By now, you’ve probably read about the Voltair audio processing system that has stirred up some controversy about whether or not this electronic box helps boost radio station encoding in the PPM system.
The essence of this conversation revolves around the suspicion (and in some circles, the belief) that certain formats have an inherent disadvantage when it comes to getting full credit in the metered system. Smooth Jazz is the poster-child format mentioned most often, and there are many who believe that a key factor in its extinction had to do with the changeover to PPM from the diary methodology.
For the answer to this question, we’ll leave it to the technologists, the engineers, and the lawyers to decide about Voltair’s true effect on ratings.
But the act of “formaticide” – the killing of radio formats – has been going on for years, long before there were meters. Beyond the lemming-like execution of Smooth Jazz in market after market throughout the country, there is also this idea that when a format’s demographics fall out of advertiser favor, that is grounds for throwing in towel, too. It’s the main reason why ‘60s Oldies stations disappeared. Like the devotees of the Classical format, the Oldies core fan group aged out of the 25-54 sweet spot. In the past few years, Classic Rock has had to dodge that same bullet. Like an asteroid out in deep space hurtling toward the earth, Classic Rock will, in fact, be out of fashion one day with media buying dictates.
But what about Variety Hits – better known as the Jack format? While it has achieved considerable ratings success in many markets, it has often run into the “Chinese Wall,” familiarly known as “a sales problem.” Some contend that without DJs to fulfill sales promotions and client commitments, a jockless format is simply unviable in 2015. The other problem with the Jack format, according to some who castigate it, is that it’s boring and account reps lose interest in selling it.
The sad reality is that these once very popular radio formats – some of which are no longer with us –never lost the ability to appeal to millions of listeners. And other formats that are now “at risk” face many off these same challenges. Of course, you can find all the dead broadcast radio formats on Slacker, Rdio, and SiriusXM, or you can recreate them yourself on Pandora and Spotify.
These aforementioned format problems are more about radio’s issues than they are about anything happening in the ratings or in the PPM encoding process.
The excuses are many: too many men, too many Baby Boomers, too ethnic, not ethnic enough, no DJs, the buyers don’t like it – the reasons go on – and the “Wheel of Formats” continues to shrink, offering fewer options to local audiences. If part of the promise of consolidation was that clusters of stations in markets big and small would yield a greater diversity of formats, just the opposite has happened. And the weakest stations tend to be even less innovative and imaginative, often just used as a bonusing tool to help their healthier cluster mates get on the buy.
The industry simply gives up on formats it decides it can no longer sell or that advertisers apparently dislike. When the going gets tough, formats get going. And so do their audiences, moving to digital platforms like satellite radio, pure-plays, or their own music collections.
Very viable radio stations that somehow couldn’t muster enough internal cheerleading to survive have been sent to the format slaughterhouse. In many cases, their ratings were respectable – and maybe on the verge of being very competitive. But sometimes stations cannot find a champion who believes in the brand and finding ways to improve it, rather than going into stunt mode and then launching something new – that isn’t the least bit novel or different. Yes, it’s rearranging the deck chairs.
But Oldies? Smooth Jazz? Variety Hits?
There are audiences for these formats if broadcasters could enthusiastically pursue the right advertisers and a better internal mindset to keep them healthy. The future of HD Radio adds to the intrigue because as more and more cars feature these digital channels, radio’s ability to offer more diverse formats and choices becomes possible.
But many in broadcasting seemingly don’t buy into the importance of format diversity, instead sending listeners away to the digital dial. One of radio’s failed promises to consumers is this notion that radio offers variety and choice. And ironically, many consumers would still rather enjoy their favorite music offerings on their easy-to-operate, always dependable FM radios, free of data charges and other obstructions.
Radio’s strength is its ubiquity, ease of use, and its historic ability to offer something for just about everyone.
A black box in the rack room isn’t going to save your station if your staff isn’t committed to your brand and its mission.
PPM doesn’t kill formats.
