Community Radio - Breakfast Show structure advice
BluesTrainRadio
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Hello all
I know a number of people here are involved with community radio stations and I am after some advice on how they structure Breakfast Shows, if they do at all.
On my local station, we only have live breakfast shows on the weekends, which have run for a couple of years now. Each show has a different team of hosts, usually two or three people and this is done on a four weekly rota, so obviously we get a show every four weeks from the same team. The reasons for this by the way, is simply because we didn't get enough volunteers wanting to do it more often.
The problems this brings, is that each team has different ideas about how to a show and, as I'm the chap that is meant to oversee these shows, I am now keen to get a set structure in place. This would mean that whoever presents a show, would have certain targets set, on things such as...how many songs they should play over a 2 1/2 hour show...when they should read out the news and weather headlines....how long they should speak at a time in-between playing music. [ OfCom sets us a ratio of 70% music/30% talk between 7am and 7pm every day, so our breakfast shows are meant to adhere to this as well ].
At the same time, we don't want to stifle individual ideas either, as its all voluntary and anyone that gets out of bed to do a show, needs to enjoy it.
I am sure some well run community stations would have some set rules or guidelines in place for certain shows....??....so if anyone out there has something like in place, I would love to see what you do. Any other advice on what kind of set up makes for an interesting, fast paced but informative breakfast show, is also invited. We are set in quite an artistic and community based town and I am sure lots of people would back the show but we need to get it right before I push it further.
I know a number of people here are involved with community radio stations and I am after some advice on how they structure Breakfast Shows, if they do at all.
On my local station, we only have live breakfast shows on the weekends, which have run for a couple of years now. Each show has a different team of hosts, usually two or three people and this is done on a four weekly rota, so obviously we get a show every four weeks from the same team. The reasons for this by the way, is simply because we didn't get enough volunteers wanting to do it more often.
The problems this brings, is that each team has different ideas about how to a show and, as I'm the chap that is meant to oversee these shows, I am now keen to get a set structure in place. This would mean that whoever presents a show, would have certain targets set, on things such as...how many songs they should play over a 2 1/2 hour show...when they should read out the news and weather headlines....how long they should speak at a time in-between playing music. [ OfCom sets us a ratio of 70% music/30% talk between 7am and 7pm every day, so our breakfast shows are meant to adhere to this as well ].
At the same time, we don't want to stifle individual ideas either, as its all voluntary and anyone that gets out of bed to do a show, needs to enjoy it.
I am sure some well run community stations would have some set rules or guidelines in place for certain shows....??....so if anyone out there has something like in place, I would love to see what you do. Any other advice on what kind of set up makes for an interesting, fast paced but informative breakfast show, is also invited. We are set in quite an artistic and community based town and I am sure lots of people would back the show but we need to get it right before I push it further.
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Comments
I don't think that there's anything wrong with having a different style of breakfast show every day and allowing presenters to talk about issues and events that interest them- rather than trying to shoehorn them into a single "style".
We currently only have these shows at the weekends, as we don't have anyone willing to cover weekday shifts as yet. I want to get to some form of happy medium, where we come up with some guidelines for all hosts to follow, while allowing everyone to bring some of their own ideas and personalities to the show.
For example...every 30 minutes, a round up of news/travel/weather. A certain time dedicated to the fixtures of the local football club, who are now official media partners. I want to work out how many songs can be played without going over the 70% and want to get all shows playing that many every time. I want the style of the music to be upbeat and appeal to the masses [ this is the only show on the station that would aim for this ]. It would also mean that anyone new to this show, could just get these guidelines as a starting place to work towards.
I feel, if we can get this in place, everyone will then see the gaps that will need filling, so they can then invite guests to come in and plug something....they can introduce their own little features....
The problem at the minute is....we get good feedback and interaction on the editions where things are faster paced and more lively....but whenever someone comes in and does something slower and more talk based....we struggle.
I'll be clear, we don't want to aim to copy commercial radio in general, we have a ton of great shows that are now being heard worldwide elsewhere covering every music you can think of! It's just this one show that I think, if we get it right and can cover all the local news and events, while blasting out songs everyone knows and staying as lively as possible, could start to find more ears across the town.
Having four different teams is difficult, but without taking away the creativity of each group, a central structure is wise.
This could include a style guide, which places certain elements in specific spots for every show.
For instance, the weather could come after the first record in the hour.
If you run commercials, then run them at 20 mins and 40 mins +/- 2-3 mins.
Run any traffic and travel news at (say) 45 mins - that gives a mini sequence of commercial --> record --> travel in this example.
