WQHT Revenue Drop Blamed on "Disappointing Amount of Young End Ad Buys"

[Barry]

According to an article on the home page of Radio-Info, Emmis indicates that WQHT and similar WWPR in L.A. have had great ratings among the younger demos, but have had revenue declines. They attribute this to less advertising directed at their youthful listeners.
This would seem to contradict the common wisdom that advertisers are highly interested in the younger demos.


http://www.radio-info.com/news/emmis-latest-quarter-was-transformative-but-disappointing

 

[TonySantiago]

That may be a part of it but the harsh reality for Emmis is that the music cycle is changing.

Hot 97 and Power 106 (KPWR) were both riding high with hip-hop from the 90's until as recent as 2008 or so, But right now, the younger generation has shifted over to a dance/rhythmic sound and aren't as deep into the hardcore hip-hop music anymore. Hearing Hot 97 as of late, they've been adding the more dance oriented material from Rihanna, Pitbull, Florida, just to name a few but I think they got in a bit too late. I would think that Z-100 and, perhaps, Now's revenue has not taken a hit.

I think Nas "called it" when he said "Hip Hop Is Dead". Then again I just chalk it up as a cycle, not to offend anyone that loves the music.

 

[davideduardo]

This would seem to contradict the common wisdom that advertisers are highly interested in the younger demos.

This would, actually, seem to indicate that advertisers are not using radio as much to reach younger demos in favor of new media options.

Unfortunately, despite radio's ability to reach young adults very efficiently, some ad agencies like to dazzle clients with new media. Part of this is due to the ability to generate lots more production fees for graphics and such for the web, while radio production is not a profit center.

 

[Barry]

In addition to Hot 97, Emmis also expressed disappointment with the revenues from sister station WRKS, Kiss 98.7. The broadcaster asserted that since the advent of PPM, their audience figures have been reduced by nearly half. They also cite competition from WBLS.
Perhaps this indicates that if Inner City Radio is sold, there is a considerable possibility the format of WBLS may be changed, as there may not be room in New York at this time for two reasonably profitable urban a/c stations.

Emmis Disappointment With WRKS Performance: http://www.rbr.com/radio/emmis-dealing-with-ppm-challenge-in-new-york-audio.html

 

[TimeIsTight]

The broadcaster asserted that since the advent of PPM, their audience figures have been reduced by nearly half.

You have to wonder if the reason is that QHT fans over reported their listening when they filled out their diaries, or whether
they are now forgetting to keep the PPM devices with them all the time and so some of their actual listening is being missed?

I suspect that the PPM devices themselves are far more trustworthy in reporting what they actually hear, than the listeners were in writing down when they actually listened.

I also suspect that the younger hip-hop QHT audience might take their responsibility to provide the most accurate data on their listening habits less seriously than average listeners to other formats. This makes buying radio ads to reach that group more risky than online ads where you can know who actually sees or hears your ads based on individual clicks and tracking cookies.

 

[davideduardo]

You have to wonder if the reason is that QHT fans over reported their listening when they filled out their diaries, or whether
they are now forgetting to keep the PPM devices with them all the time and so some of their actual listening is being missed?

In general, the PPM shows about 40% lower listening levels than the diary... and we saw this in real time when markets transitioned to the PPM. Diary: 17 to 19 hours TSL per person, PPM about 12 hours.

Most of the difference is in the rounding of listening by diarykeepers. One might write down the morning show on WXXX as "6 to 9 AM" where the PPM shows all the breaks in listening and the exact times, and those three hours might be less than an hour in reality. Large amounts of rounding tended to favor Spanish language stations the most, as their listeners most often wrote full hours or, at most, half-hours with no further precision.

Arbitron tracks the motion of every PPM daily. If they are not in use for a minimum number of hours a day, the household gets called. No group significantly underperforms, whether this is judged on age, gender or music taste.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

David : Has New York been certified as an official PPM market yet?

Or whatever that official green-light is called? There evidently were some bugs in the machinery to work out, but those were some time ago.

 

[davideduardo]

David : Has New York been certified as an official PPM market yet?

Or whatever that official green-light is called? There evidently were some bugs in the machinery to work out, but those were some time ago.

If you are referring to MRC accreditation, no.

As to being the "currency" with which radio advertising is bought and sold, Yes. The PMM has been currency for around 4 years now.

More and more PPM markets are getting the MRC seal, so NY should likely be certified in the near future. The MRC is a predominantly advertiser focused independent agency that has eminent researchers and survey gurus who look at how surveys are designed and implemented. It's sort of the Underwriters Laboratory of ratings.

 

[SonoSational18]

Z-100 doesn't appear to be hurting for billings and they skew young. WQHT's ratings are not what they once were.... and WWPR's really never were.