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Bill Handel on the declining OTA audience and revenue for KFI.

It's one thing for knowledgeable persons on the outside of a [radio station, in this case] to speak on a sensitive topic, serious revenue decline, (however accurately). It's another thing for a [station] insider known to the public as such to speak up similarly about the same topic - thereby proving it. This adds a public perception problem. I think he'll catch a finger wag for this one!

Then again, if people tune in to listen to this guy, and he says his audience is declining, what does that say about his ability to attract an audience? Isn't that his job? The station didn't hire him to be their lawyer. They hired him to be an entertainer and get people to listen so they can sell advertising. If he's saying his audience is declining, the finger really points back to him, doesn't it?

It's like the sports team firing the manager when the team plays like crap. The manager isn't the one on the field. It's the players. They get paid top dollar to entertain. When the audience goes away, shouldn't the on-air people take some responsibility?
 
It's one thing for knowledgeable persons on the outside of a [radio station, in this case] to speak on a sensitive topic, serious revenue decline, (however accurately). It's another thing for a [station] insider known to the public as such to speak up similarly about the same topic - thereby proving it. This adds a public perception problem. I think he'll catch a finger wag for this one!

Bill’s 74 years old and has been doing mornings at KFI for 33 years. I think he sees the opportunity to tell the truth while he’s still on the inside. I seriously doubt he’s sweating a reprimand.
 
Bill’s 74 years old and has been doing mornings at KFI for 33 years. I think he sees the opportunity to tell the truth while he’s still on the inside. I seriously doubt he’s sweating a reprimand.
And he basically said that half his AM listeners now use podcasts. He has as many listeners, but they seek him out in a different manner
 
And he basically said that half his AM listeners now use podcasts. He has as many listeners, but they seek him out in a different manner

He also said "we’re told that the listeners have moved over there and we have just as many listeners. Well, I don’t know because they’re really not measured."

How long has he been in radio? He thinks podcast listening isn't measured. He's wrong. It's more accurate than broadcast measurements.
 
It's more accurate than broadcast measurements.
Not really. While streaming data is very precise in sheer numbers. However, it lacks in a lot of areas. First, it is very imprecise as to demographics as it does not "know" who is listening; anyone sharing the same ISP provider in a home or even a dormitory might be listening And it has no way of knowing that the person who selected a stream is still listening. They may have selected a program, but then went away from the compute or phone or Alexa unit, leaving the stream running with nobody listening.

The classic case is the user who selects an audio source online to leave on at the house or apartment all day to calm the dog or cat... or to show thieves there was someone home. A nice 10 hours of listening by nobody.
 
We're talking about podcasts, not streaming. Podcast servers report how many people downloaded it, and how long they listened.
As I said, it does not show if the full show was listened to or by whom among the people using the same ISP.
My point is that Handel thinks podcast listening isn't measured. He's wrong.
That is true. But perhaps he asked about demographics and the like and was told that there are none. Some podcasts do require sign-ins, but that still does not show if the whole show was listened to or whether a household shares a user ID.


Just as radio ratings are based on projecting a sample, streaming measurements have errors based on the factors I described.
 
I know some podcast host sites provide analytics that show a minute-by-minute breakdown of retention. Apple Podcast Analytics dows this. I would think a radio station putting its morning show replay on a podcast would have access to this data in house.
 
I know some podcast host sites provide analytics that show a minute-by-minute breakdown of retention. Apple Podcast Analytics dows this. I would think a radio station putting its morning show replay on a podcast would have access to this data in house.

They likely do. Handel just doesn't seem to know about it.
 


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