Do Radio Programmers React Musically to Nielsen PPM Ratings?
Posted by Hunter on October 1, 2024, 7:08 pm
I find this interesting in the fact on Monday, we saw the latest September Nielsen PPM ratings. Yes, it's simply 6+ which means nothing to advertising agencies.
The title of this thread refers to WLIT-FM. That station has been in decline for several books. Take a look... 6.1/5.9/5.3/4.7
I have examined their playlist over the last 24 hours, and it has not escaped my attention in the fact they have adjusted the music to reflect their slogan of "Chicago's Relaxing Favorites."
This could be a fluke. How do you explain so many falling ratings books without a music adjustment?
Are the programmers of WLIT-FM eying the enormous revenue/ratings they will receive with Christmas music? Even if this were the case, some of their listeners have been alienated. This may explain why Me-TV FM has picked up some listeners. The same for WLS-FM 94.7.
If WLIT-FM intends on changing their musical direction, they may want to change the current slogan.
One last thing...WTMX-FM "The Mix." What has caused such a sharp decline? Can we blame it on a bad batch of music? This happens with CHR stations, and they reach back into their library to play older hits. Are the personalities on 'TMX not connecting with their audience? Do they have a weak morning show which is holding them back?
Re: Do Radio Programmers React Musically to Nielsen PPM Ratings?
Contemporary radio is on the decline, this has been beaten to death on this forum. The # of younger people are just not there, they are gone. They are not even P2 consumers anymore. They are just gone. You think the youth do not know what AM is, wait 10 years and FM will be in the same category. The numbers, the research all show it. When you see a CHR and a 1.8 share, or even a 2.2 share 6+ they are NOT hitting their demos. Can decorate it all you want, the numbers are not there when they should be winning the 12-17 demo double digits driving up their 6+. This is basic Math and statistics. You can't change that.
There is no room in this market for 2 CHR's and an Adult CHR. Actually, there is room for just 1 of them and WTMX can survive if tweaked. If this was 1990, 2000, 2010, there would be a skew in one of them, or *all* of them by this point. Hip Hop is not an option as it is saturated. The gold standard for a few years has been, gold formats like Classic Hits. There are enough niche ways to take these stations. But, failure is acceptable in radio and it is considered the norm.
Spoken word is popular, but WBEZ was Top 5 and kick ass 25-54 numbers, they have now faded. Happens when you automate the crap out of the station 90% of the day. I can assure you the Newsradio 780 PD and corporate had sleepless nights when they were eating into their numbers before and during covid and now they are trying to automate more too. Live and local sells. "We are broke and can't spend money" is a BS excuse and will further kill the medium.
WLIT, the research is holy grail and no gut instinct is allowed. (Todd @ WLS-FM is proof of research and no gut instinct). WLIT is musically adjusted what the research says to refresh playlists and to better perform in the market with sister stations. This has not occurred as the #s show it. I do not doubt Hunter that the playlist has been modified. METV-FM is a horrific example for Classic Hits (sorry I disagree with the METV-FM fans on this board that it is Classic Hits). METV-FM for sure has taken a lot of WLIT numbers playing those softer 60s and 70s staples as opposed to WLS-FM being 80s and rock based.
At some point, sooner than later, you will see WSCR moving to 96.3FM and that heritage will be allowed to rest as the AM stick will be sold, finally the WBBM-FM calls will be moved to 105.9 and that 780 stick will be jettisoned too. They are not even recognizing the AM side anymore in production and positioners. Unless some act of God changes this trajectory, it will happen. Sad part of this? The current staff @ B96 are not putting out a bad product, considering the Audacy abuse and not supporting it, along with over saturation and no market for it anymore. If there was some backing, it would be really more alive and in your face, what is needed to motivate the remaining audience and take them away from KISS. Molly is trying, but you can't get water out of a stone and you can't change the market or audience conditions. There has been a push in the background to take B96 Classic Hits against WLS-FM reliving the 80s - 2K Dance era, but Audacy is tone deaf in an audio based industry and it will never happen. Finally, in a world of PPM, I am not sure that Mixes @ 12 Noon, 5PM, 10PM and weekends will satisfy PPM. Also, the glory days of Eddie and Jobo, Dance 40 format, radio being an integral part of people lives are well behind us. Also, PPM does not like the style of radio they put on. Could they sound great on the air. Of course. But, time has passed they are older, we are older and both have changed.
Society has changed. Habits have changed. Entertainment consumption has changed. When I listened to Eddie & Jobo on the Killer Bee in the 90s I was accessing AOL on dial up paying 3 dollars an hour posting on BBS, typing away using my IBM desktop running DOS 6 and Win3.1 on 2MB of RAM. I am now on a fiber connection, paying a flat fee, with 64GB of RAM on my laptop and this thing can talk back at me as I talk to it. Or I can grab my smartphone to finish this post as I head out the door. Times have changed....... sometimes, you just can't go back and some things fade away, notably terrestrial radio.
Z
Re: Do Radio Programmers React Musically to Nielsen PPM Ratings?
WYTZZ95FM: This has to be without question, one of the most authoritative posts you have written. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
WYTZZ95FM, I, too, remember the early days of AOL. Recall those AOL CD-discs in every store you could imagine. Their dial-up was slow and often unreliable. Trying to call friends was impossible because they were online. I think AOL had a host of radio stations way back in the day.
The research for WLIT-FM doesn't seem to be working. I'm in agreement with you, the entire iHeart cluster has to be aligned for billing and revenue success.
Regarding research, it does appear to be working for Todd Cavanah over at WLS-FM.
Back in the day, I spoke to a couple of jocks at Z95. One was Brant Miller, the well-known weatherman on NBC5. Very nice guy and he took the time to talk about Z95.
During the mid-1980s, I had the opportunity to speak with Scott "True Oldies Channel" Shannon. I mentioned WYTZ-FM "Z95."
Scott, the architect of the world-famous WHTZ-FM 100.3/Z100 licensed to Newark/New York City and owned now by iHeartMedia. When Z100 was created, Malrite owned it. At any rate, Scott said there were many clones of Z100 around the country. There is a Z100 in Portland, Oregon. Those of us who follow radio with a microscope already know this. Z95 used Ernie Anderson as did New York's Z100 as the voice of their station. Also, the weather sweepers and others were exact duplicates with the exception of the dial position and the city. Nevertheless, Z95 was a great station...right up to the point where it was mismanaged into "Hell 95." The handwriting was on the wall, but I digress. The Killer Bee, B96 owned Chicago in those CHR/dance music wars.
Z100 and Z95 aside, many other power stations were duplicated such as WLS-AM, WABC-AM, KHJ-AM to name three. Yes, there was the Drake format and others.
Thank you for allowing me to take this trip down memory lane and thank you again, WYTZZ95FM for a brilliant post.
on October 1, 2024, 7:08 pm