More than 20 years ago, I was the Program Director of a Hot AC station in Missoula, MT. KMSO-FM was, and still is an independently owned broadcaster. When you’re in a position like that, you don’t have a lot of time to think about much of anything. You’re being pulled in a million different directions—morning show air shift, production, imaging, promotions, music scheduling, and so on. Every Monday, I would receive a list of songs from my consultant that I should consider playing. And, once or twice a year I would receive an updated list of recommended gold titles. I didn’t have access to Mediabase. It would not have been much help as none of my competitors were monitored. My market was too small for Jon Coleman and the team to conduct a FACT Strategic Music Test, and the budget would have been challenging. And callout? Forget it. All I had was a list of songs, my gut, and the opinions of everyone in the building, most of whom were not in the demo. I would have given anything to have access to some kind of music testing data to help me make my decisions and to tell the sales staff, “No, you’re wrong, this song tests.”
Programming a music radio station is truly a unique blend of art and science, yet the “science” was not accessible to many for too long. While local research using your own listeners is optimal, we knew there had to be a middle ground when that option isn’t available.
Over the past several months, Coleman Insights rolled out FACT USA, a series of reasonably priced music tests available for Mainstream AC, Hot AC, Country, Alternative, Classic Hits, Classic Rock, and R&B. The sample for each study includes 300 respondents, recruited nationally, with quotas set for age, gender, ethnicity, and region.
For contemporary music-focused formats, CHR, Hot AC, Country, and Alternative, we offer Integr8 USA, a nationally recruited “callout” service, and like FACT USA, it has all the data quality reviews and procedures that Coleman Insights has developed in 10+ years of online music testing.
What does this mean for you? No more guessing. No more following the herd.
Photo credit: Meiqiu.Photography / Shutterstock.com
Mediabase is a great tool for programmers. It can give you an overall sense of what is happening in your format. But have you ever thought about all the “behind the scenes” factors that influence those spin counts? How many of the stations in the panel that you’re reviewing have conducted a recent music test or have access to callout data? Do they have the same competitive situation as you? Does their strategy match yours? Is a song receiving extraordinary spins because the artist is coming to town or the record label is pushing it? You may be looking at streaming data, but some songs get a big jump in streaming that isn’t sustained and may not be great choices for the radio.
If you have the budget to conduct a market-level music test and/or callout research with your listeners, do it! There is nothing better than making decisions based on the opinions of your listeners. But, if you don’t have the resources to do that, we believe FACT USA and Integr8 USA are outstanding options to consider. You can best interpret and filter the results as it pertains to your station’s strategy.
Don’t be like me 20 years ago, following the herd with all art and “hopeful” science, hoping that other stations have it right. It’s time to select the songs you play with confidence.
