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You wake up with a start. Cold sweat on the back of your neck. Your heart is racing, and you expect the hotline to ring at any moment.
You just had “the dream.” Anyone who has ever been on the air at a radio station has had a version of “the dream.”
An old college radio friend of mine, who has not been on the air since then, says he still occasionally has “the dream.”
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Now that the first tranche of three-minute qualifier data is in your hands, what should you be looking at?
Let’s begin by saying that whatever you unearth is just a first pass. We would not recommend making any changes or assumptions on such a small sample size.
Second, while national results are interesting you should focus on your market and stations. We saw a great variance in increases from market to market.
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Tomorrow join Research Director, Inc.’s Steve Allan along with McVay Media President Mike McVay and Radio Ink Online Editor Cameron Coats for a LinkedIn Live event. They will discuss the fallout from the first month of ratings data under the new three-minute qualifier. This free event is presented by Radio Ink and sponsored by Marketron. While you may be diving into your numbers, here is a great opportunity to get a more global perspective on how this fundamental change to Nielsen ratings has rolled out.
The webinar is at 12 Noon ET tomorrow, March 6th.
You can register here: https://www.linkedin.com/events/the3-minutedifference-nielsen-s7299885599757385728/theater/.
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The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with the buckaroos from XTRENDS – are back in the saddle again with our final batch of ratings results for the JANUARY survey. As you know, this book is noteworthy for two reasons.
First, it is the month where much radio listening is reoriented after the reign of musical terror brought on by the notorious TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA.
Second, there was this NIELSEN rule change that dramatically affected how listening is reported. You may have heard about the three-minute qualifier. So far, we have seen some wild fluctuations in how market PUMM has increased across the four demographics we cover. If you’re just joining the party, we are looking at the percentage change of PUMM from the HOLIDAY book to the JANUARY survey. This one ran from JANUARY 9TH through FEBRUARY 5TH. It had a three-day weekend, lots of football, and plenty of bad weather.
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For those of you just tuning in, here’s where we are. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – in cooperation with the masters of the algorithm from XTRENDS – have been doing our normal deep dive into the monthly PPM data. However, this particular survey comes with a twist. We are getting our first look at how the three-minute qualifier has affected the ratings.
In our first two episodes, we saw, as expected, a minimal effect on station shares in the four demographics we cover. We did expect significant PUMM growth in every market, and that is what is occurring. What has come as a surprise is the wide variations in PUMM growth we are seeing from market to market. Will that trend continue with our next batch of contestants? Read on…
The JANUARY survey ran from JANUARY 9TH through FEBRUARY 5TH and did feature a long holiday weekend and signaled a return to normal-ish listening patterns in the wake of Santa’s demise. Note that all PUMM changes are book-to-book numbers.
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The big reveal continues as The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – in close proximity to our fellow numbers nerds from XTRENDS – are back to see what AMERICA’S new radio ratings reality has produced. If you tuned in for our previous episode, you saw that the growth in market PUMM across the four demos we examined was all over the place. Will that trend continue with our latest installment? Read on.
The JANUARY survey ran from JANUARY 9TH through FEBRUARY 5TH. It contained one three-day weekend, playoff football, and some really lousy weather. Oh, yeah, it also measured listening differently than ever before.
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And so it begins. Welcome to the first book of the rest of your radio life. The JANUARY survey marks the beginning of the three-minute rule era. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC., along with our compatriots from XTRENDS, have been anxiously awaiting this moment. Yes, we are ratings nerds.
A few housekeeping notes. The survey ran from JANUARY 9TH through FEBRUARY 5TH. There was a federally-mandated three-day weekend in there, playoff football, and some really lousy weather.
Besides our normal analysis of the numbers, we will be adding in a new wrinkle. We always show how the market cume has changed every month. As we adjust to this new reality, we will also be listing the percentage change of market PUMM by demo. For this book, we will compare it to the previous survey. In future roundups, we will look at year over year.
Let’s do this…
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One of the buzz phrases spawned by the digital age is brand safety. In the Wild West that is digital ad placement, many brands have no clue as to where their ads appear. They might think they know, but the reality is a bit fuzzy.
In his most recent newsletter, Bob Hoffman – aka The Ad Contrarian – wrote about a peer reviewed study written by Dr. Krzysztof Franaszek, the head of Adalytics. I won’t quote the entire article, but these few paragraphs should startle you:
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Group #1 has many live and local stations. They also recently established a local digital news site. This group is frequently seen in the community doing, well, community stuff. In other words – they have a presence.
To the best of my knowledge, the other group has zero local live personalities. I have rarely seen them in the community. When I have, their “presence” consisted of a sound system…and nothing else. I frequently drive by their local so-called headquarters. The parking lot is usually empty, and the building has been up for sale for several months. It would appear that this group is completely abandoning the market.
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As an industry, we have a tendency to play a lot of defense. While radio has weathered many storms over the last 100 years, the dawn of the digital age drastically and dramatically changed the media landscape.
Yet, to paraphrase a quote from Monty Python – “We’re not dead yet.”
We need to play more offense. I want to highlight two areas where the power of radio continues to shine.
