Have you ever considered why people listen to the radio generally and more importantly why? What is it about radio that makes it such an important part of every listeners life but at the same time it is not a very important part of their lives at all?
I believe radio is intrusive. The word intrusive sounds negative but in terms of radio it could not be more positive. The entire reason for the success of the radio industry from it humble beginnings to what it is today is the simple fact that radio is intrusive. This is the secret why radio stations can be a viable business and an important asset nationally and locally in the first place. Without its ability to be intrusive radio does not and will not work. Sadly, this fact is no longer understood, either forgotten or ignored by almost every programmer in this country today.
Car Donate Charity
To understand why radio works is to recognise the intrusive nature of the medium. How many radios are there in a household generally? There is a radio in the kitchen, there is a radio in the bedroom, there is a radio in the sitting room, and there is a radio in the car. There is probably a radio in the bathroom too. Nowadays, you can listen on your PC and on your phone too. So every household has at least three or four places where the can pick up and listen to a radio station. There was a time and it probably remains the case still that the radio is outnumbered by just one other electrical item in the household…light bulbs.
The ability to listen to a radio station is everywhere and with the advent of other ways to listen too, radio has become even more intrusive into peoples lives. So if you try to answer the commonly asked question why do people listen to radio the first simple answer is that it is intrusive. It is easy to listen to the radio, its accessible everywhere and it’s free. People do not have to make any big decisions to listen to a radio. If you do not understand or choose to ignore this fact your station will never succeed. More importantly, if you do accept that radio is intrusive. You must include this immutable premise when you try to define why people should listen to your radio station as opposed to your competitors.
I believe that very few people in radio today understand the nature of the medium or understand how it really works. They do not understand how intrusive it is which leads to the fact that so many radio stations struggle to achieve any success at all. Smaller radio stations place themselves in vulnerable positions simply because they have no understanding of why or how people listen to radio generally. If you don’t know how people use radio generally, how can you implement the second stage of the process, which is getting people to listen… to your station!
Let’s be positive and work through what would happen if a programmer of a station understood fully how intrusive radio is. That programmer would know that the majority of people in the area have listened to a radio station within the last seven days based on the fact that recent figures published (Rajar Q4, 09) says 46 million adults are tuning into radio nationally each week. This fact has nothing to do with him. It is simply because radio is intrusive. The issue for the programmer is how does he get people to listen to his station as opposed to any other station broadcasting in his area?
Radio broadcasting either nationally or locally is less complicated that some programmers make out. There are two basic reasons why people listen to a particular station. They are entertained, informed or a combination of both by the station they listen to. Everything broadcast must flow from these two basic listener desires. All you have to do as a programmer is, be certain that you achieve those two things in every thing you do and you will be heading in the right direction.
The core problem with some radio stations is that no thought whatsoever is put in to competing for an audience. I stress the word compete because that is exactly what you need to do all the time. One vital thing that local programmers miss is listeners do not categorise you in the same way as you categorise your station. You might say that you are a community radio station, or an independent local station or a commercial station. Be very clear that listeners just see you as a radio station and at best a local radio station. If you want to get them to think in a certain way about you, you need to tell them again and again. I refer you to my article on radio station positioning on how you can do this.
It is my view that programmer and broadcasters, particularly in local radio in the UK are complicating things so much that they are in no position to develop a clear and simple radio product. There are two reasons for this, either they don’t know how to build a radio product at all or they spent so much time just dealing with everyday problems (fire fighting) and spend no time at all on thinking about or developing an overall strategic plan to build that product. Of course, that is if they even have a strategic plan at all.
I know that community radio stations specifically struggle with cash flow. I know that they are in existence only because they rely on volunteers, donations to cover costs and earn what they can by selling airtime to keep the station on air. The lot of the community radio station is a tough one so everything must be done to squeeze the last drop of revenue to make the station succeed in what are very small transmission areas or crowded market places. If that is the case it’s vital to build a product that can attract the largest audience possible just to survive. The problem is that the audience has to come from somewhere and as most people listen to radio anyway, you have to take listeners from another station.
