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Radio Day 2009 Köln
F.l.t.r: Oliver Meyer (BP&R), Thijs Bakker, Radio Teddy mascot, Niklas Gruse (Radio FFN) @ radioday Köln 22 september 2009
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Duitse radiostations ruziën om de meeste muziek
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Slogans, ook wel claims of baselines genoemd, ieder radiostation heeft er wel één. Het zegt precies waar een station voor staat of wat voor gevoel het wil uitstralen. Maar wat nu als twee radiostations in dezelfde regio adverteren met dezelfde slogan? Het gebeurde eerder deze maand in de Duitse deelstaat Rijnland-Palts waar een regionaal commercieel radiostation het aan de stok kreeg met een groep lokale commerciële radiostations, zo meldt Radioszene. De inzet van de vete: het gebruik van de claim ‘de meeste muziek’.
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Op maandag 31 augustus begon het regionale commerciële radiostation RPR1 te adverteren met dat zij ‘de meeste muziek voor Rijnland-Palts’ draaien. Echter was een groep van lokale stations, waaronder Antenne Kaiserslautern en Antenne Pfalz, eerder met deze claim. De groep besloot dan ook naar de rechter te stappen om te verbieden dat RPR1 de claim blijft gebruiken. Tijdens een kort geding besloot de rechtbank van Kaiserslautern vorige week dat RPR1 met onmiddellijke ingang moest stoppen met het claimen de meeste muziek voor Rijnland-Palts te draaien. Nu was dat op de radio zelf niet zo moeilijk. Binnen enkele uren was de vormgeving aangepast. Ook op de website was de claim snel verwijderd. Een groter probleem is echter de ‘buitenreclame’. Momenteel voert RPR1 een grootschalige promotiecampagne in de deelstaat, waarbij een groot aantal billboards beplakt zijn met reclame van RPR1 inclusief de claim ‘de meeste muziek voor Rijnland-Palts’. Deze zullen allemaal vervangen moeten worden. Volgens radioconsultant Thijs Bakker is het niet zo vreemd dat uitgerekend in Rijnland-Palts twee stations met dezelfde claim op de proppen komen. “In die markt heb namelijk je een aantal zenders met veel non-muziek imago’s zoals SWR3 en RPR1 zelf. RPR1 is een spelletjeszender met veel ge-OH en SWR3 heeft als publieke zender sowieso het imago van veel gelul. Een radiozender die claimt dat ie de meeste muziek speelt voldoet in een grote behoefte in die markt en dat hebben ze beiden ongeveer gelijktijdig gesignaleerd.” Dat overigens uitgerekend eind vorige maand werd besloten met het adverteren met de meeste muziek heeft alles met luistercijfers te maken. Vorige week is namelijk de meetperiode voor de komende luistercijfers begonnen. Deze zullen in maart 2010 verschijnen. Het is niet de eerste keer dat radiostations in Duitsland in elkaars vaarwater zitten. Eerder dit jaar woedde nog een verhitte hitradio oorlog in Mecklenburg-Voorpommeren. In 1999 stonden Hit-Radio Antenne uit Nedersaksen en nieuwkomer Antenne Bremen al eens voor de rechter. Volgens Hit-Radio Antenne, dat eveneens in Bremen te ontvangen is, zorgde de naam ‘Antenne Bremen’ voor teveel verwarring omdat er nu opeens twee Antennes waren in de Hanzestad. De rechter oordeelde inderdaad dat dit het geval was, waarna Antenne Bremen zijn naam moest wijzigen. Inmiddels heet het station Energy Bremen. [RS/Radio.NL] |
| 09-09-2009 www.radio.nl |
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Bodies - Robbie Williams
Like he said in an interview with the BBC, this song makes a 3rd leg grow…
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Positioning your Morning Show
By Peter Don
Broadcast Programming & Research
… being a consumer is a funny thing – we have definite ideas on what we like about the things we want and the things that we ultimately buy, while most of the time we know virtually nothing about them … we buy a brand – cars, TV sets, because of some indefinable belief that this is the ‘right’ one for me … it satisfies a few predetermined needs or expectations, while at the same time we might even (grudgingly) admit that it may not be technically the best option…
Often our view on politics is a bit like that, we take what we think is (more or less) going to be the best of a bad lot – in an environment of relatively narrow choice, the passion generated in this process is low, and often the choice is whoever remains after all of the undesirable aspects of the rest are eliminated.
