ASIA

Content from BPRAmazon’s Jeff Bezos once said: “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better”.So, how’s the party going at your station?Are the listeners being served what they want? The type of music, entertainment, news & information, personalities.Are they being served on time and with the correct quantity of each ingredient?Are they engaging in the experience or keeping close tabs on the time so they can make a quick exit and go to the next party (your competitor)?Stepping aside from radio for a moment, think about the last time you had a really great experience as a customer — remember the ways that experience left you feeling.Now do the same for the last time you had a poor experience as a customer.Customer experience is the impression customers have of a brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer’s journey. It forms the perceptions of a brand.It’s no use assuming what the listeners’ experience is…you must ask them.Accurate listener research is one of the most important tools in a programmer’s arsenal.You find out what they want from their favourite radio station and then measure their LX…listener experience…to determine how well your station is performing.Is your station the “hottest party ticket in town” or a time filler for one that’s better?By David Kidd, BPR […]

Selling Radio Direct with Pat BrysonOur Credibility MattersPeople don’t usually buy from people they don’t trust. They are also unlikely to buy from salespeople who have no credibility. When we ask clients for thousands of dollars, they need to feel we know how to get them a return on their investment. We must be seen as “experts”.There are several ways we can establish our credibility. One of my top reps does this: She has an 81/2 by 11 sheet of paper with names and contact information for several of her clients. She has gotten permission from these clients to have prospects call them. These clients are SOLD on her and her stations.After she does a client needs analysis, she hands the prospect her list and invites them to call her current clients. Much of the time, they do. When she returns with her proposal for them, they are already sold. Her satisfied clients do much of the selling for her. She just explains to her prospects what type of campaign she has brought for their business. This works magic!Another way we can establish our credibility is to talk about the business of the business before we talk about the marketing of the business. Seek first to understand the needs and goals of this particular prospect. Here are some phrases that show we have prepared for our meeting:“I was thinking about our meeting and I wrote down some questions. Might we go over them?”“As I was reviewing my notes from our last meeting….”“As I was preparing for our meeting today….”As the old saying goes, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”First, we have to answer their “Why?”Next, we answer “How?”The outcome is higher revenue for our clients and for our stations.Happy selling! […]

radioinfo.asia managing editor, Peter Saxon visits the Triton – Omny stand at the recent Radiodays Asia to chat with Stephanie Donovan – Global Head of Revenue and Benjamin Masse – Chief Product Officer.

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Gagl, a new cloud service for remote contribution from Comrex, is now available for purchase. Subscriptions are available for $35 USD per month or $35 USD per year with a free 14-day trial.Gagl allows between one and five users to send and receive audio from computers and smartphones. Each user receives their own mix-minus to hear other connected guests, and the Gagl audio is delivered to a Comrex hardware codec (such as ACCESS or BRIC-Link, usually ina studio).All participants can hear other participants and the codec “sends” audio back to them. Participants can connect and send audio by simply clicking a link using any common web browser. Gagl is designed to be used with consumer grade equipment, so contributors only need a device and a headset to get on the air.It uses the Opus audio encoder, with a bit rate that delivers both voice and music in excellent quality. Gagl also delivers audio directly to aComrex codec with all the stability enhancements, pro-grade audio connections, and features that hardware codecs provide. The simple user interface makes it easy for users with any level of technical experience to use.Gagl could be used as the hub for a news program or for a morning radio show to support multiple simultaneous contributor connections. Because it offers low latency, it’s appropriate for call-in talk radio. Gagl could also be used to allow a single contributor to connect back to thestudio from a computer or smartphone.Gagl works with Comrex hardware IP audio codecs including the AES67-compatible ACCESS NX Rack IP audio codec and ACCESS MultiRack multi-channel IP audio codec as well as the BRIC-Link series. […]

