Les Clichés Du PPM
Written Mar. 3, 2009 by Sean Ross in Content + Terrestrial Radio with 1 Comment
After last week's look at "The Clichés Of PPM" (and in advance of next week's PPM panel at Canadian Music Week), it might be interesting to see how AC radio looks in Montreal, the first Canadian market where PPM became currency. Here's mainstream AC CFQR (Q92) and Hot AC CJFM (recently rebranded Virgin Radio after years as FM96) from the last few days. The two stations are tied for the music lead in Montreal's English-language book; (to be fair, there are only a handful of English-language FMs) with a 14.9 share. (And, yes, technically if I wanted to use this headline I should have analyzed the French ACs--perhaps in an upcoming post.)
A lot of the signposts of a PPM market are indeed in place now -- the short stagers, the cold segues -- although, as a mainstream AC, I don't remember Q92 sounding particularly cluttered before. There's still a little more breathing room for the jocks in Montreal than in Philadelphia. And it's interesting that CJFM's transition to Virgin Radio has still found room for some of the personality bits that define the format at sister CKFM Toronto.
Here's how the two stations broke down:
Q92
* Jock breaks per hour: Six
* Length of jock breaks: :09 (over intro) - 1:04 (at stopset)
* Stopsets: Three four-minute stops at :07, :36, :57
* Cold Segues: Two
* Shortest Sweeper: 06
* Longest Promo: :45, there was also one break where there appeared to be two :30s (one a hook promo for upcoming songs and one for the morning show) back to back, before the commercials.
* Appointment Listening: Several teasers for upcoming songs, the lunch-hour feature, etc., as well as an upcoming morning show remote. None of the "at 2:15 today...." type appointment setting that became epidemic here for a while.
Virgin Radio
* Jock breaks per hour: Seven, some of them built into jingles, produced weather beds, etc.
* Length of jock breaks: :04 (frontsell) - 1:41 (at stopset, a longer jock relatable about hair styling tips)
* Stopsets:Two four-minute stops at :33 and :52
* Cold segues: Three
* Shortest Sweeper: :07
* Longest Promo: No long-form station promos in the hour I heard. The longest produced bits were the combination live/stager weather reports followed by a back-to-music stager that took a total of :45.
* Appointment Listening: Lots of teasers -- the "10 ways to sexy hair" relatable did get part of the jock break that preceded it as a teaser. Crossplugs for Ryan Seacrest's guests that night and a new morning show host. No specific times.
Reader Comments
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Good monitoring, Sean...as Program Director of Q92, yes, we implemented many lessons learned from the US live currency PPM markets throughout 2008, extending flow and reducing interruption while also giving our personalities and promotions room to remain locally connected and relatable beyond liner cards. While remaining "the most music" radio station, we created content, events and shows that have appointment "personality pull" yet maintains music brand strength.
In the end, it's all about being responsive to audience (and active fan) demands in the market (as I write in the today's Jointblog post (http://tinyurl.com/czogee), listening to them, and giving it to them -- which is something Mix/Virgin Radio and Classic Rock CHOM also do very well.
Hope to see you at the CMW next week in Toronto.