Time to Restructure Radio Programming
|
|
Here are three rapid-fire questions I thought of after being exposed to a "new" radio format.
At what point did radio industry executives (circa: 1954) realize that television was injurious to its long-form programming? When did Jack Benny, with other old-time show producers, know their radio time was up? At what moment did that day's programmers create the program structure still used by radio today?
"Timeless cool" is the banner ad that pulled me in at InsideRadio.com. Relative to the music it plays, "timeless cool" is a combination of songs fit for this format's 35-54 target demo. The web site's description of "timeless cool" is appropriate: Our balance of contemporary artists, including popular artists with limited or no airplay such as Michael Buble and Diana Krall, help to balance the appeal to a younger adult demo. TIMELESS COOL offers an easily perceived “wider variety” than existing formats, and voids the excessive repeats of music found along the radio dial.
As radio goes, it is a combination of songs found nowhere else; but, as radio goes, its programs are still the same formatic structure that radio industry executives turned to after realizing television required radio to change.
Here are two more questions. Neither is aimed at "timeless cool."
· Will the radio industry ever PURSUE youth again?
· Will radio industry executives ever CHANGE the way a program is presented and repeated ad infinitum - i.e., song set, liner, commercials, dj banter (recorded or not), back-to-song set?
There's certainly no shortage of people speaking of radio abandoning youth, or the other way around. I do find, however, a shortage of radio programming that caters to youth. Which quickly brings up that other point; song set, liner, commercials, dj banter, and back-to-song sets don't make it when speaking to this group today. It's time to change the construction of a radio program's structure.
For all who are stuck with the thought that radio has lost the "war," it's not true. The radio industry has done considerable damage to itself through consolidation, but anyone who has programmed can tell you why there's a shift in consumer audio habits. The other side is more appealing to youth who are looking for something "new," and radio is not delivering "new."
I look forward to the day when a "new" radio format presents a complete restructuring of how music, vocals, and commercials are put together.
When ads are reworked to stop promoting, and start befriending the audience, and vocals are delivered by a person who actually opens a mic switch, we'll begin to see radio recapture youth's interest. (The voice must speak to - not at - the audience for this approach to work.)
As long as broadcast radio remains a "me speaking to you" medium it's going to have problems attracting a youthful audience. Let's rephrase that: The radio industry will not capture youth until it changes how it speaks to them.
"New" is not rearranging how things are done; it's throwing out the playbook on how things are done.
We saw radio industry executives change in the mid-1950s, with great success. The problem is that we're still doing it the same way, and any youth will tell you that there's nothing "new" about radio.
|
|
|
|
Comments may be published.
About
Contact
Indie Artists
Radio Stations
Audience Data
Privacy
|
|
|
|
|
|
