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 :)