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MARK RAMSEY MEDIA

How To Be Their Favorite Radio Station

Dec 6, 2017

How To Be Their Favorite Radio Station

From Nielsen (via All Access): Americans spend 87% of their AM/FM radio listening tuning into their three favorite stations (based on the amount of time spent with each). What’s more interesting is that 58% of all listening goes to just one station, the listener’s favorite (called the ‘1st Preference’ station, or P1) Let’s break this down. First, this percentage is based on “AM/FM radio listening,” meaning it excludes any portion of listening which is devoted to other audio p

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“Radio, Advertisers are Less Interested in an Audience and More Interested in a Buyer”

Jun 29, 2017

“Radio, Advertisers are Less Interested in an Audience and More Interested in a Buyer”

Gordon Borrell has issued his latest report benchmarking local media’s digital revenues. Required reading for anyone in the local media business. Yesterday I published a transcript of Part 1 and the full video interview. Today, Part 2: Whereas the emphasis in the radio industry seems to be “let’s communicate the value of the Nielsen numbers, let’s make the Nielsen numbers as accurate as they can be,” you’re suggesting that there’s way too much dependence on Nielsen and the tr

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Long-Term Trends in Radio Listening Revealed

Jan 3, 2017

Long-Term Trends in Radio Listening Revealed

One of the biggest secrets in radio is what’s happening to listening over the long term. Talk to insiders and they will acknowledge that while a huge majority of Americans still listen to the radio the amount of time spent listening continues to decline. Or does it? Well, it depends on how you measure it. And that should add one more reason to the long laundry list of reasons why broadcasters should be irritated at Nielsen, which presumes to produce the accepted unit of measu

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Radio: There Will Be No More New Music Formats

Nov 7, 2016

Radio: There Will Be No More New Music Formats

If you’re waiting for a new music format – a knight in shining armor – to save your flagging ratings, then you will be waiting for the rest of your professional career. Because there never will be one ever again. What’s the next big new format? Radio has been asking that question forever. Most recently, the answer was Classic Hip Hop. Is it the next big thing? Maybe not (from Radio Ink): If you listened to Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins on his earnings call you might come to th

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When Under-34’s Shrink Their Radio Listening

Oct 4, 2016

When Under-34’s Shrink Their Radio Listening

People under the age of 50 spend more time every week using apps and the web on their smartphone than they spend listening to the radio. Indeed, the biggest users of radio are persons 50-64, while the lightest users are 18-24’s, who spend about 50% more time with mobile apps/web than they spend with the radio. That’s from Nielsen data, by the way. So you can assume it’s as accurate…as Nielsen data (I have left TV usage (live and time-shifted) off this chart – that’s actually

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Radio’s Problem After the iPhone 7

Sep 19, 2016

Radio’s Problem After the iPhone 7

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you know that Apple released its latest iPhone last week, and the announcement came with all the usual pomp and publicity. But what does the iPhone 7 mean if you’re working in the radio industry? The key thing is the much noted removal of the 3.5mm Earbud jack, an output device that – until now – has been ubiquitous. Sure, Apple will provide a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter in the box along with some standard Earbuds with a Lightning connect

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Radio: More Reasons Why It’s Time to Dump Nielsen’s PPM

Aug 16, 2016

Radio: More Reasons Why It’s Time to Dump Nielsen’s PPM

So last week I penned a strong piece suggesting that the radio industry drop PPM. The argument was stimulated by the discovery that Nielsen households can contain up to 16 meters. For me, this was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. The piece sparked a firestorm and almost a thousand Facebook shares, not because my points were so salient (although I hope they were) but because there does not seem to exist a single PPM subscriber who considers themselves satisfie

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It’s Time to Drop Nielsen’s PPM

Aug 8, 2016

It’s Time to Drop Nielsen’s PPM

Aren’t you tired of PPM yet? From Tom Taylor Now: How many PPMs does Nielsen allow in one household? Answer – up to 16. Does that sound large? One current in-tab household has 13 meters, and nine of them belong to people under the age of 17. Nielsen likes stability on the panel, and this particular household has been in the sample for quite a while. Imagine replacing them when they leave after as much as a two-year tenure. That will require placement into multiple households

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What if Christmas Music on Radio Isn’t Popular After All?

Dec 14, 2015

What if Christmas Music on Radio Isn’t Popular After All?

The routine is familiar: At least one radio station in every market flips to “All Christmas” music around Thanksgiving, thus dominating the Nielsen ratings before and during the holiday period. The interpretation: Everybody wants to hear Christmas tunes during the holiday season. So let’s go all in and market the heck out of it! But what if something else is going on here? What if Christmas music is the thing you hear when you’re in the right place rather than being the thing

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Why Are You Trusting Your Ratings to Nielsen?

Oct 12, 2015

Why Are You Trusting Your Ratings to Nielsen?

