Tennessean: The PPMs Are Coming! The PPMs Are Coming!

[jetfli]

The Tennessean reports on the Nashville arrival of Portable People Meters to gauge local radio audience.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/2...Will++people+meter++shake+up+Nashville+radio?

 

[Tibbs4]

Anyone wanna guess what the PPM will do to various station ratings?

 

[TheBigA]

Typically what you see is an increase for a station like Mix, and a drop for stations like The Beat. Nashville has been preparing for this for at least a year.

 

[jetfli]

Typically what you see is an increase for a station like Mix, and a drop for stations like The Beat. Nashville has been preparing for this for at least a year.

Yes, that's why you have seen some moves and "tightening up" across the board. Stations are also fully expecting to make tweaks after the August debriefing, and then bracing for any wholesale changes needed before the end of the year.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

Everytime the mic gets opened the numbers dump. See how short the raps get.

 

[deltas69]

does the PPM pick up what might be playing in a restaurant, or at the sonic drive in?? what about kroger or publix?? does that info figure in to the mix.. :..no pun intended.. ;D how do the PPM masters pick the selected few victims to wear one ?? just curious about all this ???

 

[TheBigA]

does the PPM pick up what might be playing in a restaurant, or at the sonic drive in?? what about kroger or publix?? does that info figure in to the mix.. :..

Only specifically encoded signals. A lot of retail have their own private networks that won't run commercials from competitors.

how do the PPM masters pick the selected few victims to wear one ?? just curious about all this ???

Random selection.

 

[Tibbs4]

Article says less than 800 randomly selected "listeners" will make all the decisions for the future of Nashville radio. What IF WKOM comes in #1?

I think BigA or somebeody on here said stations have been preparing for this for the past six months to a year (give or take.) I know of a few stations making some nice changes to catch the PPM listener vs. the old books. Has Crabulus or Cromwell made any or similar changes? We all know that CC made a few changes, including the WSIX morning show changes....

 

[RadeoEngineer]

does the PPM pick up what might be playing in a restaurant, or at the sonic drive in?? what about kroger or publix?? does that info figure in to the mix.. :..no pun intended.. ;D

Yes it does.

 

[romer979fm]

does the PPM pick up what might be playing in a restaurant, or at the sonic drive in?? what about kroger or publix?? does that info figure in to the mix.. :..no pun intended.. ;D

Yes it does.

no it doesn't. only encoded radio signals or internet streams will be registered. sorry...Kroger Radio will not be participating. bummer.

 

[gHz]

no it doesn't. only encoded radio signals or internet streams will be registered. sorry...Kroger Radio will not be participating. bummer.
[/quote]

Yes, only encoded signals are registered, but that has created false ratings due to drive by listening. If a PPM panel member was sitting in a little diner with a radio playing behind the counter, that station would get credit for his ears...even if the panelist never paid attention to the content. In that sense, the PPM reports more cume than the diaries because of the incidental (non)listening exposure to encoded signals. We have had it here in Cleveland for almost two years now. From my view, the biggest change is the new layer of monitoring and alerting hardware that either calls, emails, or texts people like me when the station has an encoding blip....or there is dead air. Dead air does not encode at all.

 

[jetfli]

that has created false ratings due to drive by listening. If a PPM panel member was sitting in a little diner with a radio playing behind the counter, that station would get credit for his ears...even if the panelist never paid attention to the content.

There are far fewer instances today where one would be likely to find a radio playing in a business, thanks to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC looking to collect royalties for such. What is far more likely to be heard in public settings is sports play by play, that's one of the reasons (besides some contracts being up this year) there was a lot of jockeying and shuffling of game rights a couple of months back.

The scenario I find hilarious is one in which a panelist is sitting at an intersection waiting for the light to change, windows down, and no sounds in the car, only for someone to pull alongside with radio blaring, and bass thump-thump-a-thumping. THAT will most definitely be picked up.

One thing I just thought about that I haven't yet investigated... would a podcast or other recording taken off-air rather than via studio dump maintain the signal?

