Arbitron to list public radio ratings

Our man, the Rev. Hardcider wrote today to tell us that beginning with the 2006 Fall book, things will get even rougher in an already butt-ugly Seattle Arbitron Book.

Arbitron will begin including public radio in their Local Market Reports, then satellite radio after that. NPR is already mightily popular in the Seattle market and this will surely dilute the ratings and therefore the shares and ad revenues of commercial stations.

Public radio stations have been invisible to advertisers, even though in many markets they have high rankings. Rev. HC says:

In Seattle, this will mean that KUOW will be in the top three, and KPLU and KEXP in the top ten. Therefore, just about everybody will drop down a couple of notches, which will effect their ability to sell time to national agencies. Most of the commercial stations will take a hit on revenue.

It's not pretty out there, now, but with those changes, it'll be a lot worse, especially for KIRO, KOMO and KING-FM.

Hear2.0 Entertainment consultant Mark Ramsey says the implication is that the "profitablity and prestige of public radio has just skyrocketed" while commercial radio sales has taken another hit.

More hopeful is his prediction: "Public radio will now be on commercial radio's radar like never before. Commercial radio will more aggressively learn from public radio, compete with it, and counter-program it.

Satellite radio is coming on, and it isn't being accurately measured, either. Once figured into the rankings, they say there'll be even more erosion of terrestrial radio's market.

The ignoring of non-commercial and satellite radio has been a head in the sand by the industry, a status quo protection of an old order that was bound to come to an end. 

For the traditional radio business, the end of all that may seem like a bad thing, but for consumers, it could be the beginning of a renaissance of aural gratification.

Or not.

It's too soon to tell, but some are saying commercial radio will be forced to learn from public radio, who, they say, have learned to reach audiences with quality programming that attracts mass audiences.

Public radio would finally get some competition. It's never, some argue, had actual competition in its own format. The public could profit from that, and so could the other "listening delivery systems" by imitating the wide open PR style.

Some say when those mighty PR ratings are daylighted, somebody will want a piece of that action; and start selling the format to advertisers who want to target that audience.

Sounds like a wet dream to those of us who wish the innovation and diversity of PR radio was even more widely spread across the dial. But we're old enough to have long ago learned to distrust wet dreams.

Why wouldn't the commercial side push public radio into ratings competitions that encourage the noxious lowest common denominator programming mainstream?

Not all markets are so friendly to the PR format as our own. Even here in Seattle, there are public stations that have no listenership to speak of, and are in decline.

The PR demo is aging, what makes anyone think that the PR format or any other can attract the gigantic 18-30-year-old demo to whom radio is an inflexible anachronism?

Comments

[Brian In Lacey]

A little girl asked her Mom, "Mom, may I take the dog for a walk around
> the block?"
> Mom replies, "No, because she is in heat."
> "What's that mean?" asked the child.
> "Go ask your father. I think he's in the garage."
>
> The little girl goes to the garage and says, "Dad, may I take Belle for
> a walk around the block?
> I asked Mom, but she said the dog was in heat, and to come to you."
> Dad said, "Bring Belle over here."
> He took a rag, soaked it with gasoline, and scrubbed the dog's backside
> with it to disguise the scent, and said "OK, you can go now, but keep
> Belle on the leash and only go one time around the block."
> The little girl left and returned a few minutes later with no dog on the leash.
> Surprised, Dad asked, "Where's Belle?"
> The! little girl said, "She ran out of gas about halfway down the block,
> so another dog is pushing her home."

[Ryder]

If radio programers really want the truth then let them face this.

When KIRO goes into it's bottom of the hour barrage of neews, traffic, weather & COMMERCIALS, we begin channel surfing.

At 55 past the hour we know that KIRO is going to be mostly commercials & repeats of news stories they promoed at 53 past the hour. We channel surf.

I know it costs alot of money to run a major news outlet. Plus pay pretty decent wages to daytime windbags. So commercials are needed. Even so somebody had better figurre out a way to do all that without all the barraging. Frankly I'm sick of it.

Today I'm going to give dull old KUOW a chance.

If enough of us do that then when the PR stations begin showing up in the ratings perhaps the big guys will decide the only way to stay in business in to hire cheaper labor.

Oh oh, got more I'd like to ramble on about but I'm already way late for work.

[joanie]

Tis a mixed blessing . . . I don't want public radio to be compromised. At the same time, it would be nice to give those greedy commercial stations their long-deserved comeuppance.

As you point out, Michael, I hope we aren't on the road to mediocrity all over the dial.

[Scrilla]

Here we go again...separating listeners from insiders.
How?....I say how? ...Does NPR propose to monetize this information? Byyyyy........selling commercials at the bottom of the hour?
I guess we now turn the debate to how public the Public Radio can remain? Will they hire slaes staff?
I worked in Portland where KOPB (TV AND Radio) kick huge ass. Every advertiser KNEW where there audience was. The key was finding the 75% crossover COMMERCIAL stations. Any guesses what those are in Seattle?
The Wolf? wrong.
T Man? wrong.
Air America? ....maybe.

