SHE Is Hot AC

Much has been written about Hot AC’s decline, and many have deserted the format to follow the next flavor-of-the-month, but when you look at the stations doing Hot AC well, a simple formula emerges. S.H.E. is Hot AC!

S = Safe.

As radio formats become more fragmented, appealing to each specific niche, there are fewer and fewer safe options for a) parents, listening to the radio with their children, and b) people who just don’t want to be titillated. The tremendous continued success of American Idol, rated TVG, attests to this! Hot AC should be a safe haven from innuendo, coarse language, or questionable content. Hot AC should be POSITIVE. The challenge is keeping that safe haven from being boring.

H = Hip.

Yes, it’s possible to be hip without appealing to the lowest common denominator. Hot AC should be the EXPERT in the music we play. Who’s playing nearby and when? What’s the name of that new album? Or better yet, who’s in the studio working on a new album, and do you have a sneak-preview track from it? Be hip with the music, with pop culture, with your own city’s happenings, and you won’t ever need to stoop for ratings.

E = Engaging.

If you’re not on the street making friends with your listeners, you’re not going to be successful, in any format. A winning Hot AC is involved in the community, with a big morning show front-and-center. Winning Hot ACs are always asking questions of their listeners, one-on-one and through traditional research; because tastes change! What was hot in 2005 probably isn’t hot anymore.

A Hot AC website should engage the listener, and reflect what is being talked about on-air. Always. When you debut a new promotion or show feature, update the website at the same time you put the jock info in the studio. Use the website to build “history” with your winners: is there a picture of that cruise winner accepting her prize? Can you get more information online about a contest? Is there an email link for every jock? A webcam? There should be!

Hot AC jocks should be answering the studio phone every few minutes. Listeners should know they can call anytime with comments, traffic updates, questions about songs, or to just give an update on last night’s TV show; and more importantly, listeners should know that their calls will air! Hot AC jocks need to be interactive and engaging on and off the air.

S.H.E. also stands for the obvious female target audience. While Hot ACs certainly should be broad in their musical reach, culling the best of CHR, Mainstream AC, and even Country, a good Hot AC always keeps in mind the female demographic. Adding songs with heavy male-appeal or putting on a male-oriented sales promotion won’t increase ratings! When you super-serve the female core, your P1s listen longer; when your ideal female listener loves you, her hubby listens too. Building passion for your station is how you win – to do that, you have to stand for something. S.H.E. stands for SAFE, HIP, and ENGAGING. SHE is Hot AC!