Branding & calls disconnect: when did it happen?

[davideduardo]

Why is it you fear when a station celebrates a long-time anniversary?

One thing is to celebrsate THE anniversary (without saying how many years) and another is to say how many years. In a plumber or car dealer,w e look for experience. In media, we look for newness as a rule.

I think it is admirable that a station can last that long, SO LONG AS what they are celebrating is format consistency.

And that consistency, to the listener, may mean old or old fashioned.

 

[nhradiochild]

And that consistency, to the listener, may mean old or old fashioned.

That's quite possible, but if the ratings show strength in the station, I don't see how boasting of tenure will greatly affect it, unless you're talking about a Top 40 station, where I can agree with you whole-heartedly.

 

[Tom Wells]

OK, David, well of course I was referring to branding of radio, not physical products.
I had always considered the call WAS the branding in radio.

And you cannot say that loyalty is not maintained by keeping heritage calls.
For some it is, for some it isn't.

There IS no dial position when you have a digital readout. There are only digits.
There USED TO BE some advantage to being in the middle of the dial, when tuners had knobs and pointers.
One USED TO be able to remember a place on the dial where we'd get what we wanted, now it's only ID'd as
J-rock, or whatever, there's less info TO recall.


Many of us here or older than 8-track tapes, yet we don't pretend to be twenty-something for fear of being swept out the door.
Why should radio be so funny about heritage?

 

[Roger That]

...but if the ratings show strength in the station, I don't see how boasting of tenure will greatly affect it...

If it's not going to affect it, what's the point? Wouldn't you rather spend time doing things that may actually move the needle?

Listeners don't care how great you say you are. And if there's no valuable reason to do it, be wary of your station's ego thinking it's a good idea anyway.

 

[davideduardo]

OK, David, well of course I was referring to branding of radio, not physical products.
I had always considered the call WAS the branding in radio.

The calls were an early way of branding. Since then, we have learned that they are a pretty terrible way of branding as they have no warmth, emotion or feeling. Names are much more memorable, and this has been proven many times. And dial positions are the "address and phone number" for a station... the way we find them.

And you cannot say that loyalty is not maintained by keeping heritage calls.

Those who grew up when calls were still prevalent see the calls as the name of some stations. But those listeners are likely mostly in their 50's now.

Most stations like to lock in a demo target, and each year refresh so they are always a 25-54 or 35-54 or whatever station... they do not want to age with the listener, as in some years, they age the station right out of the salable age groups. So the younger persons don't identify with calls, and most of the older ones have been flushed out of the target... names are the best alternative.

For some it is, for some it isn't.

The "some" that calls resonate with are too old to be a desirable target.

There IS no dial position when you have a digital readout. There are only digits.

Everyone I know still calls it a dial.

There USED TO BE some advantage to being in the middle of the dial, when tuners had knobs and pointers.

This is an urban legend. Particularly on FM where the bottom or the top have virtually identical coverage per watt.

One USED TO be able to remember a place on the dial where we'd get what we wanted, now it's only ID'd as
J-rock, or whatever, there's less info TO recall.

That has noting to do with name or call letter use... neither shows the frequency. As I said, 80% of ratings diary mentions are by dial position or dial position and name.

Many of us here or older than 8-track tapes, yet we don't pretend to be twenty-something for fear of being swept out the door.
Why should radio be so funny about heritage?

Heritage only means a station is old. What you did today is what determines who will listen tomorrow. People listen to a station because it is good, now, today. Not because the station is old or has heritage calls.

 

[nhradiochild]

...but if the ratings show strength in the station, I don't see how boasting of tenure will greatly affect it...

If it's not going to affect it, what's the point? Wouldn't you rather spend time doing things that may actually move the needle?

Listeners don't care how great you say you are. And if there's no valuable reason to do it, be wary of your station's ego thinking it's a good idea anyway.

Well, I meant negatively affect it, but while we're going down this road... there's no telling how valuable it is or not, any more than any other useless piece of trivia is or isn't valuable. But sometimes we talk about it because it seems to be something worth talking about. Yeah, pride may have a lot to do with it, but I guess ultimately you'd have to gauge whether or not it's something the listeners would care about or not for it to be effective.

It is David Eduardo's opinion that it is not universally. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

I will say that call letters are something exclusively for radio geeks. They do nothing for imaging, unless that imaging is devoted to historical pursuits, such as WSM, KDKA, WBZ, WLS, WNEW (once upon a time), and probably a few others I'm forgetting to mention.