Radio is not bowling. Don’t stay in your lane.
Radio is not bowling.
One of radio’s most cringeworthy terms is the word “lane” as in, “we want to stay in our lane.” The term is most often used as a code for, “we don’t want to play that song.”
We don’t believe it, but perhaps there was a time when radio stations needed to stay in their lane, that is, to play music that “fits” their format. The notion was that listeners came to a radio station to listen to one particular type of music and they would leave the station if they heard a song that didn’t “fit” the station.
We’ve always thought it was a misguided and limiting notion. However, even if years ago one could defend fit, today all the research shows that listeners embrace variety in their music. Today listeners are more likely to abandon your station due to monotony, not variety.
Spotify did an analysis several years ago and found that users were twice as likely to switch to a station in a drastically different format than a similar station on the service.
Today listeners float from one format to another to a third because they can. Streaming gives a listener freedom to glide effortlessly from Country to Pop to Rock and back to Country in their own playlists.
And despite having the ability to create a limitless number of their own curated playlists, users still seek out new songs by using Spotify or iTune radio stations.
So what does all this mean for local radio?
You must balance familiarity with variety. You need to play songs that your listeners want to hear, but you need to do it while getting out of your lane from time to time. You’re better off completely abandoning the notion of lanes and fit but if you’re not ready to completely abandon them, at least throw in some new music outside the format.
Your listeners will thank you for it.