Its time to think out of the box. If you had an AM in San Francisco what format would you place on it. Ratings are not imperative but making money is? NEW TALK? All Paid Talk? Niche Music? The Station of the Cars (all auto infomercials) thoughts???
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New Formats in 2009
- Thread starter Reggiefan1945
- Start date
I thought to make money you had to have a respectiable rating. I feel that every kind of format has been used by now. I think maybe it's time that radio (just like newspapers) the time has come to lower your expectations on the "bottom line" or move onto something else. In this world we live in today your going to make money or you don't and only the strong will survive.
Reggiefan1945 said:
AM is an uphill battle for sure. When you say "San Francisco" I'm thinking just The City and maybe 10 or 15 miles around. KEST coverage. Out of the box? How about a station that focuses on San Francisco happenings. Kind of an on-the-air version of the SFWeekly magazine. The station would build their format out of contract workers who make liberal use of laptops and DSL service to upload files and provide live broadcasts of events throughout the city. A quick look of what's happening - today I'd run Gail Lynn & the Hired Hands from the Riptide. Maybe the Stairwell Sisters at the Starry Plough. The key to this is to make heavy use of remote programming, allow professionals to work from wherever they are - not have to come to a radio studio, and capitalize on good talent that would be at these events anyway, so they might as well get paid.
Essentially a radio station of live remotes and almost-real-time voice tracking, but programmed mostly over the Internet. The focus is on live happenings in The City. A mix of entertainment and political interviews, city government news, and features. Revenue comes from advertising from clubs and businesses that cater to the crowd that goes out a lot, and since it's AM, don't worry too much about being a music station. Sure, lots of the programming is music, but the purpose is to let people know what's going on in San Francisco right now, and serve as a catalyst for information & entertainment.
How's that for thinking out of the box?
Dave B.
Not having ever been to San Fransisco & not knowing enough about the market, I have no idea what would be best on AM there (although I like Dave B.'s ideas for almost ANY decent sized market), but I will say that the #1 biggest challenge to an AM is getting people to find the AM/FM button. Most typical listeners don't even seem to know it exists, and they can't figure out how to get to an AM station because it isn't past either end of the FM band.
As big a fan as I am of the latest whiz-bang pieces of equipment & computer programs, and as much as I believe in paying talent what they're really worth, with an AM I think I would get decent listenable programming on the air and spend everything else (75%+ of the budget?) on advertising and promotion. Find a guerrilla promotions director who knows how to get us in front of the most faces for the least dollars and just advertise the snot out of that thing. Maybe set up a "designated band-switcher" promotion of some kind, with friends teaching other friends how to get from FM to AM on their radios.
Being the "underdog" on AM can be a fun part of your station image if it's done properly ("...from our station owner's basement, this is K...") and not done as a "poor us, we don't have the resources" thing.
Once people know you're there, it will be easier to get the advertising dollars to pay talent what they're worth and buy the coolest hardware and software.
...That's my 2 cents' worth anyway... and that's likely about what my ideas are worth, too. ;D
As big a fan as I am of the latest whiz-bang pieces of equipment & computer programs, and as much as I believe in paying talent what they're really worth, with an AM I think I would get decent listenable programming on the air and spend everything else (75%+ of the budget?) on advertising and promotion. Find a guerrilla promotions director who knows how to get us in front of the most faces for the least dollars and just advertise the snot out of that thing. Maybe set up a "designated band-switcher" promotion of some kind, with friends teaching other friends how to get from FM to AM on their radios.
Being the "underdog" on AM can be a fun part of your station image if it's done properly ("...from our station owner's basement, this is K...") and not done as a "poor us, we don't have the resources" thing.
Once people know you're there, it will be easier to get the advertising dollars to pay talent what they're worth and buy the coolest hardware and software.
...That's my 2 cents' worth anyway... and that's likely about what my ideas are worth, too. ;D
radio dx said:
Actually, not true. KFAX has made money since the 1960s on block "patriotic" and religious programming, and seldom if ever made the ratings. KDIA (block religion) and KDYA (gospel music) make money and they don't show up in the ratings, either. Well, I think KDYA showed up in one book.
