Format descriptions

Tim Wall's (2003) case study of popular music radio brings together some useful discussion about the history and development of music radio formats and programming practices within different radio sectors. He cites Negus (1992) who analyzed how North American influenced commercial radio 'places an emphasis on the centralized, routine and information-led nature of music programming' (Wall, 2003: 115) whereas producers on UK public service broadcaster BBC Radio 1 have more freedom to choose their music, particularly in the evening slots.

In the USA there are many shorthand descriptions used to summarise commonly found radio station formats, particularly music based ones. The radio audience research body (Arbitron 2008) offers the following list, which is by no means comprehensive and where several formats are frequently divided into sub-genres:

80s Hits
Active Rock
Adult Contemporary (AC)
Adult Hits
Adult Standards/MOR
Album Adult Alternative (AAA)
Album Oriented Rock (AOR)
All News
All Sports
Alternative
Children's Radio
Classical
Classic Country
Classic Hits
Classic Rock
Contemporary Christian
Contemporary Inspirational
Country
Easy Listening
Educational
Family Hits
Gospel
Hot AC
Jazz
Latino
Urban
Mexican Regional
Modern AC
New AC (NAC)/Smooth Jazz
New Country
News/Talk/Information
Nostalgia
Oldies
Other
Pop Contemporary Hit Radio
Religious
Rhythmic AC
Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio
Rhythmic Oldies
Soft AC
Southern Gospel
Spanish Adult Hits
Spanish Contemporary
Spanish News/Talk
Spanish Oldies
Spanish Religious
Spanish Tropical
Spanish Variety
Talk/Personality
Tejano
Urban AC
Urban Contemporary
Urban Oldies
Variety
World Ethnic

In any radio station few subjects generate as much heated debate and managerial anguish as music policy. This is where the desire for creativity and spontaneity can conflict with the need for a consistent brand image and station sound. In establishing the need for a radio station to have a music policy at all, we would suggest that there are two kinds of music radio programme: those where the individual tracks of music are secondary to the speech content, whether in the form of disc-jockey banter or structured features; and those where the selection of each piece of music is central to the purpose of the show, where the programme is essentially about the music featured.

This is not to say that the choice of music is not a central element of all programmes on a music-based radio service. As Wilby and Conroy (1994:50) point out:

Music is not a means of providing a break or relief from speech, even if it enables a presenter to set up the next guest interview in the studio. From a listener's perspective, music is an integral part of the station's output. A production team is responsible for presenting its programme as part of the station's overall flow of output and to ensure that the music is blended in to prevent an undue impression of the programme lurching from one item to the next.

Our distinction between the two types of programme rather reflects the way the typical listener uses radio at different times and the criteria used to recruit suitable radio presenters for each. Presenters are seldom appointed without the programme manager having heard them perform on a previous station, in a 'demo' recording or at an audition. For the typical daytime sequence the manager will be looking for presentation skills, entertainment value and how their persona will fit with the station's brand values, but the selection process rarely includes any detailed questioning of their specific tastes in music, musical knowledge or the contents of their personal iPod. By contrast these are exactly the personal qualifications sought in the presenter or producer of a credible specialist music programme.

While the knowledgeable and talented specialist music presenter can be left to choose the appropriate tracks for their own show, it would be presumptuous for a general presenter to believe that they should select the music to be heard for several hours each day. More commonly the music played in the daytime sequences is selected centrally, by a Head of Music at each station or operating across a group, frequently using a computer program such as Selector from RCS.

The development of a successful music policy often requires that the size of the universe of available tracks is reduced. While this conflicts with the oft-quoted desire of the audience for a greater variety of music the experience of a great many radio services over half a century is compelling.

The call for variety is not a call for a large number of titles. How do they win with fewer records? By making sure every record is right. That requires music testing and careful attention to rotation and flow.

(Shane 1991: 118)

The concept of a winning format having a limited playlist was born in the United States of the1950s. Top 40 radio was the brainchild of Todd Storz, owner of radio station KOWH in Omaha, Nebraska who noticed that juke-box ysers selected a relatively small number of songs very regularly. While not disputing the role of Storz, others say the invention of Top 40 radio may be traced to some 1950 University of Omaha research that indicated that listeners listed music as a major reason for using the radio. Storz acquired the research and decided to play the top current songs in heavy rotation. Later, after buying WTIX in New Orleans, he decided to trump a rival's Top 20 show by adding another 20 songs and extending the programme by an hour, producing the first Top 40 sequence. The format is generally regarded as having been perfected by programmer Gordon McLendon at his station KLIF in Dallas, Texas.

