by Tom Taylor | tom@in3media.com | 609.883.3321

Thursday, July 30th 2009

Shut up and play the hits?

It’s getting to the point where syndicators are calling and asking me that very question – because they’re getting pushback from clients. They’re not the only ones. Savvy programmers are worried that the perhaps-simplistic lessons of early People Meter markets are being mis-read and mis-applied to many music stations. This week’s unusual public complaint by Clear Channel’s Ryan Seacrest and Ellen K – venting on another radio station, no less – brings it to the fore. The highly-rated KIIS-FM (102.7) morning team says it’s been told by management to cut down on the chatter, for the sake of the People Meter ratings. They’re not the first jocks to be told that, of course. But the fear of the PPM and the recession are making many executives cautious – too cautious, maybe. There’s such a thing as throwing the baby out with the bathwater – in this case, turning stations in generic jukeboxes that offer little differentiation from what consumers can find anywhere else. Speaking of the Arbitron PPM -

That’s in the latest analysis across all 20 PPM markets done by consultant Randy Kabrich of Arbitron’s previous-diary-book ratings (not shares, but AQH ratings), compared to the latest June People Meter numbers. Kabrich (“KAY-brick”) says by comparison, “the non-ethnic-formatted stations lost an average of 16% of their ratings but held their ranks.” While the more serious loss of AQH ratings by the Hispanic and black stations had notable consequences for their ranks. Hispanic stations dropped an average of five ranks, compared to the diary. Urban stations dropped two ranks. Kabrich’s conclusion – “from diary to PPM, in currency ratings, the urban and Hispanic stations have more than double the loss of the non-ethnic stations.” There are always market-to-market idiosyncrasies, of course. But Kabrich, a long-time skeptic about Arbitron’s People Meter, says he’s “triple-checked every number.” Got a comment? I’m at Tom@in3media.com. And be aware that I’m on the road today to Nashville, to cover the scene at this year’s Morning Show Boot Camp, where the very first session is “Interviewing in a PPM World: Have the rules really changed?” Coverage of MSBC 21 coming up tomorrow and Monday.

Imagine working the games of the same major league baseball team for 60 straight seasons – incredible. This year makes 60 and many folks expected Vin to go to the clubhouse for good this Fall. But he gets on the phone with the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke and says “God willing, I will probably come back for one more year. At this moment, my health is excellent, and I’m leaning toward one more year.” Plaschke says “Scully’s goodbye tour next year will be so fraught with emotion…last week, people were crying just at the thought of him leaving” this year, in October. What makes Vin the best? He doesn’t talk down to you, he describes the action in plain yet poetic language, you always feel that he’s welcoming you into his stadium and his game, and he doesn’t think he’s bigger than the game. The NAB displayed nice timing by inducting Vin into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame this year in Las Vegas. He didn’t say much on the podium (particularly compared to other Vegas honorees like Bob Newhart). But he feels he’s been blessed to have had his life and his career. Now as Bill Plaschke says, the Dodgers have “15 months to plan a way to properly honor the most beloved employee in franchise history.” And along with that – to honor the marvelous relationship baseball has with radio.

The mega-church First Baptist Church of Dallas ends its ownership of Criswell College - and Criswell’s the licensee of Christian teaching/contemporary Christian music KCBI, a monster full Class C. The Baptist Press service says the issue of how to handle ownership of KCBI has been a contentious issue between the parent church and its college for several years. Now KCBI – plus three other stations, which we’ll get to in a moment – passes to a new non-profit corporation. Criswell College will be a non-voting member and 50% owner of that entity. First Baptist Church will manage the station, which has become a burden for the 400-student college. First Baptist will also make a fixed annual contribution to Criswell. Beyond KCBI, Dallas, the other stations affected are San Angelo’s KCRN-AM (1-kw at 1340) and KCRN-FM, a commercial-band Class C1 at 93.9. And Lawton, OK-market KSYE, a C1 at 91.5. First Baptist founded Criswell College in 1969 as a training ground for pastors, Sunday school teachers and other laypeople. KCBI in Dallas signed on in 1976. Dallas-Ft. Worth has a plethora of big-stick non-commercial FMs. Another one of them – Christian teaching KVTT at 91.7 – just sold to KERA-FM/TV owner North Texas Public Broadcasting for a Texas-sized $18 million. You wonder if First Baptist took a long look at that sale price – and decided to hang onto their asset, anyhow. A lot of churches would’ve taken the money.

