November 2021 Bay Area Radio PPM Ratings

[Alan Smithee]

^ TOO many. KITS went from worst to first in 1986-87. Now they've gone from worst in one way to worst in a different way. Nice that they've kept the call letters though.

I'd love for one of those "research" people to take a car ride with me and see what makes me change stations the fastest.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

People born in the '80s, in general, didn't develop strong musical preferences until the '90s -- or even the '00s for those born in the last couple of years of the '80s. A station heavy on '70s and '80s music today would have most of its P1 listeners in their 50s and 60s.

Thats true people born in the 80's in the reply. I know people who are at the young end GenX/Old End Millenials including myself would lean on the late 1990's -early 2000's preferences for music and I initially joked about the 2000's and oldies as an oxymoron a decade ago but that is bound to be in talks for the next 5-10 years on how much of the 2000's will qualify as oldies.

There's a term for people born in the early '80s who don't feel like a millennial or a Gen Xer. Here's everything we know about it.

Xennials are a "micro-generation," sandwiched in between generations X and Y. Here are some key facts about this demographic's mindset.

www.businessinsider.com

Are you a Xennial? How to tell if you're the microgeneration between Gen X and Millennial

Xennials are stuck between Generation X and Millenials and experienced technology in unique ways because of their age.

www.usatoday.com

https://www.theringer.com/year-in-review/2021/12/31/22860610/millennials-zoomers-gen-z-same-generation-olivia-rodrigo

I remember this article over the weekend and I get the writer has a point but the article is pointing out a transition point between Young end millennials and Old End Gen Z born between late 1990's-early 2000's. Their awareness of musical preferences came out between 2008-present.

She may well be the next Taylor Swift. She may well be a generational talent. But which generation are we talking about here? It’s surprisingly easy to discuss Sour at length without stumbling upon any hints of departure from millennial culture. On some level, the album marks the broader advancement of Generation Z into adulthood. The critics engaged with the idea of zoomer succession in pop culture clearly expect to see some great clash. Writing for The Washington Post, Molly Roberts, a millennial, describes Rodrigo as “a new avatar” in “the war among generations” despite her own pertinent observation about Sour: “We recognize ourselves in the music.” This isn’t a coincidence or a testament to universal appeal. Olivia Rodrigo is a Swiftie with Riot! characteristics. She doesn’t sound particularly interested in creative emancipation from her forebears. She doesn’t seek out or represent any sort of generational break in popular music. In fact, she sounds rather determined to sound how pop radio has played since I—a critic twice her age—was in high school.

 

[davideduardo]

^ TOO many. KITS went from worst to first in 1986-87. Now they've gone from worst in one way to worst in a different way. Nice that they've kept the call letters though.

If Audacy is worried about any station, it is KRBQ which bills half of what KITS does.

I'd love for one of those "research" people to take a car ride with me and see what makes me change stations the fastest.

"Research people" don't conduct music studies that way. They test with a hundred or more core listeners / potential listeners and look for commonality in likes and dislikes... and particularly in "passion".

Even perceptual research is done with consensus findings of a significant group of people, whether done as a "big book" study (hundreds in the sample) or via smaller one-on-ones and focus groups (20 to 30 in total).

Of course, you have pointed out the deficiency that traditional radio has today: it has to program to a group and can not super-serve the individual.

 

[Alan Smithee]

Would be nice if they had real-time notification of when people were tuning in and out. Since I'm a masochist, I actually have a playlist on Apple Music called "Songs that make me change the station." It's not just any songs that I hate with a passion, but ones that are criminally overplayed on the radio that I've heard enough times and can get by without ever hearing again. Decades ago I used to be paranoid about staying tuned in to a station or song I didn't like because I thought that some way, someone might be able to tell I was tuned in and give that station ratings points. Rather recently I heard about an electronic billboard that would be able to sense what stations the cars passing by were tuned to and display ads based on that, but I never heard anything else about that.

 

[davideduardo]

Would be nice if they had real-time notification of when people were tuning in and out.

Stations can look at real time data through an ancillary service available in PPM markets. As PPM measures, quite literally, several times a minute (up to about 12 per minute in fact), the data correlates with what was being played or said on a station.

The problem is that the actual number of meters that are detecting a given station at any one moment is quite small. So when one sees tune-out, it can be due to a song or a stopset or just due to the listener turning off the radio... such as getting to their destination in their car and no longer able to listen.

Since I'm a masochist, I actually have a playlist on Apple Music called "Songs that make me change the station." It's not just any songs that I hate with a passion, but ones that are criminally overplayed on the radio that I've heard enough times and can get by without ever hearing again. Decades ago I used to be paranoid about staying tuned in to a station or song I didn't like because I thought that some way, someone might be able to tell I was tuned in and give that station ratings points.

Decades ago ratings were done by written diary entries. And before that, by phone calls or personal visits. Electronic measurements have only been done for the last 12 years, in fact.

Yes, there was a system that measured in-car FM only listening that was attempted in a couple of Southwestern markets about 22 or so years ago but it did not get acceptance. It ended up being marketed to merchants to show what stations were being listened to in their market area so they could advertise on the "best" ones.