December 3, 2025
Welcome to the first survey of the dystopian nightmare known as the holiday season. While you are recovering from your food coma and pouring through hundreds of unopened e-mails, your listeners have become zombies, lured by the siren songs of BURL IVES and his evil minions. They have flocked to the one station in your market that flipped the Frosty switch. Some may say this is a premature capitulation to our elfin overlords, but who are we to decide? The data will tell the story.
As always, The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC.—in a close-quarters formation with the numbers nerds from XTRENDS—bring you the NOVEMBER book. This one ran from OCTOBER 16TH through NOVEMBER 12TH. There was a time change, a few elections, and a federal holiday. Here’s how it all unfolded:
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November 27, 2025
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at Research Director, Inc.! Wishing you and your family a wonderful day filled with warmth, laughter, some pie, and your favorite radio station playing in the background. Our offices are closed until Monday. We will see you next week!
November 21, 2025
Once again, The Ratings Experts from Research Director, Inc., in cooperation with the data aggregators from XTRENDS, are here with the latest quarterly comparison of how the three-minute qualifier boosted listening levels. This time we are comparing Summer 2024 with Summer 2025. This is as close to an “apples to apples” comparison as we can get. Keep in mind the differences in survey dates, real world effects, and panel composition.
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November 14, 2025
When was the last time you surprised your listeners. I’m not talking about contests, or promotions, or celebrity interviews. I’m talking about your music.
Work with me here.
For the longest time, radio dominated the music space. Even as formats fragmented, listeners discovered and heard the music they loved on the radio.
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November 7, 2025
Wrapping up the OCTOBER survey with style and some sort of substance, The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC.—in a committed relationship with the numbers crunchers at XTRENDS—bring you our final foray into the most recent PPM numbers. We understand this may cause you to feel a sense of loss—or perhaps ennui. But that is radio life. You are now free to go back to scheduling music and working on next year’s budget.
The OCTOBER survey ran from SEPTEMBER 18TH through OCTOBER 15TH. Notable occurrences included ROSH HASHANAH, YOM KIPPUR, and the autumnal equinox, not necessarily in that order. Here’s how it unfolded:
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