Start your Conclave Summer Learning Conference off right with MusicMaster Genius Day in Minneapolis on July 18! Our expert staff will teach you how to make the most out of MusicMaster. You'll walk away with new creative workflows and ideas for improving your rotations to get the edge over your competition.

We'll also provide a working lunch, where you'll be joined by Author and Branding guru Kipper McGee, "The Unconsultant" Keith Hill, and Paige Nienaber, VP/Fun 'N Games for Clifton Radio and C.P.R., radio's first-ever promotional consultancy. The trio will host a special presentation on "The Next Next Chapter for Brandwidth" (see image below).

The Genius Day is FREE and recommended for all users of any experience level. Even if you and your staff are not planning to stay for the Conclave, we encourage you to stop by just for the day. Click the link below for more information or to RSVP.

Sign-Up Here

Last month, we introduced the MusicMaster ProTeam - a group of experienced broadcast consultants who are available to assist MusicMaster clients with programming advice. While they may offer services covering many aspects of station success, we’ve handpicked each for the ProTeam based on their in-depth knowledge of MusicMaster and programming strategies. 

This month we’d like to highlight another member of the growing team: Keith Hill, also known as The Unconsultant. Keith has been successfully helping radio stations raise their ratings since 1992 when he teamed up with the iconic Moon Mullins in Nashville as a consultant specializing in the Country format. Prior to a successful string of programming operations positions, Keith also was an air personality at the Legendary WFIL, Philadelphia as well as WXTU, Philadelphia and WYNY, New York. 

When asked what “UnConsultant” means, Keith replies, “I do it differently. I look at radio stations holistically, and all advice is custom. I never offer cookie cutter advice.” His client stations are consistent winners, frequently attaining the number one position in their market under his guidance.

To contact Keith or read more about the services he offers, visit his profile on the ProTeam page.

Keith will also be appearing with Kipper McGee and Paige Nienaber at the MusicMaster Conclave Genius Day on July 18. You can also look for Keith’s regular contributions to our newsletter and blog, beginning with the column below.

by Keith Hill

The good folks from MusicMaster have allowed me to be part of their ProTeam. The “aw shucks” in me combined with my snarky attitude make me say: “what a mistake on their part!” The truth is that they have the best music scheduling software available on planet earth.

Great questions remain about the philosophies you must have to achieve the best ratings results – or, the longest ATSE (Average Time Spent Exposed – in PPM measured markets) and TSL (Time Spent Listening – in legacy Diary markets.) So, for as long as they’ll let me be part of the ProTeam, I plan to pontificate about some of the best ways to go about scheduling music for excellent results, bonuses, better job offers and getting your competitors evicted from their homes.

Today just one simple discussion:

Question 1: What is the Best Library Size?

Answer: 172 songs! (See, I promised snarky and fun.) Seriously, I go waaaaayyyy back to one of my old bosses and mentors Julian Breen. When I was a baby PD and Julian had forgotten more than I would ever know about radio, he used to say, “Gentlemen, your library size is your stations blood pressure! How high do you want it to be?” First, you’ll notice we have evolved and now have women music directors, PDs, and general managers. Second, I believe the intelligent approach to library size involves first making the decision to program your radio station for your P1’s. The folks who spend the most time with you. DO NOT pick a library size to appeal to your P2’s or P3’s… you’ll end up playing just five songs, and that will wear out your P1’s.

If you have Nielsen, Eastlan or some research intel, you’ll be able to get a handle on those P1 listeners. It used to be that P1’s would spend 18 to 20 hours a week with your radio station. That’s rare today. The belief is that folks have more choices for distraction… the internet, phones, and audio other than radio. In future articles we can get into how to fight those things. For now, let's imagine a station with 12 hours a week average listening by its P1s. Those 12 hours means they listen 102 minutes a day (one hour and 42 minutes a day). Then you need to know the typical number of listening occasions. Let’s say its five occasions a day. Well that 102 minutes divided by five is 20 minutes 24 seconds.

Now, a moment of truth from someone who has studied this way too much - those five occasions end up more typically being: 20 minutes in the morning, 38 minutes in midday, 28 minutes in car in the afternoon, then 4 minutes, and lastly one more time for 12 minutes in the evening. The point is: morning shows can run 20 minutes to 40 minute occasions. Middays can run a little longer - it might be 50 minutes or over an hour, with perhaps one interruption. Afternoons in car listening can be around 30 minutes. These days, evenings often show shorter length in listening occasions. In PPM markets, it can be many more listening occasions, but shorter.

I claim that if you take your P1 ATSE / TSL and divide by the listening occasions you end up with what you should program for. It’s important to note that these are the average of the P1’s. There are those rare P1’s who spend four or five hours a day listening. God give me their addresses!!!!! We don’t want to wear them out with rapid turnover that causes fatigue. So, we’re not going to play 15 songs over and over every hour. Although, many years ago, Mike Joseph (who sadly recently passed away at age 90) used essentially 30 songs, which was a two hour turnover of the songs. He achieved great success with this simple formula. The truth is, listeners don’t listen as long as we think. Yes, the sales manager is going to tell you our station is on in a big retail advertiser all day long and they are complaining of repetition. Ask him/her why one spot a day isn’t enough for them in their advertising schedule?

There are different answers to the library size question depending on your format, say your format has currents and recurrent material or if you are a library based classic hits station.

So let’s quickly wrap up a thought on a station that plays Currents, Recurrents and Gold and needs essentially 15 songs an hour. And for simplicity lets say there are five Currents, five Recurrents and 5 Gold.

A	Power Currents	2 Per Hour	5 Songs	Turnover 2.5 hours
B	Medium Currents	2 Per hour	7 Songs	Turnover 3.5 hours
C	Light Currents	1 Per hour	5 Songs	Turnover 5 hours
D	Power Recurrents	3 Per hour	21 Songs	Turnover 7 hours
E	Regular Recurrents	2 Per hour	30 Songs	Turnover 15 hours
P	Power Gold	3 Per hour	57 Songs	Turnover 19 hours
R	Regular Gold	2 Per hour	62 Songs	Turnover 1 day 7 hours

Well that’s 187. (See that 172 earlier was the consultant in me slashing your playlist!)

Those turnovers (or repeat intervals) on currents are based on those P1 average times. Recurrents have some fatigue because they are older. And the Gold is the best stuff from your Gold pool that creates the impression of variety.

MusicMaster offers the excellent tool and facility for auto-platooning (Thanks Joe & Scott, it’s EXCELLENT!!!) You could find 5 more Power Gold and 5 more Regular Gold let’s say and platoon rest five songs in each all the time. I like to rest songs three to four weeks. I also like choosing to rest the most played in the category. That way the five most played Power Gold move to the Platoon Rest bucket and sit out four weeks, while five fresh songs come in. By choosing the most played over time, all the songs in the category should take their turn in the time-out Platoon Bucket! What you want is long enough of a rest so that your P1’s get to the point where they feel you play a song too much. Just then, you rest it. It’s gone for four weeks and then they hear it again and it has gone from brown burned to fresh re-greened in their mind.

Next time my pontification will be on Artist Separation. While most programmers think of Artist Separation, I will suggest that is the wrong way to think about it. Instead I’ll introduce you to “Artist Density.” My claim is that the right Artist Density drives listenership longer, ratings higher, and you’ll be driving a newer nicer car as the result of what happens!

Read more from Keith on The Unconsultant blog.

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