"Up Your Ratings"
the monthly radio research and programming newsletter from Steve Casey Research.
September 2008
In This Edition:
We are focusing on:
Powerful Programming Ideas Series Continued
and
Testing Songs to Expand Your Music Library
Enjoy! And as always, your feedback is welcome.
"And if they love your programming, they will not see the changes as an improvement."
About Steve Casey Research
I want you to feel confident about your programming. My approach: Focus on learning what your listeners want and appreciate about your programming. We work with you to do essentially one thing: Ask better questions.
Of firms based in the USA, we are the most experienced in providing radio programming and research advice to the international broadcast community.
We've been honored to provide our help to exceptional broadcasting companies like TV2 Radio (Denmark), AMP (Malaysia), Cox (USA), NRJ Group (France), Chrysalis (UK), Start (France), Millennium (India), Primedia (South Africa, Israel), SBS (United States, Puerto Rico), SBS (Scandinavia, Romania, Greece), RMF (Poland), Prima (Romania), Clear Channel (USA), Virgin (Thailand and India) and dozens of great radio stations around the world.
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Testing Songs to Expand Your Music Library
One of the things we hope to accomplish through music research is to find new songs to add to the station's music library.
Unfortunately, too many programmers wait until the day they need to prepare the music test hook list and begin to panic.
Here are some guidelines that you may find helpful:
Primary Goal: Find Which Songs Are Working Now
A music test is best at telling you more about the songs you are already playing.
Guideline: Include all of the songs you have on-air currently that play more than twice a week.
There are a few formats for which that is difficult. In that case, at least include the best 300 or so songs.
For those stations working with music fit analysis, as we do at Steve Casey Research, be sure you are picking the songs that are best for your Pure Core format fans. If your research company has no music fit analysis and you are working with only mean scores, it will be difficult to continuously refine and improve your station. I suggest you switch to a research approach that tells you which songs work well together, and which respondents are true fans of your format.
Guideline for library-based formats like oldies, classic hits, adult hits and classic rock stations:
These formats will often play far more than the 600 or so titles tested in a typical AMT library music test. We've been dealing with that successfully for over 30 years. The answer: 900 to 1,200 title music tests. These must be conducted in two sessions with the same respondents. But experience has taught us how to manage them successfully. Don't cheat yourself and the potential of your radio station by trying to get by with a music test that doesn't tell you about more than a minority of your key music. Let us know if you need help.
Drop Them, But Don't Forget Them
To make room for new songs to test, you're going to have to let go of some songs. A little extra effort will make this process work much better. Here are some ideas:
Burn
Some titles with huge burn may safely be rested for an AMT. This is particularly true if the song is more of a novelty. But keep a list of all these songs. In the future, you'll be able to refer back to it and know why you haven't researched a song lately.
Weak Performance
Some titles simply don't test well. But even these might be revisited at some future time. Keep a list of the songs you don't retest for this reason. Again, you'll be able to refer back to it and know why you haven't researched a song lately.
Bad Fit
For stations with fit information, take advantage of your more complete understanding. If a song has a bad score and a bad fit, make a note. You'll very likely never need to test the song again.
But if the fit isn't too bad, you'll definitely want to cycle it back into the test list in the future.
Even a song with bad fit might be recyclable. If you change your target in some way, like moving the age range up by 5 years, then all songs will need to be reconsidered and sometimes retested.
Exercise Caution: Existing Listeners May Be Offended
When you change a station, even to make it better, you must be careful not to surprise people too much, too fast. The reason is what you would think it is: The people who are loyal to you today like what you are doing.
Even if there are more people who could like you, it will take time for them to discover you, appreciate your improvements, develop the habit of listening more, and (hopefully) become loyal to you. They have other stations that they are listening to now, and they don’t know that they should change and listen to you.
At the same time, your most loyal listeners will notice any changes immediately. And if they love your programming, they will not see the changes as an improvement.
Guideline: Add to your AMT no more than 200 songs that you don’t even play.
Although this is not a precise number, the principle is important. Control the number of songs in the test that you don't play. Be realistic about your current listeners' interest in songs you've never played. A music test is best at telling you more about the songs you are already playing.
The extra songs you test should all be songs that you believe in, based on your skill as a programmer and what you have learned about the music tastes of your listeners. Which are the most important discrete music clusters in the previous AMT? You should be prepared to play this music if it does well. Otherwise, it should not be tested.
The UpYourRatings Blog
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Sometimes You Need To Throw Them On The Air First
It is very difficult to test music before it is on the station and trust that you have the correct result. Music is good or bad in the context of the other music around it. That is why we now look so closely at music fit and at where the center of the music sound is. You will want everything to fit together well. Because music has more or less value for one station or another, you must sometimes add a song, play it for 3 to 6 months, then test it in an AMT. Of course, you want the songs you select to be very smart candidates for big popularity.
You don’t want to play them as Powers until you can test them, and you don’t want to add too many new songs to the station programming all at the same time.
Powerful Programming Ideas
Present the Music for Your Library Music Test
Part 10: Build Your Music Test 'Hooks'
This is one in a series of articles that expand on my white paper Powerful Programming Ideas presented to the delegates at the 2007 NAB European Radio Conference in Barcelona. You can click here for a copy.
Tip 1: Prepare the hooks in groups of 100 songs.
This will create natural break points. This will give respondents a chance to clear their thoughts. A useful technique is to include some questions at these natural breaks that explore the respondents' thoughts about other aspects of your programming.
Tip 2: Don't try to teach people the songs. Hooks that are too long will create boredom and a less attentive group.
Experience over the 34 years that radio stations have done music research have proven that short hooks work much better than long hooks. Remember, the idea is to simply spark a memory of the song. They don't rate the hook. They rate the song that they remember.
Tip 3: Hooks should average about 7 seconds. A block of 100 hooks should play back in 13-15 minutes.
Don't assume. Time your hooks in advance of the music test.
Tip 4: Create the hooks this way: voice the number of the hook, play the hook, and leave a 1/2 second pause. Don't repeat numbers. For a 600 title AMT, number the hooks from 1 to 600.
One of the disadvantages of the "dial" methodology as it is usually implemented is that the hooks are not numbered. It is very reassuring to the listeners that they can chart their progress through the evening because the hooks are numbered.
Tip 5: If you have your hooks professionally produced, we have been very satisfied with the work done by Hooks Unlimited.
Their web site is www.Hooks.com
This newsletter is free. And you are free to share it and any of the ideas included here. If you have questions, ideas for articles, or something to say to the world about programming research, please let us know.
Corrections and Additions: If you need us to make a change to your name or email address, or if there are others you'd like us to add to the list of those getting these research and programming ideas, please let us know. We'll be happy to make changes and include new friends.