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Former Music Director of Antenne Bayern Justus Fischer
By Justus Fischer, On Air Digital
Music and mathematics are more closely connected than most people may think. As early as several hundred years B.C. Pythagoras experimented on a simple guitar and noticed that the basic musical intervals can be described by simple numerical ratios. In this way the first scale in history was created with the help of maths. And today brain research studies confirm that musicians have better spatial imagination and are more capable in the field of mathematics. Numbers and music have always belonged together, even if some people may find the connection between emotional music and dry numbers very strange.
Market researchers promise the nearly transparent listener and optimal market exploitation. But when it comes to radio stations that are confronted with research data for the first time, their reservations against this system often seem insurmountable. Music directors and editors worry that they will lose their creativity. They fear for their influence and dread letting music planning be influenced by a method they do not yet fully comprehend. They prefer relying on their experience and their gut feeling. Here, market researchers and consultants are sometimes challenged even psychologically in order to alleviate the program makers’ distrust. In addition to that, their best analytical abilities are required because the raw results which are presented in seemingly boring Excel tables have to be read and interpreted correctly.
Call-outs or results of an online test where listeners rate each track, Mapping studies which take a detailed look at a market, listening habits and musical preferences of listeners or continuous tracking with which the development in the market is monitored permanently – all of those methods cough up a vast quantity of numbers in the end.
But what amount and which kind of music research does a radio station need? On the one hand, this certainly depends on the necessary cash, but also on the market and the target group on the other hand. In a young and fast-paced segment it is advisable to look at numbers in the form of call-outs on a weekly basis. The results tell you exactly which tracks are particularly popular with the listeners at the moment and which current songs are already past their zenith and are no longer justifiable in heavy rotation. After all, such formats appeal to a dynamic audience that is constantly looking for new musical inspiration.
In an Oldies format, however, the popularity of individual songs normally will only change marginally over the years. Therefore a singular test of the back catalogue is sufficient to begin with. But a detailed Mapping study should be conducted to find out which music styles are relevant at all for the listenership targeted.
In a highly competitive radio market where many stations want a piece of the cake that’s as big as possible, figures gained from tracking are particularly valuable. They reflect the current market situation and provide precise information on the popularity of the music mix, the presenters, the news, the comedy or the current competition.
The only form of market research where numbers hardly play a role are focus groups in which a psychologist explores the emotional ties of the listeners to the station.
As a general rule you can say that the more intense the competitive environment is, the more advisable it is to conduct reliable research. Results from market research provide the coordinates for the right calculation of the route towards the target. All wrong tracks can be ruled out from the outset.
But as with the bible there is more than one way of interpreting research data. In an air check session or a strategic meeting adult people can argue for hours about one single number because even a decision based on plain figures likes to be made emotionally. Here it can be seen that music research is perfectly complemented by the often quoted ‘gut feeling’.
Music research is indispensible in the daily work of a music department. Nobody can afford to do without such figures. They provide the basis for decisions that make sense. But the interpretation of the results requires sensitivity and intuition. What’s more, market research does not provide information on one crucial aspect. Which impulse might be pivotal for the future of the station is still to be decided by the management on a gut level. A mathematical formula for success unfortunately does not exist yet.
You’ll find the original post on: http://brandsupportblog.blogspot.com
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Radio is het afgelopen half jaar populairder geworden onder de jongeren in Duitsland. Dit blijkt uit de laatste luistercijfers (Media-Analyse 2009 Radio I) die afgelopen woensdag werden gepubliceerd. Tijdens de afgelopen meetperiode bereikten de Duitse radiostations 69,4% van de jongeren tussen de 10 en 29 jaar. Een stijging van een half procentpunt ten opzichte van de vorige periode. Overal bleef de gemiddelde luistertijd constant op drie uur per dag.
Twee maal per jaar is het ‘D-day’ voor radiomakers in Duitsland. Op een woensdag in maart en juli verschijnen namelijk de nieuwe luistercijfers. Afgelopen woensdag was het weer zover en kregen 102 radiostations onder ogen hoe ze het afgelopen half jaar gepresteerd hebben. Hieruit blijkt dat radio vooral op het werk populair is. Meer dan 80% van de Duitsers luistert tijdens het werk naar de radio. Ook blijkt dan mannen gemiddeld een kwartier per dag langer naar de radio luisteren.
Zoals gebruikelijk zet Radio.NL ook dit keer de cijfers van Noordrijn-Westfalen, Nedersaksen, Hessen en Berlijn op een rij.
