Radio Formats: Explained

Active Rock	The term often used for stations which play rock music designed to be played loudly, such as "hard rock", "metal", and "heavy metal".
Adult Album Alternative (AAA)	A station which plays largely current music which tends to appeal more to adults than to teenagers. AAA playlists are much broader than the limited playlists of hit radio, and therefore depend on album tracks as well as on music released or designated as singles. Stylistically, such stations may play rock, folk-rock, country-rock, modern rock, blues, folk, and world music.
Adult Alternative	A station which plays current hits, whether single releases or popular album tracks, which tend to appeal to adults more than to teenagers. Playlists are drawn from rock, pop, country-rock, folk-rock and blues releases.
Adult Contemporary (AC)	A station primarily playing popular and rock music released during the past fifteen or twenty years, designed for general listeners rather than for listeners actively interested in hearing current releases.  The playlists of many AC stations will also include a limited selection of older material and current hits.  Best examples: Radio City 91.1 (most stations currently use this format or it’s variant)
Album Oriented Rock (AOR)	This is a format so named as to distinguish itself from Top 40 stations of the past, which played primarily singles. AOR stations thrived between the late 60's and the 80's, during the heyday of FM Rock Radio. See Rock, Classic Rock.
Alternative Rock	A station which plays rock music of grunge bands of the late 80's, and to some extent, the punk/new wave artists of the late 70's, rather than the "classic" rock artists of the 60's and 70's. These stations are aimed primarily at teenage audiences and feature mostly current single releases and popular album cuts.
Americana	A station which plays mostly current country-rock, folk-rock, blues and American roots music which tends to appeal to adults more than to teenagers.
Classic Rock	A station which plays rock music released during the 60's, 70's and 80's. These stations recreate the sound of Album Oriented Rock stations of that period (although often with a much more limited playlist) and appeal mainly to adults rather than to teenagers. Some Classic Rock stations play a limited amount of current releases stylistically consistent with the station's sound.
Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR)	A station which plays a significant amount of current popular music, whether singles or album cuts. As it is no longer unusual for a single to remain on the charts for 30-40 weeks or longer, "current" refers to music released within the last year. A more accurate description for "CHR" would be "Current Hit Radio".     Although some CHR stations base their playlists on surveys of local record sales or phone requests, most rely on published charts such as the Billboard Hot 100. As of December, 1998, the Billboard Hot 100 chart began to include popular album tracks not commercially released as singles, and began weighing a song`s airplay three times as heavily as a song`s sales.  The Billboard Hot 100 chart is therefore a measure of which songs are being played on CHR stations which, in turn, base their playlists on Billboard`s Hot 100 chart.     Some CHR stations play a significant amount of hits released during the past ten or fifteen years, particularly if there are insufficient current hit releases which fall within the station's stylistic range.
Dance	A station which plays music, whether or not current, produced primarily to be played for dancing. This type of music was originally known as Disco music.
Ethnic/International	Programs which feature music, whether traditional or popular, of a particular ethnic group, nation, or region, and are aimed at listeners from the featured group or place. Comp World Music
Hot Adult Contemporary (Hot AC)	A station which plays commercial popular and rock music released during the past fifteen or twenty years which is more lively than the music played on the average Adult Contemporary station, but is still designed to appeal to general listeners rather than listeners interested in hearing current releases. Another definition of "Hot Adult Contemporary" used in the radio industry is an Adult Contemporary station which plays a significant amount of new rock/pop releases. There is no strict rule as to how much new material a station needs to play in order to be considered "CHR" rather than "Hot AC". To confuse matters further, you will often see an "Adult Contemporary" music chart, which tracks current songs which appeal to adults but are more pop-oriented than songs found on the "Adult Alternative" chart.  Billboard Magazine also compiles an "Adult Top 40" Chart, which tracks rock singles and album cuts which appeal to an adult audience. Example: Big 93.8 FM
Lite Adult Contemporary (Lite AC)	A station playing particularly easy-going popular and rock music released during the past fifteen or twenty years designed to appeal to general listeners. This is "Easy Listening" format of years past. See ACHot AC.
Modern Rock	A station which plays mostly current rock music performed by artists which have become prominent during the past five to ten years. Stylistically, the music tends to fall between Rock and Alternative Rock. See Alternative Rock, Rock.
Oldies	A station which plays popular, rock 'n roll, and rock music released during the "golden era of hit music", roughly 1955-1975. The term "Oldies" is actually a misnomer; a more accurate name for this format would be "Golden Hits", as music from the post-1975 period may qualify as "old" but will rarely qualify as "gold".
Personality	Programs or formats which rely on the personalities of an on-air host or hosts to entertain listeners, often with humor, parody, satire, or commentary on current events. Personality programming may also include music, interviews, and other features.
Rock	A station which plays mostly current rock music, whether single releases or album cuts. Due to the diversity within rock music today, the playlists of different rock stations will tend to fall within different stylistic ranges. See Modern Rock, Alternative Rock, Active Rock, Rock AC.
Rock AC	A station which plays rock music released largely during the past fifteen or twenty years, designed for the general rock listener who is not actively interested in following current releases. These stations, sometimes known as "rock hits", include some "classic rock" material and some current material in their playlists. Some of the "name" formats such as "Jack" include some pop material along with rock hits.
Talk	A format or program which features one or more hosts discussing current events and other topics, often in the context of a particular political ideology. Talk programs frequently feature in-studio guests and calls from members of the public, representing varying degrees of expertise. Health, medical, and financial topics are especially popular.
World Music	Programs which play music which evokes musical styles of one or more regions of the world, but is not necessarily performed by musicians from those regions or aimed solely at listeners from those regions. Compare Ethnic/International Music.

