Earlier this week, a number of leading broadcasters piped in on a scenario whereby Pandora and other online radio services would be measured alongside radio in Arbitron’s supposedly forthcoming Total Audience Measurement report, and the most telling word was this one:  “Frightening.” Indeed it is “frightening,” the thought that a stable ecosystem of radio brands with huge barriers to entry could be penetrated overnight by a theoretically limitless number of present and future

Can you convert streaming metrics to shares and compare those shares to the numbers in an Arbitron ranker? Of course you can, but that doesn’t mean Arbitron will like it. Today Arbitron released their “Thoughts on Comparing Audience Estimates,” and while they make some good points, those points don’t tell the whole story. Let’s dive in. Don’t compare the two, says Arbitron because… One to Many vs. Many to One Some Internet music services are using the traditional radio audien

I’ve been on vacation in a remote corner of India, so you’ll forgive me for not paying more attention to the recent Coleman study of the impact of spots on listeners and the stations they listen to. Personally, I find these regular studies of the effects of advertising on listenership to be tiresome. Why are we studying what spots do to listeners instead of what spots do for listeners? Why are we trying to convince advertisers that spots still reach audiences rather than co

Yesterday I talked with a broadcaster who is considering simulcasting their over-the-air stations with their online streams, including ads. Is this a big middle finger to AFTRA rules which (for now at least) discourage such actions?  You bet it is. They are not alone.  The radio industry’s dirty little secret is that many broadcasters are matching their on-air content to their streams, including ads, even as their competitors comply with the rules and “play fair.” So why are

“Total Audience Measurement” (TAM).  That’s Arbitron’s term for their in-the-works scheme to count your listeners on whatever platform they’re listening to your station (on radio or online) all in one tidy report. I’ve been thinking a lot about TAM lately, and the closer I look the more questions I have about this latest initiative from our friends in Columbia who have profiting hand over fist from the radio industry even as that industry itself continues to struggle. What pr

The best brands in any category generally exist for a reason – a good reason. A reason that matters – deeply – to the consumers, patrons, and fans of that brand. What’s yours?  What’s your “good reason”?  What’s your “why”? Why does your station exist? Why should your audience care? Why do you come to work every day? Too many broadcasters have a “crisis of why,” settling on uninspiring business goals that could characterize Dunder Mifflin as easily as any brand which deserves

The following was written by Triton Media COO Mike Agovino and is reposted here with his permission.  I think Mike is completely right, so I wanted to share this with you. There’s a lot of noise in the marketplace about Arbitron launching a new “Total Audience Measurement” product and that product being endorsed in advance by some broadcasters. Where to begin? How about here: the radio industry should be outraged. As you all are aware, Triton also owns a measurement product,

It’s easy to make the mistake – the one that confuses PPM gadgets with flesh-and-blood people. So much of our success and failure hinges on ratings, we forget that ratings don’t exist without people.  And worshiping ratings without worshiping the red-blooded people it takes to make those ratings isn’t just putting the proverbial cart before the horse, it’s imagining the cart doesn’t even need the horse. That’s what I address in this video. Ultimately, media products and servi

Here’s my understanding of how PPM works: In any given quarter-hour under diary methodology, you used to have to listen at least five continuous minutes for that listening to “count” you as a listener and to “count” your listening as an “occasion.” Under PPM however, I’m told that those five minutes no longer need to be continuous.  That is, if I flip back to the station several times in a quarter-hour I count as a listener and my listening counts as one occasion as long as a

“We need more occasions.” That’s the kind of radio industry jargon that we can thank PPM for. Where once all of our focus was (quite wrongly) on trimming out everything that could possibly be conceived of as “clutter,” the trend nowadays is to look at an even more important issue: Keeping people tuned in is not enough.  You also have to bring them back. And cutting the clutter doesn’t do that.  Because you don’t know what you’re not hearing, whether it’s cluttered or not. Ind

