A programmer I greatly respect who oversees multiple stations in a major PPM market theorizes that the reason why rock formats do so well in metered measurement comes down to a simple thing: the songs are a minute or two longer + the guys who love them don't want to miss a single note of these soundtracks of their lives, driving them to listen a minute or two longer on average at every listening occasion to the stations which play them.
Personally, I suspect that there is more to it than that, but as someone who spends seven days a week trying to convince air talent to never waste a second, bring every bit of passion, prep, concentration and execution excellence from the instant they crack the microphone until they turn it off, it is an example I'll use a lot.
In diary ratings measurement, of course, the audience behaves exactly the same way but we've never been able to measure it so discretely.
If you're not ready with something creative and compelling to say, having practiced it to be sure it comes off flawlessly natural, play as long of a song as it takes until you're completely ready to be nothing but your very best.
7 years ago
2 comments:
Oldies plays the shortest songs in Portland, and it looks like PPM is treating us pretty well too.
So, it has to be driven by what the quality of what's between the songs as well.
I had to smile because I get sooooo much flack for practicing breaks with the morning show before we actually air it.
We have Scott Studios & I put voice tracs in every break for the morning show so we can practice the breaks before we actually do them.
Never fails that the first time we do the break someone including me goes off on something that is so undisciplined.
There are even times that the voice tracked breaks go so good that we let them roll plus I can add production to the break that I would not of been able to do during a live break.
I work with a young lady who is still pretty green but has ALOT of potential & is very hungy & I also work with a jaded news & sports guy (The listeners love his character) & when we rehearse breaks I can go into teaching mode & really explain how to make the break even better.
We are not and probably never will be in a PPM market but being old school I was trained to get in & get out.
I remember the days of coming down the down ramp of a song & up the intro of a Mountain Dew commercial....PPM is telling us that those who programmed back in the 70's & early 80's really knew what they were talking about.
NEVER waste a break!!!!! Always be on your game!!!! Be compelling even if you only have a :03 second intro.(those were always my favorite because all you had to do was say your call letters is a real cool way & smack the shit out of the post.)
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