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Hello Board! How Does One Measure the Success of a Syndicated Show?

F

fourseasons

Hello Board!

I'm completing my project on program syndication. And was wondering--how does one measure whether or not a syndicated show is successful?

(1) Track ratings/share during the show's aired daypart;
(2) Track show's call volume;
(3) ....

After idea two, I'm stuck! :) Any additional thoughts as to how to measure this?

Thank you Board.
 
fourseasons said:
Hello Board!

I'm completing my project on program syndication. And was wondering--how does one measure whether or not a syndicated show is successful?

(1) Track ratings/share during the show's aired daypart;
(2) Track show's call volume;
(3) ....

After idea two, I'm stuck! :) Any additional thoughts as to how to measure this?

Thank you Board.
Click to expand...


From who's perspective?

For the Syndicator's its revenue.

From a Station's point of view, its the bottom line after expenses bewteen doing it locally or doing it syndicated - with secondary success as if it maintains, outperforms or underperforms the rest of the station's ratings, which clearly has an impact on the bottom line first noted.
 
[/quote]


From who's perspective?

For the Syndicator's its revenue. Is this dependent upon how well the account execs sell the show?

From a Station's point of view, its the bottom line after expenses bewteen doing it locally or doing it syndicated - with secondary success as if it maintains, outperforms or underperforms the rest of the station's ratings, which clearly has an impact on the bottom line first noted.
[/quote]This makes a lot of sense. Gotcha!

The_X_Man_Cometh said:
Whether it is a "player" in the local/ regional/ national conversation? Not all success is measured in dollars, is it? I like your thinking XMan, but does the station and syndicator take this into concern? And how does one accurately "know" if a syndicated personality is a local/regional/nat'l player, anyhow? Curious to hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, fourseasons, and I am going to crib from a little1 comment on the thread entitled "The Ticket, ESPN & The Fan"

"And the Ticket gets a bad rap IMHO. They cover sports when there's sports to be covered, but they also realize that water cooler talk is about the [G]ramm[y]s, the Oscars, TV shows, etc...

People may not like the sports/non sports mix they are throwing out there, but it's been damn succesful. They were the top billing station in the market a couple of years back, and IIRC, they're still in the top handful of stations, so SOMEONE (like thousands of listeners) likes what they're doing..."

I'm not in radio, but I do recall years ago when stations (maybe even syndicators) would do call-out surveys and play snippets of music. Would anyone do that kind of call-out research in connection with sports/talk radio? I have no idea. I do know that CBS Television finally caved in and went along with the Google dream of putting snippets of CBS' programming on YouTube. Seems to be working quite well. Type in "David Letterman 2010" on the YouTube browser line, and check out the large number of views.

I think I have read where shows like All in the Family, Cheers, Hill Street Blues, Scrubs, and Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe struggled to get numbers for awhile. The difference back then was that the programming chiefs either a) decided or b) were very much persuaded audiences would find these programs. They were correct, and on a massive scale. Now...try to imagine the television landscape without them?

Okay, back to radio so I can avoid going to TIO...

My perception has been something like that Field of Dreams quote: "If you build it, they will come." KVIL built it. So did KSCS. So did KPLX. KISS, The Eagle, and much more recently, KLNO and The Ticket. My apologies if I am leaving out your powerhouse favorite from days gone by. The point here is, they didn't cave. They had a plan, they believed in it, everybody up and down the line bought into it, they kept developing it, and the audience eventually showed up in highly enviable numbers

At the end of the day, and I think I have said this elsewhere, the common wisdom these days is: talent and programs no longer currently don't have the luxury of developing while the audience finds them. Shorter and shorter PPM trends seem to rapidly seal the fate of a lot of radio on-air people. And that's really a shame, because some of them just needed time for their audience to discover them. In the good old days, didn't it take 3 or more 'books' to show a trend, whether it was upward, downward, or merely maintaining your audience share?

Can the landscape improve? Absolutely. You need a station owner who doesn't have enormous financial pressure to pay that massive monthly nut, because he didn't overpay for a radio station/group. Further, you need an experienced GM who knows his market and can delegate all the proper authority to his GSM and his PD. Even if your AE's are selling it well, you still need.....patience. And a Chinese Wall between sales and the on-air product.

My .02 Your results may differ.
 
Production_Closet said:
Never use call volume as an indicator for success. Show hosts are FULL of themselves and even if the call boards are jammed they will still talk past the moment. Then all the relevant callers points are then mute. Ive seen it time and again some "yackmaster extroidinaire" opens a can of worms then the lines blow up but they continue to expel hot air. The next segment starts up and all the callers hang up or the host moves on and never takes the calls. Then you have the show that takes every call that's "relevant" to fogging up a mirror and not anywhere near what the host is talking about.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...If you also add the host(s) have ADD then it sounds like: ERNIE AND JAY! ;D

-BGH
 
little1 said:
number of affiliates signed up/lost?

revenue made by the syndicator?
Click to expand...


Hello Four season,

Being a syndicator, I can relate to this one.

1) The more affiliates you have (and the better the DMA's) the better off the show will be.

My show will be on the radio 15 years as of December 2010. I will be syndicated 10 years this June 1. For three of those years I DID NOT HAVE AN AFFILIATE IN DALLAS! I do again, but in the meantime I had 40+ radio stations across the country to keep me on the air.

Its also a numbers game. The more affiliates you have the less likely you can get hurt. Have only one station, your at the whim of your PD at anytime. You have 150 stations but three go spanish and you make it up down the line.

And you get into some neat places. Last March I picked up a station in Guam and two in the Mariellis Islands! Still saving up my flight miles for a remote! :p

If you get to a certain point the Ad people start showing up and want to buy time. Kim Komando got that going about 5 years ago. They have everything on from Radio Shack to Campbell soup!

2) You got to have money to keep it going and to pay your staff. Apart from a show stations you want to pick up and listeners want to follow. The stations like to see good ratings. You have to have a strong sales staff and your support staff as well.

Most of all someone who wants to sell the show and is strong at doing it is VERY HARD to find!

Hope this helps,

-BGH
 
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