I worry about programmers that say they are not worried about the competition, they say they are different and what other stations do is not of any concern to them. That may be correct if you have built a wonderful radio product, a large loyal audience and a good station heritage and your station is a proven success over time. Very few radio stations can say that and those that do so have been around for years, well established and did not get there by chance. They got to where there are by good strategic planning, good targeting and implementation of programming focussed on the listener and they have changed their strategic focus on keeping their listener base rather than focussing on building it.
You do not build a loyal audience by trying to be everything to everybody. That is an old and now defunct theory and is no longer true. The listening preference of a 25 year old male is vastly different from that of a 50 year old female and you simply cannot target both all of the time and keep them loyal. Of course some community stations target different sections of the community like minority groups, underprivileged or those from specific faith or ethnic origin. The fact is they are doing the right thing by defining their target audience in this manner rather than by age. What is of real concern is those community stations who try to be everything to everybody all of the time and end up with no clear identity at all. That is the worst possible scenario
So what is the solution to this? Well it is simple really. You need to specifically define who your listener is. Instead of saying you target 25 to 55, let’s say you build your radio station output around the fact that your core listener is a 38 year old female. So let’s talk about her for a few moments she is right in the centre of the 25/55 demographic.
What is her life like generally? Well she probably married or has a partner. She probably has children that go to the local school, her partner works locally and they have a nice apartment or house (nothing special but adequate). She probably has some disposable income after paying the mortgage but still has to budget to make ends meet. Her partner supports the local team and goes to matches from time to time. She shops locally for food and has spends large sums of money locally on necessary items like a cooker and washing machine and other major household items. She likes to keep the house and garden nice so she visits the local DIY and garden centre and spends some of her income there too. They eat out from time to time and know where the best restaurants are. They have two cars, a decent one they bought second hand and a little runabout she uses to get the kids to the local school. They can afford to take one holiday a year and more often than not that holiday is UK based. It is important to note that this 38 year old female is rooted in the community too, her family is part of the community and as a result she is interested in the community in lots of different ways. Her family have a sense of loyalty to the community too and will be interested in anything that goes on in the community. That means se buys the local paper regularly and likes to be aware of issues that could affect her family and her lifestyle.
If I build a station based on this core listener what would this station sound like?
I suggest a specific focus on the three pillars of a good local station:
1) local/community information,
2) news (local and national and global) and,
3) Music. Generally I would base any long term strategy on good local information and entertainment.
Local information
Our core listener wants to hear local information because it may affect her either negatively or positively. She uses the roads everyday and wants to know if there are any problems that could affect her when she goes shopping, dropping the kids at school or may affect her partner on his way to or from work. Our core listener likes music and a venue in our area hosts really good acts from the late eighties and nineties. She will go along to these events if she knows they are on and will be a keen listener to interviews or competitions we broadcast to promote these events. Our core listener likes to support charity and like most people will gladly support events that raise money for these charities. The local Lions club run a car boot sale every Sunday morning with all funds raised going to the local hospice. Our core listener likes to go to these events and is comfortable that she is supporting and doing something positive for the local hospice so we promote the event but emphasise the benefit to the charity rather than the detail of the event itself other than location and time. We are also promoting events that may be of interest to her children. There are many events aimed at children and most would be an ideal way for our core listeners children to take part in so we promote those events and the benefit to our core listener too.
There is enough information here for me to justify the inclusion of travel news, local entertainment guide combined with the fact that I would regularly run promotions giving away tickets to shows or nights out in the local area. I would strengthen the radio station product by developing regular big on air promotions where the station is seen to be entirely responsible for organising shows and events in the area. These would be scheduled in advance across the year and would be ongoing. The station would have a family feel and promote events that would be beneficial to all the family.
News (local National and global)
My core listener is interested in the area and the reason I say this is because she is rooted in the area. You do not have to be born and bred in a single community to be interested in it. That is an attribute that can equally apply to anyone who has settled in the area too. I’m sure you have heard the saying ‘putting down roots’ meaning settling down and living in one community. When that happens you become interested and involved in the day to day operation of that community. Everything from condition of the roads, crime levels, events, schools, local government, public services. Of course she is interested in everything that is going on nationally and globally too.
