K-Love coming to WRQQ 97.1 Belle Meade 7/16/2012

[TheBigA]

I've wondered for years why more "commercial" stations with all their consultants, research and answers to everything, don't attempt to steal some of the NPR ideas.

I don't know what numbers you're looking at, but the average age of the NPR audience nationally is about ten years older than commercial stations.

 

[Kent]

I don't know what numbers you're looking at, but the average age of the NPR audience nationally is about ten years older than commercial stations.

Correct. I've been told, however, that the biggest reason for that is so many schools still mandate their stations play classical music in some dayparts. The audience is almost entirely over 55 while the talk programming skews younger and does a much better job at getting underwriters on board.

 

[TheBigA]

The audience is almost entirely over 55 while the talk programming skews younger and does a much better job at getting underwriters on board.

If it's younger, it's not by much. But yes, it appeals to their funders and members who have money and support public broadcasting.

 

[Tibbs4]

<Footnote: Pretty much the same audience mark-keaters called agencies don't mark-keat too... ;D

 

[onetake]

NPR stations haven't played classical music on their main signals for years. I'm referring to talk programming in drive time mostly. The depth of news reporting. Heck in Nashville you don't find many stations doing much news anyway. There is a big void of information as the hits just keep on comin'

I apologize for starting and letting this thread drift from the original focus, but if you have a banker or financial planner in his 40s, don't be surprised if a preset is on WPLN as an alternative during drive times. Same for real estate brokers, buyers at Macy's and health care execs.


Forbes and Fortune magazine skew older than US and People but they rake in more revenue because that's where the audience is that runs the economy.
The big agencies note the country is aging. Fox tv network's median age is now over 40. CW's overall median age is near 40. Just happens.
Clearly if a responder is thinking WPLN is playing the Nashville Symphony's greatest hits, they haven't listed lately. And I'm not plugging this format at the expense of others. I don't get locked into knowing about only one format. I'm a radio junkie and keep up with the total picture and just meant to point out that the NPR audience is more significant than most, even many in the business realize. You helped me make the point.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm a radio junkie and keep up with the total picture and just meant to point out that the NPR audience is more significant than most, even many in the business realize. You helped me make the point.

The audience for K-Love formatted stations is also very significant, and typically has much younger demos. Yet the company prefers the non-commercial approach, and that's part of its appeal. Same with NPR. A commercial NPR station might not attract the same audience as the non-commercial one.

 

[Kent]

NPR stations haven't played classical music on their main signals for years.

When I hear "main signals," I think of digital subchannels. NPR stations moving classical exclusively to digital subchannels has been rare. It is true that some NPR stations, especially those not directly owned by a university, have bought other stations and moved classical there. The Nashville example is WPLN buying WRVU, which promptly went all classical as WFCL. Most university owned outlets, however, continue to air classical in middays and afterhours, and they've had little choice as administrators continue to mandate classical music while their budgets have been cut. There have been other schools, including UT-Chattanooga, that have taken to offering other forms of music as some universities have relaxed their classical music requirements to allow for music discovery.

I apologize for starting and letting this thread drift from the original focus, but if you have a banker or financial planner in his 40s, don't be surprised if a preset is on WPLN as an alternative during drive times. Same for real estate brokers, buyers at Macy's and health care execs.

I'm sure a large percentage of luxury cars also have WPLN as a preset. You're also correct that the country is aging. Fully half of all purchases are by people over 55 now. The average BMW owner, by the way, is nearly 50. However, that hasn't changed the philosophy of advertisers. If anything, it's made them think the original cutoff age of 54 was set too old, and more and more of them are saying no 50+ buys.

 

[TheBigA]

However, that hasn't changed the philosophy of advertisers. If anything, it's made them think the original cutoff age of 54 was set too old, and more and more of them are saying no 50+ buys.

One thing we've seen is this is restricted to RADIO advertisers. Very different rules for TV.

So it puts radio into a Catch 22, where its listeners are aging, and its advertisers want younger demos.

 

[onetake]

Good points guys. I'm sure that WLAC and WWTN would give anything to have anybody from WPLN switch to them. It's not just the numbers or the demos but major markets win a lot of arguments by quality of listers (zip code/income/etc). Look at the rates for Nashville magazine. Note the number of first class free magazines like NStyle that work because they deliver the cash crowd. YOu show me an audience who has money and there are buyers. WPLN bores me actually. But a smart CEO and district manager isn't looking at political theater of Sean Hannity of other dramatized shows to get worked up over on the way home.

Let's forget ratings and look at how the revenue is. I'm seeing in market after market radio sales people just not really knowing much about sales. It's cheaper to put an attractive "who could say no to her" sales rep calling on Buntin or Bohan making deals for 3 or 4 stations in a cluster and doing more listening than talking. The agency will lecture radio people on how dreadful the product is, how the internet is the future, and how nothing after 6pm matters weekdays or anything on weekends matters. It's as old as the car salesman and their games and radio is too afraid to disagree.

Reguarding old buying habits we could say the same about retail and newspaper. While grocery and department stores still "must have" print and inserts they're rethinking based on facts a lot of old theories.
I don't know if D T McCall is really set in their ways or if a Tennessean salesperson should be in the Advertising Hall of Fame but when I see a 4 page insert in the A section of the newspaper every week i think of the wasted dollars.
Talk to someone who just had a death in the family and check the current ad rates for obituaries. You're looking around $400 a day for a 3 inch or so listing. Decreasing circulation. Higher rates. I'll never understand why radio didn't train it's people better to defend and sell radio. Some of these print folks talk a lot of folks out of a lot of money.