interesting story in RADIOINSIGHT . . . 6/18/26

[alok]

I found this article interesting, especially Mr. Pittman's comments about radio listening today,

iHeartMedia Launches AudioGraph Ad Targeting & Measurement For Broadcast Radio​

from the article,

Chairman/CEO Bob Pittman commented, “It turns out that unlike TV, which was just a delivery system for programs, consumers think about radio differently. It’s a companion. There are more people listening today than 10 or 20 years ago, and that trust is something no technology can manufacture. AudioGraph lets advertisers harness trust and unparalleled reach with the precision and proof the modern marketplace demands.”

my comment,

I have family members in their 20's and they do stream, but they also listen to radio.

 

[Weiserguy]

The irony of what you quoted is that radio *used to be* what Pittman claims it is now, but he and his company hold a lot of culpability for the cesspool it's become in recent years. It's bland music hosts and rabid talk jocks. Nowhere in there do I detect the pulse of any "companion". The current generations find companionship on Youtube, or with podcasters like Joe Rogan, or down below 92 in NPR-land. Commercial radio is, with a handful of exceptions, the lowest common denominator.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

A pre-recorded, voice tracked, out-of-town jock plugging the iHeart app, the company's latest out-of-town music festival, or national contest with no entertainment component, is not a companion.

 

[TheBigA]

he and his company hold a lot of culpability for the cesspool it's become in recent years.

If you believe that, then shouldn't he logically "hold a lot of culpability" for the recent rise? Particularly at his stations in big cities?

What I believe Pittman is doing is seeking something better than Nielsen. There are just too many problems with Nielsen.

Developed by iHeart’s Triton Digital subsidiary, the company states that while “the vast majority of audio consumption (64 percent) comes from broadcast radio, yet up until today, it has lacked the targeting and measurement infrastructure available in digital.

I thought that was what Triton did. But maybe not in an integrated way.

 

[TheBigA]

A pre-recorded, voice tracked, out-of-town jock plugging the iHeart app, the company's latest out-of-town music festival, or national contest with no entertainment component, is not a companion.

So then YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Music IS? If people derive companionship from an inanimate object (a radio), then what difference does it make?

 

[Theater of My Mind]

If you believe that, then shouldn't he logically "hold a lot of culpability" for the recent rise? Particularly at his stations in big cities?

The "rise" in big cities has nothing to do with the quality of programming that they are serving up. It's because PPM dropped the amount of time to count for listening down to 3 minutes, leading to an artificial increase in the numbers.

So then YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Music IS? If people derive companionship from an inanimate object, then what difference does it make?

What's your point? Pittman didn't claim people derive companionship from those services.

 

[TheBigA]

The "rise" in big cities has nothing to do with the quality of programming that they are serving up. It's because PPM dropped the amount of time to count for listening down to 3 minutes, leading to an artificial increase in the numbers.

That methodology applies to ALL radio stations, not just iHeart. Yet listeners prefer their stations.

What's your point? Pittman didn't claim people derive companionship from those services.

I'm just responding to you. You used the term. I asked what difference does having a live & local host make.

 

[KilowattKat]

A pre-recorded, voice tracked, out-of-town jock plugging the iHeart app, the company's latest out-of-town music festival, or national contest with no entertainment component, is not a companion.

Oh, it's now even worse than that. Welcome to the nationalized format playlist. Stations will now the play the exact same songs, at the exact same time, nationwide. Soon, the only individuality an iHeart station will have are the call letters.

Kiss 107.9 Slides To Hot AC As Part Of Playlist Nationalization Moves

RadioInsight Exclusive: As part of a move of several stations from station specific playlists to the company's national "custom" music logs, iHeartMedia shifted 90s/2000s Hits "Kiss 107.9" KZIS Sacramento to Hot AC earlier this month.

radioinsight.com

 

[TheBigA]

Oh, it's now even worse than that. Welcome to the nationalized format playlist. Stations will now the play the exact same songs, at the exact same time, nationwide. Soon, the only individuality an iHeart station will have are the call letters.

It will be interesting to see how the music charts address that issue. Because the truth is the only reason radio stations have local playlists with local music directors is because they're required in order for those stations to be chart reporters. The charts have that rule because the labels want it. The labels pay for the charts. Now perhaps the entire system collapses because the labels prefer national playlists in order to save labels time & money.

But the truth is that most currents-based formats all play basically the same music anyway. It's been that way for 70 years.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

But the truth is that most currents-based formats all play basically the same music anyway. It's been that way for 70 years.

It would be nice if you would stop making claims that aren't true on this site. Prior to this nationalized playlist crap, there was nothing like the homogenization you hear on the radio today.

70 years ago, current-based stations used local record store surveys and jukebox plays to build their playlists. There was plenty of regional variance and distinct local hits based on geography and this continued to be the case for decades. As for the plural "formats" you claim existed, 70 years ago one station played all the popular styles together. Format fragmentation occurred later.

 

[TheBigA]

It would be nice if you would stop making claims that aren't true on this site. Prior to this nationalized playlist crap, there was nothing like the homogenization you hear on the radio today.

The music that radio stations play comes from the record labels. They release the songs and set the agenda for the music that gets played.

There was some localization of music, but even in the 60s, every radio station played The Beatles and all the big stars. All of this is documented in the national music charts.

In fact it was in the 60s that you had MSOs (multiple station owners) appointing national PDs to oversee the formats at their stations. One of the first was Rick Sklar of the ABC owned stations.