There is enough justification here for me to build a strong local news service on my station and be able to strongly promote my station as the leading provider of local news. I would aim to build my local news product to the extent that my core listener would rely on the station first to provide her with local news first. I would aim to own the number one position in her mind for local news provision. I would also provide national and global news every hour but would consider the local news provision would always remain the priority at peak times.
Music
Music on this station is important because it is the single most important tool to build a strong identity and an easy tool to use to capture and keep my core listener. My aim is simple and that is to be certain that my core listener (38 year old female) will love (not like) the music I play. I intend the radio station to take the number one position in her mind so that when she wants to listen to some good music she listens to my station first.
Our core listener is 38 years old and right in the middle of that common but unworkable target of 25 to 55. She was born in 1972 and became interest in music through the eighties and early nineties. The music from this era format the core of her music likes and any other forms or eras of music will be subconsciously compared to this time in her life. She has heard music from the seventies and likes some of it and is tolerant of the rest of it. She has a liking to for the music of the nineties too but has some reservations about it but she loves the big artists and the big hits.
There is enough justification here for me to build a specific music policy that is aimed at getting my core listener to become loyal to the station. My music policy will be represented by a simple statement ‘the music you love’. Two of the words used in this positioning statement happen to be the two strongest words in the English language according to those who study these things. ‘The music you love’ would consist of but not entirely limited to late 70′s 80′s and the best of the 90′s and would not include obscure tracks and certainly not remixes or cover versions.
So basically I have a station that is tightly focussed on a 38 year old female. The station would be focussed on ‘e local news you need and the music you love’. It is now very easy for me to manage any move up or down through the demographic scale at the appropriate time in the future. However, my station will not move from that position until I have firmly established a loyal audience within the stated target. Once I have achieved that I can build my overall format that will become attractive to both below and above my core audience as my radio brand becomes trusted. I can also strategically place specialist shows that will target specific areas of the demographic if I wish but if you are a programmer you will know that specialist shows need to be chosen carefully too.
I am certain that I will never be able to target a 25 year old and a 55 year old with the same brand (radio station product) and that is why it is ridiculous to say my station target audience is 25 to 55, you simply cannot do it and keep everybody happy all the time.
I would hold tight control of my programmes and presenters and protect my brand rigorously. If any presenter decided to work outside of the target audience on their own, they would have to deal with the consequences. The fact that on community radio they are volunteers does not matter. They must understand and keep to the format regardless. However if they understand and wish to build the brand with ideas and hard work on air that helps the station achieve its overall goals they would receive every encouragement and help to do so with access to ongoing training and development with a view to developing their overall career in radio.
While some stations consistently perform poorly. There is some very successful ones too. Stations of all sorts exist now that have to genuinely beat advertisers away with a stick. These are the very same community or local radio stations that have a cool, tight and attractive format that is rigorously controlled and implemented. The presenters sound intelligent, they clearly understand and know their audience and know how to keep them listening and listening for longer. It is no coincidence that the programmers in these stations do not take any nonsense on air from its presenters and that some investment, thought and planning has gone into deciding what these stations should sound like and getting presenters to implement that strategy.
Guess what… it works. There is clear brand identity and you can almost identify the audience the station is aimed at just by listening for a short time. I was offered a very good piece of programming advice from an eminent broadcaster in Ireland a few years ago. He said if he heard a station and could identify its name before he heard a station identification being played on air then it is also very likely that it was a clearly focussed station with a loyal audience. If you are a radio station programmer that is what you should be trying to achieve.
In conclusion, I urge you to recognise the innate intrusiveness of radio and what you can do to make your station successful by recognising this fact. We know people listen to radio. Your station success is based solely on your ability to get them to listen…to you.
Terry Doyle
Radio – The Intrusive Medium
terry@radiosolution.co.uk