The rumors about “Praise 106” emanated from the Nashville Board at Radio-Info.com yesterday morning. If you take that track, the new format could be contemporary Christian – poaching in the waters of Salem’s “Fish” simulcast and others. Or it could be gospel. Yesterday’s T-R-I newsletter told you the Nashville Board was rumoring a Cumulus blowup of its all-sports WNFN. That turned out to be on the money – the station halted the ESPN Sports talk yesterday morning in favor of construction sounds. If Cumulus really does go CCM (contemporary Christian), it will happen just as Salem has its best book ever with the “Fish 94” duo of WFFH, Smyrna (94.1) and WFFI, Kingston Springs (93.7). In the Spring, they managed a 3.3 share, average quarter hour share, 12+. Music City’s also the home of the Christian CHR Way FM network that’s based at WAYM, Spring Hill (88.7). There’s also Trevecca Nazarene University’s Christian alternative WNAZ at 89.1. In the diary world, the non-coms wouldn’t matter so much to a commercial format like this putative “Praise.” But Nashville’s going PPM a year from now (September 2010) and all stations, commercial and non-commercial, will appear in the rankers. But Cumulus has been living in an over-crowded world for all-sports, anyhow -

That doesn’t look so great next to Citadel’s “Zone” WGFX (104.5) – a 3.3 share in the Spring Arbitron, total week 12+ AQH. Cumulus must know its 106.7 frequency can do better than a 0.6, and ratings historian Chris Huff tells me “its peak share was a 3.4 in the Winter 2003 when it was urban ‘Blazin’ 106.7’…but the signal hasn’t topped a 2.0-share since Spring 2004.” That’s a long time to live with low ratings. 106.7 has been AAA/rock hits “Planet”, then R&B oldies, rock (as “The Rooster”), urban (“Blazin’”) and since December 2004, sports. We’ll know what Cumulus chooses at 1:06 Central time today. If it goes “Praise”, it will be overlooking obvious format holes for oldies or classic hits. The station streams at 1067TheFan.com. And the busy Nashville board of Radio-Info.com is open 24/7.

He succeeds Kevin Martin-era Media Bureau Chief Monica Shah Desai, who took a private-sector job at D.C.-based CSD as its Chief of Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau. (She now enjoys a much more generous expense account.) The Media Bureau looms large in the life of radio stations and licensees, as the successor to the earlier Mass Media Bureau. New bureau chief William Lake shares many characteristics with previous appointments by newly-seated FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski – #1, he’s worked at the FCC before (most recently as head of the DTV Task Force). #2, he’s worked in private business (he was a partner at Washington’s Wilmer Hale law firm). And #3, he’s law-clerked for a well-known jurist. In Lake’s case, for both Supreme Court Justice John Harlan and Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Henry Friendly. Another thing – Lake has experience at other government departments, including State, EPA and the Council on Environmental Quality. He’ll be supported by two newly-named Deputy Chiefs who are true veterans of the Commission – Robert Ratcliffe (20 years, most recently Acting Chief at the Media Bureau) and Chris Monteith (12 years, most recently Chief of the Enforcement Bureau). One holdover name I'm not sure about yet - Roy Stewart, the respected Senior Deputy at the Media Bureau.

