Program director
Encyclopedia
In service industries, such as education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, a program director or programme director research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

es, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services. For example, in education, a program director is responsible for developing and maintaining degree-granting programs and/or other educational services.

In Program Management
Program management
Program management or programme management is the process of managing several related projects, often with the intention of improving an organization's performance...

, the Program Director is a senior manager responsible for the overall success of the program.

A program director's role in a company that sells professional services
Professional services
Professional services is an industry of infrequent, technical, or unique functions performed by independent contractors or by consultants whose occupation is the rendering of such services....

 is similar to a product manager
Product Manager
A product manager investigates, selects, and develops products for an organization, performing the activities of product management.A product manager considers numerous factors such as intended demographic, the products offered by the competition, and how well the product fits with the company's...

's role in a company that sells tangible goods.

Broadcasting

In radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 or television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, a program director or director of programming is the person who develops or selects some or all of the content that will be broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...

. A program director's selections are based upon expertise in the media as well as knowledge of the target demographic. Typically, a program director decides what radio program or TV program will be broadcast and when.

S Ahern and G Smith in Making Radio (3rd edition published in 2011 by Allen & Unwin, Australia) discuss Radio Program Directing in a full chapter devoted to the skills of being a programmer. Extract below used with permission:

Since formatting was introduced to radio stations in the late 1950s to combat the new challenge of TV, the role of the program director (PD) has consistently gained in importance as consumers were given more listening options through the introduction of additional radio stations and new technologies.

Radio in the 1960s was affected by both musical and social change as the ‘baby-boomer’ generation significantly influenced the development of radio formats to targeting their demographic during the following decades. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the Top 40 format diversified into a number of target-specific formats, including contemporary hit radio (CHR), oldies (hits and memories), adult contemporary (AC), album-oriented rock (AOR), easy listening, news/talk and sports/talk.

Increased competition during the 1990s caused further fragmentation with contemporary rock, classic rock, soft adult contemporary, good-time oldies and oldies-based adult contemporary formats catering for individual market ‘niches’.
This more complicated and highly competitive programming environment has demanded more highly skilled PDs to target specific groups of listeners. Now, with more diversified formats than ever before, the challenge for the radio station PD is to secure target listeners who are attractive to potential advertisers to ensure that the radio station remains profitable.

Non-profits

In the context of non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

s, a program director is responsible for managing one or more of the organization's programs or services in a role similar to that of a chief operating officer
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...

.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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