My ratings changed. Now what?
My ratings changed. Now what?
The biggest challenge a Programmer faces is deciding when his/her station is in trouble. A simple examination of the monthly PPM results is often not enough to tell the full story. That is why you need to do a deep dive into your numbers on a regular basis.
Fortunately, this is something the Ratings Experts at Research Director, Inc. do every single day.
Case in point …
We have a client in a very large market who was experiencing a consistent and – ultimately – dramatic ratings decline over an eight-month period. We all know numbers can wobble from month to month depending on market events or competitive changes.
However, in this case the market had been stable during the station’s decline. Its competition had not changed. And, the station had not altered its music mix or personality line-up. In other words, things were status quo but the station was losing share. More concerning, this was due to declining TSL – an indication of product problems.
Through our Instant Answer℠ report, and additional analysis provided by our Ratings Experts, we were able to determine the following:
- The station’s loss was not matched by any significant gains by the competition.
- The listening levels for the entire market in this key demo were down dramatically – this shrunk the available listening “pie” for the station.
- While the station’s cume had declined a bit, it remained #1 in the target demo, indicating they were still getting their fair share of tune-in.
The end result was that the station decided to stay the course and in the very next survey it reversed an eight-book slump and had its best share in over a year. It is difficult to be patient when the battle is raging but often doing nothing is the correct course of action … provided you have the data to make that decision.
If your station is experiencing some numbers drama, let The Ratings Experts at Research Director, Inc. conduct a free assessment of your situation so we can propose a course of action that will help diagnose the issues you face.
Simply fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch!
