Country's Dirty Little Secret May Be A Future Strength

I love meeting with the sales teams at client stations during market visits and often tell them that country radio offers a unique kind of value-added that savvy media buyers expect us to give them for free and yet they secretly understand the power of it: 55+ listeners, lots of them.

Now, thanks to NBC Universal, we even have a name for the demo - “AlphaBoomers” (the affluent and active 55-64 demographic, a big part of country radio's extremely broad target audience of listeners) and this article in Mediaweek (click to read and print it out) may finally give us all the courage to ask for good money for our delivery of them.

NBCU President of Research and Media Development Alan Wurtzel “wants advertisers to know that, when it comes to consumer spending based on what they see in television ads, the 55-64 demo is the new 18-34.”

Reporter John Consoli says NBCU's new research “dispels myths about how adults 55-64 respond to advertising and spend as consumers.”

NBCU president and CEO Jeff Zucker said he’s hoping the findings will motivate tech companies like Apple, Droid and Bing—which are not advertising on CNBC news programs because they are older-skewing—will start doing so.

“What we’d like to see is these companies and their agencies start targeting AlphaBoomers as much as they do the 18-34 demo,” Zucker said, acknowledging that the presentation could also help other networks’ newscasts.

Research in the NBCU presentation shows that AlphaBoomers have a median household income of $69,000, dwarfing that of those under 25 ($27,000), 25-34 ($58,000) and close to those 35-44 ($75,000).

Other findings include:

• AphaBoomers spend more on home improvement products, home furnishing, large appliances, beauty and cosmetics and casual dining than adults 18-49.
• A similar percentage of AlphaBoomers have high-definition TVs, use DVRs and broadband as adults 18-34
• 70 percent of AlphaBoomers buy at least one product a month online
• 59 percent of AlphaBoomers send text messages via their cell phones
• Wurtzel: "people in that demo make buying decisions similar to younger demos.”

Anyone who's been to see a country concert has seen these folks face to face and knows how true this is.

The Canary Is Still Breathing; The Branch Hasn't Broken

It's been more than a decade since it became conventional wisdom that radio's programming and marketing departments were primarily a service bureau for sales, in pursuit of revenues, cutting costs, thus attaining higher multiples.

Ratings bonuses have increasingly been replaced at the companies where bonuses for talent and programming still exist with "BCF" bonuses, making us all members of the sales department.

The executives who started this trend are longtime broadcasters and I have always told myself that they may bend the twig until they start to hear cracking, but they're smart enough to stop bending just before it breaks. They'd recognize the sound of a coalmine canary that stops chirping.

And, just because it still sounds like some major market traffic reporters, news departments and weather forecasters no longer answer to the station program director in the length or word choice of their content, the twig remains barely intact and the bird is still, softly, singing.

What? Me? Worry?

I get paid by A&O clients to worry.

As PPM is rewarding the panel listeners' most compelling and likable personalities, punishing ones they don't spend as much time using, driving up ratings of stations which waste the least amount of time talking about anything or playing songs the audience doesn't engage with, broadcasters who want to win simply must relearn how to edit, edit, edit everything.

Now, programming as a service bureau for sales includes once again focusing on trimming everything that doesn't make money or entertain to the bone.

Sure, a great PD still brings ideas that make money, but PPM clearly shows that every competitor has the same 60 minutes per hour and not a second more and it creates lots more revenue to have high ratings than to add more value-added mentions.

There was a time when the majority of General Managers and Program Directors spent a day away from the radio station listening together, agreeing on what elements grew audience and made money and which ones were simply wasting time.

• That way, the PD could talk authoritatively to the cluster's news director, the long distance meteorologist, the bartered traffic service knowing that the GM is going to back her up when she says "this is what I need" and expect great execution.
• That way, they agree on how many extra mentions "we" do compared to our shared-cume competition.
  
• That way, they set firm commercial unit limits and concur on the costs of overselling them.

