Free Must-Have Research Tools

Just three quick highlights from Arbitron's Client Conference and Jacobs Media Summit...

U.S. Census Bureau's Dr. Robert Groves: The U.S. Census Bureau has several free online tools to help you get a handle on the local job market.

“You see where workers live, where they work, lives and how they commute. The possibilities and uses are endless for radio and any other planners.”

Industry Focus allows users to identify the leading industries for an area, focus on a particular industry to see how it ranks among top industries, and view graphs and charts of worker characteristics within industries. Users can analyze industries by state, county, workforce investment or metro area based on eight workforce indicators.

On the Map is a Web-based mapping tool showing where people live in relation to where they work with reports on age, earnings, industry distribution and local workforce indicators.

The Local Employment Dynamics data tools can be found at http://lehd.did.census.gov/led/.

Speaking of maps: Google maps has real time traffic info, and it's likely your listeners access it now from their vehicle if they have a smart phone. If you do traffic on the radio, you need to be looking at this info if it's available in your city or listeners will know more than you do.

Some undeniable great info for sales and programming: Radio Delivers 93 Percent of its Lead-In Audience During the Average Commercial Break - Arbitron, Media Monitors and Coleman Insights expand on landmark 2006 study

The 2011 study of minute-by-minute audience levels across 48 top radio markets again demonstrates that radio maintains its audience delivery during commercial breaks, contrary to the common misperception among advertisers, agencies and even radio executives that audiences during commercial breaks are a fraction of the numbers that were listening to the station just before the commercials began.

For the 2011 study, Arbitron, Media Monitors and Coleman Insights analyzed 18 million commercial breaks, 62 million minutes of commercials and 866 stations for a year of audience data from all 48 PPM markets to compare the audience level for each minute of a commercial break to the audience for the minute before the commercials began.

My New Favorite Country Radio Web Page (Where The Strategy Is Evident At First Glance)

At most major market clusters, the country PD oversees a couple of radio stations' programming and complains about the websites.

So, you have to hand it to CBS Radio Seattle market manager Lisa Decker.

Everyone knows, I hope, that KMPS PD Becky Brenner is an amazing programming executive and leader of both people and organizations.

So, when CBS traded one of the stations she was overseeing to Clear Channel, Brenner was named cluster interactive manager in addition to her KMPS duties.

I can already tell the difference in the KMPS site and interactive tactics. Can't you? (for example, you won't see a banner ad for anything on the station home page that doesn't generate LOTS and LOTS of money. i.e., Text club sign up is at the top because it enhances the brand with the target, makes money, creates community and drives ultra core usage.)

Bookmark this page, and as usual run as fast as you can to keep up.

A Radio Station Website That Changes Each Time You Go To It

I have lauded the work of PD Dave Beasing and the Bonneville/LA team with their very clean, uncluttered, state-of-the-art website in the past, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they have innovated once again. Click to see the cover art from the album currently on the air and then click again to go deeper into the artist, the music and the station from there.

"...WOW!"

The Radio Website Of The Future

When you put the dedication to doing it right of Bonneville Radio's team + former-consultant and experienced programmer Dave Beasing + marketing guru Sammy Simpson + the competitiveness of the LA radio market, you know you're going to get something impressive.

Click here and be prepared to say "WOW."

Simple, uncluttered, focused image, easy to navigate to what most listeners go to a radio station website for and cutting-edge interactive. Be sure your webmaster checks this out. I think it's the direction we'll all be going, if we're smart.

New Year’s Resolutions Reflected in January U.S. Web Traffic

comScore Media Metrix: Increases Seen at Tax, Travel, Real Estate, Job Search, Political, and Computer Software Sites