Inform But
Don’t Intrude: What Listeners Told us
About Announcer
Breaks in “The Core Values of
Classical Music
Radio.”
Marcia Alvar,
President, PRPD
The 2002 PRPD/SRG
study on classical music radio produced a rich body of knowledge about
the format’s core listeners. It also provides guidance for tactical decisions
stations can make to improve their service, particularly in the design
and presentation of break content.
A Summary of Overall Findings:
Here are a few of the things we
learned in the PRPD/SRG study of “The Core Values of Classical Music Radio.”
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The chief listener benefits are stress
relief, clarity of mind, aesthetic beauty, refuge from contemporary culture,
escape from the problems of the world
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Listeners want a "little bit" of information/have
a low tolerance for "chatter"
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Listeners place a high value on concise
information that enhances their enjoyment of the music. This is often expressed
in visual terms such as "It gives me a picture."
-
Interest/tolerance drops as the focus
of information moves further from the music
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Listeners want to know "the basics"
for each piece – name of piece, composer, performer, conductor
-
Listener definition of "commercials"
include many public radio break elements including promos, PSAs, fundraising
messages
Break Elements: “Inform but Don’t
Intrude”
The breaks we tested included a
variety of elements. These sorted out into four categories with different
levels of value to listeners:
Level I: “The Basics.”
The information listeners told us
they most want is the basics of what is being played.
-
Name of the Piece
-
Composer
-
Performer
-
Conductor
Basic information was considered vital
information for presentation before and after every piece.
Level II: “Tell Me a Story,
Give Me a Picture, but Keep it Short.”
Other information that enhances
enjoyment of the music:
-
Date when piece was composed or first
performed
-
Concise/compelling fact/story about
piece, composer, performer
Important caveat about storytelling:The
value listeners gave this type of information depended completely on how
well it was focused and presented. If the information was brief, memorable
and gave them “a picture” to go with the music they liked it. If the information
did not meet these standards, it became a major intrusion to listening.
Level III: “I Like to
Know What’s Happening…but Make it Snappy.”
Classical stations are seen as a
valued pathway to the music and arts community but we need to carefully
structure and streamline the information we provide. Listeners consistently
preferred very basic on air information that gave them the essence of the
event or activity, and then referred them to a place (such as a phone number
of website) where they could get more detail.
Level IV: “It Sounds
Like a Commercial. I Hate Commercials.”
Underwriting credits, PSAs, fundraising
messages, station and event promotions are all regarded as intrusions for
which there is limited tolerance. We make distinctions in-house among these
messages but listeners hear them all as commercials. They call them all
commercials. These messages are vital to a station’s well-being, but we
need to be mindful of how we produce and place them or we will quickly
reach a point of diminishing returns.
Break “Intrusions”
Listeners said they want announcer
breaks to be congruent with and appropriate to the music so that “the state”
the music creates for them is sustained. Break elements identified as intrusive
included:
-
Multiple voices in a break: The
voices were “hard to keep straight” and confusing, even in our focused
listening settings.
-
Talking over music: Often described
as the announcer “competing with the music.” Hard to hear what was
said when produced over a music bed.
-
Voice levels louder than the music:
Criticized as the station or host thinking they’re “more important than
the music.”
-
Too much information—too many
break elements or any single element that was not concise. Remember
that listeners said that they want “a little bit” of information about
the music.
-
Information not delivered clearly
and concisely
-
Information and commentary that does
not focus on the music
Questions to Ask About Your Station’s
Breaks
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How is your station designing its breaks?
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Do you take care to limit the number
of elements in each break?
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Is the information you provide about
the music concise and compelling?
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Is the music the central focus of your
breaks?
If you are using Core Values
findings at your station, PRPD would love to hear about what you are doing
and add your experience to its library of “case studies.” Just send
a short email to info@ prpd.org and
PRPD will contact you for more information.
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