How do you define a format? If you're defining it mainly by the kind of music, believe me, there are music genres that have not been touched or haven't been touched in decades. To wit:
(1) Western swing music. The Bay Area once had KVSM 1050 (before my time), KSAY 1010, and KEEN 1370, all specializing in Western music. That's the stuff I grew up on, not that Nashville garbarge. I long for the return of Western music.
(2) Polka. There are stations the program polka music, but not here. Niche? Sure, but well, it hasn't been tried here.
(3) Middle Eastern music. Turkish techno is big these days in the dance clubs.
(4) Trance music. Well, I guess there's "Music From the Hearts of Space" for a couple hours every weekend, but there's been nothing since, oh, Norm Woodruff tried his "Trendformation Radio" on the former KYA. And while that wasn't trance, it was definitely stoner music. Tune in, light up, mellow out.
(5) Singer/Songwriter. Considering how many people pay to go to concerts to hear singer/songwriters in person, I'm surprised there isn't a station devoted to that genre.
Those are just the genres that come to the top of my head. There are lots of niche formats that haven't been tried, or haven't aired in a bunch o'years.
Gay/Lesbian news and talk a la Sirius OutQ, and a partnership with KNGY to help promote it.
NoMoreLurking said:
This assumes that GBLT tastes are similar. Speaking as a gay civil rights activist of long standing (since age 16), one would think that I'd be interested in such a format. Bores me to tears. First, I'm not interested in hearing about civil rights struggles. Second, I'm not interested in being marketed to as a gay/bi person. One of the most offensive things was when I checked gay or bi (I forget) on my MySpace profile and started getting ads for gay-only boat cruises and -------- websites.
While I admire what KNGY is doing in terms of gay visibility and filling the dance music niche (and it is a very well-executed format, too), the idea of a GBLT news/talk station leaves me cold.
Top 40.
XCountry285 said:
Top 40 -- That's one format that has been proven to no longer work. What would a top 40 format be like today? Well, take a look at the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 and see how long you'd listen. You can click the link to listen to some of the songs. You have hip-hop, weepy ballads, just about everything but rock.
Top 10: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=The+Billboard+Hot+100
This is Top 40. Few people will listen to more than a few songs on the chart.
The first thing any station today needs in order to program Top 40 is a PD that knows what real Top 40 is! And then an ownership group that knows how to stay out of the way of said PD. If Rick Carroll was still around is there any ownership group around that would let him work his magic? Well? (I doubt it too.)
RadioStarOne said:
Real Top 40 is a chart based on the 40 biggest hits. In the past, various top 40 charts have been based on local record store sales, reporting by correspondents, and on Billboard's Hot 100 survey. What I'm saying is that people who clamor for top 40 wouldn't like what top 40 is today. It is clearly *not* rock. Rock is dead, frankly. Now as then the biggest segment of the music buying public is in their teens and 20s. They don't buy much rock.
I put on a weekly live music show in San Francisco. Most of the musicians are in their 20s and 30s. They don't play rock. They play jazz, singer/songwriter, country, hip-hop, beatbox, and hybrids such as hip-hop/jazz, and all kinds of stuff that is not rock.
DavidKaye said:
Why does top 40 need rock to be successful? I lived in Birmingham for years with a top 40 outlet, WQEN. They seemed to do okay in the ratings because the music that the teeners and 20-somethings wanted WAS what's in top 40. They also had a few interesting personalities that had gobs of energy, too.
The music that's in the top 40 now is there because it's more popular than everything else, right? If rock music isn't there then rock isn't the hottest thing going, and it hasn't been for a while, sadly. Instead of WQEN failing because they didn't play enough rock, those ears went to the so-caled rock station in town, WRAX, which consistently struggled in the ratings until it flipped to gospel.
The problem isn't top 40 ignoring rock, it's rock ignoring rock. What passes for rock music these days? A lot of it is garbage. As a consequence, top 40 is mostly hip-hop, R&B, rap and bubblegum pop with packing peanuts thrown in to fill everything out. Also as a consequence, the rock stations I've heard (admittedly, a few in the southeast only) all play older rock hits as much as they explore the new stuff, sometimes more old than new. Okay, mostly more old than new. Those ears are not really in tune to the new product and are burned out on the old product.
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