KTRH fulfills expectation

Today Arbitron reported proof of performance for its new PPM ratings technology. At the time of the verdict being announced in the Enron case, listening to Enron hometown news/talk station KTRH reportedly skyrocketed, tripling in the quarter-hour during which the verdict was reached.

While this is great evidence of the power of PPM to showlistening change in action, it also illustrates something that all of us in radio should already know.

Namely, if you’re in the News or News/Talk business critical news events are the “hits” of your format. Unlike music “hits,” however, you can’t plan them. You can only exploit them. And you’d better do so.

Thus, PPM ends up proving what we must never forget: Listeners come to you when they want to for exactly that which they expect to get from you.

So the lesson is this: Stand for something uniquely. And if you can’t play the hits, at least you can plan to exploit them.