For our first Programming To Win column of the new year, Robby Bridges takes an up-close-and-personal look at radio listening habits: by observing a friend’s actions on a car ride. Paying attention to his friend’s reactions and recall, Bridges concludes that now more than ever, radio is just one of many entertainment options battling for our time and attention span.
Robby Bridges
By: Robby Bridges
“I live in constant fear that every listener’s finger is just hovering over the tune button, ready to switch the station or turn the radio off the second we do something that loses their interest.”
Wow, quite a statement and hence it stuck in my head when I asked a friend of mine who has been a programmer for over thirty years how he keeps his stations fresh. I agreed with him right away of course as it makes sense; play a song a listener doesn’t like, sloppily go into a stopset or put on a morning show that goes on for several minutes with no pay off and you bet a listener may very well be gone. What I had not considered is just how keen a fear my friend has as I saw it manifest with my own eyes and the cause surprised me. I was traveling by car with a 33 year old woman (bullseye audience for so many of our stations); visiting her in her home city she was driving and she controlled the radio. Being that I was on a trip and she is not in broadcasting, the topic of radio had not come up so I thought little of it when she turned the radio on as we were driving around and I offered no input to her what we ought to listen to. Here’s what I quietly noticed: she kept the volume just below the half way point even when she would occasionally comment “Ooh good song”; I quickly observed she was a Country P1 always going to that frequency first and letting it play through songs and even commercial breaks without her changing the station; she was a P2 of two other stations, Urban AC and Classic Hits/Jack type station both of which she immediately switched upon hearing a song she didn’t like. What was most interesting was that she knew all the country artists, remembered the jock’s names and the time of day the country station did dedications and aired the weekly top 40; clearly, she felt the strongest connection to this station and its brand identity but yet couldn’t remember the call letters. When referring to the Urban AC she remarked “this station plays music at a bar every Friday night and they play Motown and ‘80s songs”; I listened to it on and off with her and I could tell it was Urban AC but that was her perception. Even more interesting? She described the Classic Hits station as the station “that plays a lot of everything, they say they are the greatest hits or something…I wish there was an Oldies station!” First, the station was not a full fledged Jack, they were rock leaning 60s-80s but clearly their no frills formatics didn’t resonate with my female friend’s ear (and there was an Oldies station she just never found it on the dial). However, as I subtlety collected these observations to myself, I couldn’t believe it when she flipped on the Country station and had it playing for a few songs. The jock, whose unique name she mentioned she’d recalled, plays back a winner over a music bed. The jock begins with the usual “What’s your name and where ya calling from” and then asks the caller about her day at work; at this point, about 15 seconds into the phoner I saw my friend’s hand move up from its rest on the stick shift to button two on her presets where it hovered for a split second as the jock tells the caller “well glad you had a good day, you got a great weekend now with home show tickets!” My friend’s finger lands on the preset two button and presumably just as she was about to push it with so much cavalier, the jock started the next country hit and wrapped up the phoner and there her finger sat through the song’s intro until she her heard the vocal start and it returned to the stick, confident the talking was stopping, this was no tease, the song she liked was playing in its entirety. I didn’t say anything to her, but I was floored to actually witness programming cause a finger to switch the station. Let me be clear, this was a perfectly smooth jock with a well edited bit; but from this point forward unless it’s a monster prize like major cash or an impossible to get concert ticket, I’ll never feel comfortable running a prize winner in between songs again.
This episode, to me, was another example of the state radio is in; people have a lot of options for entertainment and a lot of restraints on their time these days and they know it. Radio, at its best, is a welcome distraction; at its worst, more white noise and more often than not it seems that occurs with archaic programming techniques still in use. There is a medical term psychologists use for patients who lack a willingness to let go of something they’ve lost or whom are unable to accept a change, albeit perhaps unwanted, in their lives; the layman’s term for it is “denial.” I believe, many of us in radio today suffer just such an affliction. I’m so weary of hearing about “what a shame we voicetrack,” “weren’t sonovox jingles better?,” “Remember when we’d go to conventions and get free goodies,” “I miss grease pencils” or my favorite “Why would the gold station stop playing 50s music!?” Radio was a lot of fun in days gone by and it has changed; perhaps it has lost some of its magic as an industry post Telecom act/economic recession. This said, the audience doesn’t care about, nor have they ever cared about these things. Radio is notorious for airing elements that sound cool to those of us that love it but have no or perhaps even a negative impact on listeners. In 1991 radio could get away with doing a 40 second bit over a “phone tone” bed, perhaps because listeners had no Facebook, no Pandora, no Sirius XM, no Music Choice, no iPad to divert their attention the instant radio lost their interest. As a matter of fact, the last time I myself worked at a CHR station, a mere 8 years ago, these things either didn’t exist or hadn’t yet reached critical mass. The 17 year old who may have been listening to me then is now in the coveted 25-54 demo; however, today’s 17 year old is growing up with radio playing only a complimentary role to these other media (not to mention Wii, Netflix, even musical cell phone ring tones!). Today’s listeners, even those who grew up with radio, will inevitably provide us with less TSL; no data has suggested there is any reason radio will or has lost cume. As a matter of fact, with new delivery platforms to supplement over the air signals, it ought to increase. Listeners need to be crystal clear what a station’s identity and brand is: what do they play so I can expect it each time I listen and what else do I get from them? Format enhancing content is key and may well in the coming years usurp traditional music programming on radio; consider the online New York Times reader who logs on not for news coverage but the blogs; consider MTV‘s youthful, pop identity without having had played a music video in years while still creating original programming that reinforces that brand identity. Radio is headed in that direction too.
Note: In my next column, as I believe radio ought to better celebrate its glorious past, we continue looking at the jocks on my list of the top 40 greatest top 40 hosts of all time!
Robby Bridges is host of the Ride Home Show on WEBE-FM Bridgeport, CT. He is also President of BBOR Productions, developing and marketing syndication, music and production pieces nationally. Previously Bridges has worked in various capacities at WCTK/Providence, Z100/New York, Q102/Philadelphia, WODS and Mix 98.5/Boston and elsewhere in New England. Robby can be reached at 203-333-9108 or bridges@bborproductions.com
