What Is Radio?

[WildcatGuy]

I saw an article about a big fight between Arbitron and its clients over Arbitron's plans to start compiling ratings for web streaming. Apparently, some big advertisers and agencies want to be able to compare web listening and over-the-air listening in the same kind of report.

It raises some interesting questions, like: What is radio? Are Pandora and Slacker "radio"? Do you need to have a tower in the middle of a field to be a "radio station"? Do consumers really make a distinction, or do they view all audio content as "radio"?

This is going to be an interesting one to watch play out.

 

[w9wi]

Does it matter?

Obviously, the rating of your station is not 100%. That difference reflects competition for the ears of your market's people from several sources:
- Competition from other stations.
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- Competition from TV.
- Competition from CDs/MP3 players.
- Competition from in-person conversations.
- People who just don't want to listen to anything.
- and yes, competition from online "radio".

If Arbitron stops measuring how many/which people are listening to your competition, do those people end up in your numbers? Of course not; they vanish into that pool of people below the dashed line above.

Same thing with online radio. If Arbitron isn't measuring online listenership, that doesn't mean those listeners magically appear in the numbers for traditional radio. It simply means they disappear into the pool of people who aren't using radio at all.

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Where I suppose it does matter...

- Bragging rights. Of course, measured online listeners do come out of your share. Your "XX% of Podunkians listen to K-109 FM" might become XX-1%. Does total online listenership really amount to enough to make a noticeable reduction in share for any station that has enough share to brag about?

- Hindering the competition. I suppose if the online stations don't have any recognized numbers to sell on, they'll have a harder time negotiating for the dollars their share would justify.

 

[KyDXIn]

In the car last night I was listening to WGN, since I was getting a good signal here in Louisville. When I got home, I pulled up their online stream and listened until I fell asleep. Again this morning I have been listening to their morning program. Interesting thing about the stream, no commerials are involved. That being said, I doubt Chicago advertisers are interested in my listening.

 

[secondchoice]

In the car last night I was listening to WGN, since I was getting a good signal here in Louisville. When I got home, I pulled up their online stream and listened until I fell asleep. Again this morning I have been listening to their morning program. Interesting thing about the stream, no commerials are involved. That being said, I doubt Chicago advertisers are interested in my listening.

IIRC The most if not all Chicago's and on air talent is in the union. The union will not permit "uncompensated" airings of member's work. There is no national agreement on what internet airings will pay. It kinda like the "reality" programming that is being used on cable and on the air networks. The a lot of the "actors" are not in the Guild therefore they get no residuals unless negotiated separably, like the actors and writers of sitcoms, and regular programs. If you can remember the big actors strike several years ago, on or the major sticking points was residuals on VCR / DVD sales. On of the issues in the TV writers strike about a decade ago was residuals. This might seem a "small" issue but this can ad up to millions of dollars. Charlie Sheen's $100 million settlement with Warner Brothers was @25 million Cash and $75 million syndication profits.

http://www.tmz.com/2011/09/19/charl...lion-dollars-two-and-a-half-men-syndication/#.

Those residuals do ad up, even in radio.

 

[borderblaster]

I listen to Mike McConnell on WGN's online stream since he left WLW. I can say the WGN fill music is horrible.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I listen to Mike McConnell on WGN's online stream since he left WLW. I can say the WGN fill music is horrible.

My experience is that what you are hearing on-line is not what people listening to the radio are hearing. Because of union voice-talent rules and maybe other issues including music copyright issues, they blank out some on the air content and do a rather sloppy job of feeding substandard content to the stream.

I assume the broadcasters and the talent unions will eventually work this out and we who listen on-line will no longer be treated as second-class listeners.