Programming exec super session
highlights talent, music, technology
At the NAB Radio Show Programming Executive Super Session yesterday moderated by consultant and former Infinity Radio President Dan Mason, five panelists touched on some very valuable tips in recruiting talent, working with PDs, the future of terrestrial formats with HD-2 and what PPM will bring to the table for programmers. The panelists included:
Beverlee Brannigan, Operations Manager, Journal Broadcast Group
Bob Moody, Vice President of Programming, Regent Communications
Jimmy Steal, Vice President of Programming, Emmis Communications
Bill Tanner, consultant and former Executive Vice President of Programming, Spanish Broadcasting Systems
Doc Wynter, Vice President, Urban Programming, Clear Channel Communications
Answering the question, How do you recruit talent?, Steal noted, "Often times, Emmis has found a lot of success outside of radio...It's easier to teach somebody to be disc jockey than to teach them to be funny or compelling...Big Boy at Power 106 in LA had never cracked a microphone in his life. Our all-night crew aren't even disc jockeys, they're mixers. If you're at a party or a mall or a club and you see someone successfully holding court in front of people who are congregating, that's a talent and skill we need in radio."
Said Brannigan, on working with talent: "It's about focusing on their talents and managing their weaknesses. I'm astonished how few PDs take the time to air check weekly or more frequently with their air talent. And to make sure they're continuing to bring to the table the talents you hired them for."
When asked what new formats HD Radio multicasting (HD-2) my bring to some markets, Moody said "Ideally we would have in each market the diverse choice that people find on satellite radio, but with local content and local personalities. But I think we have to be careful. If you're on a national platform like XM or Sirius with an entire nation of listeners to draw from, you can justify, perhaps, a Folk music channel. But doing that in an individual market, it's not going to be such a good idea-we have to find things that will be commercially viable. Whereas I would love to have a station in my town of Nashville that plays all bagpipes all the time, but I think that's going to be a difficult sell."
On training new PDs, Wynter mentioned at CC Radio, since 2001, his PDs attend large meetings, with topics such as sitting in with Selector experts, managing difficult talent, dealing with legal issues such as protecting the station's license. "We do this on an annual basis with our Urban stations, and Clear Channel also has separate programming meetings and other all-format meetings."
When asked how Arbitron's PM system might change things for programmers, Tanner was quite insightful: "The top of the hour is not as important as we think it is. I saw a statistic [we ran it yesterday] in one of the trades that the diary system says 50-60% of all listening begins at the top of the hour. With PPM it's everywhere. There's no particular point of entry at all. So that immediately changes whether or not you need to place a stop set at the top of the hour. More specifically, with PPM, the programmers are going to get a minute-to-minute breakdown of people's tuning in and tuning out. You will be able to hook that up to you music scheduling system or to BDS and you'll be able to tell which records tune people in and which records tune people out. You'll be able see how well an R&B station artist crosses over to CHR stations. That's going to be both a benefit and it will have side problems too because the computer may become totally in charge."
He also mentioned how advertisers will also be able to see which commercials kept people listening through stop sets and which ones sent them away.
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