syndication and networking, satellite broadcasting, and so on, have all been introduced or advanced to increase profitability.” [7]

Increasing exposure to on-line marketing, specialty television channels (like BET, MTV2, Ovation, etc.), and especially, user promoted content web sites (like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) have made the listener a [complex thing.] They are more self directed, likely to pursue content in niche markets, and are just as likely to take ownership in their favorite music more easily through sources alternative to traditional radio. Still, radio remains a primary promotional vehicle, and thus, a significant source for music.

The combination of these complexities plus the capability for the audience to disseminate music so easily have so effected the business of radio. Marketing and brand recognition through music programming has become even more complex than in previous years.. At the end of the day a radio station, whatever format it may be, must keep satisfy the expectations of its listeners. An environment of satisfied listeners, in turn, will be appealing to advertisers, who will be very willing to spend significant sums of money to reach the radio station’s listeners.

THE ART OF PROGRAMMING

Radio offers people a sense of accessibility to and interaction within its own (broadcast) community, and makes itself distinct from television through highly conventional and elaborated strategies of representation. Such conventions work to establish and draw attention to the radio station as a live and local context. “They include signposting … styles of interviewing, spontaneous pattern, informal commentary on music selections, station identifications,… and so forth, all of which contribute to the sense of localness, immediacy and personal accessibility.”[8]
McCoy takes an approach that acknowledges the complexity of the industry, but he focuses on the making an emotional connection with his listeners. A successful radio station has established a clear identity through carefully crafted branding, and by creating deep emotional connections with its listeners. Radio programming (and subsequent radio playlists) not only establishes the stations identity with listeners, but also constitute a significant part of building and nurturing the deep emotional connection with them.

THE NUMBER OF SONGS

McCoy’s programming uses the illusion of variety through variance of a small number of songs. Although a station like WNCI may reach a large audience, the number of songs played on the station is quite low. The current number of songs in rotation at WNCI is about 110 total. Five songs are in the “power” category, played up to 13 times daily. This is the heaviest rotation. Next comes subpower, new music, nights, recurrent, regular recurrent, and goals. Thirty of the 110 songs are in regular rotation. The rest serve as filler at different times during the run of the list.

Implementing this strategy means McCoy spends a significant amount of time rotating songs in order to create and nurture feelings of familiarity within the listener. He’ll often give new songs a minimum of 200 spins (two hundred times on air) before evaluating its performance with the audience. Other songs get heavier rotation, many get less. The key seems to be meeting the expectations through the familiarity with the music and the station, not developing overkill.

THE VALUE OF TIME

McCoy’s expectation is that people will increase the amount of time listening to the station in one of two ways. First through the “CUM” – total time listening, and second, through TSL – get people to tune in more often. TSL is the most important, as it demonstrates the true relationship between radio station programming and listener relationships.

TSL is an excellent indicator for the success of individual songs, and of the playlists (or playlists) as a whole. For McCoy, a listener who tunes in several times a day for only short periods of time is much more valuable than a listener who tunes in once for an extended duration. The added value that comes from repeated listening in short spurts of time means the diversity of the list is working to create a listener ho will tune in at all points during the day; one who shares more of an identity (and a personal stake) with the station at more times of the day.

BEST PRACTICES: GATHERING INFORMATION

The practice of programming involves careful analysis of all the available data about music in a radio station’s format. This information may come for a variety of sources that directly or indirectly influence the choices made by program directors. First comes analysis of market data. This can include retail sales of an artist, digital downloads, and the turnover of songs. Next, is user data. This is information gathered through request lines (phone or email) and listener responses on web sites like he radio station’s site, or more broader [places] including YouTube, MySpace, Facbook, etc.. Finally, data about what other radio stations are playing, including ratings from Arbitron and Sound Scan, also play a part in determining what goes on, and what comes off the station.

For McCoy, the rationales used in good programming practice comes from being a very good listener to your consumer, from reading those people, and then by meeting their expectations. An informed programmer considers these questions before selecting and scheduling a piece of music.

Essential Questions for Radio Programming [9]
· What is the lifestyle of listener? The answers will guide a good programmer to choose music that appeals to the listener’s lifestyle.
· What type of people listen to this station? Who is the consumer? By getting this information, a programmer can make choices in music that fit the character of the people listening, and evaluate at music that fits that character.
· What did this consumer recently buy? Consumer purchases can guide a programmer, let him know what songs are “hot”, and what music may be next to become “huge” in the format.
· What are the expectations? When and what do they expect to hear? This is very important! Meeting listener expectations is crucial to developing an ongoing relationship where that listener can continue to feel valued by getting the music that listener expects to hear. Also, this can effect the music choices for the time of day (example “Drive time” (traveling to work), music during the work day, nights, etc.).
· How has music I’m airing (or thinking of adding/dropping) performed in other similar markets? This too, like consumer purchases, can also indicate what music should be added, may be “hot”, or what should be
· Will this music, pattern of airplay create the surprise factor I desire? Will the songs on the list create (establish) familiarity with the listener?

Answering these questions leads McCoy to make choices that are most likely to give the listener the best experience. Providing that best experience is key to establishing and maintaining a long, healthy relationship with listeners, and providing those listeners with the opportunity to feel like they are valued, creates familiarity, and can place a personal stake on the results of the song and/or artist.

The music he airs is governed by the expectation of the listeners. It’s important to consider what they want, create familiarity, and producing passion in the people by making the choices that meet their expectations. In that he likens programming to fantasy football. In both cases, someone makes choices that produce passion in the persons who are fans, or in this case, listeners, with some level of personal stakes in the outcome.

“People want to feel like they are part of something. I choose songs base on what I like and what I think the people listening to the station will like. You want to make choices that produce passion in a person. It’s more art than science ”[10]
“Some people think that you can just do this from a formula, or through [science]. You can’t. Radio is about people; it’s about relationships. You have to develop those relationships and meet the expectations of the people listening. It’s about producing passion and making choices that produce that passion in your listeners.”[11]


Bibliography

Berland, Jody. “Radio Space and Industrial Time: Music Formats, Local Narratives and Technological Mediation” Popular Music, Vol. 9, No. 2, Radio Issue. (Apr., 1990), pp. 179-192.

McCoy, Michael. Interview by Keith Newton. Text Interview. Conducted at China Dynasty Restaurant. 29 January 2007.

Negus, Keith. “Plugging and Programming: Pop Radio and Record Promotion in Britain and the United States” Popular Music, Vol. 12, No. 1. (Jan., 1993), pp. 57-68.


[1] Keith Negus “Plugging and Programming: Pop Radio and Record Promotion in Britain and the United States” Popular Music, Vol. 12, No. 1. ( 1993):60.
[2] Negus, 61.
[3] Contemporary Hits Radio (CHR) is also known as Top 40 radio.
[4] Wikipedia info, find other way to clarify.
[5] Berland, 186.
[6] Mediation” Popular Music, Vol. 9, No. 2, Radio Issue. (Apr., 1990): 182. Jody Berland, “Radio Space and Industrial Time: Music Formats, Local Narratives and Technological
[7] Berland, 187.
[8] Berland, 188.
[9] McCoy, Michael. Interview by Keith Newton. Text Interview. Conducted at China Dynasty Restaurant. 29 January 2007.
[10] McCoy, ibid.
[11] McCoy, ibid.