Looks like step one toward commercials

[rickets]

This guy hates us:

PLAYING POLKAS AT NIGHT.
By: Walter Sabo
Let me give you some format ideas for music stations: Play polkas at night. Play three hours of Korean chants on the weekends. Only play songs that appeal to gardeners on the weekends. Broadcast live from the tuba competition.

Why would any music station air those shows? They wouldn’t. Well, what if they could sell them? They still wouldn’t. Not at night. Not on weekends. Music stations wouldn’t air those shows because they believe it would (using a technical term) screw up their cume.

That appears to be a serious issue at a well-programmed music station. The quality of the interruption to the format is less important than the interruption. For example, the best countdown show in the world is Casey Kasem’s. Anything hosted by Casey is the best of the genre. Often stations fight for that show. Logically, the best time to put on a weekly countdown show on a CHR is at 3 PM Fridays. That’s where it belongs. Dick Clark/Carson Daly time. (Same guy.)

Music stations don’t put it on at 3PM friday. Instead they have on a much less significant talent doing the format. Their format. Music programmers believe that in order to build up the listener’s memory with impressions of the station--they must keep it consistent. Consistent so the listener remembers to write it down in an Arbitron diary.

THE ARBITRON TALK DIARY.
Have you seen the new Arbitron diary for talk stations? Probably not, it doesn’t exist.
That means your station is dependent on the same diary that measures CHRS. Same physics. The most dependable, proven method for delivering memorable impressions that win diary mentions is----format consistency. That’s why CHR’s don’t run the best countdown show at 3 PM on Fridays, they run it Sunday morning.

ARE YOU A CRIMINAL?
When a talk station ignores the proven ratings strategies for winning Arbitron diary mentions---it doesn’t get as many Arbitron diary entries as it could. The biggest talk station crime? Believing everything stops at 7 PM and the Weekends.

No local programs. Weird shows paid for by doctors, lawyers and vets. “But we can sell it.” Yes, and the CHR could sell the polka show too. But it would “Screw up their cume.”
The paid-for weekend shows, the failure to build a nighttime line up, the inconsistencies show to show screw up a talk station’s cume too. You will never know how good your Monday-Friday morning show is as long as you “screw up the cume” on the weekends.

Before you buy into the “but we can sell it...” ask yourself if a music station would make the same program decision. If the answer is no, it should be no for your talk station too.


http://www.sabomedia.com/papers.php

[Joshua Clinard]

It's interesting, but what does it have to do with commercials, or for that matter Satelite Radio?

Also, the talk station I listen to does have local programming. And as far as having good content after 7PM, have you ever heard of Micaheal Regan, or Jim Bohannen? And then there is Charlie Jones at Midnight if you live in Texas. All excellent shows. Of course it would be nice if we could get Mike Regan and Rush L. on Sirrius Right.

[Manco]

I'll believe they are heading for commercials when they have them and not before. That would be a suicidal move on their part since this is the number one reported reason people choose Sirius over XM.

[rickets]

This is Sirius' answer to Lee Abrams. His philosophy is that content doesn't matter, ratings do.

Ratings are good for only one thing; selling commercials.

Content sells paid subscriptions. This guy hates content unless it helps get ratings. The entire ratings machine is geared away from intelligent people. It is a lowest common denominator machine.

There's no way SDARS will ever be able to compete with terrestrial radio for raw numbers. Look at the TV analogy. A top rated cable show has a couple million viewers. That's good for about # 6 in the Neilsens on a slow broadcast night.

We should just stick to providing world class programming, selling a few spots on Fox News to pay for the phone lines, and raking it in with subscriptions from happy, smart people.

Originally Posted by Joshua Clinard

It's interesting, but what does it have to do with commercials, or for that matter Satelite Radio?

Also, the talk station I listen to does have local programming. And as far as having good content after 7PM, have you ever heard of Micaheal Regan, or Jim Bohannen? And then there is Charlie Jones at Midnight if you live in Texas. All excellent shows. Of course it would be nice if we could get Mike Regan and Rush L. on Sirrius Right.