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The
beginning of a new calendar is traditionally a time to reflect on
the previous year and make some decisions on what you’ll change so
that you’ll have different and, hopefully, better results. Loosing
weight, stopping smoking, and equipping your skills for a better job
are fairly common New Year’s Resolutions. I think that the
beginning of a new year is also an appropriate time to review your
station’s music architecture to determine if it’s actually doing
what you want it to.
Some basics: every music category should consist of songs with a
similar value to your station which is based upon the song’s appeal
with your listeners, as quantified through music research. Songs
that your listeners really love, obviously, have greater value to
you than do songs that people don’t know. Therefore, these songs
should be in distinct categories and exposed differently.
Most stations have several current categories. The “hots” are
comprised of 5-7 of the most popular songs. The “mediums”, then,
are comprised of the next tier of songs based upon popularity. The
thought is that songs in this category will become more popular if
they become more familiar. The medium current category generally
holds 7-11 songs. Some stations also elect to have a third tier of
current songs, often called “lights” because they play in a lighter
rotation, often just at night and on weekends. Since these songs
are generally brand new and unfamiliar these songs are exposed less
frequently. This light category holds usually 5-9 songs.
Now let’s move the conversation to the strategic level. The only
reason that a station plays unfamiliar music, i.e., new music, is
that the programmer hopes that with the proper amount of exposure
the songs have a good chance of becoming popular, i.e., in the hot
category. Few listeners tune to a radio station to hear music
they’ve never heard before, therefore don’t yet know, therefore
don’t yet like. Taking this one step further, the only reason a
station would play a “light”, is so that it can become a “medium”,
so that it can become a “hot”.
Exam time! How are you doing? Of all the songs you’ve added to
your radio station in the last year, how many of them ended up in
hot rotation? Is your success rate 20%, or 80%? If it’s the
former, I’d question the value of the category to begin with because
songs are not becoming favorites. If it’s the latter, you can
declare yourself to be program director of the year. (P.S. It’s
also valuable to make sure that your non-current categories have not
accidentally grown larger over the last year resulting in your song
rotations slower being slower than you intended. A good rule--when
you move a song into a category you also move another song, the
lowest testing one, out, keeping the category count and rotations
the same).
I recommend that you time this analysis of your music inventory to
the beginning of each year. It’s sort of like remembering to change
your smoke alarm batteries when daylight savings time begins or
ends. If you’ll do this, you’ll get a better sense of the value of
your music categories and whether they really are accomplishing what
you intended for them.
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John is a partner in Goodratings
Strategic Services, and has been a successful major market disc
jockey and program director for such companies as CBS, Cap Cities,
Westinghouse, Sandusky, Gannett, and Alliance during his 38 year
broadcast career. John joined Goodratings’ partner Alan Mason in
1999.
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