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Recently, Fred Jacobs’ #TBT column was an ode to the Program Director. One of his essential points – to me – was that you should never get too high or too low when the book comes out. I used to tell my staff that ratings were like a baseball season – don’t celebrate a five-game winning streak any more than you lament dropping a weekend series. You are in it for the long haul.
For far too long, radio has been playing fourth fiddle to the digital realm as far as an advertising platform is considered. Now I’m not here to say that including digital as part of a comprehensive advertising campaign is something to be avoided. On the contrary, if a business is not ranking high in search nor gathering first-party data to communicate with their customers, they will have a hard time flourishing.
It has come to our attention that up to this point we have droned on about so many aspects of MARCH that we left out one critical reference: March madness. Perhaps we were reticent to include this in the blog because of fear that the NCAA enforcement division – such as it is – would crush us with their proverbial hobnailed boot. Then we realized that as long as we did not capitalize the phrase or include other terms like sweet 16 or elite eight or final four, we’d be good. At least, that’s what the lawyers said.
As with every ratings survey, there is a touch of madness. MARCH is no different. This one ran from FEBRUARY 29TH through MARCH 27TH. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – working hand in glove with the math maestros from XTRENDS – bring you the following analysis in living color …
(Yet another lineup change. Though the annual NIELSEN Market Definition Changes do not go into effect until the APRIL book, we have already changed the positions of DENVER and SAN DIEGO.) Read More…
Of all the events that were part of MARCH, the most perplexing is DST. That would be Daylight Saving Time (we’ll avoid a rant about the people who insist on pluralizing the second word).
No one really knows why we do it. Babies and pets don’t get it. And it screws up the already funky circadian rhythms for morning shows. At least Leap Year makes scientific sense.
The MARCH survey ran from FEBRUARY 29TH through MARCH 27TH and besides the clock change thing, the month had several religious celebrations, a changing of the season, and a day when everyone was supposed to wear green. It’s like a law or something.
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – in cahoots with the oracles of the numbers at XTRENDS – bring you part three of our latest audio – er, radio – ratings rundown.
A scoring change of note. NIELSEN initiated its annual Market Definition changes with the APRIL survey. While this did not technically affect the market rank order for MARCH, we made the change anyway. This month’s roundup reflects one of those changes.
In our previous installment, we established the versatility of the word “march.” A quick search revealed the many supposedly famous people who were gifted the surname MARCH. Veteran radio folk will remember LITTLE PEGGY MARCH (of “I Will Follow Him” fame). There’s the two-time Stanley Cup winner for the CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS, “MUSH” MARCH. And believe it or not, there are two famous women named APRIL MARCH. One is a contemporary singer-songwriter. The other was an exotic dancer billed as the First Lady of Burlesque.
And now you know.
However, our purpose here is to explore more recent history. Specifically, the MARCH survey, which ran from FEBRUARY 29TH through MARCH 27TH. We had an equinox and a time change, and many people decided they liked corned beef and cabbage. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with the numbers diviners from XTRENDS – invite you to find out what really happened out there….
