THE “MPR’S” OF PROGRAMMING

PART 22: A FINAL REVIEW

On February 12, 1999 the first installment of the MPRs of Programming  series ran here in the Album Network. After almost two and a half years and 21 installments, I present a final review of the key highlights of this nuts and bolts look at programming basics.

Several years back I developed this checklist in order to help effectively manage and direct the programming of a radio station. I used this organizational process as a Program Director and most recently as a consultant working with my radio clients.

I arranged these MPR’s alphabetically in order of their programming priorities: the M’s are Music, Morning Show, and Marketing with the silent M’s of Management/Morale; the P’s are Promotion, Production/Positioning and Personalities; the R’s are Research, Ratings, and Revenue.

This checklist can be used as a programmer’s primer in helping to focus attention on the basic programming priorities necessary to keep your station on the right track.

THE  THREE M’S:

The three M’s are the first on the priority checklist because of their overall importance to the success of a radio station. Over the years these three M’s have become sort of a mantra in dealing with the real important programming issues at a radio station. Let’s look at these elements individually, beginning with the all important first “M”:

Music:

With the obvious exception of programming a news/talk station, the music is the most important element of your radio station. Therefore, a well-focused music product should be your #1 programming priority. Focus your time in making sure your music is on target for your key demo.

A great starting point is developing your station’s artist benchmark list….basically the artist’s you’d put up on your station’s imaginary Mt. Rushmore if you had the chance to showcase them to your audience.

How often do you analyze your station’s basic music programming elements?

As a general rule, you should regularly review the music logs, rotations, and clocks for both your current and master library lists with your music director and consultant.

Morning Show:

Beyond the music, the quality of your morning show is critical because this is radio’s prime time. The importance of this time period and the lack of quality local morning shows has spawned a proliferation of syndicated morning shows over the last several years.

If your station isn’t running a syndicated morning show, you need to set aside ample time with your local morning team. How productive are your meetings? Has your morning show developed a point of view and a solid image that the audience can get a handle on? Has your morning show formed the all-important “emotional connection” with their listener’s?

Once you’ve established the basic formatics of the show, you’ll need to review their content, relatability, and topical quotient on a regular basis. And remember the two key elements necessary for the success of a morning show beyond the talent…..great chemistry and a solid work ethic.

Marketing:

Once you’ve effectively focused your music product and have an impactful morning show in tow, it’s time to go to marketing. Creative marketing is a critical factor in helping your radio station cut through the clutter in it’s competition with the other radio stations in the market and other forms of media, including TV, print, and the increasingly popular Internet.

You need to decide on the best way to market your radio station. Do you use TV, billboards, bus boards, or print? Have you tried non-traditional marketing methods, like tele-marketing or a slick new Web site? How effective is your station’s marketing in keeping it top-of-mind with it’s listener’s?

The most critical marketing decision you may have to make is when to market your product. The key adage to keep in mind is don’t market your radio station until you feel everything is on target, particularly the music and morning show. Marketing a less-than-stellar product can do more harm than good.

Management/Morale (the silent M’s):

While I believe that the successful programming of the first three M’s- a well-focused music product, a successfully entertaining morning show, and a creatively effective marketing plan- contribute about 75% to the overall success of your radio station, there are two more M’s that should be silently added to these first three.

Great management leads to positive morale…intangibles that fuel the success of any radio station. Conversely, poor management hurts station morale and can hinder the success of a radio station, even if it’s mastered the first three M’s.

What are you doing as a programmer to successfully manage your station’s morale? Is communication with your staff a one-sided conversation or a two-sided dialogue? Are you truly a program “director” or more of a program “dictator”? Do you park your ego at the door or does it run rampant throughout the building?

Another key element in effectively managing people is the ability to take responsibility for one’s actions….both positive and negative. Finally, creating a management mission statement for your radio station is an effective way of enlisting your employees and encouraging them to work toward the same goals.

THE P’s:

Once you’ve attempted to master the M’s listed above, your programming priorities should focus on the P’s. let’s look at these individually a bit more in-depth:

Promotion:

While marketing is primarily an off-the-air function designed to get listeners to sample your radio station, promotions are what stations use on-the-air to get listener’s to stay and  listen longer.

There are five basic promotion rules you should keep in mind when doing any promotion-keep the promotion simple, give the audience many chances to win, build a consistent and accessible promotion easy to participate with, make it fun, and strive to create a benchmark.

Beyond these promotion basics, what kinds of promotions are you doing to keep your listeners tuned in for longer periods of time? Is there a healthy balance of TSL (Time Spent Listening) and cume-driven promotions? Are you doing programming-driven promotions with true “listener benefits,” or is your station primarily filled with sales-driven promotions?

Production/Positioning:

I usually group these two P’s together because in most cases they go hand-in-hand- great production enhances a station’s positioning and a solid positioning handle lends itself to creative production. Some of the greatest stations in the nation excel at “stationality”….combining exciting production elements with positioning statements that effectively image the product.

You should regularly analyze your station’s production….both promos and commercials. You should also strive for great quality control in all your production elements including the creative writing. Finally, make sure your station’s positioning statements work to define your image in the market.

Personalities:

Outside of mornings, the rest of the personalities on your radio station are important factors in contributing to the ultimate success of the product. These are your troops. If you’ve put together a quality game plan, their execution is critical.

Have your personalities work on these on-air basics….the basics of voice quality and projection, selling the music, station, and themselves, being relatable, and having fun. With these basics in mind, you should consistently monitor your talent with regular air check sessions.

Beyond the basics, how do your personalities effect the overall sound and image of the radio station? What other ways do you keep your airstaff motivated?

THE R’S:

After the effective programming focus of the M’s and P’s, your station’s ultimate report card is measured by the R’s. Let’s review these individually in more detail.

Research:

Most of your initial programming decisions in the M’s and P’s should come from your gut. Research is the gauge to see if  your decisions are working with your audience; it’s their chance to tell you what music they like or don’t like, and what they think of your radio station and the rest of the market.

There are two basic forms of radio research: music and perceptual. The current music is best tested by weekly call-out and the library music by auditorium or living room music tests. Perceptual research tests a station’s image and programming elements beyond the music. The two basic forms of perceptual research are “live” focus groups or “telephone” perceptual studies.

Key research decisions are critical to the success of any radio station. How effective are your station’s research efforts? Are you doing the right forms of research? Do you consistently work with the same research companies or do you seek out new opinions?

Ratings:

This is the ultimate programmer’s report card. Despite the archaic diary system used to compile the Arbitron ratings report, which sometimes leads to sampling methodology wobbles, over several trends and books the law of statistics usually evens things out. You should take the ratings at face value and use them as another research tool.

How is your station performing in it’s target demos and in key dayparts? Pay particular attention to cume and TSL trends as well as the Average Quarter Hour (AQH) and Cume Composition of your radio station. Also, check out your station’s Cume Duplication to see how much audience you share with your market competition and vice versa.

Revenue:

This really is the bottom line. All of the MPR’s listed above eventually filter down to the revenue. While a programmer’s priorities should focus on the M’s, then the P’s, most GM’s and Sales Manager’s primary focus is on this particular R.

As a programmer, you should never lose sight of the ultimate fruits of your programming efforts. Focusing your work on the quality of the M’s and P’s should lead to successful ratings and revenue.

So there you have it…..a final review of a tangible programming check list which should help you focus on the priorities of programming your radio station on a daily basis. The MPR’s of Programming has worked wonders for me and the station’s I’ve worked with. With some hard work and a little luck, they should work for you as well!