Part4: written by Terry Doyle visit www.radiosolution.co.uk
News (local National and global)
My core listener is interested in the area and the reason I say this is because she is rooted in the area. You do not have to be born and bred in a single community to be interested in it. That is an attribute that can equally apply to anyone who has settled in the area too. I’m sure you have heard the saying ‘putting down roots’ meaning settling down and living in one community. When that happens you become interested and involved in the day to day operation of that community. Everything from condition of the roads, crime levels, events, schools, local government, public services. Of course she is interested in everything that is going on nationally and globally too.
There is enough justification here for me to build a strong local news service on my station and be able to strongly promote my station as the leading provider of local news. I would aim to build my local news product to the extent that my core listener would rely on the station first to provide her with local news first. I would aim to own the number one position in her mind for local news provision. I would also provide national and global news every hour but would consider the local news provision would always remain the priority at peak times.
Music
Music on this station is important because it is the single most important tool to build a strong identity and an easy tool to use to capture and keep my core listener. My aim is simple and that is to be certain that my core listener (38 year old female) will love (not like) the music I play. I intend the radio station to take the number one position in her mind so that when she wants to listen to some good music she listens to my station first.
Our core listener is 38 years old and right in the middle of that common but unworkable target of 25 to 55. She was born in 1972 and became interest in music through the eighties and early nineties. The music from this era format the core of her music likes and any other forms or eras of music will be subconsciously compared to this time in her life. She has heard music from the seventies and likes some of it and is tolerant of the rest of it. She has a liking to for the music of the nineties too but has some reservations about it but she loves the big artists and the big hits.
There is enough justification here for me to build a specific music policy that is aimed at getting my core listener to become loyal to the station. My music policy will be represented by a simple statement ‘the music you love’. Two of the words used in this positioning statement happen to be the two strongest words in the English language according to those who study these things. ‘The music you love’ would consist of but not entirely limited to late 70’s 80’s and the best of the 90’s and would not include obscure tracks and certainly not remixes or cover versions.
So basically I have a station that is tightly focussed on a 38 year old female. The station would be focussed on ‘the local news you need and the music you love’. It is now very easy for me to manage any move up or down through the demographic scale at the appropriate time in the future. However, my station will not move from that position until I have firmly established a loyal audience within the stated target. Once I have achieved that I can build my overall format that will become attractive to both below and above my core audience as my radio brand becomes trusted. I can also strategically place specialist shows that will target specific areas of the demographic if I wish but if you are a programmer you will know that specialist shows need to be chosen carefully too.
To be continued…