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Adult Contemporary is again at a crossroads. It seems to be at some sort of crossroads every couple of years. This is largely due to the fact that ours is a mongrel format. Adult Contemporary has very few “format exclusive” songs. The thinking of some programmers is that a song cannot be an Adult Contemporary hit unless it has exposure in another format. More accurately, the thinking should be that “unless it has exposure in another station” it might not be able to be an Adult Contemporary hit. There are even those who will argue that it is impossible to have a Top-5 hit at Adult Contemporary without it also having been a top-5 hit in another format.
There are exceptions to that rule. How does one justify the music of Mercy Me? Yes, it was also a hit at Christian AC, but none of their music has been Mass Appeal hits, other than at AC. And, they’re selling music. They are proof positive that AC can cross songs to other formats. We don’t always have to “eat at the kids table.”
There are even those who think that it is impossible to have a Top-5 song without the support of one of the two big nightly syndicated national radio shows that exist in our format. I would argue that it is possible to have a Top-5 song, providing that the record labels “close out” the AC panel. One daypart does not a hit make. Not having nighttime airplay does make it more difficult to get to Top-5. It helps to be on The John Tesh Show or The Delilah Show, but those shows are at the end of the journey. Not the beginning. You cannot expect such shows to break new music.
The reality for Adult Contemporary, looking at it purely as a programming format and not as something that interests the record labels, is that the further an adult goes beyond the age of 40, the more important it is to them that they hear familiar music. That is not to say that they don’t want to hear new music, but rather that it takes them a long time to become familiar with a new song. Those songs that they love the most tend to be the standards of all time and are those that receive the biggest airplay.
For many radio stations “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion has never been off the air since it first came out as a single in 1996. While some feel that familiarity breed’s contempt, familiarity breeds passion. Look at research and you’ll find that the most familiar songs, those that by all rights should be “burned out” with the audience, still score the greatest in popularity.
And what about the Adult Variety formats? Jack and Bob (personally I like the format named “Mike”) also share with AC stations. They have always had greater success in Canada than in the USA, but the format is starting to grow inside of these 50 states … and that is because the format has changed. They’ve altered their music and now lean more toward Mainstream AC. They’re not clearly cut AC, but they’re closer to AC than they were just 12-months ago.
In many ways, the Adult Variety format is Classic Hits. It’s what we programmed on AC stations in the early 80s, when AC debuted on FM. I was programming WMJI/Cleveland when Joel Lind had WBUF/Buffalo, Jay Meyers was at WVOR/Rochester and Gary Berkowitz had WROR/Boston. We played edgier songs and we screamed “Variety” from the mountaintops.
Expect to see blatantly female-targeted Adult Variety formats like Jill (from George Johns) and Jayne (from Robin Marshall and Tony Florentino) begin to challenge your AC station for those female demos. George’s version is more 35-44 than Robin’s, but they’re both dynamic stations with great imaging and production. They will create headaches for AC stations.
The Big-8 challenges facing Adult Contemporary are as follows:
1. Lower passion scores on music tests
2. Higher burn endangering Time Spent Listening
3. The female version of the Adult Variety format
4. A de-fragmentation of the format
5. A lack of format-exclusive artists
6. You don’t “miss anything” if you don’t listen
7. Too Much talk as commercials and clutter increase
8. AC is a format that requires continual marketing and that means $
The fact is that music testing shows fewer and fewer songs receiving a high passion score. It used to be that a song needed to have a 75% and above Total Positive score to be in a Power Gold category. Many radio stations now accept songs for Power Gold down into the 60% score range.
Burn is being accepted at a higher level today, mainly because we continue to test the same songs in every research project that is conducted. That means that we pound the heck out of the same songs over and over. That needs to STOP! Test more variety in the songs that you research.
It is not necessary that we expand the number of titles in our library from 275 up to 500 titles, but rather that we look for new and fresh titles to test. Instead of lowering your criteria of what’s acceptable to play, why not look for more songs to test that fit your original high standards? It may mean testing more music to get the number of songs you want. Consider broadening the eras you play to include 70’s and late 60’s. Start looking at other formats for fresh gold titles. Something has to be done if we are to continue to build TSL in the AC format.
There was a time when Power Gold songs could have no double-digit burn and Regular Gold could have no burn over 20%. Today we will accept Power Gold songs up to 20% and Regular Gold up to 30% in burn. While it is a plausible argument that it is okay to accept 30% burn because 70% of the audience still likes the song, it has to be wrapped in the usage of AC. Our core listeners turn us on and leave us on for seven to nine hours a day while working. When we play songs that are fried, we are chasing people away from the format and from radio in general.
It is my suggestion that AC stations turnover their Power Gold songs at 1.50 days and the Regular Gold at 3.0 days. The Power category remains tight. The Regular Gold category turns over at a slower 3 days. That can create the illusion of Variety, providing you use imaging and you move your music around day to day.
Look back five years and you’ll see that Adult Contemporary had fragmented into Pop Alternative/Hot AC, Straight-Ahead Hot AC, Mainstream AC, Soft AC, Rock AC, and Oldies-based AC. Things have changed. The format is starting to meld together, once again. We have Hot AC, Mainstream AC, and Soft AC. The variations of AC seem to be narrowing to those big three colorations of the format. Today we’re seeing Hot AC become more Mainstream. Mainstream AC seems to be moving softer. Don’t get hung up on format handles. Play the music that your target demo wants … whatever those songs are. THAT is what AC is all about.
Adult Contemporary faces a challenge in that by the mere nature of its positive benefit as a “background station,” it creates the illusion that “if I don’t listen I won’t miss anything.”
What will you do on your AC station to drive listeners to it on a daily basis? I am of the belief that personality is an important attribute to AC and that the best air talent bring people back on a daily basis. The morning show has to be designed to create day-to-day tune-in. Get listeners’ days started with survival information, but put a smile on their face as you do it. Provide them with the entertainment news and gossip that they feel that they must have, so that they don’t miss something.
Present news and information in a compact package that will let listeners know that they can stay tuned to your station in these troublesome times. They need not go on a scavenger hunt for information when listening to music FM. Because of the terrorist threats in America, the War in Iraq and the memory of 9-11, we need to have news on FM … even if it’s limited to AM-Drive only.
Air personalities through the midday and afternoon drive should serve as companions. They are there to help you through the workday and get you through the afternoon, serving as a decompression chamber back into the real world. Nighttime programs, be they live or syndicated, should be designed to take advantage of the audience available. There are a number of nationally syndicated shows that can create day-to-day tune-in. The John Tesh radio show provides information for listeners’ lifestyles (Intelligence For Your Life), wrapped in the blanket of a lot of music. John’s program is pulling amazing ratings. The Delilah Show continues to be aired in many markets. She engages listeners with romance and romantic music. Women love to hear stories and that’s what her show delivers. Lia, a Country version of Delilah, is also a challenger for our female listeners. There’s a lot of “noise” out there. Be memorable.
The health of Adult Contemporary is good. It is not great. It will be better when we learn to address the elements of variety and how to keep listeners tuned in daily. Focusing more of our energies on producing the sound of the station, making it memorable to go beyond being a “background format” and committing to personalities. These elements are all a part of the curative for what ills AC.
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