The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - The Third “M”: Meetings (Imaging)

Okay... So what did Keith mean by the 3rd "M" - Meetings (Imaging)???

Well.. he meant to say that constant meetings with the teams are required to get the station's Imaging right.
OK.. So... Imaging?? What Imaging?? (That was my question.. dont worry if you have the same question while reading this.. :p )

Well.. Imaging is everything that goes on air apart from the music... Yes Everything (of course includes the spots too)
Its the station's attitude.. Its the stations persona.. Its a reflection of what you are..!! And I'm serious here.. !

Station imaging creates a perception, meaning that listeners see a station as being old, young, serious, or cool.
It reinforces all aspects of the radio format, builds images, and highlights USPs.
I can play latest music first, but when I don’t say that I do, people usually don’t realize it.
They either like the music, or they don’t.

Interestingly, radio production is actually not consciously heard by listeners.
Radio is not a source of active entertainment.. Unlike television, you dont have to sit and watch.. with focus. It happens in the back of you mind.. subcontious mind.
So... Even the Station imaging is consumed subcontiously and is consumed emotionally more than consciously and rationally.
The production plays an important role in the overall listening experience.
Well.. almost every link includes a sound design element, and all parts of the station’s jingle and promos include the sound color (usually with a distinctive logo melody) of the brand.

So why should you concentrate on the imaging bit??
Well here are 5 reasons:-

1. Makes station tangible (adds emotional component)
2. Builds radio station images (best music, funniest comedy, local news)
3. Identifies radio brand (recognizable musical logo)
4. Communicates station benchmarks (new music, cult hit, current promotion)
5. Establishes brand perception (cool, serious, personal, distant)

So How to do it the right way?? Well.. not rocket science...

1. Pick One Clear Message
The positioning statement should be simple, clear and repeated often both on the air and off. and what it should be?? Well thats how you want your station to be perceived or consumed by your audience.

2. Talk to the Listener
Well.. yesss... talk to your audience from their point of view.
THEIR Point of view.. Remember that... Nobody cares how many thousands of watts your transmitter is or that your music library is packed with 4 decades of great songs. Tell them something that’s important to them.

3. Be Relevant
Thats easy... If it’s mango season, that should be a part of your imaging.
If the potholes in your market are big enough to swallow up a SUV, that should also be a part of your imaging.
Your imaging should reflect the world that your listeners are living in.. Thats all..!

4. Get to the Point
Well.. Yeah.. Its a fact.. The listeners are not as into your radio station as you are...and unlike most of us radio people they actually have a life.
Don’t waste their time with a long winded message. And that’s all.. You're done :)

5. Produce to Support the Message
Think of imaging production as a way of bolding, underlining, italicizing, adding “punctuation” to what your announcer is saying.
Dont let your production guy work too hard to give you a masterpiece that is sheer awesomeness in production,, but has somewhere lost the message..

Hmmm.. But...

There are a lot of other things that one needs to take care.. Most of them being the flow of events in the log.. Below are a few:-

• Its all about the flow.. Imaging or music.. Its all a package (eg 1)
• Jingles are music, do not use them between songs in any song sweeps (eg 2)
• Always have a swoosh or some transition on either end of a song sweeper eg 3)
• Always have a natural voice do your stationality.. You are not selling your property on another platform.. you are in your house.. act like an insider. (eg 4)
• Always cross promote your shows.. its free advertising for a product.. You charge outside people for the same thing.. Use your internal resources.(eg 5)
• No Idea is small.. Just believe in it.. be with your conviction ..and BINGO.. you usually hit the right button.. :) (eg 6)

So.. the eg's or Examples.. 

Well I live in New Delhi, India. and handle 17 stations accross the country in my current role.. so these would be from this small repertoire of my exposure.

