Radio Works Best When Looking Ahead

 

Shut Up and Play the Hits!

If radio works best when looking forward, why do so many announcers insist on looking back?

I listened to a local radio anchor run headlong into a train wreck. Four breaks in a row with multiple mistakes. I've been there. I learned through experience, not to dwell on the mistakes. Things were coming at me too fast to dwell on the past. As soon as you stop, as soon as you hesitate, the more likely it is the whole thing will come crashing down. Listeners don't have a lot of tolerance for this.

After the shift, and before the next shift, is the time to focus and analyze what went wrong, and find solutions.

• Show prep is key to a successful shift.
• Good forward promotion (next ten to 20 minutes) encourages increased time spent listening.
• Dwelling on a mistake leads to the DJ's nightmare, a train wreck shift.
• Surprises are great on your birthday, but catch you unaware when live, on-air, leading to more mistakes.
• Talking up to a time post is the ultimate in the immediate future. Eliminate the upcuts!
• Long stop sets drive listeners away. Keep the back-sell short. Idle chatter turns listeners off.
• Only share your best stuff.
• Anchors and DJ's who look back, espousing the greatness of the story or music just aired, assume to much of the listener. The listener doesn't really want you to tell them what to think. They want to know what's coming up. All motion needs to be forward.

I found running a skimmer was a great tool for making adjustments. Most of the time I found I was just trying to do too much. Other times it's a lack of perpetration. I actually had a dream last night where I was fundraising on CPTV. It was for Sesame Street. We were discussing how to pitch it since it is no longer unique to Public TV. As was the case back then, I was called on to ask for funds two minutes before airtime. Dreams and the subconscious lead to some pretty strange things, but no stranger than reality.

CPBN's Content Gets New Direction

WNPR and CPTV will  have somebody in charge of their content. WestportNow.com is reporting that Jim Cutie is the new content director for Connecticut Public Broadcasting. Cutie moves over from the Connecticut Mirror where he was chief executive.

Dean Orton had been in charge of content until he left about a year ago. Orton came back to CPBN a few months ago to become the Chief Operating Officer. In the interim the content on WNPR was run by the producers of the three talk local talk shows and News Director John Dankosky.

Head of PBS Says It's Up to the Audience

When I first became involved in Public Radio we had stickers all over the station that said, "Think Audience." PBS CEO Paula Kreger says it's up the audience whether or not Public Television grows.

My experience in public radio is that the audience is indeed the ultimate judge of what they are willing to support. The question for public television will be,can their core content support itself? Is the audience loyal enough to rally around "American Experience", "Nature" and the "NewsHour?" Will more programming like this in the schedule generate enough audience and loyalty be self sustaining? And, can the local affiliates find sufficient funding for local productions?

A substantial core audience can make that happen. At Connecticut Public Radio we defined that as about 40% of the total audience tuning in 10 times a week for about an hour each occasion. CPTV had a much larger audience but, occasions didn't come close to what we had for radio.

The exception for CPTV is  UConn Women's Basketball. That has a large and loyal following.

Can Public Television offer substantial programming for a substantial audience? Will the Public Radio model work for Public Television?

There's a lot more about what Paula Kreger has to say in the Chicago Tribune:

PBS kicks off winter TCA tour: Prexy-CEO Kerger willing to 'make tough decisions' in 2012

Collaborative Marketing for Public Radio

As I read some of what was said at the Public Radio Development Conference about the need for consolidation and collaboration, I thought about a similar effort in public television. Connecticut Public Television, WTTW and a few others created a marketing partnership to garner underwriting funds for stations by pooling efforts.  Market exclusivity was one of the key points. The agreement was competitive. Not only would these station have more marketing clout against local commercial affiliates, but they would also have more clout against public television stations not in the consortium. The consortium failed. They were unable to sign clients interested in underwriting on these stations as a group.

What if the idea was focused on markets? What if public radio stations within a market were to pool resources to garner underwriters?

This idea would work best in markets where there is very little program overlap. Baltimore might be a good example. WBJC offers classical music with an audience share o 2.2%. WEAA offers Jazz and programming aimed to serve minorities with an audience share of 0.6%. WTMD is a AAA station with a share of 0.7 percent. WYPR is Baltimore's NPR station with a share of 3.1%. Individually, station shares are moderate to small. Collectively the audience share is a respectable 6.6%. The top station in the market is WWIN (MAGIC95.9) P6+ in BALTIMORE in JUNE with an 8.9 share.

Of course, this assumes the stations within a market would be willing to collaborate to create more marketing clout.

Philadelphia is another market where the public radio stations could benefit from a combined marketing effort. The combined cume of WHYY, WRTI and WXPN is 6.2% according to Arbitron PPM figures for the Spring Quarter provided by RRC

Some stations already benefit from having more than one signal in a market with a different format on each of the signals. Minnesota Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio, New York Public Radio and WGBH, Boston benefit from cross-format marketing. This is something I proposed at CPBI. If approved, the combined share could have been 6%.

Combining shares:

• MPR                  10.8%
• CPR                    5.6% (CPR is about to add a third format)
• WGBH/WCRB    3.1% 
• WNYC/WQXR    4.2%

How could individual stations share combined underwriting revenue? A simple idea would be to divide up the revenue by listener hours. That could be done for the entire topline or for specific dayparts depending the client's contract.