Format Feud

As we roll deeper into the endless summer of 2007, we thought we'd bring up one of the problems that never seems to go away. Some call it a" format feud." Regardless of what it is called, there is an ongoing conflict between Urban radio and Top 40 radio. For years now Urban stations complained that as soon as they would break an act the Top 40 or Rhythmic station in the market would pick it up. If the song became a hit the Top 40 or rhythm stations would get the "presents" on a concert which featured the artist(s), even though the Top 40 station was the last to play it. Now the same pattern is continuing. There are some differences today because of group ownership. One of those differences is that now the stations could all be owned by the same company. Often, they are in the same building and just down the hall from each other. Fortunately today, if there are shows or acts with which the Urban station wants to be aligned and there are several stations involved, there are ways of giving the illusion that yours is the station that is bringing the latest acts to town, even if it's not.

Marketing Magic, Attitude & Commitment

The last time I programmed in Chicago we bought a number of up-front concert tickets to a sold-out Friday night show, sponsored by our competition and then gave them away on the air the weekend prior to the concert. The audience was convinced that we had a deeper involvement because of the way we made it sound. Just before and right after the concert, the jocks made certain they mentioned, as part of their show prep, "If you're heading to/from the concert and are stuck in traffic, this jam's for you." Some believed it was our concert. All during the pre-concert warm-up, we used the positioning line, "Once again your concert connection station comes through for you." I remember once Radio One programming guru Steve Hegwood pulled off a similar move when he was at KHYS-FM in Houston against a superior-signaled and better-funded KMJQ-FM.

It's amazing how people get involved in discussions about whose name gets to go on the ad or on the tickets prior to their sales, when most listeners really don't give a damn -- unless you can make it fun and they can get off on it vicariously. What's more important to scoring with the audience are attitude and commitment.

The magic and commitment in this case means supporting the concert in ways your listeners want to see their favorite station involved, but here are so many other levels of association besides getting into huge arguments with labels about who played the record first vs. who really broke the artist in the market. Several PDs and consultants thought station involvement with major concerts was good motivation for the staff, but all agreed that their energy was better spent on identifying those things which they control directly.

Along with attitude and commitment are the pressures that come with the territory. Programming today is not like it was four or five years ago. PDs are as responsible to the bottom line and revenue performance as the sales manager. If you're part of a group or cluster, the impact of being able to play the cost per point game when necessary, of being able to go on a sales call and recognize that there are strong station clients with whom working out a solution is a whole different game. One that requires savvy in a number of arenas.

Improving The X Franchise

Another arena we must recognize and understand is the Black Generation X'ers. Like their non-black counterpart, they have now surpassed baby boomers to become the leading consumer group. There are approximately 80 million Generation X'ers or Generation Y'ers in this country between 14 and 34 -- 10 million more than "boomers." Naturally, the X'ers and Y'ers out consume the "boomers" in categories such as concerts, CDs, beer, wine coolers, toothpaste, fast food, cameras, cell phones, and some financial services. The X'ers and Y'ers are also the most technologically sophisticated generation for items such as audio, luxury automobiles, computers, video, online services and fashion.

This group is so diverse and non-monolithic; it usually places a premium on individuality and is very suspicious of hype. So the next time you're tempted to say, "We're the biggest, the baddest, the all-new," remember you could be digging a "hype hole" that may be hard for your station to climb out of. The key is to be forthright and straightforward. X'ers and Y'ers understand when they're being marketed to and tend to be very suspicious of and sensitive to things they perceive as lies or exaggerations.

Finally, we need to look at winning attitude, commitment and the risk factor - the kind that says, "We're going to take a chance on a new cut that nobody else is playing -- one we don't want to wait for research to validate." If you believe in a record, play it. Remember, it's all right to be cautious - but one of the best ways to win the "format feud" is to take a chance with a song you believe in.

Word.