PPM has provided new tools which amplify the sound of cracking twigs, chirping canaries, making product integrity - as defined by radio's users - a programmer and manager's time-tested, very highest priority.

This Is Leadership

“Although they’ve been good for radio, the ads have been really nasty, and I’ll just be glad when it’s over. This is one way we can thank our listeners for sticking with us. It’s so critical that we show the listeners we’re committed to playing a lot of music. We’ve sent out press releases, email blasts, on our website and some print marketing. We’re feeling a lot of love for it, and people are really excited.” -- Townsquare Media Cluster OM Mark Callaghan in today's Country Aircheck

Townsquare’s KUAD/Ft. Collins, CO and its four sister stations will go commercial-free tomorrow (11/3) to provide some relief to their audiences for enduring so many negative political spots during the past month in what’s been a key battleground state.

I wish had I been the first to suggest this idea, but now I'm hoping that there'll be a whole lot of "second" ones to also announce it today by moving some post-election inventory around. You have to know listeners will appreciate it.

(More) How To Do Traffic Reports (a rant continues...)

I continue to await a tidal wave of "smart traffic reporters" to immediately course correct and begin to stand out by using more powerful words after my two - highly-acclaimed if you believe the comments they attracted - blog posts last week (How To Do Weather Reports and How To Do Traffic Reports), so today's is probably more whistling in the wind.

However, here goes anyway. Yet another useless phrase that radio traffic reporters must expunge from their vocabulary forever if they hope to have listeners turn UP their reports rather than keeping them on "ignore."

"There are no accidents or problems; everything is running smoothly..."

You phoned all your usual sources. You checked the web cams and listened to the police scanners, so it seems perfectly logical to start your report with this phrase especially in the wee hours of the early morning when there's very little traffic on roads, let alone anything to be concerned about.

Every traffic reporter does it.

Which is exactly why YOU should NOT do it....until you hear a radio newscast start with the headline phrase "there's no news this morning and there's nothing to report."

PPM proves: when you have nothing to say, don't say nothing.

I rest my case.

Can He Do It In San Francisco TOO?

Randy Stein, Executive Producer of Fitz in the Morning on Seattle's 100.7 The Wolf and San Francisco's 95.7 The Wolf writes to say:

"It's Official! Fitz in the Morning based in Seattle, WA and now syndicated in San Francisco, CA has won the Best of Western Washington Best Local Radio Personality Award for the 3rd year in a row!"

NBC KING 5 busted in to the studio yesterday morning to hand the award to Fitz and his staff (click to watch the video of it all)

Fitz has a way to go to catch up with Entercom's country night guy, Alan Kabel, who ranks in the top five 25-54 in Summer ARB estimates in Greensboro, Kansas City, Scranton, Seattle, Portland and Rochester.

Two Moncton Midday Guys And Their Listeners Are Amazing

XL 96.9's Shilo Bellis and Newcap sister station C103 personality Tim Cormier were hoisted 80 feet above a downtown intersection and planned on staying there until $4,000 in donations for the Food Depot Alimentaire could be collected.

Twelve hours later, they’d almost doubled their goal – $7,000!

How To Do Weather Reports

Ask NOAA's National Weather Service or The Weather Office's Environment Canada and their advice will be to read their official pronouncements verbatim, word for word.

And, lots of us do just that, making every radio station's forecasts almost identical: "Partly cloudy today, some clouds tonight and considerable cloudiness tomorrow."

What the heck am I supposed to do with that info?

Then there's Canada: "a mix of sun and cloud." Now, there's a forecast that has to be 100% correct at least 12 hours every day!

1. Please, people, read those formal and official weather predictions from your government officials and carefully understand what they mean to your listener in the next few hours.
2. Put the written forecast away and tell me in your own words - as few words as possible - what I need to do about what the meteorologists are saying is going to happen out there.
3. Unless there's a major weather emergency, brief and clear is better. I can boot up my computer and get to weather.com before the meteorologist gets it out.

