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Jacobs Media Honors KKDO As 'Most Innovative'
November 21, 2014 at 4:25 AM (PT)
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Each week, JACOBS MEDIA honors an "innovative" member of our business. This week, they've chosen ENTERCOM Alternative KKDO/SACRAMENTO.
JACOBS writes, "As long as there have been request lines piping the voices of listeners into radio station air studios, there have been PDs saying things like, 'These people represent a small portion of the audience,' or 'Just because a song is being requested a lot doesn’t mean it’s a hit,' or 'Don’t get distracted by the phones'. And they were right. Considering the sporadic nature of request lines and DJs only answering them periodically, there wasn’t much data that was truly useful in the evolution of the music playlist.
"So how do today’s music stations integrate ongoing audience feedback in a way that is meaningful and even somewhat representative of the listening audience? With the vast majority of adults carrying a smartphone, many of which have an unlimited text plan, the potential to measure the audience’s opinion about songs in real-time as they are played is not only possible, it’s being done successfully.
"Lots of stations are engaged in online song voting, often mimicking the PANDORA 'thumbs up/thumbs down' model. But the challenge facing broadcast radio is to find ways to integrate technology into existing models in ways that truly resonate with the changing tastes and sensibilities of the audience -- especially Millennials.
"Thus, today’s 'Radio’s Most Innovative' honor goes to ENTERCOM’s Alternative KKDO in SACRAMENTO. Even though the station is jockless, they’ve integrated the concept of real-time voting into the station’s programming, while also creating a unique barometer of the mood of the audience toward the station’s playlist."
Check out the rest of the blog post here.

