Know Your Core

If you are still trying to do radio today the way you did it 20 years ago, you are doing both the industry and yourself a great disservice.

While it's true that CHR is still a relatively broad format, you must stay true to your core. Program to people outside your core and you lose. PERIOD.

The battle for women today is nitched - for 2 good reasons: Entertainment and Sales.

ENTERTAINMENT: if you try to please everybody, you won't truly please anybody.

SALES: 400,000 focused listeners are more valuable than 500,000 across the board. Why? Advertisers are trying to reach specific listeners too...

This change in strategy has been coming for years. Alternative was once a nitch format. Today it is part of a larger sales strategy. Line up an alternative station with an active rock and a classic rocker, and you've got a wall of men. Hello sales! Line up a CHR, a Hot/AC & an AC and you've got a wall of women.

What too many of you fail to understand is that this is change is GOOD for YOU. It's your chance for greatness. Instead of dumbing down your CHR jocks & playlist to appease the soccer moms, you can superserve your core. You can go after those 15-24 females with a vengeance. Don't just play their favorite songs... you can build a station that is THEIRS. Something they can be passionate about.

This business strategy isn't just in radio... it's everywhere because it works. The GAP has taken a similar approach. They built a 3 pronged wall of clothing stores:

Old Navy,
The Gap,
and Banana Republic.

Old Navy is the low end. More or less discount retail clothing. The GAP is their middle brand. Quality, moderately trendy clothing. Banana Republic is their high end. Expensive, ultra trendy... Could you accomplish all of this with one store? Why have 1,000 stores that try to please everybody but inspire passion in NONE when you could have 300 Old Navy's / 400 GAPs / 300 Banana Republics? It just makes sense. (I have no idea how many stores they really have)

Again, looking at it from a radio perspective: You've got a CHR that is a market leader. Let's call it - just for kicks - Big 97. You try to please everybody, and for a long time, you do. Then one day someone else in town says "screw it. I'm going after JUST their 15-24's." Let's call that new station Red 95.

The kids get excited about Red 95 because it plays their music & the dj's are young and hip. Big 97 wins the overall ratings battle, but slowly they find themselves becoming a Hot/AC because everyone under age 25 is gone. They still play some songs for the kids, but the kids aren't listening anymore.

Meanwhile, Venus 93.9 signs on and decides to go after Big 97's upper end. Now Big 97 has an ugly decision to make as their upper end gets better served by someone else and their young end gets better served by someone else. What was once a market leader is now a revolving door of talented people getting sucked into the mire... we've all seen it before.

You may disagree with me on this, but you'd be dead wrong: Whenever anyone signs on as a direct competitor, you go back to your core. Your Core. YOUR CORE. ...or you choose a new core and get pushed out of your format.

Countless heritage CHR's are gone today because they were either stupid, stubborn, or both. Good riddance to bad rubbish I say. CHR is not a 25-54 format anymore. You play that game and a more focussed station will win.

Frankly, I think the real potential to become a 500 pound market gorilla today lies in Hot/AC because the music is less polarized - it appeals to a very broad demographic when done right. Put your playlist on the hipper side of safe (but still safe) - and make the air talent the star.

Anyone notice the trend towards team shows on Hot/AC afternoon drive? Ahhhh the times they are a' changing.

The music is not enough. It never really was...