I Don't Have PPM Experience

If you have never worked in a Portable People Meter market, learn about the new ratings currency by studying PPM documentation from Nielsen and your company, have discussions with your peers programming in PPM markets, and practice PPM techniques in your current situation.

Here are a few tips I learned from following the above instructions.

The most important thing I learned about PPM is that the majority of listening comes from primary listeners, so you have to super serve your core, primary listeners, P1s.

It is very important to create more listening occasions. You have to create tune-in opportunities to get listeners to come back often. Those opportunities can be created on-air and off-air by the talent, imaging, social media, and other elements.

While creating tune-in occasions is important, it is just as important to prevent tune-outs. Stations have to get rid of meaningless content unappealing to the target audience, run flawless transitions between songs and stop-sets, and personalities must deliver concise talk breaks. 

Stop-set lengths and placement is also a key factor in managing tune-outs and protecting quarter hour ratings.

Marketing is highly import in PPM because you want your brand to be top of mind and be the first station listeners think of when they decide to turn on the radio.

Finally, don’t react to every drop in ratings. You have to make decisions based on trends not one moment.

This is just the basics and a place to start. The development and growth of the PPM technology will continue to evolve and so will the methods for programming in the PPM era. So keep reading, studying, and learning so that you won't be left behind in our ever-changing industrying.

Lj

Blogging For Radio Personalities

In today’s environment, you have to think as a multi-media professional. You are no longer just a radio talent. This is true for anyone working at any media company. Newspaper Journalists, TV Reporters, and Radio Personalities all have to have a little knowledge of each medium to be successful in today's ever-evolving, digital media environment. You should know the basics of writing, editing videos, photography, and working social media to be at the top of your game and be the best!

Here are a few basic tips for crafting a blog:

Title – The title is a headline, and should state the obvious intent of the article.

Paraphrase – In your first sentence, or even one paragraph, describe the subject, including who, what, when, where, and why. Do not copy and paste content written by another source. That is called plagiarizing, and could set your company up to be sued for copyright infringement.

Link – Link the original article to your blog using the insert/edit link button. When doing so, select “open new window” as your target. Do not give visitors any reason to leave the station's website. Attached the link to words that describe the article. Links attached to words like hear, more, and details are meaningless to search engines.

Pictures – Only use pictures from an approved company sources like Getty Images. You don’t want to use unapproved photos that may cause the company to be sued. And always credit the source, e.g., (photo credit: Getty Images).

Videos – Embed videos into your blog. On an actual video, look for a settings icon or ‘share,’ then ‘embed’ to get the embed code. Once you have the code, you can copy it and then paste the code on your blog.

   

Think of blogging as another method of communicating with your listeners, sharing with them relevant news, events, music, and other occurrences. 

Blogging helps build the station's digital numbers.  It also helps search engines like Google find the station's website, which can also help increase unique visitors and site hits.

Lj

TOOLS OF THE TRADE II: HEADPHONES

A great pair of headphones are imperative to executing a professional radio show.

Headphones are essential for: setting the proper distance from the microphone, prevent popping p's, listening to the processing, hearing the resonance in your voice, and making sure your microphone and music levels are proportionate.

I recommend headphones that fully cover the earlobes, because they are best for blocking out ambient noise. Earbuds are not sufficient enough and deliver an inferior sound quality, by design. 

While headphones are tangible, their contributions to an individual executing an unblemished show are not. 

Combined with the physical tools I discussed in my June 2011 blog post, any personality can produce a quality radio program.

Lj

WHAT’S THE CRITERIA

If you ever get a chance to sit in the Program Director's chair expect many inquiries from artists, their management and representatives about your criteria for getting their song played on the radio. The plethora of inquiries comes with the territory as it is part of the Program Directors job to find the next big hit! Please know that every station needs to have a criteria but that criteria can differ from station to station.

So it’s ok if your criteria change from market to market or change based on format, this post is to just give you a starting point. While sound quality is very important there are other criteria that are equally important to consider including core artist, market airplay, chart position, video exposure, YouTube hits, street buzz, etc.

To explain each criteria a little further, (core artist) Is the artist familiar to your audience with a few stays at the format? (market airplay) Is your competitor playing the song? (video exposure) Is it being exposed via BET, Centric or VH1? (YouTube hits) With little or no airplay, is it getting tons of hits on YouTube? And (street buzz) is the song hot in the clubs?

The reason it is important to have a criteria is because you cannot play every song that is submitted to you. You will not have that much room on your playlist no matter what format you are programming. So having a criteria not only helps you weed out “stiffs” but also helps you find true hits that have staying power.

And please note that being offered money for airplay is not a criteria, it is illegal and any ethical Programmer should find such an offer insulting. Besides the legal consequences if you are caught, playing a record because someone paid you clouds your judgment and will fill your playlist with bad songs which will in turn have a negative effect on your station’s ratings.

What’s the criteria for adding a song to your playlist? Now you know.

Lj

NEW BLOG POSTS COMING

It has been a minute since I've posted a new blog but that's only because some of my other projects have been taking priority in my life. And even though I've been preoccupied with some other things I have still been keeping notes on topics I want to blog about.

If you continue to check back here are a few posts you will enjoy:

Research and Development ~ even in a rough economy you still have to figure out what your customers (listeners) want

Tools of the Trade II ~ how important good are headphones?

Working For Free ~ You are always auditioning in this business

The Matrix ~ how radio is caught up in the record company's system

Insanity ~ is radio driving its employees, advertisers and listeners crazy by doing the same thing over and over?

What's The Criteria ~ what is the criteria for giving a song some air play?

As you can see there is a lot to discuss so please check back often. In the mean time please review some of my previous post I'm sure you'll find something interesting or helpful.

Lj