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“Similar to what is occurring in the magazine industry, the growth in stations, instead, appears to be fragmenting the radio audience into finer and finer niche groups. The 47 recognized radio formats include such things as Adult Contemporary, Alternative, Country, Classical, Beautiful Music and Farm/Agriculture. And even these 47 formats are prone to splitting and changing to create new niche markets. What was once Contemporary Hit Radio, or CHR, now includes CHR-Pop, CHR-80s and CHR-Dance.1

This represents a remarkable shift. When commercial radio was begun, stations were broadly programmed channels, much like the later television networks. The same channel, depending on time of day, offered serials, then soaps, music and news. Today, the strategies behind formating radio are even more targeted than cable television. This narrowcasting, as it is termed, adds to cultural fragmentation. It also tends to minimize accidental learning - people becoming more familiar with news, information or even music that they were not seeking out.”

The Evolution of Format Radio
The term “Format Radio” was not introduced to radio jargon until the early 50s when revolutionary changes in broadcasting began to occur.

Television was coming to Canada (and did), network radio started to wane (and did); international advertisers began canceling their network radio shows and moving their budgets to network television; new radio stations were being licensed, the phonograph record industry began to discover that radio was not an enemy but its greatest ally, and venerable radio stations were faced with overhauling their programming to meet the new challenges.

From its very beginning in 1922, radio programming was considered “family entertainment”. Radio was “all things to all people”. The public was still adjusting to the fact that entertainment and information could be delivered to their homes through the magic of radio. They were not critical. They found satisfaction with virtually any form of human expression that could be transmitted to them.

Over the years, Canadians became more discriminating. American network programming had increased their appetite for comedy. drama, news and “play by-play” actualities of sports events. This hunger could not be satisfied by private Canadian stations hog-tied by regulations that forbade or severely restricted their importation of American programs and even forming their own networks for Canadian programs.

It was not until 1936 that the Government of Canada admitted to its folly in legislating the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act in 1932 and bowed to the mood of the people. Its replacement by the Canadian Radio Act came in force on November 2nd, 1936, and while it didn’t unshackle the hands of private broadcasters, it created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and its coast-to-coast network of CBC-owned and affiliated private stations which would carry a blend of American and Canadian sponsored programs and non-commercial CBC programs.

Thereafter, and with the addition in 1944 of the CBC Dominion Network, local radio station programming had settled into a comfortable mix of local and network programs that was a acceptable to listeners both young and old.

The programming by private stations was rigidly monitored by the CBC, which (for example) was concerned that a variety of preferences for different types of music be available on each station. Private stations had to file weekly a schedule of the week’s up-coming programs. They also had to file each week copies of their logs listing all commercial announcements, programs and a coded description of the types of music used, and whether the programs came from a network, from an electrical transcription (a pre-recorded syndicated program) or was performed ‘live” by the station itself. Use of local talent was appraised annually.

In the 50s, new owners of stations who were forbidden to join a network or to take any programs from a network found themselves unable to compete successfully for audience and advertising by abiding by the CBC’s regulations and policies.

Previously, back in 1944, when Jack Kent Cooke bought CKCL Toronto and re-named it CKEY, he successfully defied the CBC’s demands for balanced mixed programming and turned his station into what some people called a 24-hour Jukebox. CKEY broadcast from records the most popular songs of the day that for a quarter could be played in a restaurant jukebox or heard “live” on the USA network program “Your I-fit Parade”. He also adapted New York’s WNEW Martin Block “Make Believe Ballroom” program of records and also used Glenn Miller’s 1940 recording of “lt’s Make Believe Ballroom Time”.

What some stations across Canada had gradually been doing to cater to young Canadians in the hours alter school-and-before-seven, Cooke did around the clock. The “hosts” of these and other block-programmed shows became known as “disc jockeys”.

Following Cooke’s suit in kind, in 1954, Hal Yerxa (to whom, the CBC had issued a licence to own and operate CFCW Camrose, Alberta) dedicated the station’s programming entirely to country and western music. It became Canada’s first 24-hour country station.

Also in 1954, the most distinctive shift in programming emerged with the rock and roll revolution traceable to Allan Waters’ acquisition of CHUM in Toronto. Like Jack Cooke. Allan Waters, too, looked south to the United States to examine what American stations in similar multi-station markets were doing to meet the new challenges for audience and revenue. The Todd Storz-owned stations in the USA (among others) were catering successfully to the youth market with a format of playing and repeating a limited number of contemporary new records day and night CHUM honed a similar format for Toronto.

The rapid and growing success of CHUM convinced other stations in like circumstances that they should make a similar shift.

And so was born Format Radio in Canada.

