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