I have largely steered clear of the Voltair/Nielsen discussion (except for this piece) because it’s so simple: It’s a classic evolutionary dilemma, and in those evolutionary dilemmas the individuals who are most capable of adapting survive and those most finely tuned to their changing environments thrive. In other words, those who spend their hard-earned bucks on Voltair gadgets will have an advantage over those who do not. Now Nielsen announces that it’s “improving” its tech

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Too Much Fuss about Voltair

Apr 23, 2015

Too Much Fuss about Voltair

You’ve heard of Voltair, that’s the audio technology that presumably allows PPM devices to more effectively pick up that all-important encoded signal that says a radio station is near. Every day it’s in the radio biz news headlines, and I don’t know why. If it works, then you should buy one, shouldn’t you? Everyone should, right? It’s not an unfair advantage if it’s available to all, is it? Just go buy one and wring every last bit of credit out of those encoded signals. What

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Future of Music Radio: Today’s Hits and Less Variety

Apr 9, 2015

Future of Music Radio: Today’s Hits and Less Variety

Have you noticed? There hasn’t been a significant new music radio format introduced in a decade. Sure, we’ve had Rhythm AC and Classic Hip Hop and perhaps other approaches that make nominal sense in a smattering of markets. But nothing big, nothing widespread, nothing popular across markets. Not since the so-called Adult Hits format. And that, you should remember, was presented as the antidote to the narrowness of terrestrial radio formats when those were the only formats we

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Radio Revenue: You Get What You Ask For

Jan 29, 2015

Radio Revenue: You Get What You Ask For

You get what you ask for. Last week Townsquare Media reported that about 30% of its revenue derived from non-spot sources in 2014 – 42% if you exclude recent acquisitions. And Townsquare isn’t alone. Check out how CBS (the entire company, not just radio) is shedding its dependence on advertising: CBS, which in addition to the CBS Television Network, owns Showtime, CBS Television Stations, CBS Radio, CBS Television Studios and Simon & Schuster, has the most exposure to adverti

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Uh Oh: Radio’s Reach is Declining

Dec 5, 2014

Uh Oh: Radio’s Reach is Declining

In a new report from Nielsen, the news for the traditional radio space is decidedly unsurprising, and not the stuff of holiday cheer. As Tom Taylor summarizes: AM/FM’s monthly reach gained half-a-percent – but Time-Spent fell 3% over last year. And the 3% drop is consistent across African-Americans and Hispanics, two groups that have traditionally shown stronger listening than the national average. Two charts display the contrast between monthly reach for Americans age 2+ an

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Nielsen Ratings are a Toxic Force that Imperils Radio’s Future

Nov 5, 2014

Nielsen Ratings are a Toxic Force that Imperils Radio’s Future

Recently I was in a gathering of brands. Not agencies, brands. Among my conversations was one with the VP and Director of Global Media & Digital Marketing for a well known company that, among other things, produces one of the most famous brands of whiskey in the world. I asked him: What do you spend your day doing, thinking about, worrying about? He talked to me about the time he and his team spend creating personas representing the user segments of his brand. He talked about

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What Radio Needs to Know About Millennials

Oct 24, 2014

What Radio Needs to Know About Millennials

If you were born in the 80’s or 90’s, you’re in your late teens to early 30’s today. You are also a digital native and quite unlike older folks, including the older folks running the radio business. That explains why these older folks don’t know a lot about you – only what Nielsen tells them – only what radio their PPM devices are exposed to – and not much else. But oh, there’s much more to know. And it’s terribly important for the future of an industry that must maintain its

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Surprise! Connected Car Users are Old and Rich!

Oct 21, 2014

Surprise! Connected Car Users are Old and Rich!

Nielsen recently released a study that was not representative of the entire population. I know, so what else is new, right? Actually, this was their intention this time. It was a study of 5,985 respondents 18+ years old who either use or are extremely, very, or somewhat interested in at least one of the three connected life technologies—connected home, car and/or wearable technology. It is, in other words, the low-hanging fruit of the connected car market. The Connected Car A

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Why Nothing Changes in Talk Radio

Jul 18, 2014

Why Nothing Changes in Talk Radio

I guess I hit close to home with my prior blog post on the Ratings Disaster that is today’s talk radio. The June PPM’s suck for talk radio. Hell. The diary markets coming in are bringing little joy. And many in the talk radio industry just sit back and continue on autopilot with the same hard line conservative narrative hour after hour, ignoring the cultural disconnect that’s happened between the format and society as the once unsinkable Titanic of radio formats begins to sli

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Radio Ratings are in a Heap of Trouble

Jun 16, 2014

Radio Ratings are in a Heap of Trouble

If you can’t trust the Nielsen ratings in America’s largest radio market, then where can you trust them? A few days ago, Nielsen delayed the release of May ratings for Los Angeles when “inconsistencies” resulted in the need for more “quality control reviews.” Since then, the problem has only deepened. From the LA Times: Nielsen has been attempting to verify that individuals who participated in its sample audience panel were truly independent and did not have ties to any radio

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The Unfortunate Farce of Radio Ratings

Jun 13, 2014

The Unfortunate Farce of Radio Ratings

I just delivered a research project for a broadcaster in a relatively small market. The study contained the opinions of 600 people. Now this market, like virtually all markets, has its radio usage measured by Nielsen – in this case, by diaries. Do you know how long it takes Nielsen to recruit a sample in this market as large as the sample in my research project? Two years. That’s right. The sample sizes in markets like this one – and markets like yours – are almost laughably

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