by Don Anthony
“Why People Don’t Like You” is the title of a new book I’m writing subtitled, “Seeing yourself the way others do,” the premise being, unlikable qualities typically outweigh those which cause people to like you. For instance, you can be witty, charming or affable, but if you’re known to sometimes to be a prick, there goes the love. With PPM looming in the shadow, this is an excellent time for radio to improve those qualities which often dilute the rest.
Let’s start with the obvious: Commercials. It will be interesting to see how radio responds to its ad application/distribution following the shift to electronic ratings. Heretofore, many programmers believed stacking ads or clusters in the last quarter-of-an-hour lent itself to better AQH’s. The assumption was based on the belief that most Diary users stated their listening as beginning at the top of an hour, and lost interest with each subsequent 1/4 hour. As such, the first 3/4’s of an hour featured smaller spot-clusters (if any) than in the last. Others didn’t buy this, suggesting that listening begins pretty much equally around an hour. Then again, old habits are hard to break.
With PPM, this strategy will go out the window as “recall,” for the most part, will no longer be a player. But the question remains, before or after PPM, how can we make spotloads less of a distraction? Here are a few suggestions:
Better Quality-Control. Unless it’s my imagination, based on the eight or so stations I listen to most regularly, I’d have to assume that most listeners need credit relief, should refinance their homes, can make 5 to 25K a week working from home, need a hair replacement, suffer from sleep apnea, have a friend in the diamond business or must BUY A NEW CAR BEFORE 2008 MODELS ARRIVE!! – REPEAT (SFX: with guy shouting from giant can) “BEFORE 2008 MODELS ARRIVE!!!” And need I remind you, with the 2008 election season underway you can expect another litany of ads seemingly voiced by the same guy, or featuring testimonials from really, really bad actors. Oh what joy!
Work With The Suits – Most programmers do a great job of managing everything between spot-loads, but it’s that 10 – 18 units of other stuff that often send listeners scrambling for the next button. But how do you control something you have little control over? You don’t. The best you can do is work more closely with your production director to put more creativity in what few spots or promos that are created at the station. Suggest to them that he/she update their styles of delivery as well. Too many ads on the radio still sound like the ’80s, i.e., shouting, too many sound effects, pukers… yep, they’re still out there. Instead, put more natural-sounding voices on the spots, and for goodness sakes update the music library! How often have you heard different spots with the same music bed? No excuse for that.
While you’re at it, revisit your approach to live reads. They sound great the first few times, but by week two, three and on, the enthusiasm and credibility begin to wane. This is especially evident when they’re read by more than one personality and on other stations to boot. And out of curiosity, does every talk jock in America have a Select-Comfort bed?
Finally, meet with your sale’s manager and continuity director regularly and together; work with local agencies for better production and more variations on blitz ads. The same ad running several times within a short period of time is a major turnoff. Plus, if the same crap is running on ten other stations, you can just imagine how agonizing this is to the listener. Next, work closely with your continuity director to be more sensitive to spot-distribution. They typically have no idea what the ads they schedule sound like. So, if there are one or more spots that are particularly annoying or boring, see if they can spread them or space them out more generously. As for distribution, you can expect some new thinking here. Former Arbitron VP, Bob Michaels, now president of Media Sense, suggests with PPM, more frequent, smaller total length clusters per hour. Others agree.
Give Listeners More Reasons To Stay Tuned – A few weekends ago, I listened to the syndicated Kim Komando show. She promo’d an up-coming piece on getting photos printed into posters. I’m guessing I waited an hour to find out how to do this, but I never left her show. I never knew exactly when this was coming up, but I knew it was in the next hour. So I waited. By the time I got to the info, I was already waiting for something else that had been promoted for later on. Translation, I listened to most of her show. Same thing happened with Premiere’s Bob Costas show. He had former NBA star-turned politicianBill Bradley on as a guest. In the course of a couple of hours, I had more than enough reasons to stay tuned. It wasn’t just Kim, or Bob (although I’m a fan of both), it was their content. Most importantly, I hung around through the commercial breaks.
As we near a PPM environment, Michaels adds: “Stations have to wean themselves from a TSL to a CUME-based approach.” For this purpose, your success can best be served by substantially stepping up your billboarding, both from a break-to-break, day-to-day and week-to-week approach. The more the audience knows about what they’ll get, the better your chances they’ll return.
And for station promos, don’t just promote the shows that are coming up, but what they’ll be talking about – I like a lot of shows here in Atlanta, but it’s what they do that causes me to listen. If I learn something in advance, I’ll be even more prone to tune in. One of the talk stations here that I listen to constantly promotes their line-up. As if I didn’t know. What I’d like to know is why I should tune in. If Bill O’Reilly is having Keith Olberman as his guest later today, I’m there (now wouldn’t that be a great show?) no matter what I had planned.
Don’t Forget to Update – For morning shows or other high-profile talent, constant updating is vital. Having a great guest is one thing, but tuning in in the middle of a conversation and not knowing who they’re talking to can be brutal. Constantly cluing-in your audience every couple of minutes can insure added listening time to a guest or bit.
Plan Sooner – For dayparts which feature less music, you had best start piecing shows together weeks in advance. Line up guests, promotions or stunts with plenty of wiggle room. Some believe over-planning has its drawbacks. This is why I recommend space to wiggle. That is, if something better comes along, you simply replace a weaker link. It’s always better to have too much than too little, and for many shows who under-plan, or plan too short in advance, they end up with too much fluff or, as I call ’em, “B” breaks. The later is self-explanatory.
Make Every Break Count – The most cogent advice one could derive from electronic ratings is that you need to make every song, every break, every second count on the air. It’s no longer about the one “Huge” prize give-away, one great bit, another three in a row, or whatever gimmick that used to work. It’s now about listener-retention and minute-to-minute content. If you’re not filling it wisely, some other station, or other media could benefit.
Don Anthony is Founder and President of Talentmasters, Publisher of The Morning Mouth & Creator and Host of Morning Show Boot Camp – Reach him at themouth@tds.net