Noordrijn-Westfalen
Radio NRW, aanbieder van het raamprogramma van ruim 40 lokale radiostations in Noordrijn-Westfalen, mag zich wederom marktleider noemen van deze deelstaat. Het marktaandeel bleef weliswaar gelijk op 31,4%, maar voor het eerst in de geschiedenis door de vijf miljoen grens heen. Dagelijks luisteren er 5,02 miljoen luisteraars naar de programma’s van Radio NRW. Gemiddeld stemmen er 1,4 miljoen luisteraars per uur af op het netwerk.
De goede resultaten betekenen overigens niet dat Radio NRW bij de pakken gaat neerzitten. Om het station klaar te stomen voor de toekomst heeft Radio NRW namelijk Thijs Bakker aangetrokken als intern consultant. De Nederlander werd hierbij verkozen boven grote namen als Coleman en Burns.
Naast Radio NRW was er ook winst voor de publieke jongerenzender Eins Live, de schlagerzender WDR 4 en de pop- en servicezender WDR 2.
Nedersaksen
De Schlagerzender NDR 1 Niedersachsen blijft in Nedersaksen de touwtjes stevig in handen houden. Het station was de afgelopen periode goed voor een marktaandeel van ruim 30%. ffn blijft de best beluisterde commerciële zender in de deelstaat, maar moest wel flink inleveren. Het marktaandeel daalde namelijk met bijna twee procentpunt naar 15,5%. De popzenders NDR 2 en Hit-Radio Antenne Niedersachsen noteerden daarentegen winst.
Vooral Antenne deed goede zaken en lijkt langzamerhand weer uit het dal te krabbelen. Dit ondanks dat het station het al een half jaar moet doen zonder ochtendster Bernd Lennert doen. De deejay zit al meer dan een half jaar thuis vanwege een burnout. Momenteel wordt de ochtendshow overgenomen door Dominik ‘Der’ Schollmayer. Of en wanneer Lennert weer terug zal keren bij Antenne is nog niet bekend.
Hessen
In de deelstaat Hessen is Hit Radio FFH voor de 28e maal op een rij marktleider. De zender wist de afgelopen meetperiode een marktaandeel 28,1% te trekken. Dat is overigens bijna drie procentpunt minder dan de vorige meting. Net als het marktaandeel nam ook het aantal luisteraars af. Gemiddeld luisteren er per dag nog 506.000 luisteraars naar het station, ruim 80.000 minder dan voorgaande periode.
Maar FFH was niet het enige station dat het marktaandeel zag dalen. Ook de publieke popzender hr3 en de jongerenzender Planet Radio daalden. Winst was er daarentegen voor de schlagerzender hr4 en hr1. Daarmee lijkt de herpositionering van hr1 zijn vruchten af te werpen. De afgelopen jaren heeft de publieke omroep van Hessen hr1 namelijk omgebouwd van station met veel gesproken woord, naar een full servicezender a la Radio 2. Het marktaandeel steeg hierdoor de afgelopen periode met 1,6 procentpunt naar 8,6%.
Radio BOB kreeg zijn allereerste luistercijfers onder ogen en opende met een marktaandeel van 1,6%. En daarmee scoort de pop-rockzender al flink beter dan voorganger Sky Radio, die bleef steken op 0,5%. Overigens is Radio BOB sinds eind vorig jaar geheel in Duitse handen. De Telegraaf Media Groep heeft namelijk het resterende meerderheidsbelang verkocht aan het Duitse Regiocast.
Berlijn
De rangen en standen in de Duitse hoofdstad zijn flink door elkaar geschud. De publieke pop- en servicezender Radio Eins mag zich namelijk het best beluisterde radiostation van Berlijn noemen. Met een marktaandeel van 11% (+3 procentpunt) verwijst het de hitzender 104.6 RTL naar de tweede plaats. RTL daalde met één procentpunt en staat nu gelijk met de publieke stadszender RadioBerlin 88,8. Ook deze zender noteerde een forse stijging. Zusterstation Antenne Brandenburg daalde daarentegen, evenals de oldieszender Berliner Rundfunk 91 4. [RS/Radio.NL]
Bron: Robin Schrama www.radio.nl
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Bij een opdrachtgever in Duitsland zijn we op dit moment volop bezig met de 2e ronde van het ‘Gemeimnischvolle Geraüsch’, wat we in Nederland kennen van Q-Music waar het ‘Het Geluid’ heet. Alleen een select gezelschap medewerkers weet wat het geluid is, zij begeleiden de presentator als het geluid tijdens de uitzending wordt gespeelt. De presentator kent het geluid niet, alleen de spelbegeleider kent het juiste antwoord en knikt ja of nee als er een deelnemer ‘on-air’ een antwoord geeft. Op dit moment zoeken we een geluid dat men kan kennen uit de keuken. Mijn collega stelt voor om het volgende geluid het openen van de gaskraan te laten zijn (..)
