Based on the findings in the new Jacobs Tech survey...for the first time ever...listeners may not be opposed to a third stop set in an hour. That would shorten all three. It might be worth considering.
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Big 98.1
- Thread starter AM/FMRAINMAN
- Start date
It depends on the format. Some formats have three right now. Some talk formats have four.
Wonder where I can find “recently played “ songs? Can’t find online or on wogl website.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Generally speaking, first the stream has to be encoded by the automation playback system with the metadata of title and artist. Then the stream has to be monitored by software that can extract the metadata and display same.
If a station doesn't want to encode the metadata (some don't care enough about displaying that information to bother) then even independent sites that monitor streams cannot provide that information either.
There are industry services such as Mediabase that use song recognition software on non-encoded streams (the music licensing agencies also have that capability) but those are not accessible to the general public and in the case of Mediabase subscribers are contractually forbidden to share that information beyond their own business.
So if -- for whatever reason -- WOGL doesn't want to provide that for general release, you're pretty much out of luck.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I've always done three stopsets per hour on The Eighties Channel™. If listeners perceive three shorter stops as being fewer commercials overall, it's a good counter-programming tactic for competitors in the same format with two longer stops per hour.
That is not a question you can ask listeners. You have to measure performance, and when there are three stopsets, that gives one more chance to "tune out" (what a dated expression that is!).
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Agreed, but if you split the commercial load into three shorter stopsets instead of two longer ones and don't say anything on the air about it, the odds are that the audience will perceive a lower spot load based on fewer spots running in any stop.
Of course, that strategy is less effective in PPM markets, so I wouldn't recommend it in Philly.
Good points, both.
My approach in diary markets would be "never (too) far from music" expressed in whatever the terms the station demographic will identify with.
I remember one station decades ago that ran just three spots in each of four stopsets, and said "you are never more than a hop, skip and a jump away from music". And sometimes before spot #3, they would say, "jump now and hear more music".
I thought that this was a bit too clever for most listeners, and a bit hokey, too. But it was a well rated early AC station in the 70's and I guess that language fit the listener.
Thank you all for replying! 😊 📻 🎵
The problem isn't with 6+. If they wanted to improve 6+ numbers, they'd play more 70s. The problem they have is their audience is too old.
It doesn’t tell anyone that in a single month’s wobble. 🤣
And using 6+ numbers--for a Classic Hits station, no less. Laughable.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I will say it again, because I haven't in a while:
The entire reason Nielsen makes the 6+ numbers available publicly is because they are worthless to the industry, but it gets them some media attention to keep their name in the public eye.
Anyone who thinks those numbers have any real meaning ignores the fact that the industry itself ignores them. A station's performance is judged by how it performs in its target demographic. No one other than people outside the business, posting on message boards, pays any attention to 6+ (or 12+ in diary markets). They are meaningless, and any "proclamations" such as Seltzer made only show a lack of understanding about how the ratings actually work.
Those numbers are okay for general discussion, but no one actually in radio would draw any conclusions whatsoever from them, much less cite them as "proof" of anything. (In other words, just because you, as an armchair quarterback, object to a station's changes, no one is going to accept the public numbers as showing you are correct; we're going to look at the demo breakouts ... which we pay for.)
Kind of like the numbers Wall Street hustlers (Bloomberg, etc.) make available to the public? If you want to see what the sharpies are seeing, you've got to pay up, right?
Ya get what ya pay for 😉
It looks like they went back to their playlist before the change on May 1st. They did keep a few of the songs but now it is mostly like any other classic hits station.
They probably could have given the changes a bit more time (they made no effort to reach out to potential new listeners), but they have lots of reporting at their disposal, and it must have shown that the changes weren't doing what they had hoped. Sucks for someone like me because they've now gone back to being a station I'd never bother with. But then again, I hardly ever listen to terrestrial radio anyway, so it's probably moot.
That means the music changes didn't help with the aging demo problem. If so, then the only solution is to keep cutting expenses, because income won't improve. In some markets, it's possible that the classic hits format itself will disappear if the music can't be adjusted to reach the sales demos.