In a session titled “Singapore: Launching New Channels” at Radiodays Asia Virtual conference today, Loretta Lopez, PD, Money FM, Singapore, and Jing Yun, Senior PD, Hao FM, Singapore, spoke about the strategy behind the formatting and the launch of these stations and their challenges and learnings from running these stations.
Money FM 89.3 is Singapore’s first and only business and personal finance station while Hao FM is a Mandarin station targeted at 45 to 59-year-olds.
Two years ago, when SPH Radio Singapore gained two more radio licenses, they studied the market to find the gaps and devise new formats.
According to Jing, one of the most difficult challenges in setting up Hao FM was to initially identify who to speak to and the imaging of the station. “We had this new idea of a new station and when we finally got the license, it was a very tough time for me personally, because a lot of things were on paper. The most difficult part was choosing the right name. We were thinking as a 45 to 60 listener, at this stage of our life, we’re looking for stability and you want the second half of your life to be good, and Hao means good in Mandarin.”
By the time Loretta came in at Money FM, they had already chosen the station’s name, logo and slogan. So the biggest challenge for her was finding the right mix of talent. “We had a lot of training. We had to go through financial training to immerse ourselves in the realm of business ad personal finance. Everyday we would scour the business section of the newspaper and our Executive Editor would sit down and be our interviewee. Everyday was intense training for months before launch. Also, for everyone to work together seamlessly is still a challenge.”
According to Loretta, the main thing that worked for them was that they made sure they podcasted all their interviews on the same day it was aired. “We enjoy almost 60,000 downloads every month, which means the content is compelling, it’s interesting.”
Hao FM started out as a music station speaking to the 45 plus listeners, who were thinking about their formative years, which led them to the music from the 80s and the 90s, which worked well. “A lot of listeners told us that other stations are not giving them this kind of music. In Singapore, for a Chinese station to break through after 22-23 years was very hard, so what we did was we started singing. We went out for road shows, but didn’t talk much. We did songs from the 80s and 90s which got people noticing us and they started tuning in.”
Speaking about things which didn’t quite work and had to be adjusted, Jing said, “Going back to the formative years of the listeners, when the target audience were about 15 years old. So theoretically speaking we should be listening to the 70’s or the 80s, and we tried to build on those songs in the early days and then we realised because of the music genre and the music mix within the songs, it didn’t sync quite well with the current listeners. So we had to push back about five years.”
For Loretta, one of the main things that did not work was trying to sustain a four hour show on a talk station. “In the words of Steve Ahern, who was our consultant when we set up the station, a talk format station is like a hungry beast whose appetite is not easily satiated. So we decided to cut everyone’s time on the show by an hour or so. We also find that by tightening the clock, it makes for more succinct and therefore more compelling content.”
Jing said that although you would think that 45 and above would be quite mature and settled but because of this fast-changing environment due to Covid-19, even the listeners got very digital. So we are actually trying to balance things out with social media. “For Hao FM we do a lot of singing, mini concerts online. It still goes that music breaks a lot of barriers.”
Its very similar for Money FM as they have to keep creating many touch points to engage with their listeners beyond the radio. “Covid-19 forced us to do that because we did a lot of webinars. Last year, we did 10. If it had been a normal year, we would have done maybe four. It also forced our team to very quickly learn how to do live streaming.”
When asked about fan’s expectations as compared to 10 years ago, Hao FM’s Jing said, “The fundamentals will never change. It’s companionship. I think that’s radio. It’s a very close relationship between a radio presenter and a radio listener.”
According to Loretta, Covid-19 has also pushed a lot of audiences to mainstream media. “So for a station like Money, it’s very important for us to ensure that we get the correct information out in a timely manner. I think what’s also going to trend is on-demand audio, it’s going to play an even bigger part in our lives.”
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