Radio: Format

Format: What and Why a Station Plays What It Plays

A station’s format from a listener’s perspective is what does a station do? Let’s look at a station with block programming. At certain spans of time throughout the day, different kinds of content will be aired. A consistent format, however, will give the station a specific identity and allow the listener to clearly know what to expect when tuning in and having their expectations fulfilled every time they listen. This is an excellent example to show the consistency is king when it audience psychology. So what are some different formats and what do they use to reach their audience effectively?

Different Genre = Different Audience = Different Format

Since a station wants to create a clear identity that an audience can rely on and separates itself from the competition, choosing a genre or a few related genres to play is the way broadcasters of the past found to be the most successful in achieving that goal. These genre-based formats include CHR (contemporary hit radio of top-40), rock, hot country, urban, dance, jazz, easy listening, latin, gospel, and spoken word. All of these can be broken down into more specialty formats like a sports talk station or an urban oldies. The more specific your station becomes, the more fringe listeners you may lose, but the core audience may be adamantly supportive of your product.

Now you have picked a format, but what if you’re not the only Carribian Psychedelic Bluegrass station in your market? How do you create a unique identity for your station now?

What About the Other Elements that Air? Non-Music Opportunities

Everything that airs is an opportunity to meet your audience’s expectations. Jingles, liners, promos, news, weather, traffic updates. Anything your station makes can be used to make you unique. Let’s look at a local example, 99.3 The Beat. When they run the traffic updates, they lead into them with some production that fits thematically with the genre of the station. If you were to run the same intro for traffic on a Hit Country station, it would dash the listeners expectations and they would lose confidence in the format’s reliability. 

Everyone is trying to find the next big way to get a lead on their competition. One suggestion from Eric G. Norberg’s book Radio Programming Tactics and Strategy is to look to the past for insights. If there is a programming technique that has fallen out of fashion over the years like attaching some station identity to anytime the current time is read on air, consider their usefulness in the current situation. If it’s something that the other stations aren’t doing and it has worked in the past, think about any specific pitfalls they may be avoiding. If the only reason is that the technique is not hip, then there lies your chance to make it yours and make it work.

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