June 27, 2022 – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

Programming Beyond the Music Determines Stations’ Success or Failure for Better Audience Appeal

By BILL GAVIN
Billboard Contributing Editor

AS SOME OF OUR READERS have already surmised, I am not a columnist by profession. Nor, if I may point on the obvious, am I even a writer. Aside from this weekly excursion. I devote most of my time advising and consulting with a number of radio stations in the U. S. and Canada, trying to assist them toward higher ratings and bigger profits.

It is necessary to present this personal preamble to explain that in the course of my work I am constantly faced with the problem of adapting program policies and plans to meet competitive situations in various cities. In no two cities are the problems the same. A policy or formula that will work in one place usually falls short in another.

Broadcasters are notoriously label-prone. They want to put a name tag on every policy. They use such names as “Top 40,” “Chicken 40,” “Rhythm and Blues,” “All Talk,” “Good Music,” “Town and Country,” and so on. Unfortunately, none of these tags accurately describes a specific program operation any more. Modern radio has brought unlimited variations to each classification.

THIS IS WHY SO OFTEN WE find the manager of a good music station (for example) that is not snaking the grade, thinking in terms of a switch to a top 40 policy. The same kind of confused thinking often prevails when the lagging top 40 operation switches to good music, or to some completely different program approach. Such abrupt policy reversals may prove highly successful; others may compound disaster. It is entirely possible that key adjustments within a general program policy may bring the desired improvements.

Top 40 programming for instance, is no longer a projection of local record sales plus a few picks. Recent developments have attracted attention to such variations as the all-request survey, the tight playlist, controlled frequency of plays, distributor sales surveys, etc. Upgrading of production, promotion and /or program personnel may provide the key to a brighter future.

In the field of good music (an inaccurate term which I use with some reluctance), there is usually a great deal of room for improvement. A program director, in his determination to avoid a “top 40″ sound, often turns his back on many pop hits that fit perfectly into his established pattern. Or, if they are on his playlist, they are played too infrequently to be of any great value. In selecting his music, he consults his own ear rather than relying on the proven audience appeal of certain singles and LP’s. Commercial standards for music selection work just as successfully for good music stations as for top 40’s.

TRENDS IN COUNTRY/WESTERN, and also in R&B, show that many successful stations in these fields have adopted the bright pacing and crisp production characteristics of top 40 operations. In their music, the disk jockey’s choice is being replaced by the people’s choice.

A small but growing number of stations are using the phone as a program tool. Some invite their listeners to phone for their favorite music. Others solicit phone votes on new records. A few stations have experimented successfully with putting their phone callers on the air with their comments and questions concerning subjects of common interest. Some phone interviews are taped and edited for special feature programming, not only as a part of the news, but more broadly as a matter of human interest. While there is no central formula for using the phone in broadcasting, the persistent success of this technique in various cities makes us conclude that by involving listeners directly in our programming, we are attracting and entertaining a larger audience.

With all the newer devices and techniques of modern radio, its great common denominator continues to be recorded music. The infinite variety of musical sounds and styles available on records defies rigid classification. This makes communication difficult at times when it is necessary to discuss music policy. Even among professional radio people, one encounters differences in interpreting such terms as jazz, good music and (of all things) rock ‘n’ roll.

EACH MUSICAL SELECTION THAT goes on the air is somewhat like a beam of light, illuminating a certain segment of the audience according to its breadth and intensity. The general type of music determines the breadth of appeal; the depth with which it penetrates is determined by its popular appeal — often referred to as “hit potential.”

Communication becomes somewhat easier when we discuss music in terms of listener reaction. Given a specific segment of musical tastes on which to focus our musical beams of light, it is then up to the programmer to achieve the depth of penetration necessary to build good ratings.