The Price to Pay, to Program Today

Programming music is not getting easier. There are forces, because of PPM and new requirements to manage the positioning of multiple stations, that can’t be met with simple tools and simple programming.

There is a lot to learn. But a series of discussions this month with leading programmers has reminded me that we are well equipped to meet the challenges. At Steve Casey Research, we have the tools to help you learn what you need to learn to be successful.

This learning is the price you must pay, to be a successful programmer today. I will explain what those issue are, why you must deal with them, and how my little company can help.

Today, the successful programmer understands:

• MusicVISTA
• Variety Control
• Music Fit Analysis
• Pure Core Format Fans
• Demographic Shift
• Center Fit Rank
• Passion
• Burn Analysis
• Discrete Music Cluster Prioritizing
• Lane
• Core Versus Variety Songs

Are you familiar with these terms? These some of the issues and technologies that you simply must understand if you are to program in today’s environment. Is it hard? At first, yes it is. But it is the price to be paid, to be a successful programmer today.

We need real analysis for 3 reasons:

1. Execute your music image. Thanks to the desire for stations to manage their “lanes”, music fit analysis is a critical tool. Otherwise, the “lane” can’t be decided by anything more than personal opinion. There is no component of audience feedback, at the song by song level.

Without Pure Core Format Fans analysis, Music Fit analysis and Variety Control from Steve Casey, you are flying blind. Your plan may be excellent, but you must create a feedback loop with the listeners.

2. Identify and appeal to true loyalty. Thanks to the problems of P1 stability that have been revealed through the PPM survey, your only solid signpost is the collective group that think most alike and thus define the format. They represent your most valuable prospects.

Everybody agrees with this, and only Steve Casey Research has Pure Core, to let you find and study the opinions of those that define your lane. PPM simply reveals the truth that Pure Core has always been designed for!

3. Manage your song by song flow. Thanks to the PPM, every tune-out is recorded. No “fuzzy memory diary entries” later in the day. Programmers now say “We have to manage the presentation song by song, quarter-hour by quarter-hour”. Some leading consultants have been saying this for many years. Fit analysis, applied against an agreed upon center music position for the station, allows you to manage flow. You can switch between core music and variety music, between hub and spoke, between vertical and horizontal.

On the need, everybody agrees now. Variety Control, combined with identifying your quintessential sound, is the analysis tool that gives a programmer the ability to manage the flow. It is your main tool for fighting back in the new world of PPM. Again, Variety Control and Center Fit Analysis were not designed for PPM. PPM simply reveals the truth that many consultants have always told us. PPM reveals the truth that I designed Variety Control to allow us to manage.

The Consulting Role of Steve Casey Research

I am a consultant. I add real analysis to music tests. The value of that shouldn’t be discounted. Right now your “normal” music test is a simple device: A survey of how many people like the songs you test. And that’s all you’re getting. You’re getting a tabulation.

What I add is my specialized knowledge, skill at bridging research and programming, and advanced analysis tools. I draw bigger pictures, make additional distinctions, and warn you of problems with the test itself, the target and the station’s positioning. Now, you get an analysis.

We provide up front consultation regarding the design of the test. We don’t charge for that. But we want you to gather high quality data, regardless of which research company to hire to do the data gathering. I work with nearly every radio research firm, and most are great people doing excellent work.

Our MusicVISTA system is the state of the art in music research analysis. It isn’t a jazzed up spreadsheet. It is a powerful tool.

The 20+ page analysis document I provide captures key indicators, ideas based on my expertise, and critical clustering information. That gives us a solid analytical foundation. From there, we talk.

Why aren’t we doing this for every AMT?

Because it is harder than looking at a simple ranking of songs.

Too bad, but the new world of PPM means that program directors need to learn some new skills.

It is hard. But what is hard is not my analysis, or the tools. What is hard?

1. Understanding more precisely what your “lane” is.
2. Understanding which songs are in and out of your lane (or center position)
3. Knowing how to build intelligent categories to separate and control your balance
4. Seeing a song as a tool that helps you create consistency or variety, rather than a simple 76 Pop Index.
5. Building intelligent clocks that keep you from straying out of you “lane” for too long, and which bring  listeners to a comfortable place at key points in the hour.

Programmers Who Achieve, Master This

Steve Casey did not decide that these are necessary skills. PPM says they are. The structure of modern radio groups says they are. Many very smart programmers and consultants say there are. I happen to agree.

Balance Programming and Costs

In the balance of  cost control and adequate performance of the station and by the programmer, this is the balancing point.

We must seek to perform well in these “hard” areas. If we don’t, then cost savings will be overwhelmed by low ratings, high staff turnover, products that the sale department can’t count on, and programming initiatives that fail not for lack to a good idea, but because of poor execution or the inability to fine tune the execution.

There is no way around the need for new tools and new skills. Steve Casey Research exists to make it happen.

To repeat my role in making you successful in today’s radio environment:

• · We provide up front consultation regarding the design of the test.
• · We encapsulate our analysis in a software system called MusicVISTA. It is the state of the art in music research analysis.
• · The 20+ page analysis document I provide captures key indicators, some of my expertise, and critical clustering information.
• · From there, we talk.