So, how does all this have any relevance to breakfast radio? after all isn’t making a successful breakfast show simply a matter of finding talented people and allowing them to do what they do?
If this is the case, someone forgot to tell the listeners – like politics, radio listeners often remain with breakfast shows long after the magic has faded – why? … usually because they don’t see that there’s a better or a more satisfying alternative available to them, or they stay with the original station because there are still things that continue to fulfil their listening needs.
A few years ago someone put forward the view that successful brands have three clearly identifiable characteristics:
- they are ‘expansive’ rather than divisive.
- they generate a sense of ‘belonging’
- they bestow ‘status’ on their customers
Successful breakfast shows can be measured on the same criteria, but there’s also another consideration raising the question that has to be answered first. What is the position of this breakfast show?
In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. It is the ‘relative competitive comparison’ their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.
Successful breakfast shows almost always have a clear identity ….
New breakfast show ‘challengers’ need to build and establish their unique position.. so what does that mean exactly??
- understanding what your listeners want?
- a funny – entertaining show?
- an information based show – lots of news, information, weather, traffic?
- a warm and friendly show…
- something that they can talk to their friends about afterwards?
- a relatable show that understand and reflects their lifestyle?
then …
- what’s already available in the market?
- can we be demonstrably better … or
- do we have to be clearly different?
put this another way …..
- ‘ … what makes this show special ..’
- ‘ … why should a listener care …’
These simple questions create a challenge that needs an answer every day – shows that are successful have often forgotten what it was that made them successful in the first place, the biggest difference between these shows and the new challengers is that they have built a store of goodwill that takes a long time to dissipate
What’s clear is that successful shows have the attributes of successful brands – they attract, more than they divide, and that can often mean that the audience for a successful breakfast is usually greater than the appeal of the music on the station during the remainder of the day – this composition has worked well for decades with successful top 40 station playing music for a young (contemporary) hit audience with a breakfast show that appeals to an audience aged between 15 and 50.
These breakfast shows also generate a sense of belonging – listeners become ambassadors for ‘their’ station and are more than willing to tell others about it – generating passion requires emotion – usually emotions shared among people who understand what’s important to each other – friends who talk about the things that interest them. Like the show that throws out the pre-prepared material to talk to people (experts and others) about the baby whale separated from its mother near the coast.
Successful shows also ‘bestow status’ … listeners who are happy to belong to the club. fans wear the colours of their favourite spots team, the cap with their (aspirational) logo on it – like the Ferrari colours and logo worn by someone who will never own a Ferrari. Members of Terry Wogan’s listener club on the BBC’s Radio 2 call themselves ‘TOG’s’ - ‘Terry’s old geezers’
… ultimately it’s just not enough for a breakfast show to just ‘be there’ even if the content of the show is good, successful breakfast shows must ultimately stand out from their competitors – and how they do this is a question that needs to be asked – every day!
