THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF U.S. RADIO Chris Byrnes Like thousands of other Canadians, I spent March Break with my family in Florida. For various reasons we decided to drive the 2,250 kilometres each way (Toronto to Orlando) along the I-75. To help pass the time I did the “seek and scan” thing as we drove and got to hear a lot of radio over four days. I thought it might be worthwhile to share my observations about what I heard and how it compares to Canadian radio.
FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS
Oldies On FM: This is one of the positive things about American radio, as their FCC regulations allow them to run this format on FM and the music sounds so much better in stereo. I programmed an Oldies FM station for several years and it was always a strong #1, adults 25-54 and listening to stations like WGOW in Chattanooga reminded me what a pleasure it is to listen to a well-programmed Oldies station. The imaging, the upbeat talent and of course, the music sounded so much better on FM. The entire package was simply more “fun” to listen to and we all felt better about our long drive. This format works because it takes that large segment of “baby boomers” back to their youth when life was less complicated and somehow more innocent.
Religious Radio: On this trip I noticed a lot more inspirational or religious stations on the FM dial, especially in Georgia and Florida. This format has really taken off in the U.S. over the last few years and some of these stations sound very polished, professional and easy to listen to. Check out www.wfcj.com, a station I found driving through Dayton, Ohio. They don’t do a hard sell of religion and the music flows smoothly. The announcers were upbeat and professional. These stations are attracting listeners away from other formats and they are making a lot of money. They sell plenty of advertising and by all accounts, the listeners tend to go out of their way to support those advertisers because they share similar values. There is a “Fish” and a “The Joy” network of inspirational stations that are rather impressive in the way they program and market their stations. I saw many billboards for this type of radio station along I-75. The Christian and inspirational broadcasters have money and they are producing good radio. I see this format as becoming more sophisticated and a bigger threat to other formats and I predict it will become more of a factor in Canada in the coming years.
SECOND, THE NOT SO GOOD NEWS
Voice Tracking: I am a fan of voice tracking, providing it is done properly. I was therefore somewhat surprised to hear just how obvious and bad some of the voice tracking is that can be heard on stations in the U.S. When I hear someone say, “Just about into our 3 o’clock hour on this Saturday afternoon” I know there is a good chance I’m listening to a show that was tracked the previous day. I was disappointed to hear a lot of very generic sounding voice breaks, which lacked local or timely information. This technology is getting better by the day and gives the announcer more tools and options so it is easier than ever to create the impression of “live” radio. But no matter how good the equipment is, it still relies on the talent to actually do the show prep and then deliver the material in such a way that it sounds live. I wrote an article called, “Improving Those Voice Tracks”. In it I discussed listening to your station during voice tracked periods to see if your announcers are putting in the effort. It’s easy to track a 6-hour shift in 30 minutes but a well prepared and properly delivered six-hour, voice tracked show will take at least 90 minutes to create.
Traffic Reports: It’s a long trip and we really needed the radio to warn us of traffic delays or bad weather. The last time we drove this route we were held up by accidents near Cincinnati and Atlanta, as well as a torrential downpour as we crossed the Florida state-line. On this trip, we didn’t experience any of the hour-long hold ups that delayed us last year, but I was disappointed by how generic many of the traffic reports sounded on some of the stations. The reports on AM stations tended to be better than on the FMs, which gave such limited information and fired it out so quickly that it was easy to miss the critical details. The one recurring mistake I heard on several stations was describing the problem first and then the location. I was only interested in problems on I-75, so when the traffic reporter said I-75, I turned the volume up but by then I had missed the problem. Traffic reporters must understand that they should always give location first and then situation.
The Quality of the Commercials: Overall, I believe Canadian, small market radio is doing a better job for the local advertisers. South of the border, it is not unusual for the salesperson to gather and write the copy and the announcer to both voice and produce the spot. The end result is a lot of “price and item” commercials, which sound average at best, especially when they play next to a national spot featuring superior production, writing and talent.
Contests: The Arbitron sweeps were on, but most station’s save their money for the spring and fall, so I was not surprised to hear little promotional activity happening. I should also point out that it was the weekend, so perhaps the stations had been more active during the week. What was missing from most of the stations I heard were the “memory” promos where you get to share in the experience the joy of someone winning a major prize. They forget the value of editing the winner tape to create several different versions and then using the OES formulas to ensure they get sufficient exposure. The spring Arbitron sweeps begin on April 1, so there were a few stations teasing upcoming contests. It sounds like some stations will once again get involved in group contesting. At least one company is going to give away $1 million a week to the 500th caller. I’m not a big fan of this promotional concept because it’s causing radio to lose its local advantage.
AM Radio: This medium is struggling, both in Canada and the U.S. In most major cities, there are one or two big AM stations doing very well with news, sports or talk, but the other stations are dying. Of course the big difference between here and south of the border is that no U.S. companies air oldies on AM. I listened to the Disney channel and also a little of Mike O'Shea’s American Comedy Radio on a couple of stations and that sounded good. However, the content on other AM stations was generally so poor that they gave the impression they were operating out of a broom closet with content coming from the dish. I did hear some baseball play-by-play on stations that air traffic reports during the week, but clearly stay with baseball and drop traffic reports on weekends. Common sense would seem to dictate that even if you carry live sports, the world is still rotating and between innings or periods, critical news, weather and traffic reports should be aired. Additionally, bulletin material should take precedence over the live game and should pre-empt the broadcast when necessary.
Lack of Discretionary Time Information: The reason people listen to radio is mainly for the music or the companionship outside of AM Drive. The stations that manage to create compelling local radio are the ones that prosper. What was lacking on most of the stations to which I tuned was that critical, local information. Tell me what to do with my free time and give me ideas of where to take my family. We are all “time starved” today so the free time we have is even more important than ever before. Radio stations must find ways to get this information on the air even during weekends. After all, we know weekends are heavily tuned time periods. In fact, ratings figures tell us that in some markets, Saturday between 9AM and noon attracts as many, if not more, listeners than during the week.
Lack of News On FM: Canadian radio stations generally do a much better job of delivering news, especially on FM. Again I stress that this was the weekend but I couldn’t find any news on the FM band Saturday morning as we drove through Atlanta. News I did find in other markets on FM was so brief that it drove me to the AM band to seek the details. I think programmers in the U.S. treat news as an interruption and television appears to be doing a much better job of delivering local and regional news than radio from my experience. George Bush was in Orlando to kick off his re-election campaign the morning we left to drive north but I didn’t hear anything about it on radio.
Homogeneous Sounding Radio: This may be a function of consolidation, voice tracking, or both, but many of the radio stations I listened to sounded very similar. I heard the same music, the same image voice and a lot of the same formatics as I tuned around. While the average listener may not pick up on many of these similarities, I believe they contribute to the perception of cookie-cutter radio, which ultimately cheats the listener and chases him away after he realizes he is gaining nothing by listening. If someone just wants wall-to-wall tunes, there are other better choices than radio. Our challenge is to create the impression that the radio people are listening to is live, and that our radio station is very plugged into the community.
Conclusion: I concede that my “seek and scan” method of listening to radio meant that there was no guarantee I was tuning to the top rated stations in each market. However, I did get a snapshot of what the average person is hearing in Dayton OH, Corbin KY, Dalton TN, and Macon GA. My overall impression is that while there is some good radio in the major markets, the smaller markets in the U.S. are not as well served by radio as small markets in Canada. There are of course more radio stations per market in the States than in Canada and they tend to run with much lower staff numbers. That undoubtedly impacts a station’s ability to create great radio but overall, listeners in smaller markets in Canada are treated to a better product than those in the U.S. |