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Credibility

T

turnitupnow

We see it after every rating book is released. There is enough data for everybody it seems to be #1 somewhere and often the result is industry credibility seems questionable with exaggerated claims.
So there is a lawsuit now against a station called WAY FM in metro Nashville. Mostly nobody over 24 listens to it and their "sponsorships" (it's supposed to be a commerical free christian station) are aimed at parents and organizations thrilled their kids aren't being corrupted by rock stations and feeling safer with keeping a Christian for teens station on the air with their support. WAY FM has been claiming weekly audience of 100,000 for some time in sales pieces and on the website. An administration assistant claims she got into a jam when she called to the management's attention the audience is not much more than 50,000 weekly. She got fired. Now she's suing the station. Data is based on Scarborough research.
But in the big picture more advertisers could be skeptical of all our claims. Nobody has the time or energy to figure out where the facts stop and the spin starts when it comes to sales smooze.
Do you blame advertisers for increasingly selling radio short?
 
Might that come under the category "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see"?
 
Wow, you really have a lot of discussion questions here...

1. As someone who listens to WAY FM sometimes, I can tell you that your breakdown of "mostly nobody over 24 listens to it" is incorrect. In my observation, there's a lot of children, younger teens, and young to median adults (especially parents) who listen to it. Whoops, did I leave out what some people seem to think is their primary target market, older teens? Nope, cause while there are some who do listen, most teenagers seeking to listen to Christian music seem to want the harder-edged music they're playing on WNAZ. That's where I think WAY needs to retool or identify their audience a little differently.

2. There's so much leeway in interpreting numbers, I would think someone would have a tough time winning a case like this.

3. It's not necessarily advertisers who should be skeptical of radio's claims, it's advertisers and radio that should be skeptical of the research firms' numbers. I mean, think about how they come up with those... there's just way too much margin for error and human intervention (aka lying). Face it, the people who radio/advertisers most want to reach, the people with the money, are far too busy earning said money to take part in long surveys and diary-keeping. And don't even begin to ask me to carry around a PPM. Case in point: I deal with or have friends among a lot of company executives, CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc. Most are male and most tune their radios to 104.5, because most of them really like sports or because some of them went to school with George. But you're never going to get any of these busy execs to be part of a radio research firm's sample. As a result, Zone salespeople should be able to tell advertisers about the audience they have but can't measure, or even find a way to get a guesstimate. And a lot of times their would-be advertisers know it's true, because they are listening too.

4. Advertisers aren't to blame for increasingly selling radio short. It's the people in between advertisers and radio who are at fault: media buyers and advertising account managers. These are the people who should be the laughingstock of the industry. I'd love having a board similar to radio-info but about the local ad scene, where I could log on and make fun of the boneheaded things media buyers and account managers do. And believe me, I have stories. Why do advertisers trust those people? From my experience, advertisers know far more about reaching their audience than media buyers and account managers. Advertisers! Hear me! Work directly with the media with which you wish to advertise! You'll get more for your money and better results!
 
Yes...but...

When was the last time any radio station sold itself to underwriters/advertisers using a broad cume figure?

Hey...over 100,000 people a week listened to a rimshot station I programmed one time...it's share was about a 2.5 and we were #15 in the market.

I'm not saying cume isn't a good figure to know, but I wouldn't try selling with it.
 
Talk about credibility ...how about a jock saying in her bio " Now every morning when I drive past one of her houses on Crockett Road in Brentwood, taking my kid to school, I always give it a wink!" Lisa notes one of the great things about being in Nashville was becoming a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Davidson County..... '" Long drive from Dallas every day! What do you tell a client that wants her to do a remote?
My point is NO credibility....
 
ShadowB said:
Talk about credibility ...how about a jock saying in her bio " Now every morning when I drive past one of her houses on Crockett Road in Brentwood, taking my kid to school, I always give it a wink!" Lisa notes one of the great things about being in Nashville was becoming a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Davidson County..... '" Long drive from Dallas every day! What do you tell a client that wants her to do a remote?
My point is NO credibility....
Click to expand...

