Why Spanish?

[Mike Sheridan]

Take a look at the ratings for Charlotte. Why are there so many Spanish stations when they don't have ratings?

 

[carolinaradio]

WNOW AM & FM and WOLS are time-brokered aren't they?....my understanding has always been that ratings don't really matter when that is being done (only thing that matters to the owners is getting the payments), but wouldn't it impact advertising on the brokered programming?

I'm surprised 106.1 is beating 105.3 (which has much better coverage). They did not even show.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

I think you have the concepts mixed up. Brokered is when a Church, or someone with a product to advertise buys a block of time. Then ratings do not matter since the customer is buying the time. Some of the Spanish stations are doing a LMA (Local Marketing Agreement) then they buy all the time on the station, run their own programming and sell commercials based on the ratings for their station.

 

[tropicanamedia]

The talk about how Arbitron measures continues… Charlotte as well as other markets in North Carolina lost the HDHA, and that is one reason that the Spanish ratings are so low. Also, now they are using a combination of diaries and cell phone. And by the way remember that only about 7-8% of the residents in the metro are Hispanics. Also remember that the winter book is one of the smallest and have less Counties surveyed.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Bottom line: The numbers aren't there for Spanish formats.

 

[carolinaradio]

Bottom line: The numbers aren't there for Spanish formats.

Agreed. Greenville, SC can't even support one Spanish station on FM. I don't think it even shows.

Charlotte could support ONE Spanish station, I think. 105.3 has the best signal.

 

[quadraphonic]

I think you have the concepts mixed up. Brokered is when a Church, or someone with a product to advertise buys a block of time. Then ratings do not matter since the customer is buying the time. Some of the Spanish stations are doing a LMA (Local Marketing Agreement) then they buy all the time on the station, run their own programming and sell commercials based on the ratings for their station.

I think most of the Spanish broadcasters with LMAs approach it more like time-brokers than traditional broadcasters. They look at their all-schedule LMA as a service to the community, and they're Spanish-language-oriented, so they do Spanish. They sell their programming based on their link to the community, not the numbers, like most small-town stations should probably do.

 

[MaskMan]

I'm wondering if money behind all the Spanish formats might not be drug related. There's a vast fortune of money being made in drug trafficing to Mexico and other countries south of the border. They've got to have something to invest in. I know in the GSO market, LaPreciosa was making good money and CC might have made a big mistake by letting that format go. Where IS all that money coming from, anyway?

 

[davideduardo]

Bottom line: The numbers aren't there for Spanish formats.

And in smaller Hispanic markets, the ratings are not a key to sales. First, retail (local direct) is not as ratings dependent, and tends to measure results. Because Spanish dominant Hispanics have fewer media choices in markets like Charlotte, the Spanish langauge radio stations are well-used... so many advertisers see good results. Second, SPanish dominants tend to be unreachable on general market stations, so advertisers can discover a "new market" when they advertise in Spanish.

 

[davideduardo]

The talk about how Arbitron measures continues… Charlotte as well as other markets in North Carolina lost the HDHA, and that is one reason that the Spanish ratings are so low. Also, now they are using a combination of diaries and cell phone. And by the way remember that only about 7-8% of the residents in the metro are Hispanics. Also remember that the winter book is one of the smallest and have less Counties surveyed.

Charlotte reportedly begins PPM measurement in just over 5 weeks, so all the diary assumptions are gone.

Not having an HDHA has more to do with the new standards for HDHA's than any shift in population. If a market is 8% Hispanic, 8% of the sample will be Hipanic... in the PPM, that means panel households / dwelling units. So whether in HDHA's or not, the sample will include a proportional amount of Hispanics. The model for PPM accreditation, Houston, has no HDHS's as it uses 100% address based recruiting... yet Spanish language shares are higher than they were in the last diary book.

There is no change in the MSA from survey to survey in the diary markets (the core SA sample goal is the same in every book)... some markets have TSA's that are separately available for Spring and Fall, but TSA numbers are seldom used. In the PPM, there is no TSA. The diary and the PPM services use both landlines and cell phones to recruit, because nationally there are around 20% of persons who have no landline... the type of phone has nothing to do with the actual survey itself... just the recruiting.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm wondering if money behind all the Spanish formats might not be drug related.

The money behind Spanish language formats comes from the knowledge that many, many US markets have significant Hispanic populations which include those whose media usage favors them. These stations have strong and valid sales arguments and tend to provide good advertiser results, too.

With so many stations losing money, it's logical that programming in Spanish will be tried by some stations that are in search for a way to become profitable.

To suggest that a highly regulated business, where "character qualifications" of the negative kind can cause a license to be lost, and where profits are hard to come buy and where all business leaves a paper trail, is naive.

 

[turkeydance]

atticus.....no more calls please.
finally, you had the guts to post
the reality. in order to 'launder' the
money, buy radio and funnel the
proceeds. c'mon folks....this is just
like the convenience store ATM.
"why do they sell so many lighters?"