News, News, Talk,Traffic and more News.
Where does the money go? To whomever the NPR listeners change to. KOMO,KIRO,KVI.KTTH.
mmm KAY?

[joanie]

I, too, wish I had more time . . . I've got several thoughts on this since posting.

Why would it change the landscape that much? Public radio has always been there . . . why would measuring it constitute a change?

Seems like the market is more and more niched . . . I remember when KIRO covered the land from border to border with its megawattage in WA State.

I don't even subscribe to public TV much anymore - except when there's a cookbook I want or a special video like the Twin Lakes, AK, one. . . can't remember that guys name.

I'm getting more and more off the internet.

Hmm, guess I'm thinking that maybe this will turn out to be another "so what?"

[joanie]

Also, Arbitron may be an invalid measuring stick . . . might need a better calibrated device before we take all this too seriously?

[sparky]

One of the attractions of public radio for me is the LACK of commercials.....so that could be one way that the other stations could lure me...I know they cant be commercial free, but every 6 minutes or so is too much. I turn down the sound anyway.
KPTK commercials are mostly very annoying.

I know Arbitron works on percentages and mathmatical formulas to figure out how many people listen...but with all the options, the channel surfing, turning off of commercials, I dont see how it can be real accurate. I might start with one station and move to 3 others within the span of 10 minutes...you cant measure that....but that is how I listen after thom hartmann is over.
Also, thanks to the internet, I listen to radio stations out of the area...KOHO in Leavenworth, KINK and KPOJ in Portland, KGO in SanFrancisco, along with streaming AAmerica....those stations are on in the evenings on a rotating basis, as well as some of the Internet stations I get on I-Tunes. In my truck i listen to KPOJ in Portland if the subject matter is not interesting on KPTK....I can't believe I am the only one who listens in that manner...

[Scrilla]

Arbitron IS an imperfect instrument. WEeeeEEE all know this.

[Bigpuppy]

Arbitron already measures the noncommercial stations; they're just going to start publishing the numbers as part of the book beginning this fall.

You can find the 12-plus public radio numbers by poking around here:

http://www.rrconline.org/arbitron/

As was stated above, this change will have the effect of pushing down rankings, and one impact will be on air talent who are bonused on their rankings within their daypart and target demo. One mitigating factor in the Seattle market is that the public radio audience is largely split between KUOW, which pulled a 4 in the spring, and KPLU, which had a 3. In Portland, there's only one NPR station, and it's usually around a 6 or 7.

[mark]

One would think if you havr to shorten ad time, you would raise the rates proportionately. too simple?

[joanie]

Only too simple if people aren't willing to pay . . . Isn't that what ratings are about? How much a station can charge for commercials?

Am wondering if that's why we are hearing so much of Mr. Monson - he must be out selling commercials to continue earning his mega salary.

Is he worth it?

[chris]

Hey, he's the one who flew to France with his family and they brought their own food, plus he takes them to family friendly Vegas.

[sparky]

Family Values!

[Scrilla]

Oh yeah!! I forgot...maybe if KUOW becomes responsible to advertisers.....AND taxpayers, they'll have some balance!!
i.e. Friday mornings, taxpayer-supported liberal echo chamber.

Michael?

[blathering michael]

Scriller: NPR gets less than 2% of its money from government grants. Local stations like KUOW are totally listener supported.

NPR is by far the most complete and least biased news gathering agency in the country- See the Pew Foundation studies about its balanced reporting or ask neoconservative Michael Medved, an avid NPR listener who hates Fox News for its bias and poor reporting. Don't believe all the right-wing crap you hear, young man.

[joanie]

Hmm, Scrilla. Not as informed as I thought you were. . . will have to remember that next time you post.

A wingnut. My goodness.

[rev]

>Local stations like KUOW are totally listener supported.

Not even close. According to their 2005 Annual Report (http://www.kuow.org/reports/
annualreport_2005.pdf), they received 9% of their income from government, 38% from business, and 50% from individuals and foundations.

That 38% (about $2.75 million) from "business" is for "underwriting," which is public broadcasting's euphemism for sales of commercial announcements.

It's hard to know how much of the 50% from "individuals and foundations" is direct listener support, but it's pretty clear that the majority of their revenue is from sources besides listener contributions.

[starwood]

I participated in a 3-hour focus group a number of months ago. It was obvious that the client was a radio station/media outlet altho I never found out who.

The main question is what would your ideal news outlet 'look' like. Basically, 90% of the room said NPR! Great website with lots of FREE content and archives, relatively commercial free radio, in depth interviews and stories with good follow-up stories. Most said they were tired of being yelled at and told what to do by commercial radio squawkers and that the commercials were far too frequent.

At the end of the focus group, I think it was abundantly clear to the clients behind the mirrored glass that their product was far from being ideal....

[joanie]

That would have been an interesting event . . . how did they select you? Do you know?

I don't imagine it will mean the end of "too many commercials." :)