Let’s suppose you create a great digital experience on your platform – maybe a great personalized version of your station or a customized player for your morning show only or a selection of compatible channels that are alternatives to the one on your air. What is the first thing that comes to the mind of the programmer and manager responsible for your brand? “What happens if my listeners like this experience more than my broadcast and I start losing listeners? What does that

Recently some shocking research on actual Arbitron PPM panelists was revealed in this blog and elsewhere.  The research was from Broadcast Architecture, and the video I recorded about it with BA President Allen Kepler shocked a whole lot of broadcasters (see it if you haven’t already). While I didn’t receive any response from Arbitron, I did get one from Canada’s equivalent of Arbitron, BBM. The response is posted at Steve Kowch’s blog, and I welcome you to review it.  The r

Yesterday, I posted a conversation with Broadcast Architecture’s Allen Kepler about the video interviews he recently conducted with real PPM panelists. Among the questions addressed: Why do they do it?  Do they follow the rules?  Do they even know it’s about radio, or do they think it’s about all media?  What do they think of the meters themselves and are they embarrassed to be seen wearing one?  Is it true that multiple households kept their meters moving by attaching them t

Who are these people who say “yes” when Arbitron asks them to carry a PPM device? Why do they do it?  Do they follow the rules?  Do they even know it’s about radio, or do they think it’s about all media?  What do they think of the meters themselves and are they embarrassed to be seen wearing one?  Is it true that multiple households kept their meters moving by attaching them to ceiling fans?  And what should you do to target the kind of folks who are likely to be panelists? T

From Inside Radio: Look for less ratings bounce as Arbitron implements new panelist expiration rules. Under existing rules, almost 20% of a market’s PPM panel could turn over during a three-month period. That often causes wide ratings swings from month to month as new sample is ferried in to replace panelists who had reached the expiration point of their tenure. Beginning with the November survey, Arbitron will implement new sample expiration rules intended to smooth out the

A couple weeks ago he profiled a real, live, in-the-flesh PPM panelist.  And he discovered pretty much what any sentient being in radio (no jokes, please) already knew: PPM does not perfectly collect all listening in all situations. To quote the wry, late, and great John Gielgud, “alert the media.” While this story is interesting to the lay reader who knows nothing of the measurement side of the radio business, no broadcaster should be surprised by a word of it. “Pagers are l

Last week in MediaDailyNews, these results were trumpeted: Comparing listening patterns from spring 2009 to spring 2010, [Researcher Richard] Harker found that the proportion of the U.S. population that is listening to broadcast radio actually grew from 91.4% to 93% over that period. Average weekly listening dipped about 1%, or 11 minutes, to 17.4 hours per week. The conclusion?  That “digital alternatives have failed to make a big dent in local broadcast radio listening.” Th

It’s not at all about “positioning your radio station.” What Tribune CEO Randy Michaels is talking about here is creating radio worth listening to and worth buying. Creating radio that makes audiences sit up and listen and makes cash registers ring for our clients. So stuff this in your PPM pipe and smoke it. #costperpoint #arbitron #radio #randymichaels #hear20 #markramsey #tribune #Media #sales #radioindustry #markramseymedia #ppm #hear2com

As more markets convert to electronic measurement, programmers face a conundrum. Minute-by-minute PPM listening data for features, artist interviews and other programming elements often doesn’t square with traditional popularity indicators, such as perceptual research. That disconnect has created a friction between maximizing current ratings performance and building and maintaining a strong brand. It’s causing PDs to reevaluate benchmarks that have helped build their brands,

From Inside Radio: Difficulty monetizing webcasts has some broadcasters pushing for a simulcast rule re-write. As listening to station streams continues to grow, some broadcasters claim there is a disincentive for them to push their audiences online. A combination of Arbitron simulcast rules and AFTRA talent fees is preventing stations from receiving Arbitron credit for online listening, which accounts for as much as 15% of total listening by some estimates. The subject of to