Can we just say "Sunny today 78, Clear 55 tonight and Sunny maybe 80 tomorrow"??

One sign that you're doing weather correctly: it should take about six seconds versus the 30 or more the average personality (and, I do mean "average" in the worst possible way) takes to do it.

How To Do Traffic Reports

Westwood One's Metro/Shadow Traffic is a trove of research on what listeners want from radio's traffic reports over the many years they've been doing them.

The #1 complaint? Folks hate it when a radio reporter describes a terrible tie-up in great detail and strongly recommends avoiding the huge bottleneck and only at the very end mentions the place where it is.

The radio listener's ears perk up, suddenly realizing that is the route they drive, but also very annoyed that they missed the information.

Ask any listener who relies on traffic reports: mention the place where the jam you're about to describe FIRST and THEN give the details.

Smart traffic reporters even promote that they always do it that way so that listeners always know they won't miss anything important.

Incredibly, the majority of traffic reports are still not done this way in spite of the fact that it has been conventional wisdom for many years, driven by Metro research presented in city after city over the years.

It's still possible to stand out as the most user-friendly traffic reporter in your market by simply giving the location first and then the details of the jam. Every time. No exceptions.

Your Station's Promo Inventory Is Finite

Think of every promo as a favor you are asking of your audience (attending an event, listening to morning drive, participating in a contest, friending you on Facebook, reTweeting your content, even thinking about the station in a new light).

The more you ask of your listeners, the less impact each request will have.

Network television provides an example of effective promo usage. Each of the major networks airs 30 to 50 different programs each week, yet they heavily promote fewer than a dozen.

Similarly, it is important to create priority and focus with your station promos.

Every week, there will be dozens of "priorities" that all seem to deserve promo mentions.

Unfortunately, the more "priorities" you promote, the more clutter you create and the fewer things your audience will actually remember and respond to.

Narrow the station's focus down to only the most important promo topics and devote your entire inventory to these.

40+% Of Teens Do Not Have A Favorite Radio Station

Dave Van Dyke at Bridge Ratings has been tracking these things for many years and he's worried about our 12-to-21-year-olds, especially, as he reports today the percentage of all radio consumers that has a favorite radio station fell from 85% in 1998 to 72%.

Why might that be? Van Dyke has some recommendations on that too:


How well is terrestrial radio satisfying these needs?

According to Bridge's latest study, not very well.

1. Only 24% of the sample were satisfied with the amount of lifestyle information catering to their lives that was offered by their favorite stations.
   
   
2. While 79% were feeling good about radio's music information offered, there is room for improvement in the area of Twitter communication (59%),
   
   
3. And...Instant message access to air personalities (52%)
   
   
4. Yet, the most obvious opportunity for improvement for radio's listener engagement and revenue is building Exclusive Social Networks, or social neworks like Facebook or MySpace for just your station listener community. Only 15% of those responding felt radio was delivering on this front.

Country's TSL: Still Strong Compared To Other Formats, BUT...

As markets become more fragmented and listeners have more diverse choices, loyalty is at a premium. The 2010 edition of Arbitron's Radio Today spotlights the country format's daily TSL as averaging an hour a day, 12+, less with younger listeners.

On a national basis, country remains a bastion of contented listeners with the country format national average daily time spent listening ranking #2, tied with Urban AC, and just 15 minutes per day behind #1 TSL format News/Talk among the 16 formats whose daily TSL was tracked this year. The format with the lowest TSL in 2010 (3:15 per day) is Alternative.

To put those stats in context, I went back to some old volumes of Duncan's American Radio, which tracked format trends from 1974 to 2004.

