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Listeners that hold onto an "old perception" of a station.
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
I know you like to imagine these things, but the reality is that most listeners are nowhere near as obsessed with radio as we are. If you have one or two people in the audience who are thoroughly hung up on what used to be heard on a particular signal, one of two things happens: either they still find what you're programming now of interest, and they listen, or they don't find it interesting, and they listen to something else.
Either way, you're going to do much better in the long run focusing your programming on growing new listeners than on holding on to a handful of people who maybe used to listen to something on your frequency years ago. It's just not a real-world concern any programmer is going to think about very long, especially at larger stations in larger markets where the population tends to be more transient.
Most would-be listeners in any given market probably can't even accurately name what's on any given frequency right now, never mind what was there 10 or 20 years ago.
Either way, you're going to do much better in the long run focusing your programming on growing new listeners than on holding on to a handful of people who maybe used to listen to something on your frequency years ago. It's just not a real-world concern any programmer is going to think about very long, especially at larger stations in larger markets where the population tends to be more transient.
Most would-be listeners in any given market probably can't even accurately name what's on any given frequency right now, never mind what was there 10 or 20 years ago.
What about if the station changed only a small handful of years ago?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
What Scott said is more often than not the case. Some disgruntled listeners will call in over the first few days and weeks to complain, but once they realize they have no say in the matter, they go away.
But you'd be surprised at the number of listeners who honestly believe that calling the station, or posting on social media, or starting an online petition, think they will convince management to put "their" format back on the air.
As for "a small handful of years ago", there is zero interest by listeners after even one month. Sometimes you will find a former listener who had moved away before the flip and discover upon returning or visiting that the station has changed, but you rarely (if ever) hear from them.
But you'd be surprised at the number of listeners who honestly believe that calling the station, or posting on social media, or starting an online petition, think they will convince management to put "their" format back on the air.
As for "a small handful of years ago", there is zero interest by listeners after even one month. Sometimes you will find a former listener who had moved away before the flip and discover upon returning or visiting that the station has changed, but you rarely (if ever) hear from them.
Hello? Swap shop?
What about when a station "evolves" to a certain sound like in the thread here about KRTH a few years ago including more rhythmic tracks?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That's a different question than the one you originally asked. Listeners tend to be more tolerant of tweaks to an existing format.
That is hardly a "far-gone image".
Eh...if you read some of threads here...not so much.
So, I read the initial question much differently, since tall_guy1 used the word, "image" and not the word, "format." I was thinking of how stations changing imaging and monikers over time without any big format changes and how listeners will hold on to past imaging. I can provide a good example from Boston radio of how listeners, at least used to, hold on to past imagining. I have airchecks of Sunny Joe White when he first appeared on air on 94.5 WZOU in 1991 and listeners were calling in and still calling it "The Zoo," even though they hadn't used that imaging (outside of the morning show) since around the end of 1986/beginning of 1987. Other listeners still called it "Z94," which was a moniker not used since 1987...
As a programmer, I like to think of a station as an escalator. You have a bottom, where people get on and a top where they get off. So a station targeting 30 to 50 always starts at the "bottom" when listeners should join the audience and it ends at the "top" where your programming stops being of interest.
The escalator does not move. It's fixed. But every year, we hope as many people join the cume as those who have aged out.
To do that, we have to look at content that continues to appeal to the same age range, but where in, for example, half the listeners are gone and 50% did not yet listen 1, 2, 3... to 10 years ago.
In that analogy, I'm talking about the ones that don't want to "get off" but try to get it moving the way they see fit.
Generally, those are "bonus listeners" and we like to have them but don't do anything at all to attract or hold them.
I've seen people occasionally refer to WOGL in Philadelphia (now Big 98) as "Oldies 98" over the years on social media, a name it dropped in 2003. The comments appeared when there was an adjustment to the on air lineup or station branding. "What happened to the 60s music Oldies 98?" "Noooo Oldies 98!"
It could be either one. Just that a listener was a big fan of how it "used" to sound.
I sort of also meant if they make several tweaks over a period of time that it stops resembling the way it "sounded" but even a not far gone image could be included too.
One of two things happens when you tweak gradually. Either the listeners (that you want to keep) stay with you, you add a desirable group of new listeners and your ratings/revenues go up, or the listeners you want to keep don't like what they're hearing and drift away, and aren't replaced by new ones, and your ratings/revenues go down.
Either way, this is a *mass* medium, which means you're trying to keep/add those listeners in bulk. If you get a few loud complaints from a handful of listeners who are more obsessed with radio than most, it's vital to be able to figure out whether those complaints are representative of a larger group of listeners (usually not) or just some loud noise that's not representative of your entire audience.
I worked for a Hot AC station that for probably 15-20 years went by Mix 99.3 It tweaked slightly to more Adult CHR and changed identities to Kiss FM. 7-8 years after that, it flipped to a Variety Hits station that kept a larger than typical current/recurrent Hot AC library, Majic.
Folks still called it Mix 99.3 through the Kiss FM years. After the flip to Majic it regularly got Kiss FM and still some Mix 99.3 mentions. The product evolved and some listeners likely continued to call it what they remembered it to be when they first discovered it. But I doubt any of them noticed (or cared much about) the music tweaks as much as I did or any of us would have. They just continued to listen because the product was still what they wanted.
Folks still called it Mix 99.3 through the Kiss FM years. After the flip to Majic it regularly got Kiss FM and still some Mix 99.3 mentions. The product evolved and some listeners likely continued to call it what they remembered it to be when they first discovered it. But I doubt any of them noticed (or cared much about) the music tweaks as much as I did or any of us would have. They just continued to listen because the product was still what they wanted.
After this many years, if you ever listened to Oldies 98 (and were in its target demo at the time, not a child in the back seat of your mom's car), you are too old for the station today, and probably radio as a whole. The Oldies 98 brand ended 23 years ago, so if you were 40 then, you'll be 63 this year.
Having a couple of boomers (or, really obsessives of any age) who cling to the 90s doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme.
Probably unrelated, but does the staff ever miss the "old" music?
As I have told many DJs and announcers prior to a format change... you don't have to like the music. But it helps to like the listeners; you are there for them.
Anyone who got the point of that statement seemed to do well. In the "old days" there was a lot to do in the studio during songs so the jock didn't have to "listen"... just monitor.