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DAYPARTING WORKS IN TALK RADIO
By: Walter Sabo
THE IMPORTANCE OF DAYPARTING
You come home, long day, turn on the TV and watch your favorite fun sitcom or escapist drama. At 8 in the morning, NYPD BLUE would
be disturbing, at 10 at night, it makes a whole lot of sense. Your pace, energy, focus, points of interest are on one "setting" at 8 AM and quite a different one at 8 PM.
Your muscles know the difference. Long ago you learned to try on shoes at the end of the day, not the beginning. Through the day
your muscles expand; not just in your feet but in your whole body. The loud music you crave on a Friday night is intolerable on Monday morning.
Our bodies, minds and emotions change all day. Your station's host or talent content should too if it wants to capture the largest cume possible and build loyalty.
When a person takes off their shoes, puts on the night clothes and wants to relax, the odds are that a station discussing,
"Lies at the Bush White House..." is not the sort of topic that will ease their mind and help them get to sleep. As a medium, radio is particularly good at matching the entertainment and information needs of morning listeners (TV is not) and particularly bad
at capturing the interests of listeners in most other dayparts.
LIFE'S SOUNDTRACK-THEY THINK ABOUT SEX.
In a survey that came out Today, the Auto Club of Europe reveals that ONE THIRD of German motorists stuck in traffic think about SEX.
They don't think about alternate routes, they are thinking about Sex.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=2&u=/nm/20040520/od_nm/odd_germany_traffic_dc
The home run for any radio station is if a listener hears something on the air and thinks, "Wow, I was just thinking that too."
Or "Yes, I just saw/experienced that." Often talent content seems strangely disconnected from time-of-day. It's like a casino.
To be truly successful, truly in touch with the listener's brain, great stations are the opposite of a casino---great radio is aware on all
levels of time-of-day. It synchs up with the moment of the listener's day from topic selection, music selection, presentation style even audio chain processing.
WHAT DO THEY DO?
A major reason teen based stations win large teen shares at night is not just the music, it's the sense of community they build.
They connect lonely teenagers to other lonely teenagers by talking about schools by name, airing requests from other teens,
At night what most adults listen to is one of three things: Shows featuring love songs and dedications. Talk shows focused on romantic relationships. Play by play sports if the game isn't on TV. It is important to note that at night there is 2/3rds fewer Homes Using Radio than in the day. Of those listening, 2/3rds of them are comprised of what Arbitron labels "ethnic" listeners.
The adult listener at night, according to Arbitron wants to hear about relationships. One of the few guarantees in radio is that a general topic talk show at night will not pull ratings---at all. At night the shows that hold the shares from the day are focused on romance or pure escape but definitely not news and information.
All-Night radio is the greatest waste in media. Tragic. All night the audience to your station is 100% focused on your station.
They are not distracted. They seek the companionship of all night radio. Addressing the all night audience with topics of interest to people up at 2 AM seems an obvious route. A few people have become stars by recognizing and addressing those needs:
Long John Nebel in the 60's and 70's, Art Bell today. Instead, too many hosts let their own agenda take precedence over the needs of the listeners. All-night listeners crave community...who else is up? I promise you every single all nighter looks out their window seeking one other window glowing with light and then imagining who else is awake. People don't think like that at noon.
When an all night host communicates with that audience by recognizing businesses that are open, greeting dormitory students by name and
knowing the names of the cops on the beat---they become stars. When they talk about "trouble in the Bush white house..." they become
obscure.
THE HOUR BY HOUR ADVANTAGE
Every format has a default hour that shows a spike in audience share. This is one of the strange phenomena I've studied for years.
All News has its spike at 5 AM
Soft AC and Oldies, 1 PM
CHR 8 PM
Traditional Talk 11 PM
Not a spike in total bodies but a spike in Share. The spike suggests utility, functionality. There is something about the format that
serves a need beyond its apparent appeal. At 11 PM people tune to talk radio for companionship while falling asleep, when the TV news is over.
That moment is talk radio's "Olympic moment;" the time to cross promote heavily, sell the morning show and to talk about the
romance, fun, escapist topics listeners demonstrate they crave at night.
Walter Sabo
SABOmedia
suite 1910• 551 Fifth Avenue
New York City, NY 10176
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212 681 8800 fax
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