Content from BPRRelaxing music radio was a fairly new format idea in the late 1980’s. Early relaxing music stations played mostly New Age and Jazz Fusion recordings, most of which were instrumentals. One of the pioneers of the format was The Wave in Los Angeles which debuted in 1987. The station created a lot of interest because it sounded so different from all other radio formats of the time. It provided a stark contrast to the Rock, Oldies and Contemporary Hit stations of the time. The format was known in the business as NAC (New Adult Contemporary).Subsequent relaxing music stations soon learned that the combination of New Age and “Smooth Jazz” (a new name for Jazz Fusion) was insufficient in the quest for a greater mass appeal audience. The emergence of PPM ratings technology (so-called People Meters) showed that audiences of the format were very passive and listeners had little allegiance to “relaxing” stations perhaps because the brand offering was so limited in content. In effect, the original format was similar to the music streaming services that offer a constant flow of the same style of music.One of the problems with the original relaxing music concept was that listeners were mostly listening at specific times and under specific circumstances such as late evenings before bed time. This severely limited the degree of listener engagement and loyalty to the station. NAC stations suffered from poor conversion of weekly reach to P1 listening status.In time, NAC stations realized that their target audience was being drawn away by the emerging Adult Contemporary format stations. AC stations differed from NAC stations because the AC stations played pop vocals. Additionally, AC stations were able to present a playlist with a somewhat broader tempo and dynamic range than NAC stations. As the years passed, the music tastes of the AC target audience changed and AC stations began to play more and more up-tempo songs by pop and pop rock artists.Meanwhile, NAC stations were moving away from New Age and Smooth Jazz. They added an increasing number of familiar vocal hits that appealed to the target demo (usually 25-54). Although the energy level and tempo of these vocal hits had to be limited in order to fit the format, vocal hits offered a key component common to almost every music format and that is familiarity. Listeners could now hear songs that they actually knew and with which they could sing along. The introduction of news and information segments and live presenters expanded the brand offering.The term Soft AC soon replaced the term NAC. Station brand names also had to change. The word “soft” unfortunately has negative connotations for some potential listeners. Soft implies weak and ineffective. As a result, brand names such as Relax, Smooth and The Breeze emerged. Positioning statements evolved into lines such as “the feel good station”. The benefit of “feel good” is that it does not necessarily imply any specific music style, tempo or energy level. It just makes you “feel good”.Today, some of the most successful Soft AC stations fill a void between contemporary hits and oldies formats. They attract audiences that have outgrown a steady stream of contemporary hits and they also attract listeners who are not quite ready for oldies nostalgia. The demographic center of the audience is most often 35-44 with a slightly larger concentration of women than men. However, the potential audience of a well-programmed Soft AC often extends to the 30-49 demo and beyond.It would not be an over-simplification to say that Soft AC stations are the new “easy listening” stations for listeners whose preferences fall somewhere between stations that make you want to dance, stations that make you want to fall asleep and stations that remind you of the good old days.By Andy Beaubien, BPR […]

Benztown and P1 Media Group will host a free webinar on Thursday, September 15, 2022, for radio professionals around the globe, entitled Join the Conversation: The Incredible NOW! Radio Success Story. The webinar will be hosted by Andreas Sannemann, CEO, Benztown, and Ken Benson, Partner, P1 Media Group, and features Mark Hunter, VP of Programming, NOW! Radio, and Ross Winters, Director of Programming, Pattison Media, Canada’s largest western-based media company.  This is the 24th in the webinar series from top radio experts from around the world.Mark Hunter started his radio career in 1985, when he was hired on his 19th birthday to work with Rawlco in Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina. He was on-air, producer, creative director, and News/Talk producer before he got his dream job as Program Director in 2000. In 2009, Hunter was named Program Director of a new license in Edmonton, CKNO-FM, and eight months later, NOW! Radio was born.He programmed 102.3 NOW! Radio Edmonton for 10 years, driving huge ratings and billings success which continues today.Hunter is currently a Senior Programmer for Pattison Media, working mostly in Metro markets including Calgary, Winnipeg, and British Columbia.Ross Winters began his radio career as a DJ at a Top 40 radio station in Victoria, British Columbia. He quickly moved into programming and worked as Program Director at legendary Canadian Rock stations in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Toronto. While programming Rock 101 in Vancouver, Winters also served as National PD for Corus Entertainment, one of the largest groups in Canada.He spent time as a researcher and consultant before joining Pattison Media as Director of Programming in 2015.In the 30-minute webinar, Hunter and Winters will share their thoughts on programming successful radio stations today, and the power of doing things differently, including:
How a truly unique and different type of radio station became a runaway success
What are their secrets for finding, developing, and retaining the best talent today?
What has the response been to NOW! Radio’s music policy of allowing on-air talent to play the music that they want to play?
How important is talk to the success of their music stations?
Why do they refer to the NOW! Radio community as the NOW! Family?
Why don’t traditional promotions work for NOW! Radio? […]