MAY PPM

[Jay F]

Top 5 25-54
KWID-KMXB-KOMP-KKLZ-KVEG

The station that jumps out on this list is HOT 97.5. It is surprising (and impressive) for a station that sounds so young to be doing this well in adults.

KOMP had an outstanding month, I believe their best of the PPM era.

NOW FM was up in May. It looks like going jockless in the morning helped. Maybe the attacks on KLUC worked (although I don't recall when they first started doing it). Also, their music is more focused.. More familiar and hit oriented...less rock music than when Ed first took over.

After gaining for a few months, KVGS had a setback in May. KXTE is back to being the top alternative. If the ratings stay at this level I wonder if Beasley will flip formats on 107.9?

Any other thoughts about the May PPM?

 

[Pinegroves]

Hey Jay F. What about The Coyote topping KWNR on most demographics. Leave it to Clear Channel to turn a once powerful entity into a less than average station.

 

[pestoutwest]

KWID is a monster that can't be stopped or so it seems. Their cume is ok but their TSL is through the roof...double almost triple anyone elses here in town. If you look back at the first few months of PPM in Las Vegas the Point had a similar situation and was pulling crazy #'s and they have since evened back out into reality.

KOMP has been floating around the 5th, 6th, and 7th positon for awhile but last month they saw a nice kiss...were they running any sort of new station wide promotions?

NOW is a joke. It had some real heat before it got run into the ground. Poor Elvis, should have know better than to work with Ed again. NOW will always a 3rd rate station behind KLUC and HOT.

KVGS isn't long for the world sadly. It just doesn't bill. When Beasley takes over their programming in 60 or so days I wouldn't be surprised if they went after Sunny and Mix. It's the smart move considering Beasleys current portfolio of stations. Knocking a half a share off of both of those would make KKLZ and The Oasis close to #1 and #2 which would be a great combo to sell...I don't know how much of the audience would return to KXTE though...a share tops...maybe?

The real intersting thing is that Arbitron just announced is the new 360 PPM today that doesn't need a docking station or a special communications hub. It's not cell phone sampling yet but it's a start. I wonder if this will help with finding people in the younger demos that are currently undersampled.

 

[davideduardo]

The real intersting thing is that Arbitron just announced is the new 360 PPM today that doesn't need a docking station or a special communications hub. It's not cell phone sampling yet but it's a start. I wonder if this will help with finding people in the younger demos that are currently undersampled.

All the hoopla about the new PPM devices is to some extent exaggerated. While the devices are of a more graceful and colorful, they are pretty much the same size and require the same effort to carry. Arbitron has achieved pretty good cellphone only household participation using docks that have cellphone attachments or by installing landlines for the dock, so the issue is not CPO's. And the 18-34 DDI's have increased, albeit slowly, to target levels so "younger demos" are not significantly undersampled. So I really doubt that the new design will do much beyond the purpose stated some time ago, which is to send the data more often to Arbitron, which will enable them to eventually create new revenue sources by providing nearly instantaneous measurement.

 

[davideduardo]

KWID is a monster that can't be stopped or so it seems. Their cume is ok but their TSL is through the roof...double almost triple anyone elses here in town. If you look back at the first few months of PPM in Las Vegas the Point had a similar situation and was pulling crazy #'s and they have since evened back out into reality.

The Spanish language numbers for Las Vegas are the least reliable of any PPM market as Las Vegas is the only significant Hispanic market that does not have Nielsen language preference data, the basis for Arbitron's language balance and weighting.

 

[Organizer]

"...which will enable [Arbitron] to eventually create new revenue sources." I'm glad you put it that way, David, because that's about the only thing Arbitron does extremely well. PPM may have been a big step forward for the ratings business, but the same cannot be said for radio. On the contrary, PPM has contributed to the deterioration of quality radio by further trivializing the role of local, live air personalities and making them that much more expendable. Across the country, stations that were (and still are) unlistenable 18 months ago, are suddenly in the top five with no signficant changes in programming and even fewer live personalities. To embrace this way of doing things is to admit that radio as we know and love it is finished, and will be reduced to that thing in the dashboard that no one uses any more.

 

[Santos]

I don't think the 360 that Arbitron announced is going to change the current issues with PPM.

KWID is doing very well, which is a good thing. It is betting the Spanish competitors, and that is due to "consistency" in format. KISF and KQRT are in a big war for the Regional Mexican crown of Las Vegas.

Just remember that Spanish is a language, not a format, so there is more room for formats in this market.

We will see how things go next month in the ratings, but so far, June Week 1, KWID looks good.

 

[davideduardo]

"...which will enable [Arbitron] to eventually create new revenue sources." I'm glad you put it that way, David, because that's about the only thing Arbitron does extremely well. PPM may have been a big step forward for the ratings business, but the same cannot be said for radio. On the contrary, PPM has contributed to the deterioration of quality radio by further trivializing the role of local, live air personalities and making them that much more expendable. Across the country, stations that were (and still are) unlistenable 18 months ago, are suddenly in the top five with no signficant changes in programming and even fewer live personalities. To embrace this way of doing things is to admit that radio as we know and love it is finished, and will be reduced to that thing in the dashboard that no one uses any more.

Arbitron is in business to make money. So are commercial radio stations.