Country format TSL averages for a few random years two decades ago:

1989 - 96 minutes per day
1988 - 94 minutes per day
1987 - 94 minutes per day
1986 - 95 minutes per day
1985 - 93 minutes per day

These statistics, both old and new, are both comforting and frightening, since the country format's growth is clearly dependent on retaining long listening spans from a small base of very loyal listeners.

Research is important to stay abreast of changes in attitudes that might affect your audience share. Loyalty marketing (social, data base, telemarketing and target campaigns) should also be a cornerstone of any country broadcaster's long-term plan, but as TSL slips growing cume audience becomes more and more necessary too.

Is Lefsetz Mean? Is Lefsetz Famous?

Does Taylor Swift think so? Is that bald guy down below to the left really the subject of her new song?

All I have is fun questions today, and some fascinating links for you to click on and mull over (click to read the exchange which "may" have started it all - or maybe not).

"Mean" isn’t quite "You’re So Vain" and I’m not quite Warren Beatty, not by a long shot. Then again, people thought the song was about Mick Jagger, when everybody on the inside knew that was wrong, hell, he even sang on it. And only insiders would know who I am.

So here I am giving Taylor Swift the publicity she desires. She won.

But she still can’t sing and isn’t it time to start acting like an adult? To cast off the high school persona and fly as a woman instead of darting around like a little girl? That’s what’s got everybody’s eyes rolling, her aw shucks/ohmygod! look when she strides onto the stage to earsplitting applause.

Taylor got to live out her adolescent fantasy. Can she now be a woman singing about womanly issues? -- Bob Lefsetz (click his name to read his entire post!)

Mentoring & Inspiring Women (MIW) In Radio's 2011 Mildred Carter Mentoring Program

Officially launched in 2002, this outstanding program matches up-and-coming women in the radio industry with female professionals who are leaders in all aspects of radio.

A total of three candidates from the radio broadcasting industry will be selected for the 2011 program. Candidates from sales, programming, marketing and other related fields in radio broadcasting are encouraged to apply.

The current job level of the applicants should be no less than director or manager level, but can encompass all areas and departments of radio station operations or related fields.

Interested applicants must:

· have been in the radio industry for five years or more;
· agree to actively participate in the mentoring process;
· agree to total confidentiality during the mentoring program.

All candidates are required to submit a letter which addresses the question: “Why would I be a good mentee?” Please send it to Heidi Raphael no later than Friday, November 5th, 2010.

The three chosen mentees will be announced and begin the program in January 2011.

The program is named in the memory of Mildred Carter, who, along with her husband, Andrew "Skip" Carter, founded the first African American owned radio station in the U.S. in 1950, when they turned on KPRS Kansas City, Missouri. Mrs. Carter ran the Carter Broadcast Group for many years after the death of Skip Carter, before turning over control of the company to her grandson, Michael Carter in 1987.

The Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio group consists of top-level radio women across the country who are dedicated to using their influence and resources to help women in radio develop strong management and leadership skills. The MIWs are equally committed to advocating the advancement of women to senior positions in broadcasting.

Monday, October 18, 2010: The Day I Agree With Glenn Beck

.. and that doesn't happen very often, as anyone who knows my politics is aware.

However, I have watched Glenn in action over the last quarter of a century from my perch on Bainbridge Island not far from his hometown and I greatly admire his courage and communication skills. Beck has a lot to teach anyone who wants to be successful in radio.

He ignored advice from colleagues and discussed private medical matters on his radio show Friday, telling listeners that his vocal chords were going into paralysis. Doctors haven't diagnosed his ailment.

"Think out loud, which is exactly what I did Friday," he told talk radio conference attendees over the weekend. "I took them on the journey."

He challenged broadcasters to do better than simply recycling “mundane” ideas, just because something worked well in the past: "Don't think, 'How can I be relatable today?' If you're afraid, tell 'em you're afraid. If you don't know, tell 'em you don't know." And don't be afraid to admit when you're wrong, he said. "That's not a flip-flop, that's being human."

