High Resolution
			Background: Basic definitions
			Background: Intermediate level
			Background: Full Treatment
			Format Flavors
			Operative Affinity

Appeal & Affinity Basics

Appeal

Every radio program is like a magnet. It attracts certain types of people and leaves others unmoved; it may even repulse some.

This attraction is called appeal, and like magnetism we can’t see it directly – we can only see its effects.

We characterize a program’s appeal by the type of people drawn to it. For instance, a program that attracts older listeners has an "older" appeal that’s qualitatively different from a program with a "younger" appeal.

Discrete programs have appeal. Format blocks have appeal. Indeed, stations have appeal. In every case, appeal is characterized by the qualities of the listeners who are attracted.

Affinity

Affinity is the degree to which two appeals match. It can be high, non-existent, or somewhere in between.

Programs with extremely similar audiences – that is, with the same appeal – have high affinity. Conversely, programs that appeal to very different types of listeners have no affinity.

Similarly, a program’s appeal can be compared to a station’s appeal to yield the affinity between the pair – in other words, the degree to which the two audiences will mesh.

The degree of affinity informs the appropriateness of a program decision.

Programs with no affinity serve different audiences and don’t work well together. Programs with no affinity with a station’s audience do not contribute to the station’s public service.

Public Service

Radio stations serve the public best when they focus their appeal on a certain type of listener.

It’s the privilege of the licensee and management to choose that listener. But once chosen, the greatest public service focuses like a laser to meet his needs and interests, and the needs and interests of people like him.

Commercial stations focus on the age, sex, and sometimes race of the listener. Public stations typically operate in a fourth dimension of education: their listeners are often the most highly educated in town.

Resolution

Our assessment of appeal is only as fine as the lenses through which we view listeners. Sex, age, and race are usually sufficient to resolve differences in appeals.

AUDIENCE 98^® adds the high resolution lenses of education and VALS^TM2. Do programs that look the same under the sex/age/race lens look different when the educational attainment or VALS of their audiences are viewed?

Powerful before, our lens can now resolve even finer traits. The sharply detailed audience portraits that result inform even more appropriate and powerful programming decisions.

– David Giovannoni
AUDIENCE 98 Core Team

 

Audience Research Analysis
Copyright © ARA and CPB.  All rights reserved.
Revised: September 01, 2000 12:38 PM.