www.bprworld.com
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Luistercijfers: juni - juli ‘09
juni - juli ‘09 [mei - juni '09] (juni - juli ‘08)
01. Radio 538 - 11.1 [11.0%] en (11.6%)
02. Radio 2 - 10.4% [10.4%] en (9.4%)
03. Radio 3FM - 9.1% [8.9%] en (7.9%)
04. Skyradio - 9.1% [9.1%] en (9.0%)
05. Radio 1 - 7.7% [6.9%] en (7.6%)
06. Q-Music - 7.3% [7.7%] en (7.4%)
07. Veronica - 5.6% [6.1%] en (5.8%)
08. 100%NL - 4.3% [4.0%] en (2.5%)
09. Radio 5 - 2.5% [2.5%] en (2.5%)
10. Radio 10 Gold - 2.2% [2.4%] en (2.8%)
11. Slam FM - 2.1% [2.2%] en (2.2%)
12. Classic FM - 2.1% [2.1%] en (2.1%)
13. Radio 4 - 1.5% [1.6%] en (1.9%)
14. Arrow Classic Rock - 1.3% [1.3%] en (2.2%)
15. BNR nieuwsradio - 0.8% [0.8%] en (0.7%)
16. TMF Hitradio - 0.4% [0.4%] en (0.3%)
17. Arrow Jazz FM - 0.4% [0.4%] en (0.7%)
18. Kink FM - 0.4% [0.3%] en (0.2%)
19. Radio 6 - 0.2% - [0.2%] en (0.2%)
–. ORN - 12.0 [11.9] en (12.8%)
–. Overige zenders - 5.1 [5.4] en (6.1%)
–. CRN/E Power - 4.7 [4.5] en (3.6%)
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.. did you hear what they said on the radio this morning?
By Peter Don
Broadcast Programming & Research
You know when your radio station is hot .. people actually care about what happens on the radio .. as Oscar Wilde said: ‘… there’s only one thing worse than being talked about – and that’s not being talked about …’
So far in the process of making a great morning show we’ve carefully defined the position or style of our breakfast show and worked on how this will be presented in both on and in off air marketing … in the way that fits with what listeners want – and the brand and positioning of the station. At the same time we’ve focussed on defining and developing the characters who make up the morning team…
now, what we need is a good storyline ….
Let’s face it, this is the hard work of the morning show because it needs to be done every day ..
‘ …the beauty of great content is simplicity in execution. The strength of compelling communication is reinforced through its application… a good idea is only as good as its implementation….’
Delivering great content in an interesting an compelling way is the art-form. Developing the raw material is part of a process ….
DEFINING THE BUILDING BLOCKS:
before you can even start to decide what content fits into a show – you must first decide what defines your listeners – are they single, married, male, female, upwardly mobile, news hounds, family focussed, etc etc – without this information clearly understood by all members of the team, generating content is like using a shotgun for target shooting – in a wide spray of bullets something just ‘might’ hit the target.. but it’s usually more luck than judgement.
OK, let’s assume that you have done your ground work
UNIVERSAL TOPICS
here are some ‘universals’ … that we can start with
Heart and home – relatable topics, situations and perspectives that uniquely tailored to your audience…
plus …
- Local information – tell me what to wear, is it going to rain, can I travel to work without delays or problems ?
- what’s been happening in the past 24 hours – especially things that have happened overnight?
- what’s likely to impact on my life and my world?
- How’s my team going?
These things are ‘essential’ information – but that’s only the beginning … being entertaining also means bringing a unique perspective to the everyday …
- look for stories to tell -
- about relationships
- observations on what’s happening around us
- the odd things that people do
- highlighting the unique perspectives to any topic within the team … and among your listeners.
But what ‘filters’ need to be applied to all of these things….
TOPICALITY
- is this happening in my town/city – can I localise this?
- how might this impact on my listener
- how might this idea be presented
- if I do something on this – does it have a point - more than that … does it pass the (listener’s) ‘so-what’ test?
Now, focus on execution … how should you deliver these ideas?
Start with a ‘Mind Map’:
- List all of the things that you want to include ….
- talk among the team about how to approach each topic …
- examine the angles – can we get to this in a way that doesn’t seem just obvious’
- what is the lead in – (most importantly) how does this end – what’s the payoff??
finally, let’s remind ourselves what listeners tell us they want?
…. a morning show that delivers – all or part of …
- the news and information I need
- warm and friendly personalities
- a show that is fun and entertaining to listen to ..
but what’s entertaining – is it humour?
“Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing.”
William James
Remember compelling content can be found in the everyday, it’s the delivery and execution of this that turns ‘stuff’ into compelling radio content …
The worst radio ‘bits’ are items obviously taken from a newspaper (with or without credit) that have no relevance to ‘me’, no obvious relevance to time and place (no topicality) ad worst of all, no point…
great content is the building block to personality and celebrity – without interesting and memorable content, presenters are simply another voice …
and the final step is developing radio personalities into celebrities ……
the right endorsements and pop culture sensibilities together with the right creative executions are important steps in creating the power of celebrity and influence. In the right environment celebrity and content combine as winning ingredients to influence public opinion. we see this in the biggest movie and pop-stars sometimes whether or not they deserve it.