Iedereen in onze kleine vergadering, waar we ideëen voor komende campagnes bespreken, reageert natuurlijk een beetje besmuikt, de combinatie van gas en Duitsers is gezien hun geschiedenis niet zo gelukkig. Aan de andere kant vind ik het goed dat Duitsers van een jaar of 40 inmiddels met een zekere vorm van relativering ermee om kunnen gaan. Deze generatie is niet verantwoordelijk voor de daden van hun grootouders maar is zich weldege bewust van de misdaden van het NAZI regime. Door deze lichte vorm van relativerende humor kun je zien dat Duitsers bezig zijn met de verwerking van het verleden. In de lange tijd dat ik inmiddels met Duitsers samenwerk is het sowieso mooi om te zien hoe in de laatste 3 jaar de stemming in het land anders is geworden. Eigenlijk sinds het WK voetbal in 2006 merk ik dat men veel positiever in het leven staat. Dankzij de vele complimenten van de buitenlandse gasten voor hun organisatie en het feit dat men op een ontspannen manier feest kon vieren bij de public-viewings en op de diverse fan-miles zijn de Duitsers, wat zal ik zeggen, trotser zijn geworden op hun land. Ze lijken minder zwaarmoedig dan vroeger, ze lijken gewoon blijer. Erg mooi om dat van dichtbij mee te maken.
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20 Jaar geleden heb ik 2 periodes als DJ en nieuwslezer doorgebracht aan boord van de Ross Revenge (Panama). Het zendschip van Radio Caroline, Radio 558 en Radio 819. Dit onder het motto dat je het meegemaakt moest hebben, ik vond het verschrikkelijk.
Dronken Engelse D.J.’s, storm, 1 maal per week douchen en als hoogtepunt, of dieptepunt een stroomuitval waardoor we ’s nachts onverlicht op de Noordzee lagen te dobberen. Midden op een drukke vaarroute. Ik stond doodsangsten uit terwijl ik in het pikdonker met een lullig zaklampje op de brug mijn licht richtte op naderende schepen. Not funny!
Ik was geen zeezenderfreak of wanker, ik wilde gewoon radioprogramma’s maken. Collega Walter Zwart vertelde me onlangs dat ik al destijds aan boord al pragmatisch programma maakte, ik pakte gewoon 3 dubbel lp’s, met de grootste hits uit de jaren ‘60, ‘70 en ‘80. Waarom uren in het archief zoeken naar leuke liedjes als je op deze 3 dubbel lp’s de grootste hits al te pakken had?
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Radio 538 toont ballen met de de nieuwe versie van de aktie ‘Hier met je rekening’. Onder het motto ‘fuck de kredietcrisis’ laat 538 zien dat het een moedige marktleider is. Onconventioneel, brutaal en eigenzinnig.
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Het Nederlandse Radio Advies Buro en de commerciële- én publieke radiozenders hebben een gezamelijke unieke aktie. Via zeer mooi ingesproken spots door Bram van der Vlugt worden de luisteraars van de deelnemende zenders opgeroepen nu eens wel iets te doen in plaats van het bij goede voornemens te laten. De aktie heeft 2 doelen, ten eerste natuurlijk om de goede doelen te ondersteunen, het tweede doel van de aktie is om naderhand aan te tonen hoe succesvol een radiocampagne kan zijn. www.rab.fm
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1. Great On-Air Talent
- Employ the best morning show talent you can afford
- Develop the real characters within your talent and some fun comedy characters
- Make sure you have talent on your station that shapes public opinion
2. Imaginative Music Programming
- Keep the music fresh and the listeners interested with special ‘themed weekends’
- Sprinkle the output with fun and engaging daily music features
- Highlight and reinforce your stations core sound / core artists with exclusive previews and premieres
3. Creative Promotions
- Run promotions that listeners want to get involved with and are interested in listening to… even if they don’t take part!