• eg 1.. Hmmm.. flow.. As I write, there is only one station to mention here, 92.7 BIG FM (Delhi). The jingles, the music, the sweeps.. the jocktalk.. all gel and blend into each other sooo much that it feels like butter to the ear.. Smooth. Tarun Katial and team really experimented to get this right I know.. There used to be regular changes in the stations sound every 2-3 weeks.. and now that they got it.. they have just sustained it for almost 6 months.
• eg 2.. Okay.. Here it is Fever 104. All they have in between songs is Just a whisper that says "Fever". Now thats called zero inturruption transition.. :)
• eg 3.. Well 93.6 Red FM has that... You transit to an uptempo to a mid tempo song without feeling the jerk.
• eg 4.. I would give this one to Hit 95 FM Delhi.. There simply is no fake sounding voice that talks to the listener.
• eg 5.. Now in current scenario, this one also goes to 92.7 Big FM. Well.. I heard some people from the industry saying they have gone to sound what AIR used to sound 20 yrs back.. they broadcast their FPC for the day... Well.. I say wwhy not?? They're just calling people to attend another show that might be of interest.. (And we know that their numbers are constantly increasing hour by hour :p)
• eg 6.. Well.. Here I would say 94.3 MY FM. We just did something that never happened before. We did an independence day show accross borders. A Borderless Radio. The show happened on 14th and 15th August (Independence Days for Pakistan & India). It was simulcasted in both countries.. Co-Hosted by jocks from each country. And had artists from both countries on air with the jocks. Now why i say believe?? Well the idea when popped up by the creative head.. was negated by almost everyone in the programming team. But the CEO believed in it and supported the creative head. Together they got to acomplish a record breaking and award winning concept.

So I end here...
With the words.. "Believe In Yourself"

More to come..
Stay Tuned :)

Previous posts (The series):-
The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - The Second “M”: MORNINGS
The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - The First “M”: MUSIC
The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - Introduction

The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - The Second “M”: MORNINGS

So... What do I have in store here??

Well thats a question a radio programmer should ask himself while thinking of the Morning/ Breakfast show.

A veteran radio professional mentioned it aptly.. “The morning show is a product within a product. Its the flagship show that needs complete attention at all times.”
To reach to the top rating amongst other competition, you must win the battle for listeners’ minds and the best opportunity to do so is when most people decide to turn on a radio and that is, in the morning...
It is the quality of your morning product that makes them listen and if that is poor then …sorry, you lose!
Listeners become loyal to a radio station in a number of different ways, but their first experience of the station is probably going to be the morning show. If that show is weak then your station is weak.

Consider yourself as a listener, early morning when you wake up and are relaxing.. trying to get off the sleep mode and also recapping onto what all you need to do during the day, If you tune to a radio while having your early morning tea.. you would surely switch stations to search for what matches your mood at that time...
And wherever you stick to.. you probably would tune the same station on your way to work.. and also at any other time you get the chance to listen to radio during the day.
So its important to fix the first possible interaction of a listener... that’s where the numbers are.

So what is the secret behind a great morning show?
Shandy Bannerjee, Another one of my mentors and guide, told me this simple fact..
Surprisingly, there is no great secret to a successful morning show.



Listeners everywhere and those within the industry usually expect it to include music, news, traffic updates etc. but your morning show must have something extra though ita a bit difficult to pinpoint the features of a morning show that is most likely to succeed in a crowded market.

Music is 80% of the product and that is taken care by the policies and rules that your music manager puts into the broadcast system.
The rest 20% is more crucial... Thats why you have a whole team to produce a show and just one music manager to line up the whole day's music.

I remember from the words of another senior, that there are four things a morning show must have to succeed.

1. It must have an agenda. Now that surely needs to be innovative and it must be topical, bright, informative and fun (not funny). 
2. The presentation. The captain of the ship is the person who presents the show. Experience, local knowledge and a good intellect allowing the presenter to sound credible and believable when talking about stuff on-air are the key personality traits needed. 
3. Music policy is critical for the morning time band and a good programmer would ensure proper music management within the morning show. I would repeat here that music takes up a large percentage of your output, and although your song count per hour may be lower on morning that in other day segments, what you do play must be tightly managed to achieve your goal. 
4. Simple value adds to the content are the best thing. "Simple" is the word here. Nitin at 93.5 Red FM used to do a segment called "Paper Padho". It was nothing but reading the headlines off a newspaper, yet was really involving and informative. A simple value add.. J

I remember reading somewhere, the words of the veteran Mark Story: "Producers have to be critical friend of the presenter, conduct frequent brainstorming sessions and try to find that one slot where the presenter was able to connect to the listeners and engaged the listener at a human level,"

Also the imaging plays a key role.. Would be talking about that in my next post about the 3rd "M"

