The Disney Radio Effect

American Idol has often been talked about as the place to launch an artist’s music career regardless of whether the talent wins or loses the singing competition. But not until recently has the often overlooked Disney Channel empire has launched its fair share of “triple threat” talent – those who can sing, dance and act, while becoming yet another key platform for record labels to expose and develop new talent. The one draw that Disney has over its competitors such as Nickelodeon is its brand extensions, most notably, Radio Disney. Last year the 24/7 radio network celebrated its 10^th anniversary and is syndicated in over 50 markets, boasting a loyal audience of 3.5 million “tweens” (kids ages 6-14, with a core audience of kids ages 6-11.) Its secondary target is moms (with kids ages 2-11), which Radio Disney calculates to be an additional 2 million during an average week. If that weren’t enough, Radio Disney can also be heard on both XM and Sirius satellite radio as well as many cable systems from coast to coast via Music Choice. That’s some audience!

Should Top 40 radio be paying attention to an empire that helped produce two of last year’s top selling albums in High School Musical and Hannah Montana? We asked our panels of radio programmers if they were more comfortable playing or taking a chance on an artist that has had the Disney brand exposure behind them.

“You would think that Disney would be a great place to start an act considering the exposure and sales that it generates,” comments WNCI/Columbus PD Michael McCoy. “The Disney brand is a stamp of approval for parents. Thus, the success.”

KHKS/Dallas APD/MD Billy The Kidd says it has its advantages but it’s also a double edged sword. “Having the Disney ‘foundation’ built in is a good thing in some cases, but in others it doesn’t help the record at all. Sometimes, it will automatically take the ‘edge’ away from something and make it softer and not as ‘cool’ in other people’s eyes. But it’s still evaluated on a case by case basis.”

WHKF/Harrisburg PD JT Bosch agrees, “These artists have a machine behind them that cannot be denied, but the song has to be credible too. It all depends on the song. I don’t want to play a bad song just because the artist has ties to Disney.”

WAKS/Cleveland APD/MD Kasper adds, “If the song is moderately selling and requesting in Cleveland, we’re going to take a look at it regardless of Radio Disney or any other format breaking the single first. Hilary Duff is a great example of an artist whose roots are with Disney but is successfully transitioning her look and sound in a more mature direction that’s right in tune with our audience. “With Love” has done really well for us here.”

WAEB/Allentown MD Eric Chase says he’s more than comfortable with the Disney brand, “because there’s a good chance the record or artist will be familiar to both the mom and daughter audience.” He also notes, “Disney has a good rep of breaking artists.”

XM Satellite SVP/Music Programming Jon Zellner comments, “We have no issues playing an artist that got their start at Radio Disney. Of course, we offer Radio Disney on our platform, but with 20 on 20, we actually look for artists the channel can own in the Pop space. In recent years, there have been very few artists that Pop radio can own, unlike the ’80s where Madonna, Michael Jackson and Duran Duran didn’t get play on any other format.” He continues, “Nowadays with a few exceptions like P!nk, Maroon5 and Daughtry, literally every song at the top of the Pop chart started or migrated somewhere else. This sometimes makes it hard for XM listeners to differentiate between 20 on 20 (CHR/Pop), Flight 26 (Modern AC) and The Heat (CHR/Rhythm).

But one thing is for sure with Zellner. “After seeing the crowd at the High School Musical show and watching sales, I’m much more comfortable playing an Ashley Tisdale or Vanessa Hudgens record than something my audience has never heard of.” But he’s quick to add there are hurdles when it comes to research. “The biggest issue with these songs is the 18-24 black hole in call-out. Most Top 40s research 18-30 year-olds and the 18-24 crowd will often rate these songs based on who they are while a 25-30 year old will rate them on what they sound like. That’s why some of these songs test with teens and upper demos but not the 18-24s. It should come down to what the song sounds like, but the image issue always seems to complicate these decisions.”

Should Pop radio be paying more attention to the audience that Radio Disney targets as they eventually could become potential new listeners?

