10 Things You Can Learn From Listeners
Ken Benson, VP International

NAB/European Radio Conference
Athens Greece
23 - 25 October 2005

Look for Pinnacle Media Worldwide's Ken Benson, Mark Carlson, and Reini Mika Steiner at the NAB/Athens next month.

Join Pinnacle's Ken Benson for "So You've Done a Music Test, Now What?" Conducting a music test is one thing, getting the results on the air is yet another. We'll share the Top 10 Steps to Successful Music Programming, 10 Vital Music Scheduling Tips, and more.

The session is scheduled for Monday 24 October at 1615-1715.

For more info visit www.nab.org

» Take OnlineTRACKER for a test drive. See the industry's most feature-rich dynamic online music research system in action!

» Pinnacle's DMT measures the genuine emotional response to your station's music. See why the DMT is superior over the old-fashioned paper & pencil auditorium music tests.

"We chose to work with Pinnacle, not only for the research - but because we met people with a true passion for music and radio with an understanding of what's important to us".

Marius Llillelien
General Manager
P3 and mPetre
Norway

The LISTENER is always right, or is she? For years businesses have been throwing around clichés like “The Customer is Always Right” and “The Customer is King”. When it comes to radio listeners, many programmers choose to ignore listener feedback. After all radio is a mass medium that makes money by programming to the lowest common denominator, right? Unfortunately, the lowest common denominator today is more media savvy then ever. They are on to many of our tactics and empty promises.

Sure, the most common listener gripes about radio today are the same ones we have been hearing about for years: Too many ads, not enough variety, and too much repetition. Many of their pleas fall on deaf ears. Thankfully there are a few programmers who still value their listener opinions and have successfully created new strategies and tactics to positively address some of radio’s biggest perceived negatives. For instance, in Australia where most radio stations run up to 10 ads in row, the Daily Mail Group’s Nova brand rocketed to the top of the ratings in many Australian markets with its “Never more than 2 Ads in a row” promise. In Canada, the Bob and Jack formats have had tremendous success by addressing radio’s lack of variety and repetition by dramatically increasing the size of its playlist.

Every year we have the opportunity to moderate and watch dozens of Focus Groups all over the world. We wanted to share some of the common themes we hear and encourage you to find creative solutions, tactics or strategies to address some of the biggest weaknesses that adversely affect Time Spent Listening.

#1) On Advertising - "Why do radio station’s all play ads (or deliver newscasts) at the same time?"

#2) On Music - "’Commercial Free Music’ is crap, they play ads for the station."

#3) On Station Promos – "They’re ads!"

#4) On Music – "Why don’t they tell us the names of the songs?"

#5) On Variety and Unpredictability - "What I really like about Jack is that I don’t know what I am going to hear next."

#6) On Advertising radio stations - "Word of mouth advertising is the best."

#7) On Traffic Reports – "Focus on the trouble spots, not the usual delays."

#8) On Mornings – "Don’t try and be funny or self-serving."

#9) On Contests – "The ones you can play along with are best."

#10) On Advertising – "Why don’t stations run different ads, not the same ones over and over?"

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