Arbitron: Variety Hits is working P25-54

[LouPickney]

I ran across a very interesting .pdf file on Arbitron's website of a study done (in association with Edison Media Research) on the Variety Hits format, which the article calls "Adult Hits". I'd put a link up to it here, but the page contains ratings info, and even though it is on Arbitron's site and available to the public (I found it by chance while doing a Google search), I don't want to be in violation of the Radio-Info rules.

The file compares the 12+ numbers with the 25-54 numbers of the format, including how it does its best in middays and afternoon drive. It is fueled strongly by a high cume (with a lower TSL, which is surprising in many ways to me since you could listen for so long without hearing repeats) and by at-work listening.

The article compares the 12+ rankings with the 25-54 rankings for the various stations studied, and some of you might find this quite interesting. All of the rankings are from the Winter '05 book:

12+: Austin #2, Phoenix #4, Jackson (MS) #5, Oklahoma City #11, Norfolk #11, Kansas City #12, Dallas #14, Denver #23.

P25-54: Phoenix #1, Austin #1, Oklahoma City #2, Jackson (MS) #3, Dallas #6, Kansas City #6, Norfolk #7, Denver #16.

That Denver station is really a rimshot at best, but it's city-grade into Ft. Collins and Cheyenne. Those two markets unfortunately weren't covered in the study, though 12+ KJAC is #2 in Ft. Collins (Cheyenne is under embargo).

It will be interesting to see how those numbers hold up over time, but for now it's quite encouraging (and no doubt a big reason why the format has spread so quickly).<P ID="signature">______________
Lou Pickney
Tampa, FL
RadioHotTalk.com & VarietyHits.com</P>

 

[Jay_F]

It is fueled strongly by a high cume (with
> a lower TSL, which is surprising in many ways to me since
> you could listen for so long without hearing repeats) and by
> at-work listening.


I am not surprised at all. More than any other format, if a listener likes one song they may dislike the next one and punch out.

 

[OldiesCat]

Variety Hits

That is not exclusive to Variety Hits.

Look at the TSL shares for CHR these days, for Rock and Hot ACs- miserble and they have the same problem but with a different cause: stations playing currents are always at the mercy of what record companies decide to release and promote.

>
> I am not surprised at all. More than any other format, if a
> listener likes one song they may dislike the next one and
> punch out.
>

> It is fueled strongly by a high cume (with
> > a lower TSL, which is surprising in many ways to me since
> > you could listen for so long without hearing repeats) and
> by at-work listening.
>

 

[eGillCVI]

Re: Variety Hits

> That is not exclusive to Variety Hits.

Certainly not but it's definitely more prevalent in the Variety Hits format than in any other format (since Variety is the most unfocused thing ever).

 

[BobSacamano]

Re: Variety Hits

> > That is not exclusive to Variety Hits.
>
> Certainly not but it's definitely more prevalent in the
> Variety Hits format than in any other format (since Variety
> is the most unfocused thing ever).
>


When I was let go (from a station that was top 5 25-54 and was flipping to
"Jack")..I was told that they were more interested in 18-34's..why aren't we hearing about that demo??

 

[Jay_F]

Re: Variety Hits

> > > That is not exclusive to Variety Hits.
> >
> > Certainly not but it's definitely more prevalent in the
> > Variety Hits format than in any other format (since
> Variety
> > is the most unfocused thing ever).
> >
>
>
> When I was let go (from a station that was top 5 25-54 and
> was flipping to
> "Jack")..I was told that they were more interested in
> 18-34's..why aren't we hearing about that demo??
>


The music on Jack seems far more targeted to 25-54 than 18-34. Did you work at an oldies station? If so, instead of telling you they were interested in 18-34, they should have said "We are concerned our oldies audience will age out of 25-54 in the near future, we feel Jack will appeal to the heart of 25-54 instead of the upper end of the demo".