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.
Because based on the latest batch of ratings, the station is now number one.
No, not just “healthy once again,” but number ONE.
All at once.
So I ask you…
What is this nonsense that passes for reliable information stations and their advertisers can act on?
What is this nonsense that you pay a hefty fraction of your billing for?
What is this nonsense that the smartest advertisers are looking past in their decisions about who and what they want to buy and how that spending will fit into the larger plan to achieve the client’s goals?
What is this nonsense that is volatile to the point of being random?
What is this nonsense that has no peer for digital platforms which traffic in accountable metrics?
What is this nonsense that is so delicate that when one single PPM panelist coughs, an entire radio station’s revenue for the year catches cold?
What is this nonsense that cares not for your brand across all of its platforms and doesn’t even hear the part of your station that the rest of us are listening to?
What is this nonsense that rewards passive listening that says “I don’t care” rather than active listening that says “I care very much about this brand and the advertisers who support it”?
Is that what you’re paying for?
Is that what you want?
Are you sick of this yet?
So what are you going to do about it?