What about this?

[TimmyWA]

I've been programming a small personal-ish web station (see signature) and program special days with a specific format, Mondays are all 80s, Wednesdays are all Country, Fridays are all Alternative and Sundays are all LDS music. On Tues,Thurs & Saturdays, I play my normal rotation of 2+1, 2+1, etc... As in Country, Country, Pop, Country Country Rock, Country Country alternative, etc etc...

In trying to be creative and understanding that these can be somewhat polarizing and I couldn't wish to actually garner any audience to speak of...

I began thinking about doing these rotations by hour or two hours and calling them mood swings. So I would play an hour of country and have a liner say something like "Get ready for another KXRT Mood Swing! Here comes an hour of the best of the 80s" or something.

I would base this on the fact that people usually listen to music based on what kind of mood they're in. That's why there's 12 presets in most car stereos. Thats why my wife will usually hate green day, but some days, she really loves their music.

I wanted to bring this out and let you all help me hash this out. What do you think? Could it work or is it too gimicky?

Thanks.

 

[jesseg]

I could see it working, but you'll need some method of playing tracks near the edges that are either more similar to the neighboring genre, or more different.

What I would think could work best is if you have more of a difference.

And in the middle is where you can solidify the sound of your station. That's a pretty good idea too since you can play the most eclectic tracks on the edges, and keep your most similar tracks in the middle.

An hour might be too long. How about 30 minutes for ad-free, or 24 minutes for commercial, with ads & news/banter space somewhere in the middle.

 

[radiobop]

Block programming by day used to be the mainstay of many small town stations where signal coverage from larger metro areas was limited, especially at night. My hometown AM/FM combo was local news/talk all morning, MOR through midday, Top 40 in the afternoons; after sunset on FM, easy listening five nights a week, classical one night and broadway show tunes on another (not to mention Friday night high school football)...

There are so many competing options on the internet, it almost seems necessary to be a one-trick pony to develop a following as opposed to a block programming concept...

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Im doing the same thing with my station,, Block Programing,, I call it Variety AC,,, It has a strong dance lean too it, but I play a few hours of current dance, then a few hours of 80s 90s chr, then some 70s disco, and some soul and R&B,,, I like the mood swing name.. what a great idea.. I get a ton of listeners that tune in for a few songs, and then bail, but they dont stick around, my TSL is very low, and my listener peak is only 5.

 

[stuckinthe50s]

There are so many competing options on the internet, it almost seems necessary to be a one-trick pony to develop a following as opposed to a block programming concept...

Agreed. Block programming may still work in small markets with little big city competition. But on the internet you've got competition from tens of thousands of 'stations'. Better to do one thing very good than be a "Jack of all trades and master of none."

 

[deltas69]

when you block format you have no consistency...listeners will not understand why you played country here, rock over there, gospel back yonder...the demo that like the country will bail when the gospel comes on..etc..it worked well in small town am stations in the fifties/sixties..but by late sixties even those stations made a decision to go one way or the other..ie: in those days top 40 or country the only two formats at the time. in 1979 i started at a small am daytimer that was all over the place with music..dean martin followed by the tubes, george jones, benny goodman..had local people come in and read recipies at the noon hour..one really screwed up station run by non radio people. i convinced them that in a rural town of 2500, everyone already knew how to cook green beans, didnt know who or what the "tubes" were, and benny goodman fans for the most part had achieved room temperature years ago. went to a current country format..and people began to listen...play what you want..but stick to one genre'...whatever that may be. i'm almost 60, spent most of my life in radio, live music, entertaiment etc..i run a small but growing internet station with top 40/rock etc music from 63 though 93..library is over 5000 tunes..have a ton of vintage commercials and jingles that i format just as a station would do in the 70's or thereabouts top of the hour id's spot sets at 20/20..etc..usualy have about 150 listeners through every fri sat and sun night...purely word of mouth and face book advertising..my listeners are in thew 40 to 65 age bracket..but have a lot of under 25 listeners as well...great music is not age deferred..

 

[Mid West Clubber]

You just contridicted yourself by saying good music has no age demo, but also that no one was alive that liked benny Whoever the heck he is... And your station is 30 years of rock,, certainly not consistent. I play what I want,, Others can listen if they choose,, other wise the station is for me.

 

[TimmyWA]

This is all great feedback. I know, for a fact, that I am my #1 listener. I program the station how I like to hear it.But I also want to attract as many listeners as I can, but if I do only Country, those that liked the rock and alternative stuff will never be back. Will my country audience grow? I try to make my music as radio-hits friendly as possible to hopefully make it comfortable yet not horribly polarizing. I suppose this just isn't very possible, even on the internet.

I recall going all country for a time and seem to remember never getting any listeners for weeks until I gave up and went back to my 2+1 format.

Thanks again for all this discussion. I'd like to really hear if anyone's been successful at this kind of mix. I know I can't be the only guy who changes from country to pop to rock to alternative in the car (when I'm not streaming my own station )

 

[Jay Peninger]

When I first launched my station a little over a year ago I was doing block programming because I had some desire to offer something for everyone and what I soon discovered was I was in fact I was connecting with none....