 

[KilowattKat]

The music that radio stations play comes from the record labels. They release the songs and set the agenda for the music that gets played.

There was some localization of music, but even in the 60s, every radio station played The Beatles and all the big stars.

There were many regional hits that came from smaller labels that didn't have widespread distribution of their music A lot of these were R&B or "race" records as they were called. The days of regional hits are over.

 

[TheBigA]

There were many regional hits that came from smaller labels that didn't have widespread distribution of their music A lot of these were R&B or "race" records. The days of regional hits are over.

The goal of smaller labels was to have a national hit. One great example was the STAX record label in Memphis. They had national hits thanks to a distribution deal they cut with Atlantic Records. If you know you have a hit song, you want EVERYONE to hear it. The way to do that is find a way to get your song heard everywhere. Buddy Holly was a local artist in Texas who signed a major deal with Decca, and his music was heard nationally. Elvis was on Sun for a short time. until he got national distribution on RCA. Lots of similar stories.

If you want to talk about music on the radio, you need to focus on the consolidation of the record labels starting in the 1970s. It predates any radio consolidation. To this day, the record labels are more consolidated and have more power than any radio company.

 

[b-turner]

No, it is not true stations that were top 40 were signnificantly different. About 90% or more was exactly the same. At least that was the case by the mid 1960s. WKDA in Nashville was not significantly different from WHB in Kansas Ciy or KAAY in Little Rock, WOAI in San Antonio or KOMA in Oklahoma City or WLS in Chicago.

 

[TheBigA]

There's a great site for music chart lovers. This if for WQAM, one of the Top 40 stations in Miami.

WQAM Weekly Record Surveys

WQAM's Fabulous 56 Surveys - Weekly record charts

www.560.com

I think if you compare their charts with similar format stations at the time, you'll see a lot of the same songs. They were hits.

 

[KilowattKat]

So, are we coming to the end of corporate radio doing market research to determine which songs to play by how well they test in the local market? BTW, I'm looking more at formats like Hot AC and Alternative which are bigger on older titles.

 

[TheBigA]

So, are we coming to the end of corporate radio doing market research to determine which songs to play by how well they test in the local market?

Like everything, it depends on the company. In this case we're really only talking about iHeart.

My view is that iHeart has been heading in this direction for 15 years or more.

 

[vw86]

Oh, it's now even worse than that. Welcome to the nationalized format playlist. Stations will now the play the exact same songs, at the exact same time, nationwide. Soon, the only individuality an iHeart station will have are the call letters.

Kiss 107.9 Slides To Hot AC As Part Of Playlist Nationalization Moves

RadioInsight Exclusive: As part of a move of several stations from station specific playlists to the company's national "custom" music logs, iHeartMedia shifted 90s/2000s Hits "Kiss 107.9" KZIS Sacramento to Hot AC earlier this month.

radioinsight.com

This has been a thing for iHeart since the company was still Clear Channel and rolled out Premium Choice programming 16-17 years ago

Clear Channel Plays Up 'Premium Choice'

Says local PDs will be able to pull from the company's strongest assets more readily

www.radioworld.com

Clear Channel Madison to appoint advisory board

Can a radio station outsource more programming to national and regional voices and, at the same time, become more responsive to the community it serves? Clear Channel Communications, which owns three music and three talk radio stations in the Madison market, is about to try.

isthmus.com

Stations have been taking national format logs now since Premium Choice rolled out in 2009-2010. This is nothing new.
What I'm always curious about is how it's decided which iHeart stations utilize the logs from the national feeds and which still are programmed at a local or regional level. It always has seemed random to me, but I'm sure there's a method to it.

There is a way to make it sound infinitely better now compared to when Premium Choice first rolled out all those years ago. This is the first time I can ever remember an official announcement of stations switching to national logs, usually it's something I've discovered by comparing station playlists.

 

[TheBigA]

This has been a thing for iHeart since the company was still Clear Channel and rolled out Premium Choice programming 16-17 years ago

Premium Choice was an option for stations that couldn't meet their numbers. So rather than take someone else's syndication, they could use something that was in house. It was more than just music logs. It was fully hosted VT shifts. Hosts such as "Big Rig" are part of this.

Stations have been taking national format logs now since Premium Choice rolled out in 2009-2010. This is nothing new.

Perhaps some, but not stations with good ratings. If they could afford a local MD, that's what they preferred, because then the station qualified as a chart reporter. But with revenues down even lower, more stations need help. What's new is having even top rated stations in markets like Cleveland using national playlists, with the nearest PD in Minneapolis.

What I'm always curious about is how it's decided which iHeart stations utilize the logs from the national feeds and which still are programmed at a local or regional level. It always has seemed random to me, but I'm sure there's a method to it.

It's simple: Money. If you have a budget, you get to hire staff. If not, you take welfare from corporate. More stations are having trouble meeting their numbers. So that leads to layoffs, which means you replace local MDs with national logs.

Another part of the decision is format. In markets where they have format competition, they try to keep it local.

For example in Atlanta, iHeart has competition in the country format. So their music logs are done by Angie Ward, who is based there.

 

[Kent]

This has been a thing for iHeart since the company was still Clear Channel and rolled out Premium Choice programming 16-17 years ago

It was actually earlier than that. I believe Clear Channel first started rolling out nationalized and/or regionalized playlists 20 years ago this year. It was done quietly and, possibly, only on select formats. Premium Choice was what came out of that when it was rolled out across the company during the Great Recession.