Broadcasters do.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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My friend Michael O’Shea when talking about ratings used to say to me the format is the number to the left of the decimal, the execution is the number on the right. True that.
Very much so, and a handy way to think about format strength & how to move that needle. Thanks for making a strong point, Steve.
True: “One of radio’s failed promises to consumers is this notion that radio offers variety and choice.”
Also true: Radio programming stopped being bigger than life.
Having a station’s human resources cut to the bone are the cause of both, magnified in a world of growing competition.
The belt-tightening and staff reductions speak for themselves. But even in a scaled-down environment, a stronger commitment to brands and formats is a big part of what’s missing. Thanks for commenting, Ken.
Great piece, Fred. Case in point : LOVE 105 (WGVX) in Mpls. We had found a unique, viable format for KQ’s weak signaled sister. With an AC/Gold hybrid format, circa 2009-20011, we hung around a 3 share with a loyal, older audience. Conversion to PPM actually helped as we cracked the top 10 in 6+ cume on many occasions. Additionally, LOVE’s presence protected KQs right flank, keeping KQQL well out of the top 5. Sure, the median age was over 50, and 90% of our business was direct, still we were able do 1:1 power ratios. We delivered results for our local advertisers thanks to a unique format which had many loyal fans.
Enter Cumulus. From a distance, LOVE must have appeared to be an underachiever. Though our local management lobbied hard to stay with our profitable niche, we were overruled by Atlanta – which chose instead to become the 3rd all sports station in the market with “The Ticket”.
Fast forward to March/2015: ‘The Ticket’ is stuck at .3 share trailing even KBEM (.4), the Mpls public schools low powered jazz station. Classic hits KQQL now sports an 8.4, more than 2 shares better than KQRS.
And worst of all, you can’t hear Stevie Wonder or Neil Diamond on terrestrial radio in market #16.
Dave, there is no shortage of stations where the plug was pulled for any number of reasons – and yet the brand was viable. Not every station can be perfectly positioned in the 25-54 sweet spot. There is value – especially in clusters – to having brands that are diverse. Thanks for taking the time to weigh in.
What always perplexed me was how demographics that were attractive in other media were persona non grata in radio. Whole TV networks are devoted to 18-34 while no one seems to want to buy radio for their 18-34 targeted products – meaning advertisers will buy ads aimed at 18-34s all day long on Family Guy, but not on a morning show targeted to the same people. And you can’t blame it on the recent loss of 18-34 radio audience, because this dichotomy existed 20 years ago, before Satellite, Pandora, Spotify or even the Internet.
Has anyone posed this question to the top echelons of major agencies? What did they say?
On a separate topic…no Neil Diamond…too sad to even think about…maybe I’ll just go to bed and hope that tomorrow will be a better day. “Cracklin Rosie gt on board’… – nah, its just too sad……………………………………
Bob, I share your confusion as I watched MTV prosper with an 18-34s (a zillions of teens) while radio stations with similar appeal were ignored. It may speak to the wisdom and savvy of buyers who have the gift of finding even great station’s weaknesses, because they all have them. Thanks for the comment & as for the Neil Diamond thing…
The Neil Diamond comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Guess I should’ve used an emoticon 😉
People take it pretty damn seriously on JacoBLOG. 🙂
This may be overly simplistic, but the phrase “Know Your Customer” springs to mind… Instead of selecting pre-existing formats and marketing them to your audience, I feel it is worthwhile to step back, try to know your audience at a deeper level, and tweak the cookie-cutter formats to suit the feedback you receive from them.
When starting my internet station, I decided, somewhat arbitrarily, to choose rock, roots, blues, jazz and country as the genres we would play. I wanted to be diverse, but also work within a more “authentic” palette, if you know what I mean…
Initially, I felt that it would be best to segment the genres into separate shows, so that country fans wouldn’t be bothered by jazz, or vice versa. Before implementing this breakdown, I decided to do a quick poll of my audience via facebook to determine if this was truly the best course of action. I was quite surprised to find that the overwhelming majority of listeners preferred my “box of chocolates” format, whether from one song to the next, they never knew what they would get…
If I had implemented the segmenting of genres, I would have been guilty of underestimating my audience’s capacity to appreciate musical diversity…
On a more whimsical note:
Well I saw the thing comin’ out of the sky
It had the one long horn, one big eye
I commenced to shakin’ and I said “ooh-eee”
It looks like a People Meter to me
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ Portable People Meter
(One-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ Portable People Meter)
A one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ Portable People Meter
Sure looks strange to me (One eye?)
Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree
I said Mr. Portable People Meter, don’t meter me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
I wouldn’t meter you cuz you’re so tough
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ Portable People Meter
One-eyed, one-horned flyin’ Portable People Meter
One-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ Portable People Meter
Sure looks strange to me (One horn?)
I said Mr. Portable People Meter, what’s your line
He said it’s meterin’ purple people and it sure is fine
But that’s not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band
Well bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin’ Portable People Meter
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin’ Portable People Meter
(We wear short shorts)
Flyin’ Portable People Meter
Sure looks strange to me
And then he swung from the tree and he lit on the ground
He started to rock, really rockin’ around
It was a crazy ditty with a swingin’ tune
Sing a boop boop aboopa lopa lum bam boom
Well bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin’ Portable People Meter
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin’ Portable People Meter
I like short shorts
Flyin’ little people meter
Sure looks strange to me (Purple People?)
And then he went on his way, and then what do ya know
I saw him last night on a TV show
He was blowing it out, a’really knockin’ em dead
Playin’ rock and roll music through the horn in his head
Larry, thanks. Your post speaks to the power of surprise – something that many people who listen to pure-plays wish there were more of. Meanwhile, Sheb Wooley & Neil Diamond in the same comment stream? Sort of. Thanks for outdoing even Bob Rivers’ “Twisted Tunes.’
This may be a little off topic, but I think one of the other reasons formats don’t succeed is the lack of good on-air talent to properly execute the format. When I started in radio in the late 1970’s, every town no matter how big or small had local DJs and news announcers. (My first paying job in radio was as a news reader for an AM daytime station – and I think it cost me more in gas to get there than I earned.) There was no lack of low paying shifts with crappy hours where being inexperienced was OK. It was where you learned to be better and get a higher paying shift at a bigger station. Today, small markets are voice tracked or syndicated, medium markets have so-so talent (or are voice tracked) and major markets – well, I don’t know as I don’t live in one. You know this a whole lot better than I do – is the lack of a “minor league” a problem for radio?
Steve, it’s a factor and maybe emblematic of simply less commitment and investment in brands – period. Thanks for chiming in.
It’s amazing what well-selected radio formats can offer. I am a radio presenter from Poland. In this article, I will give some examples from Poland on this matter.
One of the Polish regions has a large local radio, with a large (according to Polish standards) annual budget – 270 000$. More than 100 of the most experienced journalists are hired at this radio station. It has 7.1% in ratings. In the same market, there is a radio created by only 3 students! The annual budget of that radio is 14 000$. In ratings, they have 5.0%. In the case of the first radio station, the cost of 1% is about 38 000 $, whereas in the second one, it’s only 2 800$.
The biggest radio station has lost 2 % of listeners during one year (from 8,9% to 7,1%). The smallest one has increased audience from 2,9% to 5%.
What is the difference between them? The answer is; the owners. The biggest one is the local public radio. This radio is in the hands of politicians, and also created for politicians, not for the audience. It is a boring one that doesn’t draw a smile on people’s faces.
In addition, people who are working there haven’t been “committed to the brand and the mission”. It is a political format. In my opinion, it will be yet another format that will become extinct.
As you wrote … PPM doesn’t kill formats. Broadcasters do.
Pawel, thanks for the perspective. I just returned from the Worldwide Radio Summit in L.A. where I saw broadcasters from Peru and India express an amazing amount of passion for their missions and their formats. It was stimulating and a reminder to us North American broadcasters that commitment and passion are the most important ingredients. Appreciate your comment.