His new Director of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities is Thomas Reed, who joins from the K&L Gates firm, where the FCC says he “specialized in regulatory issues affecting women and minority-owned businesses.” Reed was once legal counsel to the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. Reed’s Senior Deputy Director at the Office of Communications Business Opportunities will be Carolyn Fleming-Williams – who held the top job at OCBO before Reed was selected. She’ll stay on and extend her 15-year career at the Commission. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski imports Mark Lloyd, a onetime journalist at NBC and CNN, as the agency’s new Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer. He’s most recently been the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights/Education Fund, and once worked at the law firm of Dow Lohnes & Albertson.

Did Arbitron buy it early? (I know they tried.) Or did they finally get it pulled off the block? I’m betting the latter. Yesterday the eBay message for the three PPM meters said “unfortunately, the item is no longer available for purchase. This is disappointing for everyone, but sometimes it’s necessary to protect you as a buyer.” That sounds like Arbitron intervened. Last price for the three meters before they vanished was $201.50. Also gone from the site's listings – the PPM encoding monitor. It has “been removed.” In fact, the only Arbitron item for sale yesterday afternoon was this – an “Arbitron Ratings 1987 Ceramic Coffee Mug in flawless mint condition.” It can be yours, from one of the eBay online stores for $9 plus $6.50 shipping.

I’ve got a copy of the standard “encoding agreement for a non-subscribing station”, and after all the usual stuff – you agree to encode all separate “audio-based and/or audio-video-based media content” and must document the exact location of the encoder – Arbitron wants to be very clear about keeping it clean, research-wise. Section #6 is “Distortion Activity.” A station can’t “cause any panelist to misrepresent his/her demographic or other characteristics or that of his/her household in which he or she resides; or cause any panelist to surrender control of his or her PPM meter or other equipment to anyone not authorized by Arbitron.” You also can’t try to “discover the identity of a panelist or otherwise cause the identity or location of a panelist to become known other than to Arbitron.” Just to make it extra-plain, there’s even a separate Section #7 – “Confidentiality of Arbitron Panelists.”

So says our Sean Ross, riffing on this week’s much-talked-about Alan Burns study of AC and CHR stations and the missing element of relatability. Sean says there are “a lot of stumbling blocks” to having that on the air, and one of them is that “relatables require writing ability, which is something we haven’t taught or prized in our announcers for a long time.” Also - “station business is what pays the bills.” That’s even if failing to bond with listeners over the long haul threatens the whole thing. Also in today’s Ross On Radio, coming by email – Sean Ross’ First Listen to the online Goom Radio’s Rock-It Channel (“often, but not exclusively, emo and teen punk” and not heard elsewhere in this particular presentation). And Sean’s “From the Board at Radio-Info.com” feature, which cherry picks some comic (but true) answers from the thread “Shortest Radio Jobs Ever.” If you’re subscribed to the Tuesday and Thursday Ross On Radio columns, you’ll be seeing the latest one in your email soon. If you’re not receiving Ross On Radio – at no charge – just go here.

In Charlotte – Chris Huff, the ratings scholar, tells T-R-I that “after dominating the market from 2002-2006, urban WPEG makes only its second trip to the top spot in the last 10 books”, total week 12+ AQH share. Here’s the Spring-book result for CBS - a 1-2-3 sweep, starting with #1 urban WPEG (6.3), #2 urban AC WBAV (6.2) and #3 country WSOC (5.7). WSOC wins the country standoff versus Clear Channel’s “Kat” WKKT, which beat WSOC last Fall, but has since reverted to #2 status.
Orlando – Cox holds four of the top five stations, starting with urban AC “Star” WCFB (6.6), Rhythmic “Party” WPYO (5.5), talk WDBO (5.3) and country “K92” WWKA, also at a 5.3. The lone outsider is Clear Channel soft AC WMGF, tied at 5.3. Chris Huff observes that “WCFB had slipped from the top in the Winter book, but returns in the Spring to give it #1 finishes in five of the last six books.”
West Palm – CBS-owned AC “Sunny” WEAT (5.9 to 5.7) remains #1 and not much else stands out, historically speaking. But check Miami-market “Amor” WAMR. It’s up 1.6 to 2.4. That’s interesting because it and its sister stations have literally disappeared from the new Miami PPM ratings – Univision isn’t encoding. The PPM is scheduled to arrive in West Palm Beach-Boca Raton in December 2010, unless the Florida Attorney General keeps tightening the screws on Arbitron.
Waco – Chris Huff loves strings and streaks, and he finds one that’s comment-worthy in Waco – “It's not the longest winning streak in the nation, but it is the longest winning streak among Arbitron's 21 rated markets in the state of Texas, and it belongs to country ‘WACO 100.’ With this spring's 14.5 share, the streak is at 30 surveys, dating back to the Spring 1993.”
Albany, Georgia – can’t let urban WJIZ-FM’s accomplishment pass without saluting its 26.2 share, up from a 25.5. That’s certainly one of the highest 12+ shares of any urban (or any kind of station) in any Arbitron rated market.