Beck urged Talk radio personalities to “just be yourself” and told programmers, managers and talents in attendance to understand that “the world is looking for someone who is authentic.” Speaking to a full house at the Marina del Rey Marriott Hotel, Beck added, “A split is coming in America — that which is bogus and that which is real. When you are honest with yourself and your audience, the whole world changes."

Big Research: October Hot/Not = A Mixed Economic Picture

Big Ticket items continue to be a bright spot as the Christmas shopping season nears, compared to Oct-09, purchase intentions for “investments" in the home – computers, autos, TVs, and furniture – are on the rise.


It appears that consumers have a trick and a treat in store for retailers in October, according to the BIGresearch® Diffusion Index (click to see all of the data, including more on those who say they’ll spend less subtracted from those who will spend more). While most categories are up from September, Oct-09, and Oct-08, all categories remain DOWN compared to pre-recession Oct-07.

• College Football and the MLB Playoffs top our list of what’s hot for October.
• "The Social Network" and "Big Bang Theory" are hit among viewers.
• Women also favor Zumba and Athletic Toning Shoes, while men 18-34 are opting for the P90X workout.

What’s Not?
While approved by young women, don’t expect too many consumers to try the Skinny Cargo Pant trend on for size.

Business Success Rules

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.
Be candid with everyone.
Don't manage, lead.
Change before you have to.
If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.
Control your own destiny or someone else will.

- Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric

Call For Requests? Or, Excuses?

With Pandora nipping at our heels, at least in terms of their aspirations if not reality as yet, many listeners continue to feel like radio is their personal jukebox and the air personality's role is to play the songs they want when they want them.

That's why I strongly discourage use of the word "request" or "dedication" on the air. Request calls come from a VERY small portion of your audience and will undermine your music research and rotation systems. As a result, we prefer to call them "listener suggestion lines" or something similar.

However, since customer focus IS the key to success, what do you say when one of those "request consumers" calls with a complaint that "you never play my requests"?

Try this approach:

We receive many requests, sometimes more than we can actually play and still maintain what we perceive to be a popular music format. Due to the number of requests we get, if yours isn't aired right away, there are five possible reasons:

1. We may have just played that particular song or another song by the same artist.

2. We have a list of requests ahead of yours and we will eventually work our way up to yours.

3. We have literally hundreds of songs in our library and it may take some time to find the one you asked for.

4. The song you requested doesn't quite fit the mood of the program at the particular time, but it will be played later.

5. We simply don't have the song.

I see I have another song by the artist you asked for coming right up. How about if I play that one for you?

Most request line callers' motivation in phoning, texting, emailing and Facebooking has less to do with your actually playing their song on the air, than it does with their need to "feel special" to you.

Make them feel as good as possible -- without taking important time away from your show prep or without breaking the music for mat!

Then, you'll be serving the 95% of your cume who will NEVER call, but promptly will hit the preset or scan button of their radio if your music mix doesn't measure up to their expectations.

Stable Numbers For Who?

It’s seemingly time to learn a new step in the PPM dance as Arbitron implements new panelist expiration rules (that now look a lot more like Canada’s BBM has been doing all along), promising less “bounce” in the estimates from month to month.

Obviously, if you’re the top station in a category, that’s a good thing. But, if you’re hoping to improve your share, waiting longer for a shot at new panelists may not be quite so attractive.

At present 46 U.S. and Canadian markets have country radio stations being measured by PPM.

Let’s look closely at one, where there are three radio stations basically tied for #1 6+ within four tenths of a share of each other. The next tier is two stations within another 0.4 of a share of each other, roughly tied for #2 rank. Below them in rank is three more stations, more-or-less all tied for #3, just 0.2 shares away from each other. Under them there are eight stations within 0.7 of a share apart from each other, statistically tied for "#4."

This market has two very competitive country stations, with each one's cume just 3% away from each other.