Until then..
Stay Tuned. :)


Previous Posts:-
The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - The First “M”: MUSIC
The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - Introduction

Happy Belated 75th Birthday - Indian Radio

Well... I did not write about this on the "D" day purposely and waited for 10 days to do this.
Reason is practical... I belong to the industry and the industry in itself was not wanting to do anything on this.
Or probably not even aware.. Sad :(

23rd of July this year marked 75 years of Indian radio.
The first Radio Broadcast in India happened on 23rd July 1927 in Bombay (Now Mumbai)

As per the wikipedia page for AIR:-
In British India, broadcasting began in July 1927 with programmes by the Radio Club of Bombay and other radio clubs. According to an agreement of 1926, the private Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC) was authorized to operate two radio stations; the Bombay station began on 23 July 1927, and the Calcutta station followed on 26 August 1927.

Now the question is...
That the radio stations in the country end up doing a big ticket activity. (3 days to a week minimum) on the World Music Day.
As I posted in my last post.. its not the World "Music Day" but the "World Music" Day.
i.e. Its about a genre of music called "World Music" and not the Day for the World to celebrate Music in general.

So where are we heading?? What are we giving out to the masses.

I believe that if a show presenter pronounces a word wrong, then at least 10 people would change their pronunciation of that word thinking that this was the correct one.

In  such situations... are we headed the right way??

Please do leave your comments :)

World Music Day - Significant or Not ??

So..

Guess everyone's through with celebrating the "World Music Day".

We played songs.. we did a lot of stuff on air... we were rocking!!!
Thats what everyone in radio would be thinking... Even in other media...And the clubbers too!!! Isn't it?
Yess.. you were rocking!!!

But... Did anyone of you actually try to understand the significance of the so called MUSIC DAY for the WORLD???
Did any of you ever googled it and read through the first few results??

NO....!!!!  Right??

Let me tell you what it actually means...

One origin of the term was the initiation of World Music Day (Fête de la Musique) in 1982 in France.
World Music Day has been celebrated on 21 June every year since then.

The Fête de la Musique, also known as World Music Day, is a music festival taking place on June 21.

Its a festival where a specific genre of music called World Music is celebrated.
It is not a day where music is celebrated as a whole.

What??? But we thought it was the 'WORLD' Music Day??
Now thats the expression you have reading this right??

Well yess... You were wrong...
Its not the  'WORLD' Music Day... but the  'WORLD MUSIC' Day..!!

So what is World Music??
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre.
In the classic definition, world music is the traditional music or folk music of a culture that is created and played by indigenous musicians and is closely related to the music of the regions of their origin.
The term was originally intended for ethnic-specific music, though globalization is expanding its scope; it now often includes hybrid sub-genres such as World fusion,Global fusion, Ethnic fusion and Worldbeat.

WESTERN RADIO AND WORLD MUSIC
Interestingly... World music radio programs these days often play African hip hop or reggae artists, crossover Bhangra and Latin American jazz groups, etc. Common media for world music include Public radio, webcasting, the BBC, NPR, and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

There also are awards...
The BBC Radio 3 Awards for world music was an award given to world music artists between 2002 and 2008, sponsored by BBC Radio 3. The award was thought up by fRoots magazine's editor Ian Anderson, inspired by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Award categories included: Africa, Asia/Pacific, Americas, Europe, Mid East and North Africa, Newcomer, Culture Crossing, Club Global, Album of the Year, and Audience Award. Initial lists of nominees in each category were selected annually by a panel of several thousand industry experts. In March 2009, the BBC made a decision to axe the BBC Radio 3 Awards for world music.

In response to the BBC's decision to end its awards program, the British world music magazine Songlines launched the Songlines Music Awards in 2009 "to recognise outstanding talent in world music".

The WOMEX (The World Music Expo) Award was first introduced in 1999 to honor the high points of world music on an international level and to acknowledge musical excellence, social importance, commercial success, political impact and lifetime achievement.[32] Every October at the WOMEX event, the award figurine - an ancient mother goddess statue dating back about 6000 years to the Neolithic age - is presented in an award ceremony to a worthy member of the world music community

So...
This is what the WORLD MUSIC DAY is about..
And what did we think/ do??

