Impact of Billboards in Lubbock Radio?

[DMcCloy]

It seems like for years I didn't see any billboards for Lubbock radio stations. In the last year or so I've seen at least three radio groups launch some sort of billboard campaign. You can't drive anywhere in Lubbock without seeing a 107.7 The Eagle billboard right now. There are less, but still many 97.3 Yes FM billboards. I haven't seen one in the last several months, but last fall I noticed some Kool 98 billboards. The one I saw often was a digital board near downtown. I've seen boards for the new 105.7 The Edge near the Tech area, but only a couple. That's Ramar, Townsquare and Walker. I haven't seen any for the Wilkes stations or any of the independents.

The question is, what impact is that having or will it have on ratings? We can't see 107.7's ratings, so I have no clue. 98 Kool has held steady so who knows if there was any impact. With 105.7 being so new and there only being a few boards up, I don't know if it will bring any impact there or not. Ramar seems to be the only company really pumping money into boards. Can they make enough to cover the costs of the boards?

Anyone with insight on this?

 

[DG]

The radio billboards in Lubbock are timed to the Arbitron diaries. Since Lubbock is still a diary market, and will perhaps always be one, billboards make the most sense for stations to maximize the diary shortcomings to their advantage. And Wilkes has done them in the past too- for the longest while I saw like 4 different billboards for KLLL.

Diaries don't really measure anything, so if a householder with one of them recalls the billboard rather than what they actually listened to, then badda-bing! Mission accomplished. And yes, they work. Public Radio is always under-counted with diaries (especially in Lubbock), and the one year we ran billboards for our public radio station, we saw significant increases in the numbers. And I believe stations can and do cover the costs of billboards, especially if it means a point or two in the book. Perhaps the better question to ask is, can they afford NOT to?

What is the impact? Hard to say- it's been going on for so long, I suggest the billboards ARE the ratings. The diaries are probably better at measuring how well the billboard campaigns work than actual radio listening, but I dare not upset the Arbitron Gods. The billboards are probably more effective with memory recall and thus why they are used.

I don't usually see billboard advertising for radios outside the 2 ratings periods here in Lubbock, so I'm quite confident they're trying to boost ratings numbers in the diaries.