When playing 40 tracks exclusively or extensively throughout all programmes there was a risk that the audience would become fatigued if they always appeared in the same order. In addition sales figures and audience research suggested that a handful of songs were always particularly popular in any given week. The solution was simply to organise the seven-inch 45 rpm singles into at least two separate boxes. The presenter simply had to take one from each box in turn, returning the used disc to the back of the original box. In this way a typical 'A-list' box might contain just five or six of the most popular current hits while the 'B-list' box contained a much larger number of songs, including those formerly on the A-list and new releases yet to reach their peak. By taking from each box in turn a pseudo-random sequence was generated while ensuring an even distribution of the most popular material.

Depending on the size of the B-list the repetition of songs might vary from once every two hours for the top songs to once per four or five hours for the others. The same system was applied at stations playing a wider range of music by scheduling a sequence where, perhaps, only every second or third or fourth song was taken from the current playlist boxes, in turn, the other tracks being drawn from specified eras of 'oldies'. As a result repetition of the top current hits was automatically less frequent on stations also playing oldies.

Keeping track of which songs had been played in each programme was a huge administrative burden which was lifted with the introduction of computerised music scheduling systems such as Selector from RCS in the early 1970s. While different software offers a range of options all such programs are driven by three main sets of data:

1. The universe of music tracks, each identified, in addition to title and artist and general category, by a number of characteristics including: duration; length of intro; how it ends; texture; tempo; era; whether male or female vocal or instrumental. Some tracks could be stipulated to be good 'hour starters' while others might have scheduling restrictions limiting them to only certain times of day. The song database will also contain the copyright details required for accurate reporting to the collection societies.

2. The requirements of each music slot in the programming 'clock' for each hour of the week, specifying what category, style or era of music would be acceptable and what musical limitations might be placed on that slot.

3. Scheduling rules applying to all programmes, or in different hours, programmes, dayparts or day of the week. Such rules typically require the computer to avoid playing two songs by the same artist in the same hour and specify minimum repetition intervals for songs in different categories (A-list, B-list, different eras). The program can be asked to avoid playing a song in the same daypart until it had been played at a specified number of other times of day, and to consider, for example, the previous Friday's music schedule when devising the music for Monday's programmes. Depending on the station format the program can be required to ensure appropriate quotas of music from a range of eras are always included in a specified time period.

The total library of songs may be divided into categories by era or other defining characteristic. Most stations playing a proportion of current hits maintain the classic A-list and B-list system, possibly adding other lists for new releases or more challenging material which might only be used in some programmes. Partly as a result of stations' promises of performance, which traditionally stipulated fixed proportions of a station's output to be drawn from specified decades, oldies are frequently divided into eras reflecting the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties and 'noughties'. Reflecting the fact that a song often attains its greatest popularity with radio listeners some weeks or months after it has peaked in the charts a 'recurrent playlist' of such tracks is included on some stations. One other common category contains Christmas songs, which will only be included in the computer's selection criteria during December each year. Scheduling software is versatile enough to cope with a wide range of programming policies and styles, each service being able to specify its own set of criteria, music categories, and scheduling rules. RCS Selector has for example been used not only by most commercial stations in the UK but also by stations as diverse as Classic FM and BBC Radio Two.

Although a typical music radio stations may only have between 500 and 2000 tracks on rotation at any one time, the task of appropriately categorising each individual track and grading it on a numeric scale for sound, texture, speed and the like is very time consuming and requires the skills of an experienced manager. Stations belonging to a larger group often avoid the work altogether by importing complete databases from others, making only slight adjustments to suit their own needs. The group may go further and schedule all music centrally, either producing a separate log for each service or with similar stations in different parts of the country playing the same songs in the same order.