So as the old Indian saying goes... "Dil ko behlaane ke liye Ghalib... Khayaal achha hai.." :p Hahahahahahahahaha.....!!!!!!!!!


Stay Tuned... :)

The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - The First “M”: MUSIC

So what does music mean to the Radio business??

We all know the terms “Its 70% of the product” or “its 80% of the product”
Well… what do we understand from that?

Hmmm.. in simple words if we see commercial radio as a product that sells like any other commodity, the ingredients list would be as below.

• Music:- 82% 
• Humor:- 1.5% 
• Presenter’s Talk:- 1.5% 
• Interstitial:- 1.5% 
• Branding (Station Elements):- 1.5% 
• Others (Value adds):- 2% 
• Advertising:- 10% 

So.. Music is the main ingredient. A listener tunes to radio to listen to his favorite songs.
And that is true.

In case of radio in India, the advertising space allocated is a minimum of 12 minutes per hour.. That means 20% . all other stuff is the same... So music is 70%

Yes the presenter plays a big role too.. If you carefully see, the presenter always talks before the ad break starts. It’s a universal format. But did anyone ever think why only at this place?
Well a synonym for a presenter is “Host” similarly it is “Anchor”. What does an anchor do for a ship?
It holds the ship in place… Just like that the presenter needs to hold the listeners through the ad break.
Anyways.. Back to the topic… Music is the main ingredient.

Lately…
The management teams of any and every radio station in India are usually found saying this one sentence to the programming teams..
“Lets tweak our music in this city if we really want to beat the competition. Afterall its 80% of the product.”

So they end up looking at what the competition is playing and try to make their playlist similar, with a little tweaks to make it sound a bit different than the other station.

Now… The competition station comes to know that station X has changed their music.
They end up tweaking their own sound with regards to the little differentiator that station X had kept to ensure they do not sound like station Y completely.

And now the 3rd competitor comes to know that X & Y both changed… They look at their playlists…. Change accordingly and here again a differentiator is applied.

And so the station X now changes again looking at station Z change…. And then station Y does… and the cycle goes on… and on… and on…!! Well… competition you see.. ;)

Another of my mentors Kartik Kalla just gave me two rules to keep in mind when programming music for a station:-

• Pulse of the city
• Sound of the station 

Well any good music manager would know how to go by these two rules and succeed.
Let competition follow you… You started it… You gain the first mover’s advantage always.

The key to successful radio programming is consistency, not constant change based on competition.

Baba Ranchod Daas keh gaye the.. “beta kaabil bano… kaamyaabi to jhak maar ke peechhe aayegi”

But yahaan to race lagi hai… otherwise you will be a “Broken Anda”.

In our industry today, everyone is running their station based on Trial & Error.
Stations change formats every few months.

Well.. tell me something.. If a guest at your function did not like the Italian menu how can you be sure that he would like Thai food? Or vice a versa… If he liked Italian that you served, How can you be sure that he probably liked the Thai your competitor served more than your Italian food.???

The trouble is there is no conviction.
Managements do not trust the judgments of their employees. Well if you don’t trust them.. you don’t trust yourself… coz you hired them right??
Well you want numbers in a research that is done by a third party right? Trust your first party employees to work on it. They have to justify their salaries too.. so they will. But then there is no time.. so simply copy the competition. The competition is no less… they are doing the same.. copy you!

Who’s copying whom, god knows..
Who’s at loss, is the big question!

Any change no matter how small or big takes a minimum of 3 months to register into a listeners mind.
It would take an average human another month after that to react to it.
And organizations today nullify a change based on a research conducted 3 weeks after it was effected.

Any research with regards to any change in the music (or anything that relates to the station’s sound) should be done post 5 months after the change.
Here’s the maths.

• 1 month: for your own teams to digest and perfect it.
• 3 months: for the listeners to register it.
• 1 Month: for the listeners to actually come to a point where they can react to it.

Station’s loyalty is not built overnight. Check out the stations abroad.
Most of them probably have not changed formats for years.

Didn’t want to name stations in India, but Fever (Delhi) and City (Mumbai) are examples of having gained leads due to only one reason… Consistency & Patience.

Its not rocket science.

