Posts in "Hot Topics"
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 25, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
And so this is CHRISTMAS, and what have you done? Well, if you’re The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. and/or the maniacal math magicians from XTRENDS, you dive straight into the numbers. Sure, for you, dear reader, this is a brief departure from your everyday schedule. For us, it is a matter of great importance. At least it is for those stations that sold their soul to the guy in the red suit. This is their big game (we are not allowed to use the term SUPER BOWL).
The HOLIDAY survey began on DECEMBER 7TH and shuffled off its mortal coil on JANUARY 3RD. Of the 28 days covered, 19 of them were in the evil clutches of one KRIS KRINGLE.
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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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January 4, 2024
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Many people make resolutions for the New Year. Why? Do you? How do you choose what should be your resolution for the year? I have struggled with this my whole life. In fact, it sometimes stresses me out so much I give up. Here’s a different perspective on New Year’s resolutions …
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December 29, 2023
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Welcome back to our final look at the DECEMBER survey. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. could not bring you this here missive 13 times a year without our partners from XTRENDS. If we are Santa, then they are the reindeer that make this all possible. Sure, Santa gets all the credit, but he’d be sitting on his ample posterior up at the NORTH POLE without Rudolph and his minions. XTRENDS provide the numbers; we throw in the snark.
This survey ran from NOVEMBER 9TH through DECEMBER 6TH. We saluted our veterans, we put ourselves into a collective food coma and radio stations all over AMERICA started playing ANDY WILLIAMS records. This is truly an amazing TIME TO BE ALIVE.
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December 29, 2023
Filed Under: Hot Topics
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – in a tight formation with the reindeer-driving wizards from XTRENDS – are taking a break from printing out our AMAZON return receipts to bring you our third installment of the DECEMBER survey. This one began on NOVEMBER 9TH and polished itself off on DECEMBER 6TH. It had a federally mandated three-day weekend, the annual feast of the fatted fowl and, of course, the reappearance of such renowned audio artists as THURL RAVENSCROFT and the duo ELMO AND PATSY. That these three are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a true miscarriage of justice. We will attempt to stifle our outrage as we bury you in the numbers…
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December 28, 2023
Filed Under: Hot Topics
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – in conversation with math magicians from XTRENDS – have been in a heated debate recently. Look, we’re all fine with the radio airwaves being fouled by the incessant drumming and ringing. The masses love it. What we cannot cotton to is the thought that My Favorite Things is a CHRISTMAS song. Sure, it talks about sleigh bells, snowflakes and packages tied up with strings, but it is from The Sound of Music. This is a movie about a lot of “things” – CHRISTMAS not being one of them. So if the powers that choose the songs will indulge us – please purge this from your playlist. With that settled, let us proceed with the DECEMBER survey. It ran from NOVEMBER 9TH through DECEMBER 6TH and it featured a lot of our favorite things – ratings.
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