Passions, Positives, Or?

Billboard and Bullseye Callout perform a valuable service each week for the many radio stations with no access to any other means of getting listener feedback on music.

One of the first things I check out each week is the national callout data:

And, later in the week, it's an email-driven survey to radio station database members:

It would be wonderful if every radio station could do this themselves each week and A&O&B clients know that we do a lot to try to help make that happen for them, knowing that fewer and fewer stations are given budgets for it which is why the national ones are so helpful as a way to compare spin ranks to audience popularity, essential to know before maintaining local music categories.

A little trick on myself which I like to play once I have the latest stats in hand is to cover up the titles and artist names and evaluate each song just using the numbers.

In this example, ranked by positive, the strength of #2 is understated looking only at that one number.  After all 16% more people LOVE it with roughly equal "it's OK" percentages and total negatives of 9.6% vs 5.6% when compared to the high-ranked tune when you fail to consider all of the cross tabs.  For A&O&B, passion is a more important data point than merely positives.  Strong dislike and negative burn ("I'd change stations if it came on the radio") are also very powerful deciders.  If you don't have access to a "a favorite, I'd turn on the radio if it came on" number, I'd want to rank, at the very least, on net positives so as to look at polarity in one number.

Even more crucial and not available in these national averages is targeting information for your station. 

• What is your narrow demo?  
• What is your primary and secondary age target? 
• What percentage of men and women in each one?  

Those are the most important things to know of them all.

Just because something is beloved by record buyers or music down loaders, doesn't mean that your precise target listeners feel the same way about it.

There's only one way to be certain:  ask them. 

Then, "slice, dice and crunch" away, until you do know for sure.

Bark If You Want To Cohost A Morning Show

WAXX/Eau Claire's Alex Edwards is in the midst of a very public search for his new co-host and as a part of the promotion he set up a survey for listeners to describe what they want to listen for on radio in the morning.

Ideal Qualities
FUNNY
NICE

What should they be able to do?
TELL GOOD STORIES
UNDERSTAND WHAT LIVING IN WISCONSIN IS ALL ABOUT
TELL FUNNY STORIES
LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE WELL
NOT TALK SO MUCH THAT THERE'S STILL TIME FOR LOTS OF MUSIC

What would be ideal hobbies for the next door neighbor?
HUNTING and FISHING
READING
KARAOKE
STOCK CAR RACING

What's the one thing you expect out of the next door neighbor?
MAKE ME LAUGH
MAKE ME SMILE
BE NICE

If the next door neighbor was a dog, what king of dog would it be ?
84 votes LABRADOR
71 votes GOLDEN RETRIEVER
65 votes SCOOBY DOO

Thanks, Alex, for sharing these results with us.

Now, "sit," "fetch," "shake."

Trend: Away From Home Is Up; At Home Listening Slips

Sampling and discovery happens in the car (cume), but turning that usage into ultra core time spent listening/hours tuned involves getting them to start with you very early in their day and then taking the radio station to work with them.

Source: BBM/Canada's 2010-2011 Radio Data Book

Why Working On At Work Listening .. WORKS.

Even 7-Midnight gets "at work" listening! If you do nights and you don't have it, your share falls on average by 10%.


.. but HALF of midday's share of audience is driven by it.


Tip: make your radio station, regardless of the format, as at work-friendly as possible, from early morning until nights.

Source: BBM/Canada's 2010-2011 Radio Data Book

You Can't Win Younger Demos Without Winning At Work

Country ranks #3 in "at home" listening in Canada, but is #7 "at work."


To beat the national averages, a station must do twice "the average" in at work listening.


Thanks to BBM/Canada's 2010-2011 Radio Data Book for a helpful lesson in where the majority of our listening is coming from and going to.

A&O can point to many country format clients across Canada who get 25-30% of their total hours from at work listening, which is far above the national average for diary markets and driving superior heavy user listening and 25-44 growth.

It can't be done, however, by simply swimming with the prevailing currents. It takes strategy and consistent tactics, making us very proud of their outstanding achievement.

What's Happening To Country Radio In Canada?

What can ANY country radio station learn from these national averages, gleaned (as in stats shared last week) from BBM/Canada's 2010-2011 Radio Data Book?

Fortunately, A&O's Canadian country clients have been having a very good 2010-2011, a fact that looks even better when compared to national format shares from all diary survey markets, which are not pretty:

(click the chart to enlarge it) Ranking #4 nationally overall still isn't too shabby, of course, and many other formats would like to trade places with country, but Top 40 and Classic Hits were up at Country, Hot AC and Classic Rock's expense through last fall and the BBM national Spring 2011 country format 12+ diary market share continued the drop, to an 8.5.

The population demographic movements offer one helpful clue - as the format's 18-24 share is better than 25-34 and even 35-49 nationally and many listeners slid into the 55+ age groups, but there's more to it than just that.

Even more interesting are the locations where those trends happened and I'll share that info - which provides a clue as to what our clients in Canada have been doing to out-perform the trends with you tomorrow.

Your Most Important Listeners

More from BBM/Canada's 2010-2011 Radio Data Book:


One-fifth of all participants in the ratings survey account for more than half of all listening. Four of ten contribute 80% of the total hours spent with radio.

Each time time you encounter one of your station's - or your competition's - heaviest users in person, on the phone, by snail mail or online, make certain they know that you know how important they are to your success.