That bio is tailored to the city wherever she's on the air. Stations would be far more credible to utilize out-of-towners as a network host.
 
jetfli said:
ShadowB said:
Talk about credibility ...how about a jock saying in her bio " Now every morning when I drive past one of her houses on Crockett Road in Brentwood, taking my kid to school, I always give it a wink!" Lisa notes one of the great things about being in Nashville was becoming a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Davidson County..... '" Long drive from Dallas every day! What do you tell a client that wants her to do a remote?
My point is NO credibility....
Click to expand...

That bio is tailored to the city wherever she's on the air. Stations would be far more credible to utilize out-of-towners as a network host.
Click to expand...

Is that something like saying she couldn't make it in journalism in a small to midsized market, so she applied for a job in a smaller market playing music?
 
jetfli said:
That bio is tailored to the city wherever she's on the air. Stations would be far more credible to utilize out-of-towners as a network host.
Click to expand...

Lisa lived and worked in Nashville, just as her bio says.
 
And her bio also says "Now every morning when I drive past one of her houses on Crockett Road in Brentwood, taking my kid to school..." she doesn't live in Nashville NOW.
 
So what? I wasn't aware there was a residency requirement to do radio. That same bio has been on that web site for years. It also says she's the "newest member" of the staff. That's definitely not true. They simply haven't updated their web site in a while. There's a big difference between a dated bio and falsifying your numbers. Only one is a crime.
 
Hummmm? Sounds like picking on something to complain.. The consortium will let non-coms use basic information (not specific)... If Way is put to task, then every NPR and other non-com group who gets these raw data numbers will be put to task... This has been done for around 15 years and I would love to see the blush on the face of those who doubt either figure... 50k or 100k... Underwriting on WNAZ and WAYM have been within the legal limits of the rules since I worked in the market.. Remember that other 501(c)3's/non-profit groups are allowed to purchase CALL TO ACTION on non-coms.... It's been that way since for many moons.... Sounds like a soured ex-employee.... Bottom line, the station gets great support and has inched in a better signal as time has gone on... Geez? I remember 16,000 coming to a Way event with The Sounds (Baseball) and many a concert that was soley a Way event drawing near or over 10k... That would tell me the audience is quite larger than most non CCM listeners would think.... I think some Lightning 100 fans might concure that the Way would have an equal or greater reach with a non-com in Nash-Vegas.... After 17 years in the market, a former employee throws an odd suit... It's the society we live in...
 
I find stations with no ratings claim ratings are bogus. Stations with just ok numbers start talking demos. And stations with success don't have to say anything. Everybody knows they own it.
Everybody knows somebody who listens to some station and that supposedly makes their opinion more valid than researchers. Listen on my iphone there is a program I use all the time. I can hold it up to a speaker and in 5 seconds it will tell me accurately the song playing. Ratings aren't perfect but in trending they are what people rely on.
This will be an easy lawsuit IF the rating company pursues it. WAY claims one audience estimate. You must document your source. The rating services says their real audience has fallen to about half what they claim. They didn't update their sales material and apparently fired an employee for questioning their integrity. That's the lawsuit. It's a small station so some would say "it doesn't matter."
 
I think my old G-M in Houston said it best," when the numbers are good, it's an exact book. When the numbers are bad...obviously the reporters did it wrong. We were #-1 in Houston by the way.
 
olebud said:
I think my old G-M in Houston said it best," when the numbers are good, it's an exact book. When the numbers are bad...obviously the reporters did it wrong. We were #-1 in Houston by the way.
Click to expand...

Buddy, I think you nailed the "HUMAN NATURE" of radio, right on the head...... I know Non-Com CCM's don't mean much of anything to the commercial world...... It really comes down to what side of the tracks you're on... Seriously, Way are some of the most consistant people you'll ever meet... They build out well and hire very talented people in their 'relm'.... I don't think they would be offended by critics who would never look at them as a player, though they are in their 'relm'..... We all live in our spheres and see things from that center point of the axis... Nothing more or less... 22 years of success within that format is something, for the folks in that portion and niche of radio....
 
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