Smooth Jazz

[Brooklyndon]

In WQCD's case, it was not a desirable demo for advertisers, nor was it a growing audience. Emmis was smart to pull the plug on smooth jazz, but what they've decided to replace it with has been a disaster (of their own mis-doing).

From a managerial standpoint, I think the statement above is a bit naive. In that stage of the product radio product lifecycle, Emmis should have bee focused on a share preservation strategy. Everyday there are fewer and fewer radio listeners; radio is a dying marketplace and actions that are guaranteed to alienate listeners such as changing their format impair the intangible assets.

 

[davideduardo]

From a managerial standpoint, I think the statement above is a bit naive. In that stage of the product radio product lifecycle, Emmis should have bee focused on a share preservation strategy. Everyday there are fewer and fewer radio listeners; radio is a dying marketplace and actions that are guaranteed to alienate listeners such as changing their format impair the intangible assets.

I stepped in something, while hiking last weekend, that smelled as badly as this compound statement.

Let's wipe this off our collective boots.

First, in saying "Everyday there are fewer and fewer radio listeners" you either perpetuate a lie seen regularly or demonstrate a lack of understanding of how media usage is measured. Radio has two measures... the total number of persons who use radio each day or week, and the amount of time they spend using the medium. The total usage, expressed as a percentage of the population, has not much changed since Arbitron started measuring radio in 1965.

As a percentage of the population, radio usage is not declining. As a number of people, it is increasing as the population increases.

In fairness, the amount of time each person who uses radio is slowly declining, starting in the late 80's, as all kinds of new devices and options have appeared for leisure time usage: cable tv networks, pay per view, DVDs, computers, computer gaming and gaming consoles, the Internet, mobile devices, free long distance calling plans, etc., etc.

Secondly, since "format radio" developed in the post-TV years, station formats have changed due to competition, changes in taste and the ageing of specific formats. In the case of WQCD, the Emmis appears to have judged the decline in revenues over a number of years to be related to the ageing of its audience out of the demographic group advertisers buy. So they changed to a format they perceived to be more attractive to advertisers and listeners in the ages advertisers seek out. It's well known that there is essentially no transactional business for audiences over age 55, so it's understandable why the format was changed.

Emmis could have preserved the shares, but it would have had a 3 share among an age group that was unsalable to advertisers. Sometimes, in fact, formats die because they both age and the music stops being produced, as was the case with Beautiful Music.

Radio is far from dead; there are dying formats, and challenges, but we are not calling for the priest to say the last rites yet.

 

[Dick Skinner]

From a managerial standpoint, I think the statement above is a bit naive. In that stage of the product radio product lifecycle, Emmis should have bee focused on a share preservation strategy. Everyday there are fewer and fewer radio listeners; radio is a dying marketplace and actions that are guaranteed to alienate listeners such as changing their format impair the intangible assets.

I stepped in something, while hiking last weekend, that smelled as badly as this compound statement.

Let's wipe this off our collective boots.

First, in saying "Everyday there are fewer and fewer radio listeners" you either perpetuate a lie seen regularly or demonstrate a lack of understanding of how media usage is measured. Radio has two measures... the total number of persons who use radio each day or week, and the amount of time they spend using the medium. The total usage, expressed as a percentage of the population, has not much changed since Arbitron started measuring radio in 1965.

As a percentage of the population, radio usage is not declining. As a number of people, it is increasing as the population increases.

In fairness, the amount of time each person who uses radio is slowly declining, starting in the late 80's, as all kinds of new devices and options have appeared for leisure time usage: cable tv networks, pay per view, DVDs, computers, computer gaming and gaming consoles, the Internet, mobile devices, free long distance calling plans, etc., etc.

Secondly, since "format radio" developed in the post-TV years, station formats have changed due to competition, changes in taste and the ageing of specific formats. In the case of WQCD, the Emmis appears to have judged the decline in revenues over a number of years to be related to the ageing of its audience out of the demographic group advertisers buy. So they changed to a format they perceived to be more attractive to advertisers and listeners in the ages advertisers seek out. It's well known that there is essentially no transactional business for audiences over age 55, so it's understandable why the format was changed.

