In order to rally and fight a problem, we must begin by recognizing its existence. The realities of changing consumer usage have certainly provoked action for my clients in what used to be called “newspapers,” I can tell you. But radio has been slower to action not only because the trends have been less dire, but also because so few are willing to stand up and tell the Emperor that he has no clothes. Indeed, some refute the trends altogether. So it is when we hear that radio

Are you sick of this yet? PPM market. After many months of consistent and strong ratings performance, things nosedive. All at once. No explanation. No calls to the station. No sudden change in market or station variables. No mass exodus of fans to another market closer to the beach. No seasonally expected change caused by, say, sports or Christmas. No sudden turn in music trends. No staff changes. Nothing. Yet there it was, suddenly and consistently bad ratings. Until now. Be

Sometimes I just want to scream. Like when I read a piece in Radio Ink titled “Consumers do not know about the Power of Radio.” That’s right. With five radios in every household and radio presumably being a part of virtually everyone’s daily habit, we consumers “do not know about the power of radio.” We consumers must be stupid or something. As a result, say Radio Ink’s 40 “Power Players,” “Radio needs to tell a better story.” Yes, the clichés are flying like monkey dung. Wat

It is almost impossible to count the ways in which playing to Arbitron’s PPM measurement methodology may provide short term gains for radio ratings, but very much at the expense of the health of radio brands long-term. And here’s yet another one. It is accepted wisdom that, since PPM supposedly measures behaviors rather than recall of behaviors, then so-called top-of-mind recall is irrelevant. After all, why remind folks that you’re there when they no longer need to remember

Arbitron makes no distinction between Asian Americans and any other group of non-Hispanic, non-African Americans in their sample. That means Asian Americans fall into the vast category called “other,” a category without sub-categories and the sample goals those sub-categories might deserve. In any given market there is no way to know whether Arbitron is properly representing the Asian American population or not. That means odds are overwhelming that they are not. In many mark

Today Seth Godin talks “Local.” Says Seth: Local media was an essential business for a century, largely for three reasons: 1. Broadcast signals and newspaper trucks could only travel so far, so ‘local’ was the natural category. 2. Commerce (and thus advertising) was local. 3. Interests tended to align locally as well. Today, of course, the signal travels around the world, so newspapers, radio stations and TV have no incentive to limit themselves. And finally, we’re discoverin

“What’s the future of radio?” “How does radio compete against Pandora et. al.?” “How can we get FM on mobile devices?” “How do we stay in a prominent place on the car dashboard?” These are typical of the questions I hear. And what makes them all similar is that they are asked from the inside-out. That is, the implicit assumption is that radio’s past must be sustained into the future, and with a few tweaks here and there we can dial up our relevance (pun intended) and dial dow

It’s not just the Mayan apocalypse that passed uneventfully, it’s also the announcement of another transition – the one that may transform Arbitron into Nielsen. Much has been written about this announcement over the previous days, most of it anticipating (or at least hoping for) new benefits to radio. Call me crazy, but I don’t see those benefits.  Not at all. PPM Sample Size The most pressing matter for broadcasters is PPM sample size.  And while broadcasters may be footing

…much like the one being staged in “secret” at the NAB Radio Show right now. And like that meeting, the purpose of mine is to plot radio’s digital future. Because, as we all know, the future of any industry is best mapped out by its leading executives, locked together in a private room with nary a consumer in sight.  Consumers will do what they’re told, after all.  The control is all ours! This is how General Motors did it for years! I will make sure only to invite folks who

The debate-of-the-week in the radio business is: What do we do to monetize our stream?  Do we simulcast what’s on the air and throw it in as added (non) value, or do we treat the stream as an additional component in our brand arsenal and monetize it as such? Look, there’s no magic in adding what amounts to a second distribution channel for the same content and running the same spots on it to sell it in bulk to agencies which like to buy in bulk and ratings companies that like

Chris Bell is president of Triton Digital’s Applications and Services division. Triton is an innovator in bringing game mechanics to radio platforms.  Indeed, gamification is a major emphasis for the company and I have been impressed by their investments in this area. So what is gamification, and why does it matter to radio? How does gamification dramatically improve the engagement between consumers and our radio brands, and how can this engagement be effectively monetized? C

What’s the best way for radio to compete in a newly digital mobile environment? Is it to ensure that every mobile phone has an activated FM chip?  Is it, in other words, to expand the limits of existing technology to cover new gadgets which are built fundamentally on newer and more interactive and personal technology?  Is it to turn a mobile phone into the same kind of radio that sits on your nightstand? No, no, a thousand times, no. Wild projections flutter about the radio i

I spend my day inviting others to meetings and accepting invitations from others. And I do it the same way you do, by sending or accepting those little “add to calendar” invitations. So here we are, radio broadcasters, driving tune-in to an appointment-based medium where appointments are clearly rewarded by Arbitron at ratings time. And I personally have never seen a broadcaster invite any listener to add anything to their calendars with the simplicity of a “click.” That does

Recently I heard a story of a station in a large market whose ratings have skyrocketed recently.  What sort of genius programming is responsible for this? The kind that lucks out with two PPM panelists in one household who are new to the ratings panel. Long may they live. But this can be monetized, to be sure.  And in a world where much more than half of a station’s revenue comes from agency dollars earmarked for nothing smarter than the lowest cost-per-thousand, you can hear

Radio Ink made a classic mistake last week when it celebrated the strength of AM radio by trumpeting the financial success of the top radio brands, many of which happen to be on AM. Why is this a mistake?  Because it confuses the band with the brand. AM radio is not what makes stations like WFAN so successful.  WFAN is what makes WFAN so successful. Indeed, the trajectory for AM radio in general is not pretty. We generally assume that AM, like FM, is universal simply because

Put these pieces together: First, Arbitron/Edison’s Infinite Dial study shows 30% year-over–year growth in the online radio audience (a large number, but not at all surprising to anyone paying close attention).  Attention spreading. Second, a small study reported in Ad Age indicated that young consumers switch media 27 times in an hour.  “What they are looking for is engaging content, and they dismiss so much stuff,” said Dan Albert, senior VP-media director at Chicago’s MARC

Now that’s a post title which speaks for itself. And by “which is better?” I don’t mean “which is more accurate?” I mean which is better for our clients? And the answer is not at all what we might assume. Watch: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Download mp3 (You can subscribe to all the MRM video and audio

It’s not news that Arbitron has a problem with small samples in PPM markets. Every broadcaster in these markets has bumped into this problem at one time or another, usually with either delightful or devastating ratings consequences. Let’s look at this problem from a different perspective: Forget ratings and consider cancer rates in the US.  Did you know that the lowest cancer rates occur in the the least populated communities? Aha, obviously it’s the quality of life in these

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