Company News · February 19, 2009

What To Do When You Can’t Do A Music Test

By sross

What do you do if your station can’t do a music test this spring?
That’s a question that an increasing number of music stations have to ask this year. Many stations that did library testing every spring now find it put on hold, at the very least. Programmers that did research on a less regular basis are scared to even ask this year.
No matter how confident you are in your programming judgment, there are inherent problems in trying to work around the lack of a test. If you’ve been living with an old test for a year or more, your audience and your market has changed. Songs have lost or gained currency. New listeners have moved into your target demo. More important, chances are excellent that some of the midpack songs you haven’t played for a while are stronger, or at least more rested, than some of those you have.
Does a station rely on national monitored airplay? Increasingly, monitored airplay is made up of stations that are less able to do their own research and looking only at each other’s best guesses.
There’s no such thing as a “safelist.” And there’s no substitute for asking your listeners what they want. But Edison Research has a better way to make your station sound like it did a music test this spring. If you’re not able to do music research this year – or you’re in a market that has never been able to do music research – we have a variety of more affordable custom solutions. Please call Sean Ross at 908-707-4707, or contact us.

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