Emmis could have preserved the shares, but it would have had a 3 share among an age group that was unsalable to advertisers. Sometimes, in fact, formats die because they both age and the music stops being produced, as was the case with Beautiful Music.

Radio is far from dead; there are dying formats, and challenges, but we are not calling for the priest to say the last rites yet.

Thanks for setting the record straight, David. This bogus notion that radio is dying, from my observation, really began to flourish with the advent of XM, and then Sirius. There was smart marketing, but more so, brilliant publicity coming from the two camps. Every trade, music digest, fan magazine and tech show was pounding the drums for satellite radio and the exaggerated "terrestrial radio's doomed" message. Funny how so many supposedly savvy media pros bit into satellite's hype hook, line and sinker, especially considering the state of that medium today. It's the dying platform, not terrestrial. Radio is dealing with some tremendous challenges, but diminishing cume isn't one of them. I wonder how many of those geniuses still subscribe to satellite radio, or ever did for that matter. And now there are plenty of these misinformed naysayers lurking on boards like this feeding the 'radio's dead" line to no advantage aside from seeing themselves in print.

 

[adma]

As a percentage of the population, radio usage is not declining. As a number of people, it is increasing as the population increases.

In fairness, the amount of time each person who uses radio is slowly declining, starting in the late 80's, as all kinds of new devices and options have appeared for leisure time usage: cable tv networks, pay per view, DVDs, computers, computer gaming and gaming consoles, the Internet, mobile devices, free long distance calling plans, etc., etc.

In which case, it may be a matter of how one defines "usage". Like, does encountering radio in the local Kwik-E-Mart, or turning it on briefly for the local news and traffic and weather count as "usage"?. "Increasing as the population increases" is a no-brainer; after all, in practice it's hard for even the most radiophobic to avoid radio in their daily life, unless they're thoroughly homebound for some reason.

Though to pitch to the David Eduardo court, the actual rate of decline in usage may be blunted by how, in practice, some of the faster growing demos (like Latin/Hispanic, or even white religious conservatives) are also more likely to retain something close to old radio-listening patterns...

 

[Brooklyndon]

I stepped in something, while hiking last weekend, that smelled as badly as this compound statement.
Let's wipe this off our collective boots.

Mr. Eduardo, I will forgive the sassiness of your last statement. Clearly you are an entertainer and not a businessman.

Okay let me put my marketing strategy cosnultant hat on. Businessmen are more concerned about market size in terms of dollars. Radio is certainly on the decline there. Advertizing Age's October 20, 2008 article "Radio gaining audience-but not ad revenue" confirms this statement. Between 2007 and 2008, radio ad revenue dropped about 7%, second only to newspapers in terms of decline. This decline is irreversible. You would have to be taking crazy pills to believe that mass media, especially one which only transmits audio information, can compete against the information rich medium of pay-per-click advertising, the only form of advertizing with a quantifiable ROI. What in the world could make anyone think that radio can survive as a profitable medium in the face of the Integrated Mass Communications Model? Mayybe if you broaden the definition of radio to include services like Pandora and Shoutcast you can have a conversation about ROI measurement and the ICM, but over-the-air radio is a dying market. And, just like they teach you in Marketing 501, it is appropriate only to use a market preservation strategy in a declining market. Emmis clearly failed the class.

Emmis could have preserved the shares, but it would have had a 3 share among an age group that was unsalable to advertisers. Sometimes, in fact, formats die because they both age and the music stops being produced, as was the case with Beautiful Music.

Okay, okay. You got me there. Maybe smooth jazz had to go. It’s time to take the marketing consultant hat off, and put the managerial consultant hat on. Hmm. Well, McKinsey said, in the report they prepared for Venture Philanthropy Partners back in 2001, that any new strategy and organization takes on must build on the systems and history already in place in that organization. Emmis messed up in that the strategy of penetrating the ad market with a rock station, an AAA station at that, had no systemic or historical basis within Emmis from which to derive success. Emmis should have picked a format that appealed to ad buyers with whom they had existing relationships. Urban talk, R&B, or Classic Hip-Hop format, among others, are formats Emmis should have selected, and still should select, to air instead of WRXP.