The latest ratings online, diary and PPM, are at Radio-Info.com. The site supplies formats and owners for all the rated stations, from a 0.1 share to double digits. You see them all, since there’s no “cutoff point” on the Ratings Page. The Ratings Page is here.

» Arbitrons Spring Quarterly Book back to top » 25. Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill - 1,962,300 34. Orlando - 1,519,700 47. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton - 1,117,800 73. Sarasota-Bradenton - 626,700 81. Gainesville-Ocala - 560,700 93. Lakeland-Winter Haven - 501,400 144. Tyler-Longview - 306,500 154. Killeen-Temple - 292,200 199. Waco - 191,000 216. St. Cloud - 167,900 224. Olean - 163,000 228. Elmira-Corning - 158,400 234. Rochester - 152,900 263. Texarkana - 115,200 265. Wichita Falls - 114,300 270. Albany - 107,600 274. Mankato-New Ulm-St. Peter - 101,900 281. Lawton - 91,900 Click on the city to review recently released PPM ratings. View a complete list of Arbitron markets here. » Buzzing on the Boards back to top » Citadel is recruiting salespeople in Providence with a reality-show-like contest – “Can you sell?” CHR WPRO-FM (92.3) and rhythmic Hot 106 WWKX promise “the job of a lifetime.” Not only are they creating a potential stream of job applicants for sales positions, Citadel even sold the contest to a sponsor, Newport Creamery. The promo says “if you are outgoing, creative, savvy, and never take ‘No’ for an answer, then we want you.” They’re starting with 100 applicants for “the ultimate interview”, in a winnowing-down process that lasts four weeks. The website even contains a custom-made video about radio sales. The Providence Board at Radio-Info.com has the link to the contest, and some skeptical thoughts, too. The Alan Burns research study - “What does music radio communicate when it’s not playing music?” - gets the attention of the Business of Radio Board. Somebody starts with this post – “Finally, someone has quantified what I consider to be the biggest problem that radio faces today. No, it's not the Internet, iPods, satellite radio…It's the lack of relatability between radio and the audience.” The Alan Burns & Associates study found that most AC and CHR stations in the study devoted just one talk break per hour to something that wasn’t about the station itself. See where the discussion’s going, online. » Sound Bites back to top » Baltimore’s talk WBAL (1090) installs a hard-news morning show, to be anchored by Dave Durian, the former TV anchor who’s already fronting the current feature-oriented morning show at Hearst’s WBAL. Departing station manager Jeff Beauchamp tells the Baltimore Sun they’re tossing out all “little features we have on pop culture”, and focusing on straight news. Jeff’s last day at WBAL is tomorrow, ending a 34-year career there. The new hard news slant in mornings begins on August 31. (No more Michael Jackson news, unless it’s from the coroner or the cops, I guess.) Police talk a suicidal man down from WNSN’s tower in South Bend. It was dicey and the local police patiently worked with the man – hanging 400 feet in the air – for three and a half hours, says the South Bend Tribune. The authorities on the scene knew the situation could’ve gotten even more dangerous. If the man had climbed another 100 feet, he’d have encountered the antenna of Schurz Communications’ WNSN (101.5) which carries enough RF to be lethal. A Schurz engineer was standing by to switch off the power – but fortunately the climber came down and was hospitalized for treatment of a cut on his face. How did he get into the enclosure? That’s something the authorities and perhaps the FCC will look into. Air America co-founder Evan Montvel-Cohen gets five years’ probation in Hawaii for stealing $30,000 from a Hawaii landscaping company he worked for in 2005 – the year after Air America