Why Use Radio To Advertise?

The Radio Multiplier Study
Conducted by Millward Brown International, in October 1999 - April 2000. Commissioned by Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) UK

• Toplines of Research
• Findings Research Summary 
  
  Toplines of Research Findings
• A large-scale continuous tracking survey of radio and TV
  This Millward Brown study involved nearly 5500 interviews in continuous research to track awareness and attitudes to 17 brands. The media tested were Commercial Radio and TV in the Central Region of UK.
• Adding radio to TV has a 15% multiplier effect 
  If 10% of a given TV budget is re-deployed onto radio, the efficiency of the campaign in building awareness increases on average by 15%
• Radio in isolation was measured to be three-fifths as effective as TV at raising advertising awareness
  On average, in this test, radio was three-fifths as effective as TV at increasing advertising awareness amongst an audience of 16-44 year old radio listeners
• But this radio effectiveness result was achieved at one-seventh of the cost 
  On average, in this test, radio prices were about one-seventh of those for TV. While the price relativity for other audiences will vary, the achievement of three-fifths of the result at one-seventh of the cost makes radio significantly more cost effective than TV.Obviously price variance between radio and TV will vary depending on area and audience.
• More effective radio campaigns
  The most effective radio campaigns outperformed even the average for TV. Enjoyability is an important factor but, above all, the best-performing ads are well branded
• Misattribution
  There is clear evidence that consumers often think they have seen a campaign on TV when in fact radio was the only advertising medium used; splitting the sample into listeners and non-listeners helps to offset this misattribution

Research Summary 
This study was devised to find out how effective radio advertising can be relative to TV, and to learn more about what kind of radio advertising is more effective: effectiveness was gauged in terms of measuring increases in advertising awareness.

The study tracked perceptions amongst consumers aged 16-44 for seventeen brands advertised in two comparable regions. For each brand, one town had radio advertising while the other did not. TV advertising was the same across both towns.

Millward Brown, who conducted the study across October 1999 to April 2000, model effectiveness in terms of the Awareness Index

Across the seventeen brands:

• the average Awareness Index for radio was 3
• the average Awareness Index for TV was 5

Therefore radio was, on average, three-fifths as efficient as TV at driving advertising awareness amongst radio listeners.

In terms of price advertising agency Universal McCann, advise that for the TG 16-44 Yrs, TV is around seven times the cost of radio. So, by achieving three fifths of the awareness at one seventh of the cost, the radio campaigns were significantly more cost-efficient than the TV campaigns.Obviously price variance between radio and TV will vary depending on area and audience. 
This cost effectiveness advantage means that radio has a multiplier effect when added to a TV schedule. If 10% of a given TV budget is re-deployed onto radio, the efficiency of the campaign in building awareness increases on average by 15%.

Some radio campaigns performed much more strongly than others - indeed the strongest outperformed the TV average.

Radio campaigns with higher scores were characterised by good branding - these were campaigns where consumers were in little doubt which brand was being advertised. Enjoyability was also a characteristic of the better performing campaigns, although this could not overcome weak brand linkage.

Branding and enjoyability appear to be significantly more important factors than spot length or media laydown.
Proprietary branding devices (e.g. jingles, theme music) were strong contributors to the effectiveness of radio advertising, even though they may have originally been established on TV.

Misattribution is an important issue. Consumers may think they have seen a campaign on TV even when it has only run on radio. This has important implications for measuring the effect of radio - most importantly, research samples need to be split into listeners and non-listeners.

Why Radio? What makes radio to stand apart???

There are clear cut advantages which make radio popular, amongst them:

1.       Radio is a non-intrusive medium: Simply put it doesn’t come between you and your work. You can drive, cook, work or mostly do anything with the radio playing at the background, and it won’t hamper your output. But the same doesn’t hold true for Television or magazines, where you need to concentrate on the medium to get the sense out of it.