- Create promotions that your listeners want to tell their friends and family about
- Extend the promotion into other media and find suitable partners to maximise your impact
4. Listener Focused
- Closely define your target audience and be absolutely focused on delivering radio for them
- Get to know as much as possible about your target listeners. By truly understanding them, you can create the radio they want
- Care passionately about your listeners. Be your listener’s best friend!
5. Be Local
- Make your station an essential part of everyday life in your area. Deliver great local news and information. Being really local is immensely powerful
- Champion the area you broadcast to! Your station should be the Number 1 cheerleader for all the places it broadcasts to. Your station loves living there!
- Reflect local issues and concerns and even take on local causes being the focal point of any campaigning
6. Outstanding Benchmarks
- Create benchmarks that listeners want to come back to you for time and time again. Make unmissable radio!
- Develop some specific ‘listener appointments’ at key times across different dayparts
- Become famous for a specific benchmark, so that listeners say “I love that station, because they do… insert your own brilliant benchmark here!”
7. Be Consistent
- We live in a complicated and unpredictable world. Give listeners what they want and expect from your radio station, and they’ll trust and rely on you
- Resist the temptation to change things for the sake of change
- Brand building takes time. Be patient!
8. Be Surprising
- Consistency doesn’t have to be boring! Don’t give listeners the chance to get bored with your station or allow them to feel you are mundane
- Regularly do something different or give familiar content a little ‘spike’ or twist
- Occasionally, you should do something that makes your listeners turn up the radio to make sure they heard it correctly!
9. Be Unique
- The world is full of ‘sound-a-like’ radio stations. Make yours stand out from the crowd
- Encourage unique presenters that having something to say. Your talent should differentiate you every time
- Create radio that hasn’t been heard before in your market with new shows, features and promotions
10. Power of Emotion
- Radio is brilliant at conveying the full range of human emotions. Encourage your presenters to explore this on air. Don’t let them be boring!
- Allow listeners to show sadness or anger as well as happiness and joy
‘Contrast’ provides a far more interesting dynamic to your station. Use it and your station will stand out from the crowd
Source: http://www.nikgoodman.com/
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December 15, 2008
Arbitron has announced that it plans to expand the introduction of cell-phone-only sampling to 151 diary markets in Spring 2009 and to all markets (except Puerto Rico) by Fall 2009. The new schedule significantly accelerates the company’s previously announced plan to introduce cell-phone-only sampling to 50 diary markets in Spring 2009 and to a total of 125 diary markets in Fall 2009.
“This is a substantial enhancement in sample quality and it demonstrates our ongoing commitment to improve the diary service. The Radio Advisory Council, the Diary Market Owner/Operator Caucus and the Media Rating Council all supported the introduction of cell-phone-only sampling in diary markets,” said Pierre Bouvard, President of Sales and Marketing for Arbitron. “Arbitron has been a recognized leader in cell phone only research and we’re pleased that for the second time in three short months, we are able to speed up our plans for getting these households into our diary samples.”
Arbitron plans to use an address-based sample frame as the foundation of its cell-phone-only sample, while maintaining the random-digit-dial (RDD) sample frame for landline households. “The number of households that can be reached only by cell phone is growing rapidly and these households are more likely to include persons between the ages of 18 and 34. By including cell-phone-only homes in the sample frame we will be better able to improve young adult proportionality in diary markets,” said Owen Charlebois, President, Technology and Research & Development.
The acceleration of cell phone-only sampling to 151 markets in the spring assumes that the company is able to complete the development of software necessary to support the rollout as scheduled. If the company is not able to develop the software as expected, the planned acceleration of cell phone-only sampling could be delayed. Arbitron expects to confirm its plans for cell-phone-only sampling for the Spring 2009 survey by late February. After all metro markets have cell phone sampling, Arbitron expects to review options for expanding cell-phone-only sampling to the non-metro counties that are included in the RADAR, Nationwide and County Coverage reports.
A list of the 151 markets scheduled for cell-phone-only sampling in Spring 2009 can be found on Arbitron’s site: http://www.arbitron.com/home/cell_phone_markets_sp09.htm.
Source: http://fmqb.com
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LOS ANGELES, Nov. 30 — For the millions of Americans who listened to Top 40 radio last week, it was almost impossible to miss “Apologize,” the string-tinged elegy performed by the modern rock band OneRepublic and remixed by the eclectic producer Timbaland.
