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New York April 2024 PPM

For fifteen or so years at least, this former radio person (DJ, PD, news, MD of 4 different genres) has been asking why .... or maybe HOW ..... society has come to require so many forms and upgrades of diversion (while driving that's 'intrusion' or 'distraction').
I'm really not old enough to remember when homes had a just two radios (a hand-me-down console, and some greasy squawker in the kitchen) and cars had nothing but a gas pedal and a motor. But now we have to know (screech) what's going on (swerve) every daydreaming minute (crash, tinkle) of the day.
There's thorough overload on the radio dials. NYC has over a hundred signals (counting HD's) considered 'local' by Radio-Locator. And what seems like five formats being programmed on them.
Maybe it's just the demos on radio boards. Or perhaps the consumer climate over the years considers these new gadgets with aplomb or compensation far more advanced than previous generations' communication instincts.
We'll stick with things like conversation and domestic enterprises at home. And more of the same in the car. Living as though the world is black-and-white instead of myriad shades of technicolor is also less expensive.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Were there ever royalties on the chips and technology required for AM or FM broadcasts?
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As I previously said, stations that add HD services have to pay for a license to broadcast in HD, and buy HD equipment which also pays a license fee.

Makers of radios with HD buy chips that are make by fabs that have paid license fees to make the receiver chips.
Theater of My Mind said:
The digital system approved by the FCC should have likewise been open source and royalty free.
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There was no incentive to develop a "free" system unless the government had subsidized its development. Who else would have financed the development with no return on that investment?
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Were there ever royalties on the chips and technology required for AM or FM broadcasts?
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Yes. FM was a trademark technology owned by the Armstrong estate. They continued to charge for the use of FM until the patent ran out in 1965. That year the estate settled a lawsuit with RCA, and didn't renew their patent.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Just because someone has an older car doesn't mean they aren't streaming. There are lots of inexpensive aftermarket head units for those older cars that support easy connectivity to your phone. Chances are a high percentage of those people are streaming ad-supported Spotify and the like, though.
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You are not aware that many lower income people and households used low cost data-restricted services or government subsidized cellular services? And they are not technically inclined and are afraid to mess with the wiring of their car?

And they can't afford Spotify, either.
 
DavidEduardo said:
You are not aware that many lower income people and households used low cost data-restricted services or government subsidized cellular services? And they are not technically inclined and are afraid to mess with the wiring of their car?

And they can't afford Spotify, either.
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Sure but you can't paint all owners of older cars with that brush. I own a car old enough to qualify for an antique plate and I installed a head unit with Android Audo/Carplay into it. Even Walmart sells them. Easy peasy.

Honestly, the argument about half the cars on the road being too old to support any technology newer than AM/FM radio, driven by people who can't afford a cell phone plan capable of streaming free Spotify, just seems like wishful thinking from the radio C-suite spin room.

Not saying there aren't people out there like that, but they aren't in the majority. And are they really the people that broadcasters want to target anyway?
 
DavidEduardo said:
Very rarely do agencies buy based on cume. While cume may be considered for R&F analysis, the key is rating (which is, of course, the same as share and AQH persons). So most ad buys have a goal expressed in GRIPs (Gross Ratings Points), they don't even look at cume as a measure.

Cume does not show how many people hear each spot.
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Cume is how many people come into the store. Quarter hour is how many people buy something.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm not saying they have "great" revenue. My view is its a different demo to sell in a cluster that mainly leans older and male.

What I heard about WPLJ is they were getting killed by the competition in a market where agencies rule.
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In other words, the lion's share of ad revenue aimed toward a white female demographic was going to iHM, yes? Lite and Z100 are a powerful tandem!

Pretty hard for Cumulus to compete with that. Plus, Lite and Z100 were (and still are) very popular stations among various other demographics, too.

Pairing country on 94.7 with hot AC on 95.5 made sense given what Cumulus had to work with.

When Scott was shown the door at 95.5, I bet a decent chunk of ad $$$ left, too.
 
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Weiserguy said:
What David should have written was median age, where half the cars on the road are younger than 11 years, and half are older than 11 years.
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I would have said "median" but so few people understand median, mean and other statistical terms.

But you are correct in that half of all vehicles that are registered as in use are over 11 years old.
Weiserguy said:
That takes into account that there are more vehicles on the road from recent model years, but the universe of vehicles from older model years spans a longer period of time. (Example: I happened to be parked next to an early 1950's-era van yesterday. That's a ~70 y/o vehicle.) But as you point out, averages are more subject to the vagaries of the particular samples being averaged.
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Yet there are so few of those cars that are over 20 years old on the road that they don't make up a statistically significant portion of the universe if we are looking at car radio/audio device usage and capabilities..
 
radiofollower said:
Cume is how many people come into the store. Quarter hour is how many people buy something.
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No, that is not a valid comparison.

Cume is how many people come into the store in a week. AQH share/rating/persons is how many are making a purchase right now.

Better: Cume is how many people went to the beach last summer, AQH is how many people on average were at the beach at a specific time of day on any single given day during the summer.
 
Yes, the point is that advertisers buy quarter-hour and not cume. Quarter hours are what count. Cume is more of a gauge to see if people are aware of your station.
 
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TheBigA said:
What we're talking about is a replacement for 880 AM. That replacement is the 880App.
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They need to do a better job with the 880 stream. I am getting ads in the middle of segments. Happens much more than on WINS. Saw that the ratings are now lowest ever.
 
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