Clearly a computer program is ideally suited to the task of remembering when each of hundreds of tracks was last played and using a number of complex and conflicting rules to decide when best to play it, however most music programmers expect to go through the resulting daily logs, modifying the sequence to improve the flow and feel of the programming. The finished log can be imported into a station's studio playout system where the specified tracks can be lined up automatically for a presenter to play at the specified time in what is usually referred to as 'live-assist' mode or to be fired off automatically during unattended periods.

Even within the most tightly scheduled music sequence the presenter is usually allowed to deviate from the computer's selection to respond to current events or enhance other programme items by featuring an appropriate alternative track - for example, following the news of the death of a famous musical star, playing a tastefully selected song from the artist, or using a well known piece of music to set-up an interview, feature or competition featuring the relevant artist. Often this leeway is restricted to the new song replacing another of the same age, category or genre in the hour, so as not to disrupt the overall station sound.

The presenter is expected to over-ride the computer's choice of song where it would appear to be inappropriate or in bad taste to play it, perhaps following a news report. Such unfortunate song placement is a surprisingly common occurrence, Wilby and Conroy (1994: 53) mention Chris Rea's Road to Hell following a news item on improvements to the M25 motorway, and Manfred Mann's Oh No, Not My Baby in the middle of a phone-in discussion on fostering and adoption. We have experience of Rod Stewart's Sailing cued-up ready to follow a shock newsflash of the death of Lord Louis Mountbatten, killed by an IRA bomb blast on his boat in Ireland, and the Boomtown Rats' I Don't Like Mondays, based on the shooting spree of a 16-year-old girl at a school playground in California, was played by a local station straight after the announcement of a fatal school stabbing in Middlesbrough.

Within a computer scheduled music programme individual musical features, such as the ubiquitous 'Golden Hour' of oldies from specific years, are frequently programmed by the presenters themselves using strict criteria from a pre-agreed list of suitable 'safe' tracks. Many programme managers demand rigid adherence to the music policy not only as a result of a mistrust of the individual presenter's musical tastes but also because they understand that the full benefits of centralised music scheduling can only accrue to a station which accurately follows the pattern of tracks scheduled. Wilfully playing the wrong songs is regarded as a sackable offence on most stations.

At all times the manager is concerned not to give a listener a reason to switch away from the station due to an ill-judged choice of music. As a result there is a tendency towards playing it safe by including only those tracks that are melodic and familiar and would not offend or disturb the average target listener. Most services adopt a more relaxed music policy during some off-peak hours when it may be possible to attract listeners in greater numbers with a more specialist offering while not scaring away any substantial number of the usual listeners. Traditionally the early evening hours are seen as the best time for experimentation or diversification. If well trailed in popular daytime shows such programmes also offer the opportunity to encourage the listener to make a specific 'appointment to listen' to a special interest program. During the small hours of the morning, however, the available audience is so small that the manager will not normally wish to waste substantial resources and the station will revert to an automated sequence following the basic station music policy as the most cost-effective way to serve a small but loyal group of listeners.

Record requests - audience interaction

Radio broadcasters have always recognised the importance of listener participation from their earliest calls for reception reports, through the hugely popular record request shows of the 1950s and the local radio phone-in phenomenon of the1970s, to today's premium-rate text competitions. In part this is driven by the fact that listener-produced content can be cheap and plentiful but Crisell (1992: 81) also suggests a station includes audience response in order to: 'verify that the station or channel has an audience and that this audience is capable of understanding and responding to the message which the station transmits.' Including audience response in a programme identifies and characterises the station's listeners and meets a need to convince the individual listener that they are not alone in enjoying the programme and make them comfortable with their choice.

Most modern request shows are sufficiently "managed" to ensure the listeners only have a choice from within the limited realm of music the station might play at the given time of day anyway.

The increasing availability of music on demand, especially from portable and mobile devices, makes the traditional request show somewhat redundant but other channels of audience response are booming in the age of Twitter. Easy access to the internet, mobile texting and multimedia messaging are now widespread and future technical developments will increase the opportunity for listeners to contribute high-quality audio to live programmes. Currently audience response often appears as a simple feature within a show, or as an informal opportunity to respond to something in a programme, but can be built up as programme sequence in its own right. The two cases most likely to require regular management intervention are phone-ins and competitions, they provide useful examples of the range of issues faced by programme managers and are explored in the following sections.


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