In the new PPM world, the biggest differentiator between the so-called “high performing” radio stations and average stations is cume. That was among the takeaway points of a new study, “The PPM DNA of America’s High Performance Radio Stations,” presented by Arbitron and research firm Coleman Insights during the National Assn. of Broadcasters Radio Show, held here Sept. 24.

Coleman VP John Boyne and Arbitron’s VP of programming services and development Gary Marince noted that it’s important for stations in PPM markets to put their emphasis on getting listeners to tune in more often rather than “stretching” each occasion of listening, and to recognize the continued importance of P1 listening. Broadcasters were also encouraged to recognize the continued importance of positioning and branding.

The study is based on April through June data from this year in the first 20 PPM markets. The researchers used a variety of criteria to identify 73 stations in those markets that they deemed “high performers.” The full study will be posted on ColemanInsights.com Sept. 25. Following are some of the top-line results.

What sets high performance stations apart from everyone else?

• Cume is more likely than TSL to differentiate high performers from all stations.

• High performance stations tend to generate more listening occasions, not just longer occasions.

• High performers’ audiences have higher P1 compositions than other stations.

• Stations generate two-and-a-half times more TSL from their P1s than from average listeners.

• P1 listening occasions are not much longer then average, but they occur a lot more frequently. Their listeners come back to the station a lot more often.

• Most music-formatted stations have above average cume and below average TSL.

• Spoken word-formatted stations tend to have above average TSL and below average cume.

The study’s findings were also broken out by format. While more formats will be included in the full study posted online, a handful of the key findings were presented at NAB and cited here.

• Mainstream AC high performers achieve huge levels of cume.

• Country high performers are most separated from average country stations by more cume. They also achieved better than average TSL.

• Oldies high performers attract below average TSL from an above average cume.

• High performers in the alternative format attract much more TSL than the average alternative stations.

• Urban AC high performers attract high levels of TSL: 4:22 as opposed to 3:22 for the average urban AC station. Urban AC high performers attract more TSL by attracting more listening occasions.

• Among Hispanics, cume and TSL drive high performing Spanish music stations.

• Commercial news/talk high performers have much higher cume than the format average.

• Public news/talk high performers are completely differentiated by stronger cume.