Archive
February 21, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
With apologies to Ol’ Blue Eyes, this survey’s results can be sung to the tune of “riding high in HOLIDAY, shot down in JANUARY.” This whole holiday music thing has been going on for decades and, to this point, no one has cracked the code on keeping all that new cume from flowing back to their original sources. We certainly saw that in Part 1 of this here missive as the Santa stations lost a quarter or more of their previous cume. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with the adroit algorithmic artists from XTRENDS – expect that trend to continue.
This is the survey that was, and it ran from JANUARY 4th through JANUARY 31st. Winter break ended, it was bitter cold, and it featured a mandatory three-day weekend. Here’s what happened once the big guy left the building:
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February 20, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Let us be the first to wish you a Happy New Year! We know, we know, it’s FEBRUARY. However, we are about to embark on a mystical journey through the leavings of the JANUARY survey. The book where hope springs anew, where we celebrate the fact that the airwaves are no longer lousy with holly-infused tunes and (hopefully) when our temporarily former listeners return to their more familiar haunts. Yes, it is the annual winter migration of the quarter hours.
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with the data diviners from XTRENDS – are back to regale you with folklore and fantasy for the period from JANUARY 4TH through JANUARY 31ST. This featured a return to school, a federally-mandated three-day weekend and playoff football! Our story begins here:
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February 15, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
We know that a lot of radio listening occurs in the car. What is your audience doing on the weekend? Driving around in their car, running errands, shopping, transporting their kids to sporting events, or just having fun.
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February 8, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Are you expecting this blog to provide you with a list of the hot categories for this year? Well, you won’t get that. You will see a different area in which you can grow revenue this year. Keep reading for a different perspective.
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February 1, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
“‘… babe, I got you babe, I got you babe.’ Okay, campers, rise and shine and don’t forget your booties ‘cause it’s cold out there today. It’s cold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach? Not hardly. And, you know you can expect hazardous travel later today with that … you know, that uh … that blizzard thing …”
What if you heard that every morning at 6 a.m. for weeks?
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January 26, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
You know what the best thing about this final installment of our ratings review is? We won’t have to deal with SANTA, RUDOLPH and all those other sundry holiday characters for another year. All those songs will be placed in the virtual Rubbermaids in your music vault gathering cyber dust. Unless, of course, you’re that one house in the neighborhood that keeps their lights up all year long. (Clearly you do not have an HOA.)
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC with essential assistance from data thaumaturges from XTRENDS (We will pause while you click over to Google) take you once more into the breach of the HOLIDAY survey. It began on DECEMBER 7TH and concluded on JANUARY 3RD. For those keeping score at home, that meant 19 of the 28 rated days were in seasonal mode.
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January 24, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Welcome back to the least surprising ratings survey of this or any year. The incessant par-um-pa-pum-pum of that dastardly little man combined with the constant tintinnabulation of the jingle bells, not only wreaks havoc on my tinnitus, it just makes a mockery of the ratings. Unless, of course, you are the chosen station. Then this is one of the two best surveys of the year.
So it falls to us, The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC., along with our merry math mavens from XTRENDS, to bring the numbers to life. The HOLIDAY survey ran from DECEMBER 7th through JANUARY 3rd. If you do the math – and we did – that means that the curse of BURL IVES and his evil minions were present for 19 of the 28 days of the book. Here is what they delivered:
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January 23, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with our intrepid number crunching savants from XTRENDS – are back with another ratings hootenanny. Unless you’re the station(s) that sold their soul to KRIS KRINGLE, the HOLIDAY book is generally greeted with a collective “meh.” While it does show the incredible power of radio, it also renders any decision making about tactics or strategies moot. The main question for the non-believers is ‘how quickly will my audience return?’
This survey infamously began on DECEMBER 7TH and expired on JANUARY 3RD. This means the evil BURL IVES controlled the airwaves for 19 of the 28 days. Not a full book but long enough to wreak havoc. Let’s see what happened…
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January 18, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Before we completely forget about 2023 and it’s only a speck in our rearview mirror, let’s take a look at some of the previous holiday season’s shopping trends. What can we learn from these? How can we use this information to create new revenue opportunities for 2024?
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January 11, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
How’s that for a click bait title? This is not going to be a blog about making resolutions. I don’t make them and according to Google, 63% of you don’t, as well.
If you’re in a PPM market – and you are not the one station that went all merry and bright – the December and Holiday books fall in the “meh” category. Rather than do a deep dive into surveys that are somewhat skewed, take a broader look at your market and your station(s). Here are a few things to look at:
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