 

[adma]

Thanks for setting the record straight, David. This bogus notion that radio is dying, from my observation, really began to flourish with the advent of XM, and then Sirius. There was smart marketing, but more so, brilliant publicity coming from the two camps. Every trade, music digest, fan magazine and tech show was pounding the drums for satellite radio and the exaggerated "terrestrial radio's doomed" message. Funny how so many supposedly savvy media pros bit into satellite's hype hook, line and sinker, especially considering the state of that medium today. It's the dying platform, not terrestrial. Radio is dealing with some tremendous challenges, but diminishing cume isn't one of them. I wonder how many of those geniuses still subscribe to satellite radio, or ever did for that matter. And now there are plenty of these misinformed naysayers lurking on boards like this feeding the 'radio's dead" line to no advantage aside from seeing themselves in print.

Except that if you notice, David Eduardo didn't refer specifically to satellite in his "as all kinds of new devices and options have appeared for leisure time usage: cable tv networks, pay per view, DVDs, computers, computer gaming and gaming consoles, the Internet, mobile devices, free long distance calling plans, etc., etc." quote.

What you're overlooking is that satellite didn't wither because terrestrial was deemed superior. It withered because it, together with terrestrial, was effectively bypassed by newer technologies and changing consumption habits that were no longer tethered to the "radio idea".

You wanna know a superior example of something that "every trade, music digest, fan magazine and tech show" has really been "pounding the drums for" in recent times? The iPhone. Which, like the iPod before it, has yet to show signs of dying a la satellite...

 

[neo11]

Okay, okay. You got me there. Maybe smooth jazz had to go. It’s time to take the marketing consultant hat off, and put the managerial consultant hat on. Hmm. Well, McKinsey said, in the report they prepared for Venture Philanthropy Partners back in 2001, that any new strategy and organization takes on must build on the systems and history already in place in that organization. Emmis messed up in that the strategy of penetrating the ad market with a rock station, an AAA station at that, had no systemic or historical basis within Emmis from which to derive success. Emmis should have picked a format that appealed to ad buyers with whom they had existing relationships. Urban talk, R&B, or Classic Hip-Hop format, among others, are formats Emmis should have selected, and still should select, to air instead of WRXP.

And yet, once again, 101.9 is *not* an AAA. And yes, it was time for smooth jazz to go, as it's also done in so many other markets across the country. What you are right about, and it's the point I also made earlier in the thread, is that the wrong format was selected to replace smooth jazz (or, at the very least, the format that was chosen was so poorly executed that it had no real chance of success).

That said, not sure that your suggestions would have made sense for Emmis. Urban talk, R&B and classic hip-hop may build on already existing relationships they have with advertising agencies thanks to Hot 97 and Kiss FM (though I think the importance of that is exaggerated, especially considering that those stations pull in mainstream advertisers that would also be heard on any other successful mainstream stations), but those formats would also eat into those stations' audiences. And with the PPM, so far at least, killing urban stations, I'm not sure they could afford to erode those stations' numbers any further. I'm also not sure that urban talk, for instance, would be a very viable format for a full-power FM signal in the NYC market, and it certainly wouldn't be a cheap operation if they wanted to have any chance of success with it.

 

[stationless listener]

The urban stations already do a type of urban talk, with shows like the Wendy Williams Show and the upcoming D.L. Hughley show on Kiss FM.

Anyway, when K-Rock was ditched in favor of NOW, that was the time when 'RXP should've gone heavier with newer rock. They might as well roll that particular dice. If only there were a J.J. Jackson today, someone who has the ability to talk about the new acts in rock music. He could have a show in the afternoon hours, promoting acts and getting them needed exposure.