WIOQ-FM, a pop station in Philadelphia, played the song 123 times last week, letting as little as 50 minutes tick by between repeat spins. And this month, “Apologize” broke the record for the most plays of a song on the nation’s Top 40 stations in a single week since computerized tracking began in 1990. The song played more than 10,240 times in a week, reaching an estimated audience of more than 70 million listeners, according to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, an airplay monitoring service, and the chart-keepers at Radio & Records, a music trade magazine.
The song’s success is more than yet another sign of Timbaland’s prowess — it’s the third hit from his latest album, “Timbaland Presents Shock Value” (Interscope), a compilation of genre-bending collaborations with everyone from Elton John to Fall Out Boy.
It’s also a sign of how radio stations are responding to the competition for listeners as radio’s audience fragments and rival entertainment choices abound. While the overwhelming majority of Americans still tune into traditional broadcast radio each week, they are listening less. And they are increasingly drawn to the dizzying choices of music and other programming available on iPods and satellite and Internet radio.
But many pop radio programmers appear keen to repeat the biggest hits as much as — or more than — ever. “Apologize” surpassed a record that had been set only in July by Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” according to the data. Of the 10 songs that have notched the most plays in one week, 8 joined the list in the last three years. And the oldest of the 10, Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” dates only to 2002. (The all-time most-played song across all radio formats is Santana’s “Smooth,” with more than 1.1 million total plays since it was released in 1999.)
Tom Owens, the executive vice president of content for Clear Channel Communications, which is the nation’s largest owner of radio stations and a big influence in the Top 40 format, said that “Apologize” deserved such heavy airplay because it had received “off the charts” results in listener research testing, and added that the song is devoid of content that might prompt more conservative pop stations to limit its airplay. Mr. Owens also said that Radio & Records and tracking services are counting slightly more stations than they used to, making it easier for big songs to break the record.
Even so, executives at some individual stations say they are playing hits more heavily than they did even two years ago. That is not so much out of concern over digital competition as it is a desire to respond to listeners’ busy lives, said Kat Jensen, music director for KKMG-FM in Colorado Springs, which played “Apologize” 78 times last week. “There’s a very limited window. If they’re going to listen 15 minutes a day, you want to make sure they hear their favorite song in that 15 minutes. It’s really the fast-paced life style that we all live.”
Many stations are also trying to keep up with listeners — and trying to draw new ones — by integrating their over-the-air broadcasts with social networks on their Web sites and other online features. But that comes against a backdrop of an eroding audience. The amount of time people tune into radio during the course of a week has fallen by about 13 percent during the last decade, according to data from Arbitron, which measures ratings for the radio industry.
Some analysts say that responding to the decline by repeating the big hits even more will set broadcasters on a path to losing listeners.
“What most of these folks do is retreat to a more safe position, and in radio, the safer position is to play fewer songs more often,” said Mike Henry, chief executive of Paragon Media Strategies, a consulting firm in Denver. Mr. Henry, whose firm helped develop a wide-ranging radio format known as Jack FM in the United States three years ago, added that the increase in plays of songs reflected “a fear-based response. That will only take you so far.”
While, “there will always be people who are just fine taking what they’re given,” Mr. Henry said, more and more people will be enticed by “programming their own media.”
For now, however, radio is regarded as the most powerful promotional tool when it comes to exposing new music — even if the connection between popularity on the airwaves and popularity in record shops is not as direct as it once was. OneRepublic’s album, “Dreaming Out Loud” (Interscope), sold roughly 75,000 copies in its first week on sale, a solid if less than remarkable debut. But the “Apologize” remix, which is included as a hidden track on the album, brought in sales of more than 140,000 copies on digital services like iTunes for the week that ended Nov. 25, for a total of almost 1.6 million copies of the song.
Not a bad comeback for OneRepublic, which was formed by high school friends in Colorado Springs and suffered through a near-miss with fame — including losing its previous record deal with Columbia Records — before the band’s popularity on MySpace helped it land a new contract with Timbaland’s imprint, Mosley Music Group, which is distributed through Interscope. “Even though radio does seem like it’s kind of an archaic behemoth, in terms of actually being able to pay the bills, it’s still one of the best ways,” said Greg Wells, the longtime producer who oversaw “Dreaming Out Loud.” “I’m aware of how fickle this kind of attention can be. Songs like that are rare for anybody.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/arts/music/01one.html?_r=3
http://www.q102.com/main.html
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In a highly competitive radio market where many stations want a piece of the cake that’s as big as possible, figures gained from tracking are particularly valuable. They reflect the current market situation and provide precise information on the popularity of the music mix, the presenters, the news, the comedy or the current competition.