Yet, one of the two is in the “tied for #3” ranker grouping. The other has a 6+ share 25% lower, amidst the “tied for #4” bunch, meaning that a buyer either really has to want to purchase two country stations OR be willing to go at least nine to seventeen stations deep to buy them - in spite of the fact that the two are separated in “share” by less than one point.

Drilling down to what gives the country leader in this market that 25% edge, there are 14 100+ quarter hour panelists which use one of the two country stations and each one is the favorite station of seven of them. The difference between them is that the top station gets about 25% more “time spent exposed” (TSE) from their heavy users than the lower-ranked one.

A few things that could change the ratings for either or both:

1. A shift in the panel of one household.
2. The lower rated station plugs the leaks in their panelists’ usage and improves their TSE and the other one fails to respond in kind (can you say commercial free hours?)
3. One or both of them greatly improves their programming, drawing more cume
4. One of them gives up on country and changes format, so that the other one gets all 14 country ultra core panelists and suddenly becomes the market’s #1 radio station.
5. If the month happened to be September, one of the two stations’ panelists went away for a Labor Day holiday, while the other station’s panelists had to work that weekend.
6. A heavy user of one of the two stations got the flu and stayed home for a few days.

I admire ARB for listening to their clients and attempting to minimize monthly wobbles, but more of these possibilities come from real life from from sampling issues.

And, if I rank in that “tied for #4” eight this month, I am actually hoping for a nicer bounce next time!

Peak Local Performance

What happens when a radio station commits $315,000 in development cash awards for local music?

Click here to see and hear the answer to that question.

The Top 20 are performing in the PEAK Performance Concert Series this Fall. The final three artists will be announced on Monday, November 1 followed by the final showcase and the crowning of the ultimate PEAK performer on November 18 at the Commodore Ballroom.

The 1st place artist will receive $100,500, 2nd is $75,000, 3rd is $50,000, 4th is $10,000, 5th is $5,000 and all 20 finalists will receive $3,500 each in initial artists development funding.

In addition to this, all of this year’s 20 finalists will receive a showcase spot at The Kelowna 2010 BreakOut West Festival presented by the Western Canadian Music Alliance October 21 – 24.

Last year the PEAK Performance Project awarded We Are The City with a grand prize of $150,000. The Left and Bend Sinister received second and third place, respectively.

The $5.29 million PEAK Performance Project is designed to educate, promote, develop and hopefully launch the careers of some of British Columbia’s top emerging artists. It also hopes to foster the province’s music industry and create a sense of community amongst music professionals. In addition to the rigorous six month artist development program and the $315,000 in artist development funding, The Pattison Group of Companies will also contribute an annual media credit of $1,000,000 in support of the PEAK Performance Project by marketing, promoting and advertising the PEAK Performance Project and the participating artists making it the largest individual radio station project in Canada.

The PEAK Performance Project is an initiative of 100.5 The PEAK and Music BC.

What could happen if your station committed a meaningful sum to help grow your local music community?

Hats off to Jim Pattison Broadcast Group/Vancouver for having the courage to go BIG.

We're All Statisticians Now

Doing an online, mail-in or telephone survey?

Thanks to the convenience and low cost of the many online tools now available to radio programmers, the task that once was the exclusive territory of people who specialized in research is now being performed week in and week out as we send out surveys to samples which may or may not be representative of the group of people we want to listen more.

Statisticians say that one response in 2,000 "WILL" be wacko, no matter how perfect the sample is!

That's where a very arcane calculation - standard deviation from the mean - comes in. It can't tell you if your entire sample was not the one you wanted to target, but if you know that the vast majority of your data comes from folks in the right age group, the correct geographical locations, a good balance of gender and qualitative profiles, it can help you find the outliers who can greatly skew your results.

Hand check each of your survey responses before tabulating them by computer. All it takes is one such form to throw otherwise very good data WAY OFF.

You actually may get more actionable and reliable research from a smaller, more consistent, cleaner sample.