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WHAT MAKES A COMPELLING MORNING SHOW
By Peter Don
Broadcast Programming & Research
…. what does television know about creating interesting characters for TV shows? TV sit com shows are based around ‘real’ people experiencing relatable situations, at least that usually the objective. The success of these shows may be based on their environment (office/home/apartment) but then they are developed largely through the identity and relationships between the characters. As these shows develop, we ‘learn’ more about the individuals in the group, and occasionally relate to one or other of these – the concept of having a ‘favourite’ character in a show (or in a band) is nothing new – the point is whether these individual characters are interesting, entertaining – but most of all in a ‘believable’ kind of way … the question of believable is a flexible one however as we will see from some of the examples later.
Successful shows also have a secret ingredient that most radio shows lack – and that’s great writing – the great lines that give a show impact and memorability – but the format for TV is different than the radio on in one significant way, TV needs to grab attention for 30 minutes a week and that means that there’s no time to waste on superfluous garbage that doesn’t support the plot, or help develop the character’s identity. Great TV is based on well developed relatable characters, good content (story lines), impact (delivery) and topicality …
… but wait a minute – doesn’t that apply to radio just as much as TV?
Great breakfast shows should deliver all of those things …. let’s also remember that not all TV shows work – the ones that fail usually don’t deliver well enough on those basic concepts …
.. let’s take a fresh look at how radio and television go about getting to (more or less) the same point
One of the most successful TV sitcoms of the past few years was Seinfeld. The self confessed ‘Show about Nothing’ …. what they did have was great characters – good lines and topical and relatable subjects .. the show’s subjects are still topical and it has been in syndication more than ten years after the last episode was made. Each of the characters were well defined – they were people that could be relatively easily described to someone who has never seen the show …
The interaction of the characters was based on the perspective that were in keeping with their personalities.
the characters have an element of caricature – some of their features are exaggerated for impact and comic effect.
The parallel with radio is obvious although not especially flattering. Radio is not usually as well thought out, and generally doesn’t plan for the development of the characters within the lifecycle of the show.
Television may create the basic ‘scenario’ and then hire the characters
Radio hires the people and then decides how they might work together.
One builds from the concept, the other creates the show from the talent. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however this also needs to be done against the backdrop of …
“what does the audience want?”
How can we deliver this in an interesting and an entertaining way.
The team dynamics then become critical – while the objective is to create ‘real’ characters, the use of caricatures and contrast helps to bring these into focus. A good example of this is in the TV show ‘Boston Legal’, the seemingly ‘normal’ characters reveal their darker/quirky sides – the show itself introduces interesting but flawed characters to add both visual and personality contrast. The Dwarf girlfriend/lawyer, the cross-dressing assistant, the recurring use of various judges with more than their share of personality flaws.
A show based on a cast of characters that are totally ‘normal’ would simply pass by unnoticed.
where’s the lesson for radio here??
Are each of the characters in your show well defined – what are the ‘word pictures’ that describe them to someone who has never listened? Do these characters fulfil the expectation of their role – within the team and within the show? Is the overall show compelling to listen to.
are these characters being developed …
but there’s more ……..
strong support staff make talent shine:
a co-host that knows radio formatics and knows the city
the producer - the ‘programme director’ of the breakfast show
the right news content (anchor) is essential for adult formats and can add dimension for more contemporary formats
Sports generates passion – does the show reflect that?
In smaller markets the talent pool is more limited …. but there may also be a way
Find one talented person as “main character”
Other cast members are listeners - make the show phone intensive (but remember they need to add dimension and entertainment)
Consider using a talent coach to help develop available talent.
Finally ….. remember that caricatures highlight existing characteristics of an individual, or situation by exaggerating what’s already recognisable…
www.bprworld.com