Friday, November 23, 2007

I See Paragon's Bob Harper And RAISE Him One

Harper's blog post today isn't about birds, though it starts with that old DJ wild track calling for another canary. It's about a very wise broadcaster advocate named Bob, who is anything but a patsy, in spite of its title: "Patsies Pay More."

I am 100% certain if Paragon did a study for a client and, on presentation day, we told him: “I know we said there would be 600 respondents, but we’re pretty sure 507 will be okay. And, some of these age breaks only have one respondent, but we’re pretty comfortable with that, too,” we would never work in broadcasting again. But, yet, the PPM train persistently chugs along. The squeeze, now that PPM has left the depot: 1) Arbitron will want lots more money from Radio to quickly make their shaky product acceptable. 2) Agencies will be demanding accountability, posting, and guarantees. -- Bob Harper

Bob, I see you. In fact. I HEAR you and here's my ante: Is there any other broadcast research company which would have the temerity to actually contract for a project and then after delivering the results ask for either more money or propose changes in the methodology to cut their costs of doing the job right? Especially, after this company had developed and perfected that methodology for more than a decade?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would like to give THANKS to Bob Neil on this Thanksgiving weekend.

As you know Bob is the chief of Cox Radio…one of the best groups. In the last few months Bob has stepped up as the vocal leader in presenting his thoughts about additions or alterations to the PPM…. and he has also been vocal about the proposed artist/ talent tax on radio. Regarding the PPM Bob has been vocal about increasing the 18-34 sample size among other items. Regarding his thoughts about the artist talent tax on music stations he has spoken out about the fact that it is not fair, and if passed he might consider charging artists for air play. I can assure you a lot of broadcasters agree with Bob. Time will tell what will happen…but THANKS to Bob for taking his leadership role. There are others who have made statements as well, but Bob made significant e-trade headlines with his statements. THANKS Bob.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.