About the same time, the recording industry had discovered that teenagers had disposable income and that radio was their best vehicle for promoting their products into million-sellers.

In the late 60s another significant factor in the adoption of formats was the development of FM. As applications for new FM stations flooded in, the CRTC deemed it necessary to create a list of definitions and conditions designed to perpetuate the reasoning and policies of previous regulators, that in any given community served by more than one station that the public would be assured of receiving a variety of music from perhaps two or more stations.

It could be said that in its FM definitions, the CRTC, unwittingly, invented “narrowcasting”.

As the new millennium approached, the development of precise audience measurement methods had combined with changing audience tastes to drive the fragmentation of radio formats designed to reach very specific target groups on many stations.

Before, where the programming of most stations could best be described as “varied” or “general”, and later “teen” or “adult”, the variations of these themes had become almost impossible to categorize.

In fact, many stations and their programming consultants resisted being categorized specifically with a labeled format, and preferred to distinguish their unique identity by inventing their own “slogan”.

For their purposes, the Radio Marketing Bureau Inc. of Canada and the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) recognized a list of “standard” formats designed to characterize narrowly-defined target audiences:
Adult Contemporary
Music includes soft rock, light rock, soft pop. Certain on air personalities are “promoted” but generally the music is the message.

Hot Adult Contemporary
Includes Modern Adult Pop/Contemporary Hit Radio - more current than above.

Classic/Mainstream Rock
Includes Adult Oriented Rock, Mainstream Rock - will appeal to an older age group than above.

Modern/Alternative Rock
Includes more Alternative Rock - more current yet again - usually a younger profile.

Mainstream Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio
Includes Dance, Contemporary Hit Radio, Current Hits.

Urban
More easily defined - Includes Reggae, Rhythm & Blues as well as Hip Hop - younger.

News/Talk
Little emphasis on music in many markets - includes talk and some open line - features longer Newscasts and Business information.

Sports
Includes Play-by-Play, Sporting Events and Sports Talk - Open Line.

Country
Includes all Country Music Both Old and New.

Gold/Oldies
Includes Classic Hits, music from earlier years.

Classical/Fine Arts
Includes Concert Music, discussion of the arts and related topics.

Adult Standards
Music includes Big Bands and a lot of Nostalgia.

Jazz
Includes a wide variety of Jazz music, smooth, up-tempo, old/new and the Blues.

Religion
Includes Gospel, also Inspirational Music and Talk.

Ethnic/Multi-cultural
Includes specific culture/language focus as well as multi-cultural - much block programming.

Multi/Variety/Specialty
Includes a variety of block programs of music and information appealing to a wide variety of listeners.

BILLBOARD CATEGORY Count
Adult Contemporary 684
Adult Standards 398
Adult Top 40 376
Classic Rock/Hits 738
Classical 28
Country 2021
CPs 239
Jazz 87
Mainstream Rock 270
Miscellaneous 210
Modern AC 23
Modern Rock 150
News/Talk 1326
Oldies 759
R&B 149
R&B Adult/Oldies 208
Religion (Music) 688
Religion (Talk) 317
Soft AC/Easy Listening 336
Spanish 675
Sports 516
Stations off the air 70
Top 40 494
Format Not Available 6
Triple-A 105

Pray tell, the rise of Christian radio
Though tiny, format is among the fastest-growing