2.       Radio is extremely portable: A point which needs little explanation, it can go anywhere you go, but whether you’ll be able to use it or not depends on service; but still it can stay with you anywhere.

3.       Radio is local: One of the biggest advantage, radio is restricted to a particular region and this gives immense potential to radio. Both the users and advertisers gain a lot from it. A local advertiser is able to market his/her product to the potential clients. Pick any spot (commercial) e.g. There is a sale at a jewelry store in Lucknow, now wont it make sense for it to advertise its upcoming sale to the potential customers within Lucknow. Will it gain any advantage by putting the ad on a national television (local channels have very limited viewership) and incur huge cost when maximum number of viewers will never be able to take advantage of the sale.

The same spot on radio will not only deliver the message to the correct customers but will also make more sense as both the store and the potential customers are located in the same city, plus it will be much more cost effective, and will have high value for money.

Apart from this, local news/updates or local connect can only be achieved through a local medium. You can connect with the people by talking about things which makes sense to them e.g. Weather, traffic conditions, train timings or local issues.

People can connect with the on-air staff or the station, and can give their feedbacks or suggestions, they also have the opportunity to connect with their favorite RJs. Connecting the same way with a TV station is virtually impossible even for the local residents of the city where the TV channel is based.

4.       Radio is Live: Together will local connect this really boosts radio as the true and one of the most effective public communication medium. Live updates are possible on radio which is impossible for print and very difficult for television to manage. A jam at a crossing in a particular city is of relevance to the residents of that city only or those visiting it, a radio station can give out exact details, same goes for other local and

5.       Radio is Inexpensive: A locally manufactured non-branded Radio can be bought for a few rupees, whereas a TV will still cost couple of thousand. Plus you don’t need to pay for the service, but TV/newspaper/magazines carry their cost.

Profiles In a Radio Station!!!

The moment we hear the word Radio or a career therein, we end up thinking about Radio Jockey, much like the moment we think about TV Serials we think only about the actors working in it. But the fact is that a radio-station has many more opportunities. And one would find various teams in a radio station, mostly:


     Programming: This is the creative department, where all the ideas/shows or any other thing        which you hear on a radio are churned out. You can call this the core of the station.

2.     
      Sales: Obviously this department gets the dough to keep a station working.

3.     
      Technical: Responsible for smooth operation of all the machinery, including uplinks, audio systems, internal monitoring, studios, generators, air-conditioning, CTI etc.; basically anything which comes under electrical or electronic heading falls in their domain.

4.     
      Administration/Finance/HR/Marketing/PR: These are mostly handled by couple of people in a non-metro station. And the same person can be looking after Finance, HR and Admin or maybe working with a different combo.

Within programming and sales department there are various profiles. Mostly in non-metro radio stations a programming person looks after more than one aspect.  So at times a show producer will also act as a script writer or an ad-sales producer, a jock may fill in as a music manager, the programming head might be looking into marketing tie-ups as well…so the boundaries are not absolute; and multi-tasking is expected and part of the norm.

Still the profiles which might be found in a station can include:

1.    
      Programming:

a.     Programming Head: Responsible for all aspects of programming

b.     Radio Jockey: Hosts shows or does OBs

                                          i.    Show Hosts

                                         ii.    OB jocks

c.     Producer: One who produces an idea is the producer. The role of a producer demands making of a program completely – from generating ideas to deciding on the music and to finally getting it aired. Besides this, a producer also looks after radio show formats, co-ordinates with guests, briefs callers and sees if the show is aired on time.

                                          i.    Show Producer: Is responsible for complete content and orientation of a show

                                         ii.    Ad-Sales Producer: Is responsible for sales coordination and preparing jingles or ads for clients.

                                        iii.    Promo Producer: A term which is often used to describe a person who does the work of both a producer and a sound engineer.

                                        iv.    Station Producer: One who looks after the production of promos, jingles and other in-house properties.

d.     Sound Engineer: Works to mix or enhance an audio which is supposed to be aired.

e.     Script Writer

f.      Music Manager: Responsible for the correct flow of songs, maintaining database, and preparing reports. Music is an integral part of radio as in the absence of visuals, it’s only music that maintains the continuity of any radio program.

2.                       Sales:

a.     Sales Head

b.     Account Manager

                                          i.    Retail Sales Executive

                                         ii.    Corporate Sales Executive

So you might be good in one or the other thing because each of these jobs require a particular mindset and it should be in sync with your attitude and abilities. Any clash between your attitude and the requirements for a profile will frustrate you and you will lose in the long run.

Soon I’ll post about the requirements to be a good radio jockey and some universal requirements for any profile in a radio station.

                                                                                
                                 ...Be With Me...