If Arbitron's profitable PPM service shows conclusively that listeners defect when announcers talk too much or talk about the wrong things, then why would stations want to continue to do what listeners prefer they stop doing?

When politicians in major campaigns prepare speeches, they often test them with a cross section of voters and have these "panelists" score the speech moment by moment with a dial or other electronic gizmo. They then adapt the speech to get the most positive response and to highlight the issues with most interest. The PPM in radio is the same thing... it's just a kind of reality that we did not understand a few years ago.

The radio that I know and love gives listeners what they want.

 

[Organizer]

The very nature of PPM precludes it from ever showing anything "conclusively." It only shows that radios were on, which may or may not be a reflection that anyone was consciously listening to them. There is absolutely nothing "conclusive" about it. It allows programmers with virtually no skills the opportunity to "game the system" by gearing programming to trigger PPM responses instead of offering substantive programming people will actually listen to, tell their friends about, and come back to. That's the point I was making about mish-mash, nondescript formats suddenly doing so well everywhere. A store or other place of business is more likely to have bland, background-friendly 'radio' playing (if they still use radios), and then that station gets the same credit as if an avid listener was at the other end. It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

Many of you appear to have faith in PPM. I agree with a philosopher who said "Faith is not wanting to know what is true."

 

[GeneSavage]

Another challenge to what PPM is really telling you is clear in monitoring internet radio listening.

You can clearly see that a significant number of people shut off the stream at a specific time, during "Flavor Of The Week - Bland Pop Song."

Obviously, a significant number of people don't like that song, or are tired of it... right?

...Except, "FOTW - BPS" played at 5 minutes after 5 pm... when those listening at work typically shut off their computers & head home for the day.

As is true with most research, the raw data is accurate... how we choose to interpret that data may be flawed.

If someone is doing a great bit & I'm at my destination, I may leave the radio on long enough to hear the punchline & then shut it off as the song starts. Others may have been cranking their favorite song after they got to their destination, & shut it off as soon as a voice started.

Based on that, was the bit a good or bad idea? Is the song played afterward hot or burnt? Did I listen to the song before the bit because I like it or because they plugged a funny bit coming up after the song?

These are the questions PPM CAN"T answer, and yet the industry (RADIO, not Arbitron) is trying to force it to tell us exactly that.

PPM only tells us when it a radio is audible; it cannot tell us what those in earshot think of what they're hearing. We as an industry would do good to keep our brains engaged when looking at the PPM numbers.

 

[pestoutwest]

There are programs out there that allow you to see where people are changing their tuner to...you can see what station they tuned into while leaving the other...but if they just stopped receiving the signal there are two choices when it goes silent, they got to where they were going and turned off their car or they turned on their iPod or CD player...if the tune out comes at the end of a bit or song then that tells me they stuck around to hear the end then got of their car. The sample sizes are so small it's kinda hard to take seriously though. It's certainly interesting though

 

[Organizer]

As usual, Jerry nails it: http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/

 

[davideduardo]

There are programs out there that allow you to see where people are changing their tuner to...you can see what station they tuned into while leaving the other...but if they just stopped receiving the signal there are two choices when it goes silent, they got to where they were going and turned off their car or they turned on their iPod or CD player...if the tune out comes at the end of a bit or song then that tells me they stuck around to hear the end then got of their car. The sample sizes are so small it's kinda hard to take seriously though. It's certainly interesting though

I don't quite know where to start.

How about "they got to where they were going and turned off their car..." For starters, most radio listening does not take place in the car. It takes place at home and at work... just about 70% in fact is not in-car listening.

Here are some reasons why a person stops listening to the radio, in no special order: they went to bed, they were carrying the PPM and went into a room or area with no radio, they got to work where radios are not allowed, they took the kids to the bus stop and carried the PPM, they left for work and forgot the PPM, they turned on the TV, they played a computer game, they listened to music, they went on a trip and the PPM did not go with them...

The sample size can not be dismissed as too small for several reasons. First, radio pays for ratings so that they have a sales tool... and there is a finite amount stations can afford. The current PPM service is about 60% more costly than the diary methodology. Arbitron will expand samples if all stations will jointly pay, which they probably will not do. Second, the PPM service is a panel-based methodology and can't be compared with a separate new sample each week. The daily and weekly samples are actually much higher than in the diary, so there are several ways to look at this.

Looking at single tune ins / turn ons and tune outs / turn offs is not good no matter what the sample size. There are too many variables. If you see that, using a silly example, that there is defection every time the morning people do horoscopes, day after day, week after week, then it is likely that horoscopes are a bad idea (duh!). But a single play of a song or a single stopset is not reason for drastic action.

Rememember, the PPM gives credit based on an edit rule that can fill in missing minutes in a sequence among other things... and stations do not necessarily insert PPM codes at the precise interval the system is capable of, due to the masking requirements of the encoder. Managing content on a second by second basis with a tool that is primarily intended to be a sales aid can be dangerous.

 

[GeneSavage]

Managing content on a second by second basis with a tool that is primarily intended to be a sales aid can be dangerous.

David, you & I agree COMPLETELY.

It's unfortunate that it appears a number of stations are considering doing exactly that.

 

[Santos]

I agree David... 100%