How midday classical research is changing station playlists

On Monday I wrote about the midday music research conducted by the Public Radio Program Directors Association — a survey of hundreds of classical-music listeners that gauged their responses to dozens of snippets of music. The goal was to determine which sounds appealed to those listeners and which didn’t, thus helping programmers at classical public radio stations build audience by focusing on more user-friendly selections.

So how is this research being used? Following the release of the study’s results, 12 stations around the country began applying its lessons to their midday music mixes. I checked in with a few programmers to find out what changes they’re making.

“I’ve found that it’s taken me back to really trying to think and listen like my audience,” says Karen Walker, operations and music director at KBIA in Columbia, Mo. Walker has been combing through her station’s music library and classifying selections according to their appeal to the listeners surveyed in the study.

For Walker, thinking like her listeners involves trying to be more attuned to their likes and dislikes, rather than her own. For example, she plays horn in ensembles and orchestras and enjoys the music of wind ensembles. But she’s realized that she might have been  playing too much wind music that was unfamiliar to her audience, whereas most listeners surveyed in the PRPD study gave higher ratings to classical staples.

At WDAV in Davidson, N.C., Program Director Frank Dominguez is focusing the station’s midday mix on selections that appeal both to “serious” and “casual” listeners. “In a midsized market, we can’t superserve one over the other,” he says.

As you might recall, the 309 listeners surveyed in the research labeled themselves as either serious or casual listeners. Both camps agreed that they appreciate music with a purely classical sound, as well as melodic, bright pieces with a sense of “forward motion.” Serious listeners, however, had a higher tolerance for vocal, choral and organ music. Perhaps counter-intuitively, they also found crossover classical more appealing.

By avoiding music that might turn off casual listeners, Dominguez hopes he can maximize his midday audience and take advantage of the rise in listening to promote the more adventurous programming WDAV offers in other dayparts — such as evening broadcasts of a local orchestra that performs a broader range of music. “If I give [listeners] what they want most of the time, I feel that we’ll have earned their sense of trust, and they’ll go on an occasional excursion with us,” he says.

I also spoke with James Arey, music director at KVNO in Omaha, Neb. The midday music research spurred Arey to move certain types of music out of middays and into other dayparts, such as late 19th-century and early 20th-century Romantic pieces. In particular, he cites Arnold Bax’s tone poems and excerpts from Mahler symphonies. “While wonderful and still requested, they tend to slow down proceedings so much during middays,” he says. Announcers are also avoiding specialized musical terminology, such as “adagio non troppo” and other Italian-derived movement names.

Arey is downplaying works that use period instruments, which he says can have an undesirably “strident” tone. And he’s not shying from playing pieces that rank among the top 200 most familiar classical works, sometimes programming one or two of these an hour.

The point of all these changes is building audience. But is it working? Stations have only been implementing these changes since earlier this year, and radio programmers generally prefer to track ratings over a full year before gauging success or failure, so it’s too soon to know for sure. But there are some positive signs. WDAV’s Dominguez says the station’s share went from 1.6 last fall to 2.4 in the winter Arbitron book. The station has also been fielding a greater number of positive comments from listeners, including some who say they’re enjoying the “bright sound,” he says.

Some of KVNO’s listeners have told Arey that they’re also enjoying the music, and listening more. More listeners are asking to hear familiar pieces. Arey takes these as encouraging signs. “We don’t want to give people a reason to turn the dial, and that’s the tough part,” he says. “But it’s also the fun part.”

Do you think these stations are moving in the right direction? Chime in with a comment. Next up in this series, I’ll focus on what some critics think of this research.