By Lorraine Sanders

When people talk about the hot radio formats today, contemporary Christian radio isn’t usually part of the conversation.
Maybe it ought to be. Though emerging from a small listener share, contemporary Christian is one of the fastest growing formats in radio.
From 2002 to 2004 the contemporary Christian listener share for adults ages 25-54 grew 57 percent, from a .7 percent share to 1.1 percent, according to Arbitron data.
“It’s just a format that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention in the past, but it really is an exploding format. It is becoming a significant player across the radio spectrum,” says Augie Ruckdeschel, research analyst for Interep, the radio and internet rep firm.
Interep’s most recent analysis of format trends reports that contemporary Christian radio reaches 7 million listeners each week. The number of stations programming the format has also grown over the last decade, up from 367 in 1993 to more than 580.
“It’s popping up in more and more cities, and it’s growing in audience appeal,” says Tom Durney, vice president and marketing manager for the Entercom radio cluster in Greeneville, S.C.
One might think contemporary Christian would appeal to a largely rural audience nestled in the Bible belt of the South and in the West. Actually, it’s quite urban. Contemporary Christian stations rank among the top stations for more adults 25-54 markets than you would expect, like Dallas and Atlanta, as well as in those you wouldn’t, like Seattle and Portland, Ore.
Durney’s company switched one of its stations to the contemporary Christian format about a year and a half ago. He attributes the growth to an ongoing nationwide polarization of values.
“I really do expect this whole Christian fundamentalist movement to continue to grow, and I see it as a counterbalance or reaction to the cultural pollution that television and movies are doing to our culture,” he explains.
The majority–65 percent–of contemporary Christian listeners are females over 18, and 61 percent of the format’s audience is aged 25 to 44. These listeners are mostly white, at 82 percent. Another 10 percent are Hispanic.
Christian Contemporary listeners have moderate incomes, with 57 percent living in households with incomes over $50,000 a year. The median income is $61,693.
But they spend what they make. They are 36 percent more likely than the average consumer to have eaten out at three or more family restaurants in the past month, 32 percent more likely to have taken three or more domestic trips in the past year, and 21 percent more likely to own a foreign SUV.
Contemporary Christian radio listeners are also family people. They are 22 percent more likely than the average consumer to be married, 79 percent more likely to live in a household of six or more people, and 51 percent more likely to have children.
And Contemporary Christian radio listeners tend to be highly loyal to the format.
“I would have expected more of a crossover among other formats,” says Ruckdeschel. “But it does seem to have a more loyal exclusive audience. They turn to Contemporary Christian radio and not other radio stations as much as expected.”
Further, they are not big consumers of other media. According to Interep’s analysis, 43 percent of this audience does not subscribe to cable, and 60 percent does not subscribe to satellite television. Thirty-one percent report that they are light users of television, while 34 percent of those surveyed say they had not used the internet within the past week.
Durney estimates that around 40 percent of Entercom’s contemporary Christian radio audience listens almost exclusively to the format, while 60 percent tune into to other radio stations, including country and adult contemporary.
“It’s not like their whole lives are Christian focused. It’s just part of their lives and part of their media choices,” he says.
Contemporary Christian radio advertisers tend to fall into two groups, Durney says. They are either affinity advertisers targeting listeners leading active Christian lifestyles or mainstream advertisers targeting the format’s largely female, middle-class audience. Christian bookstores, events, concerts and churches fall into the first category, while fast-food chains, department stores and home improvement retailers dominate the second.
And surprising as it may seem, some advertisers are cautious when to comes to advertising on these stations.
“What’s interesting is that there are some advertisers that consider the format controversial and will not advertise on it, ” says Durney.
“They’re obviously afraid that if they advertise on a Christian radio station they might offend some non-Christians, which is impossible because non-Christians are not listening to it.”

Feb. 18, 2005 © 2005 Media Lif

Dados do primeiro semestre de 2005, compilados pela Interep e divulgados pela Billboard.
Dos 16 formatos analisados, eis as principais conclusões:
Jack Boosts Classic Rock, Country Up Too
August 16, 2005
By Chuck Taylor, Billboard Radio Monitor

Radio formats are changing. Country is roaring back, Oldies is bleeding audience share and Jack (the ‘we play anything’ format) is making Classic Rock sexy. That’s the radio landscape according to Interep’s format analysis based on Arbitron Spring survey data.

The study analyzed 16 formats and ranked their popularity with audiences 12+ throughout Arbitron’s 93 continuously measured metros.

News/talk/sports maintained its lead as the nation’s most popular radio format, with a 17 share, down from a peak of 18 during last fall’s political season. The category is dominated by News/Talk formats, followed by All-News, All-Sports and Business News.

Ticking up slightly, Spanish held second place, while reaching another record audience high and maintaining a year-long uptrend. The format is broken down into nine sub-genres—the most of any format—including Contemporary, Religious, Adult Contemporary, Tejano, Mexican, Tropical and Romantica.

Rhythm & Blues was the third most popular format, also showing a slight increase. Interep noted an audience shift from Hip-Hop to Adult R&B.

Off from its peak last spring and summer, Top 40 remained No. 4, down a hair. Declines have occurred mainly in the Dance segment of the format.

Adult Contemporary showed some erosion, tying for fifth place with a surging Country format, which gained .3 of a share for the second quarter in a row, for its highest performance in years.

Classic Rock was the hero of the Spring survey, rising to a 7.6 share, up from 5.9. The reason: Interep is including the proliferating Jack format in the Classic Rock format category. “Even though the format share total is higher,” Interep noted, “it’s really too soon to judge the performance of these evolving stations on a book-to-book basis.”

Oldies, on the other hand, posted its lowest share ever, falling from 4.6 to 4.3.Several prominent Oldies stations, such as Infinity Broadcasting’s WCBS-FM in New York and WJMK-FM in Chicago, have flipped to Jack.

Rock radio demonstrated a shift: The long-declining AOR (which includes mainstream rock) rebounded strongly in the Spring (3.3 to 4), while New Rock fell back (4.3 to 3.8).