Columbia School of Broadcasting

The Radio Station Programming course provides students with the opportunity to understand and be introduced to the daily functions of radio station management. This curriculum is applicable to those students desiring advancement into radio station management in the future.

4 CREDIT HOURS, 2 HOURS CLASS TIME PER DAY; 1 DAY A WEEK FOR TEN WEEKS

CURRICULUM

Phase 1: Students will be introduced to Station Identification and Positioning. The function of the Program Director, Introduction to Radio Station Strategies. How sales generate station format and direction. Discussion of the various rating systems in use today and how that might change in the future.

Phase 2: Students will explore Programming Basics and how they differ for different music formats. Students will familiarize themselves with radio station categorization and market segments. They'll be able to define product advertising to different audiences and generate different strategies for increasing listening audience.

Phase 3: Students will learn radio formats and market-driven differences. A history of past audience behavior will be analyzed. Students will develop audience profiles and contrast these profiles between radio, television and the Internet. They will be able to define modern radio audience by format and learn how to read the ratings sheets.

Phase 4: Students will explore the world of News/Talk Radio and the effect on listening audience. They will study how embedding product advertising into news can be used to generate revenue and learn the differences between syndication and pre-recorded events.

Phase 5: Students will become familiar with music formatted radio. An introduction to the problems and difficulties awaiting station management in the future. Is Satellite radio a threat or is there more to consider. They will learn to recognize market segmentation by time of day.

Phase 6: Sales and Marketing. Students will learn to define station demographics and develop a market capture strategy. Students will perform an analysis of an existing radio station, their format and their ratings and develop a plan to capture a larger segment of the market. This will include On-air personality changes, show format structuring, advertisement capturing, and development of a cost model to implement those changes.