Apr 09
11
Formats in Flux (Part 2 of 2) Measuring radio advertising performance
Mainstream and broad-based radio station formats perform better than smaller niche-based formats in metered ratings is largely determined by the main metric used to describe the audiences: the relationship between “cume” and Time Spent Listening (TSL).
Just about every station in PPM markets will experience a significant cume increase because the meter will clearly show that people are listening to twice as many stations than are being recorded in the diary.
Conversely, the meter reports a dramatic TSL because the meter shows that people are listening to more stations, but for shorter amounts of time.
Making the switch
As a matter of fact, the TSL declines are so dramatic that Average Quarter Hour Persons (AQH), the relationship between the cume and TSL, shows lower results across the board with the PPM.
“We used to see people write down 50 hours of listening to one station,” said Charlie Sislen, President of Research Director, Inc. “Stations that were running on their great Time Spent Listening in a diary-based world have to adjust their format for more than big-cume stations.”
Keeping the listeners happy
PM forces many broadcasters to rethink their business model to meet the challenges of the new methodology.
Sislen says, “Stations can’t rely on an emotional relationship with listeners. Personalities have to be tight and concise. If they start to ramble, people turn them off and the meter picks that up. ”
There’s a real connect (as opposed to a disconnect) that needs to take place between the stations and their listeners. “High TSL radio stations need to be more conscious of what’s going on-air than they were before. They have to make sure they’re not blowing off listeners,” added Sislen.
