Responding finally to Mike’s query last week about how programmers choose their music, I think a good place to start is to look at how the successful stations program. Of course I have my own opinions but I’ll save them until the end of this post.
If you look at the big commercial stations, WQXR in NY, WFMT in Chicago, KDFC in San Francisco, you’ll find they all have one thing in common: they all play classical music!
But when you look more closely you’ll find that they are miles apart in concept. KDFC sets the industry standard for breezy and casual — classical lite, individual movements, short pieces — very California. WFMT superserves its core audience with whole works, in-depth explorations, knowledgable hosts, and adventuresome, serious programming. WFMT has a new afternoon drive host, George Preston who’s well-known in classical radio, having migrated most recently from WNYC in NY and having top notch music credentials. And yet he’s not as somber as the traditional WFMT sound; people who write into the blog either love his chattier style, or hate it that he isn’t taking the music seriously enough.
(Incidentally, you can’t win. Classical listeners are the biggest critics on the planet. They’re educated and passionate about the music.)
WQXR is a bit of a mixture. They do a lot of light programming but they also have an abundance of live concert artists on for live chat and in-studio music.
Those three are commercial classical stations, of which very few remain in the biz. How about the public classical stations? You’ll find that many, if not most of the public stations subscribe to the Classical Music Core Values put out by the Station Resource Group and the PRPD (Public Radio Program Directors). There’s a lot to their research, but it can be summarized in a couple of overarching tenets: that the music should be soothing, and you shouldn’t have too much talk.
Most public stations have a music director or program director who chooses all the music, though a few brave ones let the hosts choose their own. Most do “dayparting” where they choose upbeat music in the morning, longer works in the evening, and calming music at night. They have hierarchies they’ve developed from focus groups: no vocal music, definitely no solo harpsichord, nothing dissonant, play chamber music sparingly, lots of orchestral music, plenty of Baroque and Classical but not much 20th century, and go easy on too much flute and violin.
Some stations think the listeners want to hear the same type of music at the same time each day, e.g. a waltz to start afternoon drive, Vivaldi every morning at 7:30, Bach’s lunch, Mozart in the morning, the Friday tango. I can’t speak for anyone else, but that makes me turn the radio off. Just think about how people listen. They drive their kids to school at 7:30 in the morning, and all they ever hear is Vivaldi. Or after the 6,554th waltz they probably never want to hear another waltz. In my opinion, that’s how stations program when they don’t have any creative ideas.
There is so much incredible music out there that people don’t know about and would love to hear, but it requires that some thoughtful programmer sits down with a mountain of CDs and does some serious listening rather than choosing from a list, from the tried and true, or programming by time.
To me, the key to good programming is to surprise and delight, to inspire, to soothe, to charge up the passions, to educate, to entertain, and above all to keep us interested. What do you think you need to do to keep people involved and interested? Do you ever let your listeners help you program?
Back when I was programming a station I learned something fascinating. We used to do two days of listeners’ choices each month, and our program director would play the old familiar chestnuts on those days. I decided to take actual requests on my show, and even though it was a humongous amount of work I would hustle to find the pieces and get them on the air right away. Don’t you know, the listeners came up with the best programming I’d ever seen. They had me scrambling to find all sorts of great music, and rarely a chestnut. It’s was entirely interactive, and I learned so much from them. We developed the programming together.
Incidentally, the involved, core listeners are the ones who donate when you beg for bucks.
Great radio is all about personality. Keep the programming interesting and talk about it well, and you can’t lose.
Sez I.
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I haven’t responded publicly, because how we choose music at WTJU (91.1 in Charlottesville, VA) is so atypical. Basically, every volunteer announcer programs his or her own show.
There are a few rules:
1) Complete works only (exceptions being opera arias or overtures, songs from song cycles, and similar compositions where excerpting is the norm).
2) Avoid playing the same work sooner than six weeks apart (and that includes different performances).
3) Stick to classical music (this is very broadly defined, and like pornography it’s more a case of “I’ll know it when I see it.” So Paul McCartney’s oratorio is out, but Leroy Anderson is in. Arrangements by the Browns are out, but the original compositions are in.)
As for my own program, I decided over 20 years ago not to repeat a work on the show. And 286 3-hour episodes later, “Gamut” has still kept to that promise.
There is still some basic repertoire I haven’t gotten to yet, as well as some major composers I haven’t fully explored. And I have yet to run out of great music to share. But with basically everything from the Middle Ages up to the present day up for grabs, it’s not surprising.
Would this kind of programming fly at a major market public radio station? Probably not. But for our station in our market (and our increasing Internet audience) it helps us stand out from other public radio stations in the area.
And hand-picked vs. focus-group tested seems to sound a little fresher on-air (IMHO).
– Ralph Graves
http://wtju.net
Ralph, I’m coming to work for you! That’s fabulous.
I’ve worked in commercial radio so I know how lucky I am! I have discovered so much great yet relatively unknown music by not allowing myself to get into a rut it’s amazing. And the cool thing is that I regularly have listeners call me, excited about this work I’m airing that they’ve never heard before — but love.
Yes, I know that those that call represent a very small minority, and I have received more than a few calls with folks expressing their displeasure over what I’m airing.
But I have a unique response to those calls. “Remember, I’ll only be airing this once. Just be patient.”
Hi Marty,
Thanks for a great post. I had to read Mike’s to catch up.
At WUOL-FM in Louisville, our announcers program their own shows and I offer some guidance around special events (composer birthdays, Derby week, etc). We are thinking of ways to make our programming more cohesive and creating a “Louisville” sound, which for us includes lots of choral and vocal music, new music that has broad appeal, and full-length works.
The million-dollar question is: how do you satisfy the average listener who wants to be soothed (according to the PRPD study) and the audiophile who wants to be wholly enriched?
There is no average listener. That’s a myth. Get to know your listeners and they’ll tell you what they want.
good point!
I think there are two types of listeners: those who listen a lot and those who listen occasionally.
Find out ask why each “type” listens, when they listen and for what amount of time.
Those answers might tell you what to do more, what to do less and what to do differently.
David