“Pop radio should pay more attention to everything and anything that reaches a potential audience or future audience,” says Billy The Kidd. “With many different ways to get your music now, any opportunity you have to capitalize on converting listeners to your station should be taken advantage of.” JT Bosch agrees, “We should pay attention to anyone who will sample our stations. There are so many outlets now for music and Pop culture… it’s crazy!”

Eric Chase chimes in, “It’s instinctual to believe kids love Hip-Hop. But with the decreased quality of Hip-Hop nowadays, you have to look other places for a young audience, so why not pull music from somewhere listeners, artists and music are being ‘groomed’?”

 

Kasper believes, “They’re the next batch of trendsetters so there should probably be some more attention thrown their way in that respect. It’s hard to argue with the success of High School Musical so while an open ear should be kept in that direction, we obviously want to keep our eye on the ball with the audience we cater to right now, the females in the demo.”

Zellner remarks, “Teens and pre-teens absolutely is an untapped radio market. The biggest challenge radio faces is the fact that 10-17 year-olds have so many other choices for audio entertainment that weren’t available even five years ago. Making radio cool again for this audience is crucial to the future of the medium.”

Michael McCoy has a different view. “It’s almost the opposite when it comes to Pop radio,” he says. “The Disney brand is a negative to an extent. We need some controversy… some danger. You want to cross an act to Pop? Have them do their thing for Disney, sell a million, then get caught with Paris Hilton at club, create a sex tape, go to rehab, have a press conference to say that they’ve changed… Then hope the song kicks ass.” 

This Disney machine has helped to develop mega-stars including Hillary Duff, Jesse McCartney, Raven Symone and The Cheetah Girls to current stars such as Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus), and High School Musical alums Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu. Record companies also have great respect for the Disney brand, including Radio Disney, which has helped in both the launch and development of many new artists. 

“We value Radio Disney greatly,” says Columbia Records SVP/Promotion Lee Leipsner. “It’s important and often overlooked. People think the audience is way too young and they don’t make any kind of impact. Radio often ignores that demo because they don’t think they impact the overall picture, which is not true, and that advertisers don’t care, but those are your future P1s. Get them locked in now!”

Hollywood Records SVP/Promotion Justin Fontaine knows first hand the power of the Disney brand. “Radio Disney is very integral in launching a new artist and has been a successful platform for several of our artists. Coupled with the Disney Channel they were responsible for the #1 Album Of The Year, High School Musical. From that we launched records from Vanessa Hudgens and Corbin Bleu (also from High School Musical).”

Leipsner adds, “They do a great job of identifying certain trends, listening habits and musical styles. It’s amazing when you look at the end of the year and the biggest selling records were High School Musical and Hannah Montana. They’re obviously on to something big! You can’t really ignore that and look the other way.” Regarding actual airplay on the channel, “Getting a record on Radio Disney is not the easiest thing in the world,” he says. “They are very protective of their brand. But we feel an impact from them when our records get played.” Leipsner continues, “I’m not sure radio understands. Every mother and daughter listens to those songs in their car, so why doesn’t radio find a way too make it work? They’re not playing “Lady And The Tramp,” sure they have standards and lyrical content issues, but they are playing Pop culture music. ”  

Some of today’s hottest artists including Avril Lavigne, P!nk, and JoJo are included on the Radio Disney playlist, but its biggest success of late has been the development of its own talent with the help of Disney Channel television. Hilary Duff remains the channel’s biggest success story, but it now seems the channel has found the next Duff in Hannah Montana. The transitioning of an artist from Disney to Pop radio isn’t always a smooth one, it can be challenging, but Justin Fontaine and his promo team have had success as of late.

“It still depends on the song and the artist,” Fontaine claims. “In the case of Vanessa Hudgens, we took ‘Come Back To Me’ to Top 40 and we put it on 120 stations from Z100 [New York] to KIIS-FM [Los Angeles]. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. As we all know Pop radio is very Urban these days and there is a  disconnect between who radio researches and who is buying records and consuming some of the records on Radio Disney, so it can be difficult to cross some. Smart radio programmers know that the future listeners are younger than they traditionally research. They have their eye on what we are doing here with some of our artists. If not…they should be.”

** QB Content by Bob Burke **