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Bottom line: The numbers aren't there for Spanish formats.

And in smaller Hispanic markets, the ratings are not a key to sales. First, retail (local direct) is not as ratings dependent, and tends to measure results. Because Spanish dominant Hispanics have fewer media choices in markets like Charlotte, the Spanish langauge radio stations are well-used... so many advertisers see good results. Second, SPanish dominants tend to be unreachable on general market stations, so advertisers can discover a "new market" when they advertise in Spanish.

If that holds true for Spanish formats it should also hold true for other formats. Selling local direct other formats is something that I have maintained is possible and you have discounted. The shoe now is on the other foot! Clearly 7% of the population can't support 7 radio stations.

Let me say though I would never maintain Spanish formats had anything to do with any illegal activity.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

I can't wait for PPM. It just might show that many people have gone to satellite, CD's and mp3's.

 

[davideduardo]

I can't wait for PPM. It just might show that many people have gone to satellite, CD's and mp3's.

Actually, it will not do that. In fact, it will show the weekly cume of radio a couple of points higher than the diary did. It will show PUR levels about 30-some percent below diary levels

Most of us have known from independent research that the dairy frequently was filled with exaggerated listening times and did not take into account lots of secondary and tertiary station choices. Because it involves not just listening but perception of listening and memory of listening.

The PPM shows that what appeared in the diary as morning show listening from 6 AM to 9 AM was really a series of short interludes that might have totaled 47 minutes instead of 180. The little interruptions like taking the kids to the school bus stop or taking oluit the trash or checking out the other station for a traffic report just did not get into the diary, nor did the occasional changes due to other reasons.

That's what we have seen in the PPM markets so far, pretty much without overall market-wide exceptions.

People are using all the alternative devices, and all entertainment options slice availble time thinner and thinner. But the PPM does not show radio to be worse off... it just shows what we have known all along.

 

[davideduardo]

If that holds true for Spanish formats it should also hold true for other formats. Selling local direct other formats is something that I have maintained is possible and you have discounted. The shoe now is on the other foot! Clearly 7% of the population can't support 7 radio stations.

Local non-agency sales is a higher and higher percentage of the total the further from NY and LA you get in population rank. But in all of the larger markets (that qualification being true for all PPM markets) agency and transactional sales are pretty much the difference between profitability and the unpleasant alternative for any station that programs for top audience positions.

There are two broad classes of stations... those that compete, well and not so well, for ratings and rank, and those that don't from choice or impediments (most AMs and rimshot or limited power FMs) and those have no choice but to look for alternative revenue (like paid religion) or to bottom feed. Both alternatives are viable, but nowhere near as potentially profitable as what a leading station can expect.

Of the Spanish language stations in the market, aren't a couple simulcast? And isn't one Spanish language religion (meaning it takes little or no revenue from the rest)? Like any market segment, should it become overserved, there is fallout. Only one or two will get any national Hispanic business, so the rest will either survive on local business or change... just as all other format or market segments.

 

[davideduardo]

atticus.....no more calls please.
finally, you had the guts to post
the reality. in order to 'launder' the
money, buy radio and funnel the
proceeds. c'mon folks....this is just
like the convenience store ATM.
"why do they sell so many lighters?"

The classic money laundering environment is a bar or restaurant where nearly all the business consists of sales that are not put on another business' books as an expense, thus being identifiable by means of audits. You can no doubt think of other cash based businesses that leave no paper trails... but any ad medium is not among them.

All the income of a radio station appears on the books of another company as an expense. That's exactly the kind of business that does not invite the type of activity you suggest.

And, the entry price for a radio station is still relatively high, making the risk of losing the license very high and the potenial usefullness in money laundering minimal.

There are over 43 million Hispanics in the US. Only a tiny number, just as is true of any other ethnic group or segment of the population, deal in drugs.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I'm wondering if money behind all the Spanish formats might not be drug related. There's a vast fortune of money being made in drug trafficing to Mexico and other countries south of the border. They've got to have something to invest in. I know in the GSO market, LaPreciosa was making good money and CC might have made a big mistake by letting that format go. Where IS all that money coming from, anyway?

I was amazed to see WNOW show up in the Triad ratings.

 

[MaskMan]

[/quote]
There are over 43 million Hispanics in the US. Only a tiny number, just as is true of any other ethnic group or segment of the population, deal in drugs.
[/quote]

Not insinuating that Hispanics are all involved in drugs. However, I know a lot of money is being made by drug lords and wouldn't be surprised if they were investing it in American radio.

 

[davideduardo]

Not insinuating that Hispanics are all involved in drugs. However, I know a lot of money is being made by drug lords and wouldn't be surprised if they were investing it in American radio.

I think even the semi-illiterate drug kinpins are bright enough to know what is a good investment or not.

Even if they figured out how a foreigner could own a station through a proxy, there is not enough profit in little local radio stations to make it worthwhile. A half-dozen keys of coke have more profit potential than most AM daytimers.