launched. Montvel-Cohen left Air America not long after it hit the air, and according to the Honolulu Advertiser, is still managing director of a company that owns TV stations on Guam. He’s re-paid the $30,000 to the landscaping company in Waimanalo, but the judge refused to defer accepting his plea of no contest. That would’ve allowed him to avoid having a criminal record once he completes the five years of probation. But the judge said Montvel-Cohen used “deceptive conduct.” NAB Radio Show Super Session showcases Frank Flores, George Laughlin, Mark Mays, Bill Stakelin and Charles Warfield. The Thursday, September 24 breakfast session will be moderated by David Kennedy, who previously ran Susquehanna radio and then Interep, and is now CEO of streamer FlyCast. Of the panelists – New York-based Frank Flores is the chief revenue officer of Spanish Broadcasting System. Dallas-based George Laughlin is the group head of Oaktree Capital-backed GAP Broadcasting. San Antonio-based Mark Mays is the CEO of Clear Channel Communications (and we haven’t seen him much in public since last year’s buyout). Cincinnati-based Bill Stakelin is the President/CEO of Regent Communications. And New York-based Charles Warfield is the increasingly-visible president/COO of ICBC/Inner City Broadcasting, and current Chairman of the NAB Radio Board. More about the September 23-25 NAB Radio Show (“The Dial and Beyond”) here. TM Studios makes its Audio Architecture and Imagio production libraries available online, with a treasury of more than 30,000 audio files. The sites for the downloadable production libraries are the new AudioArchitecture.com with 16,000 tracks, and Imagio.com. They both offer free trials. Dallas-based TM Studios is a division of Triton Radio Networks. » Faces on the Radio back to top » Guy Raz is the permanent host of NPR’s Saturday and Sunday one-hour editions of All Things Considered. The former defense correspondent has been guest hosting, and wins the permanent job at Weekend ATC. And I must say, he’s easy to listen to and carries on the casual yet informative tone that ATC cultivates on Saturday and Sunday. Raz started with NPR as an intern at the weekday All Things Considered in 1997, and took off two years to work for CNN in Jerusalem. Tony Bruno is indeed bringing his Content Factory-produced "Into The Night" to Fox Sports Radio. As yesterday's T-R-I newsletter suggested, he'll do 10pm to 1am Eastern time in the Fox lineup, while previous 10pm-1am personality J.T. "The Brick" pulls the all-nighter, 1am to 6am (thus catching an hour of morning drive back east). Bruno joins (we should say "re-joins") the FSR lineup on August 10. Jim Worthington is out as the market manager for Cumulus in Amarillo. The six-station cluster up in the Texas Panhandle has stations such as rhythmic “Beat” KQIZ at 93.1. Kurt Parsons finds some precious minutes away from his job as PD and morning guy at Prairie Communications’ Quincy, IL-market WPWQ (106.7) and Hannibal, MO-market KWBZ (107.5) to write and illustrate a two-page comic strip story titled “Feet.” It’s published in the Summer issue of the Florida Review. Kurt, who studied this subject formally at the Savannah College of Art and Design, tells me he’s working on a full-length comic book. Reach him at KurtisParsons@yahoo.com. Bob Walker, who did such yeoman work for ABC News Radio, has died at 77. He was a signature voice of the ABC Information Network over the course of literally three decades and heaven knows how many five-minute newscasts. Bob also anchored the coverage of special events such as the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. He sounded like the guy who was always there, always game for whatever came along in the news – and always unflappable. Walker retired in the 1990s.

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