• Decide upon your stations sound. 
• Pick music accordingly keeping the pulse of the city in mind. 
• And stay put… Wait… Wait for 5-6 months for the results to show up. 
• Yes… tweak your stationality/ Humor capsules/ Jack-talk.. Everything as fine as possible to support the sound. 

And you’re done.

After six months, if you don’t see results.. Trust me you never followed the steps my mentor gave and I shared here.

In india.. we still remember Aamin Sayani’s show that started way back when AIR was Radio Cylon and lasted until the first few private radio stations came to existence. Why? Because it was consistent.

There is no good or bad music strategy. There are good or bad music policies. Keep your strategy alive for at least 6 months. It sure would be a great policy.

A clear, straight and structured approach is the most easiest and effective way.
The only thing to remember is that you will NEVER see results overnight.
Rome was not built overnight… nor was the BBC or the other top radio stations.

Would be posting about the second “M” soon.

Stay tuned :)

Previous Posts:-
The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - Introduction

The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - Introduction

So...

My mentor Keith Fowler, came up to my desk one day.
Suddenly picked up a pen and a pad.
Scribbled something on the pad…
Tore the page and pinned it to the board in front of me.

It Read:-

The Three “M”s of programming-

1. Music (80% product)
2. Mornings (Breakfast)
3. Meetings (Imaging)

All he did was pin this up, and go back to his cabin…
Keeping me thinking what is it that he wanted to tell me.

Well…

Next time he came up and asked me what I figured out.
My reply was simple as an excited student.. “I need you to elaborate”.
So he sat next to me and explained it all.

Now when I am much experienced into the industry, I wonder how I would have reacted to various challenges had he not put up that small slip on my desk.

I really want to share that knowledge here and so would be explaining what each one is all about in my next 3 posts.

Stay Tuned.
Sumeet

Radio Basics- Introduction to radio formats

Broadcasting by radio takes several forms.
These include AM and FM stations.
There are several subtypes, namely commercial broadcasting, non-commercial educational (NCE) public broadcasting and non-profit varieties as well as community/campus radio stations can be found throughout the world

Radio Formats:-
Here's a list of radio formats that I could gather from the internet-

Active rock
Adult album alternative (or just adult alternative) (AAA or Triple-A)
Adult contemporary music (AC)
Adult standards / nostalgia (pre-rock)
Adult hits / variety hits
Album rock / album-oriented rock (AOR)
Alternative rock
Americana
Beautiful music
Big band
Bluegrass
Blues
Caribbean (reggae, soca, merengue, cumbia, salsa, etc.)
Children's
Christmas music (usually seasonal, mainly December)
Classic hits
Classic rock
Classical
College radio
Comedy
Contemporary Christian (which is also known as CCM)
Contemporary hit radio (CHR), occasionally still informally known as top-40 / hot hits
Contemporary classical music
Country music
New country/Young country
Classic country
Dance (dance top-40)
Eclectic
Ethnic/International
Educational
Experimental
Folk music
Full-service (talk and variety music)
freeform radio (DJ-selected)
Hot adult contemporary (Hot AC)
Hispanic rhythmic
Indian music
Jazz
Lite adult contemporary (Lite AC)
Mainstream rock
middle of the road (MOR)
Modern adult contemporary (Modern AC)
Modern rock
All-news radio
Oldies - Primarily 1955-early '80s pop music
Progressive rock
Psychedelic rock
Quiet Storm (most often a "day-part" format at Urban Stations, i.e. 7p-12 midnight,)
Radio documentary
Radio drama
Ranchera
Regional Mexican (Banda, corridos, ranchera, conjunto, mariachi, norteño, etc.)
Rhythmic adult contemporary
Rhythmic contemporary (Rhythmic Top 40)
Rhythmic oldies
Rock
Rock en español
Romántica (Spanish AC)
Smooth jazz
Soft adult contemporary (soft AC)
Soft rock
Soul music
Space music
Sports
Talk radio
Traditional pop music
Tropical (salsa, merengue, cumbia, etc.)
Urban
Variety
World music



To my belief, in India we only have seen three formats... AC, CHR & for a while Talk Radio (Meow 104.8FM)

There probably are more variations developing every day... but these are some videly used formats.

Music... The right one can be good... But the wrong one can damage your ear.. TRUE

Hey people
Watch this interesting video..
Its an eye opener..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSwLeLdkYjs