Comments on: There’s no one formula for radio’s weekends http://www.current.org/2012/09/theres-no-one-formula-for-radios-weekends/ For people in public media Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:09:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 By: Aaron Read http://www.current.org/2012/09/theres-no-one-formula-for-radios-weekends/#comment-639 Aaron Read Sun, 23 Sep 2012 03:49:00 +0000 http://www.current.org/?p=19899#comment-639 At WEOS (Finger Lakes Public Radio) I found…somewhat to my surprise…that a combination of American Routes (6-8pm), the Grateful Dead Hour (8-9am), and a local (now nationally syndicated) 60′s music show, Stuck in the Psychedelic Era (9-11pm) did really, really well with our listeners.

FWIW, we never really put it to the test by seriously fundraising during those shows, but invariably I got positive feedback from various listeners…mostly of baby-boomer age…about that lineup. And tellingly, usually when people said they liked the station in general, when asked it was specifically that lineup that was mentioned.

Now the reason for the surprise was that WEOS was, and still is, mostly a news/talk station. World Cafe and Echoes are on in the evenings, but otherwise it’s mostly news/talk. People definitely liked the news/talk, but apparently the Saturday evenings they wanted music.

OTOH, at one point World Cafe was on from 10am to 12n, in the middle of a news/talk lineup. The Arbitron data showed massive tune in/tune out at the beginning and end of World Cafe…presumably meaning that it had a big audience, but that audience was mostly different from the news/talk audience. That would imply that trying to program music runs the risk of alienating a core audience, even if the music programming draws a respectable audience of its own.

One could also argue that this could potentially provide evidence that repeating shows on different days/times is not as “duplicating programming” as it might seem, since different days/times can easily mean a different audience is being reached. The door swings both ways on that.

]]> By: Karen Young http://www.current.org/2012/09/theres-no-one-formula-for-radios-weekends/#comment-633 Karen Young Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:05:00 +0000 http://www.current.org/?p=19899#comment-633 There are so many good weekend programs that I have heard on WBEZ and WNYC. Check out On Being (aka Speaking of Faith); I’m an atheist and I LOVE this show. American Routes – a fantastic music show. On the Media – I wish WNYC didn’t run it at almost exactly the same time Sat and Sun, because I don’t need to hear it a second time, but it is GREAT. Re:Sound (WBEZ). The Moth Radio Hour. I love the shows where they read stories. I can sit and listen instead of watching TV. they go great after TAL!

Other shows: Living on Earth. Making Contact. Studio 360. I’m sure there are many more.

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