As stated in an earlier post my listeners were confused when we shifted genre's we alienated the few listeners who were tuned in and in many cases I am sure they never came back because what rocker wants to sit through four hours of country each day or hip hopper wants to headbang....

It was also a nightmare to have any kind of continuity with our marketing and advertising...

June 1st we shifted gears went strictly Active Rock / Metal and right away we began finding listeners and if my analytics are accurate we seem to attract about 37% new and 63% return listeners and every day we are setting new peaks for minutes served and peak listeners...

 

[Mid West Clubber]

After reading this and other posts, ive made my station more focused to,, on Underground Dance music,, mostly house, some Trance, with no cheese or oldies, or pop mainstream stuff... That way the listeners that find me will listen more than 4 minutes,

 

[TimmyWA]

Again, thanks for all the info and feedback! Very helpful.

So what about the way I'm doing it now, see the first post. What if instead of hours or half-hours I do just days? I do an all 80's day, an all country day, an all rock day, etc...

Is that still going to be as polarizing and alienating to the potential audience? Will it cause more "appointment-listening" where fans of that genre will know they can listen on Wednesdays and Fridays, for example?

Perhaps I will do away with the 2+1 "format" altogether...

I would probably have to experiment for a few months or weeks to see how the audience responds or doesn't.

Again, let me know your thoughts?

 

[TimmyWA]

Thinking more about this, I could do something like this:

Sundays - All LDS/Christian
Mondays - All 80's (pop/rock)
Tuesdays - All Country
Wednesday - Shuffle (like Sirius did or does, mix of all genres)
Thursdays - All Rock/Alternative
Fridays - All Country
Saturdays - Shuffle or all Rock/Alternative again or some theme (plus the few syndicated shows I already program)

This is still technically block programming but on a much larger scale. So far, I get some listeners on each day but I'm guessing they are not the same listeners.

Rock on!

 

[Jay Peninger]

Thinking more about this, I could do something like this:

Sundays - All LDS/Christian
Mondays - All 80's (pop/rock)
Tuesdays - All Country
Wednesday - Shuffle (like Sirius did or does, mix of all genres)
Thursdays - All Rock/Alternative
Fridays - All Country
Saturdays - Shuffle or all Rock/Alternative again or some theme (plus the few syndicated shows I already program)

This is still technically block programming but on a much larger scale. So far, I get some listeners on each day but I'm guessing they are not the same listeners.

Rock on!

You still alienate a large chunk of your listening audience 6 days per week while other genre's are running. In the end I guess you have to determine what works for you, and what your ultimate goals are. If you simply want to broadcast and have fun and are not worried about having a huge audience and commercial viability then you can pretty much do anything you like as long as you keep it consistent so the listeners can get used to your schedule...

On the other hand if you are seeking something that can be commercially viable then you will have a long road to hoe doing block programming because it is not a format that lends itself to listener loyalty...

 

[ex1065]

I think whatever you do, make it different than what people can get on their stale broadcast stations. We (internet radio) are meant as an alternative to the corporate white noise on radio. Focus on what you like and are passionate about and your audience will come

good luck...

eX1065.com

 

[deltas69]

You just contridicted yourself by saying good music has no age demo, but also that no one was alive that liked benny Whoever the heck he is... And your station is 30 years of rock,, certainly not consistent. I play what I want,, Others can listen if they choose,, other wise the station is for me.[......trying to make the point about "benny goodman" so to make them undertand the demo for that era was mostly gone..or didnt listen anyway..dont take things so literaly..and if 30 years of rock is NOT consistant...i dont know what would be...program what you want...for your tastes thats fine..thats why there are so many different genre's of music not everyone likes country,rock,techno etc..but understand if you want the largest possible audience..you have to appeal to what the mainstream in your chosen demo is..i have people that log in for a few minutes and say to themsleves"damn i dont want to listen to this old crap"..then leave..by the same token i have people that stumble in and get excited they have found such a station..and stay all night..and come back next weekend..i started in radio in 1970...and the like most people my age, the "beatle" era from that point on was our "music"..so thats who i program to...doesn't make me right,wrong, or better or worse..just my type of music...granted it's not for everyone..but i am surprised at the number of listeners who were not even born when the sixties were around..

 

[TimmyWA]

Ok here's my plan: to experiment, I will play all country for the entire week, starting July 26th. Here's my rationale and explanation:
http://kxrtonline.com (First post re: July 26th)

Thanks again, for your excellent commentary and feedback!

 

[radiojomo]

I too had this programming problem.
When I first launched off, I decided to go with a mix of all the best Alternative, from yesterday being the 80's and 90's to today being the hottest indie bands and top Alternative.
However, I watched my number closely and I noticed ironicly that when a 90's song came on, listeners would tune out. When a newer song was on the air and another newer song followed it, people stayed tuned. So you want to be sure to play music that your listeners will enjoy after the song they started streaming is over.