 

[TheBigA]

The scenario I find hilarious is one in which a panelist is sitting at an intersection waiting for the light to change, windows down, and no sounds in the car, only for someone to pull alongside with radio blaring, and bass thump-thump-a-thumping. THAT will most definitely be picked up.

Funny...my experience with that is it tends to be the kind of content that radio can't play, due to obsenity issues.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

does the PPM pick up what might be playing in a restaurant, or at the sonic drive in?? what about kroger or publix?? does that info figure in to the mix.. :..no pun intended.. ;D

Yes it does.

no it doesn't. only encoded radio signals or internet streams will be registered. sorry...Kroger Radio will not be participating. bummer.

You're right. I wasn't clear in my answer. If you're sitting in a bar or restaurant and they're playing a local station on the sound system, said station gets credit for time spent listening even though you may be spending your time trying to convince Mary Ellen to leave with you and you're not listening at all. Closed systems like in Walgreens or Krogers won't be encoded and won't register.

 

[jwk1979]

that has created false ratings due to drive by listening. If a PPM panel member was sitting in a little diner with a radio playing behind the counter, that station would get credit for his ears...even if the panelist never paid attention to the content.

There are far fewer instances today where one would be likely to find a radio playing in a business, thanks to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC looking to collect royalties for such. What is far more likely to be heard in public settings is sports play by play, that's one of the reasons (besides some contracts being up this year) there was a lot of jockeying and shuffling of game rights a couple of months back.

There are still several FAST FOOD restaurants (Arby's, some Wendy's) that I have been into recently that were playing a radio station over their sound system in the dining room instead of CANNED or Satelite Radio. (The Arby's in Dickson plays Mix 92.9, while the Arby's in Smyrna plays 103 WKDF in their dining area). And my dentist plays Jack-FM in his office while I'm having dental work done.

 

[onetake]

I loved the comment "nashville has been preparing for this for a year." They've actually been dreading it. I'm glad the Tennessean who got this story from the Nashville Business Journal's lead on it last week both reported that Nashville is one of the few markets in the top 50 to go this route.
I predict we'll see a (don't laugh) bump up for WPLN FM. Their more high brow audience doesn't have time to fill out diaries and we often see the public stations, far calmer and more mature than say, Phil Valentine's rants, attract a large and loyal audience. And yes Mix will stay strong. And a lot of things are up for grabs. You quickly see who's been marketed well, who has call letter familarity to listeners (diary recall) and there is a scary factor of more frequent dial punching in some formats (even talk) show a general dissatisfaction of the product. But we've covered many times the varying levels of professionalism in Nashville. It's market 44, so while it should be better it could be worse.

 

[NashvilleNative]

I too have heard KDF in local Arby's. When in McMinnville all the stores had it on 105.3 WOWC. I've noticed over the past several weeks that the station I've heard most in public is WNFN 106.7. Heard their ID cranked from a car at Lipscomb, Lawn & Garden at Hendersonville Walmart, Essex in Rivergate, friends cars, and several other places here and there. I found it interesting that I hear it most in public, yet their ratings don't seem to reflect it currently. I'd imagine mix and jack have a majority of the business/public listeners.

 

[TheBigA]

One other point is that the meter requires a minimum of 5 minutes of audio in a quarter hour to register. So the brief fly-by at a stop light shouldn't register. Unless it's a long light.

 

[Tibbs4]

Big A? That five minute rule seems to seal the fate of RQQ. No one could listen that long before PPM. If the listen time is < 5 minutes, does this mean they could actually have a negative numerical rating?

I do have a question, though, looking at WNFNi...is it "smart' to throw Bert on the air a couple of weeks before the PPM started to attempt to affect #'s? Seems to me that the one kick they may have had was more music in the morning. Although, I am sure The River has reacted musically in the last few months in mornings. (I haven't listened to verify that.)

 

[Tibbs4]

(I left off part of the previous post...) I do understand the urgency, if you will, of having a high energy lead-in morning show. It's just interesting to try to throw energy into i-106 a few days before PPM starts and expect people to just magically ride the wave. Reactionary response could backfire or not? Will it really even matter? Other stations, like Mix, planned well in advance (yeah a year)= to face the eventual reality of PPM. Should be interesting.