1. Chapter 8
Radio programming

2. Radio programming
• Symbiosis: “the living together in intimate
association or close union of two organisms”.
Mutually beneficial.
• Movies & Music
• Radio & TV
• Radio & the music business

3. Radio programming
• Necessary for radio stations to have the freedom
to choose the programming they want to provide
to their communities
• Section 326 of the Communications Act: FCC
has neither the right or power to control radio
programming
• FCC may enforce rules regarding political
advertising, obscenity and indecency
• Bulk of radio programming is free from
government intrusion
• Format freedom

4. In other countries:
Canadian content rule: CanCon, cancon or can-con) Canadian
broadcasting policy is defined by Section 3 of the Broadcasting Act,
which stipulates that:
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radio frequencies are public property
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broadcast programming provides a public service essential to
national identity and cultural sovereignty
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the Canadian broadcasting system should provide a wide range of
programming that reflects Canadian attitudes, opinions, ideas,
values and artistic creativity, by displaying Canadian talent in
entertainment programming

5. Can-con
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To qualify as "Canadian content," music must generally fulfill at least
two of the following conditions
(the MAPL system):
M (music) - the music is composed entirely by a Canadian.
A (artist) - the music and/or the lyrics are performed principally by a
Canadian.
P (production) - the musical selection consists of a live performance
that is (i) recorded wholly in Canada, or (ii) performed wholly in
Canada and broadcast live in Canada.
L (lyrics) - the lyrics are written entirely by a Canadian.
Under the Commercial Radio Policy, 35 per cent of all music aired
each week on all AM and FM stations must be Canadian. In
addition, 35 per cent of music broadcast between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Monday through Friday must consist of Canadian content.

6. Other countires:
• Other countries employ similar quota systems.
• For example, Australian broadcasters are
required to broadcast a certain percentage of
Australasian content alongside international
content.
• Similar domestic content quota laws also exist in
the Philippines, Mexico, Nigeria, France, Israel,
Ireland, South Africa, Jamaica, the United
Kingdom, and New Zealand.
• In the UK, Ireland, and France, this rule is now a
European Union content rule rather than a
domestic content rule

7. Types of programming

8. Types of programming
• Local programming: originating from the
radio station or studios, or from areas in
the local community
• Prerecorded/syndicated programming:
obtained by the station through a
commercial supplier. Distributed via CDs,
satellite, online download or telephone
line.

9. Music Programming
• Back in the day, stations employed their
own orchestras

10. Music Programming
• Now the majority of music is provided by
CDs, computer hard drive, or via satellite

11. News/Talk station
• Locally produced content
• National/network/syndicated content
• Big personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Dr.
Laura, Tom Leykis

12. Modes of radio production
• Local/Live : when radio stations employ their own
announcers or newscasters locally and play music that
they themselves own
• Live-assist: use syndicated programming, but retain
some local announcers and DJs as the backbone of
their on air schedule
• Semiautomation: reliance on syndicated services,
occasionally inserts live personalities
• Turnkey automation: fully automated stations that
create programming based on a format service
(usually delivered via satellite) or a computer
automated schedule (that is created locally); runs on
its own

13. Voice-tracking
• Where jocks can record all intros and outtros to make it sound like they are live on
the air, when in reality, they may record
from any part of the country, any time of
the day, and many days in advance.

14. Creating formats
• Three keys to a successful format:
1. Identify and serve a predetermined set of listeners
2. Serve those listeners better than the competition
3. Reward listeners both on and off the air, so they
become consistent customers for the products and
services advertised on the station

15. Music Formatting
• Finding the “format hole”
• The need to carve a unique niche – one that will deliver a
large enough audience to attract advertising to that station
• Internal factors: dial location, ownership, signal strength,
technical facilities, management philosophy
• External factors: competitive market study – what else is
out there, can you compete? Of other current formats, are
they weak in any ways you can capitalize on?

16. Getting the radio format

17. Audience analysis
• Target audience: the
primary listeners of your
station
• General demographics:
the age/gender area
where most of your
listeners are
• Psychographics: “getting
in the heads” of your
listeners. What are their
habits, interests, needs,
desires?

18. Psychographics and formats
• What do you think of CHR
listeners?
• Modern rock?
• News/Talk?
• Hot AC?
• Country?
• Classic Rock?

19. Hot clock, format wheel,
sound hour
• Graphical chart that indicates the structure
of one typical programming hour
• Looks like the face of a clock
• Dictates precisely when each major
programming element will air (i.e.
commercials, live breaks, sweepers, ids,
promos, weather, songs)
• Usually one format clock per daypart

20. Format Wheel

21. Format Wheel

22. Dayparts
• How a broadcast day is broken up into
time blocks
• Morning drive
• Midday
• Afternoon drive
• Nights
• Overnights
• Weekends

23. Programming Terminology
3 main types of info represented in the
format wheel:
1.Commercial & promotional matter
2.Music
3.News/talk segments
• Too many commercials: clutter
• Commercial break, also called a “stop set”

24. Musical segments
• Music is broken down into segments on a
format wheel
• Subcategories usually correspond to how
they are categorized in a station’s
programming software (Selector, Music
Match)
• Currents, hits, golds, power cuts, b-side,
oldies --- heavy rotation, lite rotation?

25. Programming Software

26. Programming Software

27. Segues
• How one programming element goes into
another
• IDs, Sweepers, Promos, Live Breaks
• Why do you think it’s important to give the
station’s name in between every song?

28. Format evaluation
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How do you know it’s working?
How do you select songs for your station?
Charts: iTunes, Billboard, Radio and Records
Call-ins: what listeners are saying
Call-outs: stations reaching out to their listeners for research
Auditorium tests: “hook-testing” songs for a large group in
your demo
Focus group study: group of
listeners you interact with
personally to get opinions
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Consultant groups

29. Fine-tuning the format
• Pay attention to ratings, adjust accordingly
• Personal People Meter: device that
collects data about TV/radio
watching/listening by detecting inaudible
tones in the content

30. News/talk & Sports formatting
• Mainly four programming elements: news,
talk, business & sports
• All news
• All talk
• What kind of talk? Example: Car Talk
• What is “hot talk”? Example: Tom Lycus

31. All news formatting
• Three basic elements: news segments,
feature segments & commercial matter
• Provide network news at or near the top of
an hour
• 30-minute mark – the bottom of the hour

32. News/talk formatting
• Incorporates news segments, with the
remainder of each hour filled with features,
interviews and listener call in segments
• Talk hosts
• May also carry some sports play by play
content
• Example: WBEN-AM

33. Non commercial programming
• Typically utilizes “block programming”
• For a station to be CPB qualified: meets
standards met by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting
• College radio