With a feature like an events guide, run them at the same clock time each week, example, at 25 mins past giving commercial --> record --> events guide.
While allowing each team creativity, giving them a structure which they must follow will improve the station sound for the listener.
As others havs said, try not to mimic commercial radio, but aim for some form of balanced style guide which is the same each week.
Good luck !
Aiming for the others at specific times in the hour will be good and gives presenters good discipline as well.
You may have other specific features to fit in as well. Perhaps one of those is used by team A and B, but not C or D. If it is the right feature for the show, then perhaps look to intoduce it across the four shows.
Also, if you have a specific weekly feature, then look at running it in the same hour each week, not when the presenters fancy it. Again, it will help with overall structure.
Putting stuff like this in to practice will be a challenge, as the four teams will all want to go their own ways, especially when there is more than one presenter on air double or triple heading.
The big one to remind them, is that the show is for the benefit of the listeners, not the presenters.
I think your problem is, as I've just said in another post, you get two types of listener to radio stations. Those who will stick with it no matter what, and will have you on from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep and will never change. Unfortunately, that type of listener is the exception to the rule.
On the whole, you might be someone's PREFERRED station, that they put on as a first choice, but listeners are a fickle bunch and if you do something they don't like then they'll tune away. When their next station doesn't appeal any more, they'll come back, but very few will differentiate between 'commercial' and 'community'. That's to say they won't give you the benefit of the doubt for being volunteers, for having limited budget, possibly less technically advanced facilities etc.
One thing you CAN commit to, though, is consistency. People love a good marker! Ken Bruce on Radio 2 has Popmaster as part of his show. It's at the same time, in the same format, with the same procedure and that works great. If Zoe Ball covers, Popmaster STILL happens as before - it becomes Ken Bruce COVERED BY Zoe Ball....it doesn't become the Zoe Ball Show. Community stations, in a lot of cases, give ownership of shows to their presenters - that's fine for specialist slots, but unless the format of the station is a collection of specialist shows then it doesn't sound great in daytime.
As much as I wholeheartedly agree that there should be a distinction in sound between commercial and community, if the latter is licensed for a geographical community rather than a specialist audience, then you have to adopt SOME mainstream conventions to maintain a diverse audience.
I understand that people need to enjoy working there to do it for free.. but it's also a bit pointless if no-one wants to listen (or at least a waste of transmitter costs when they could do it on the monitor speakers next door instead). And I promise radio listeners will not run their life on a four-weekly cycle to fit your rota. Even those with a lot of money and different patterns each day of the week (Radio 4, I'm looking at you) struggle to win an audience for daily-changing half-hour slots. So you need a certain level of consistency certainly week to week.. (and I'd suggest if these are the key/only shows on the station.. probably day-to-day).
"Brand values" will seem like a horribly commercial word for what you're doing. But you need to think what the station, and those shows, are about - local information, discussion, events, 80s songs (or whatever) - and get everyone to sign up for those core values. If you're doing country music and green issues one week, then what's ons and metal the next, you *will not have an audience* beyond the immediate families of those involved. You need an audience to understand that Station A or Show B is all about C, and is the right choice for them if they want C at that time.
You might want to go further and mandate certain features at certain times.. particularly your local news if that's something you want to be known for. But weather and what's ons might also be in the list.. and maybe an idea that an interview about a big issue in town is always at a fixed point.
What do you want to be famous for? Do your potential audience know that? Are you delivering it?
It's an unfortunate misconception between (largely the owners of) community stations that 'community' should mean 'unrivalled choice' - and in a large part it shouldn't.
People moan about repetition on commercial radio, yet MILLIONS of people tune in every day across the UK, because they want to hear stuff they know. The tiniest minority of your listeners will compromise on quality for the sake of acknowledging the 'staff' are doing it for free.
In any station, but because of budgetary constraints maybe more so for community level broadcasters, everything comes back to reputation. However much community radio is meant to appeal to minority groups, there has to be an element of commerciality in order to sell ad space and generate good listening figures. Without those, the freedom to be a bit more varied in the evenings comes at a price.
It's the old adage - ratings by day, reputation by night. What you put out between 7am and 7pm should be there to pull in the masses, and bring in advertising revenue. During evenings (and to an extent weekends) you can be a bit more free and easy as long as your presenters are knowledgable in their specialist fields.
Maybe, to get around the 4 weekly issue, you could market the show as being presented by a Weekend Breakfast 'team', and you'll always get a couple of people from that team doing the gig? As long as the show itself is consistent in it's output then you might get away with it, but if week 1 has a 'regular feature' that doesn't appear in weeks 2-4, then you have a problem!