Men are turning off rush, and turning on… céline!

Oh, those PPMs. Turns out men listen to way more lite-rock than anyone ever knew, and talk radio’s down 2.6% where the meters are listening.

We’ve reported this ad nauseum in our trivial manner, but today The New York Times reports how the radio industry has been shaken up by Arbitron’s strapping the electronic Portable Personal Meters on media consumers all over the country.

(Photo: Céline Dion- pourquoi pas?)

The meters are in lieu of the old write-it-down-and-lie-about what-you-listen-to diaries.

The television industry had switched from diary entries to metered ratings in 1987 and had seen similarly surprising changes — young men, for instance, watched cartoons much more heavily than they had reported doing, said Gary Holmes, a spokesman for Nielsen. But it took the radio industry almost two decades to catch up.

Seattle’s talk stations took a huge dive last Spring when the meters started spewing out their evil truths about the listening habits of the natives. Fortunes declined for Seattle talkers KVI, KIRO, KKOL, KPTK and KTTH. Even public radio’s KUOW took a hit (even if they say they don’t care). Music stations dominate once again. 

Men had been thought to make up 34.7 percent of the soft-rock audience, according to Arbitron Radio Today 2008, based largely on paper entries. This month, Research Director and the publication Inside Radio released their analysis of meter-only cities from July through October, showing men make up 40.1 percent of the total light-rock audience, a jump of 16 percent.

(Ad sales for the mellow stations, they say, are shifting a bit to more masculine products like American trucks & cars, prostate health, bbq grills, etc).

Talk radio, a largely conservative format, turns out to have fewer fans than previously thought. Talk radio’s market share declined 2.6 percent in the study of areas where the meters were used. Talk radio (excluding sports and news) is about 80 percent conservative, says Michael Harrison, publisher of the trade magazine Talkers.

Were men not willing to admit they were listening to classical or talk radio when they were really grooving to Jessica Simpson? The answer is a resounding, “Apparently.”
 
Classical music stations are not having a nice day.

The old order is definitely on the way out- we just hope it’s not being replaced by the least-worst standard as voiced by this guy:

“There’s no good radio,”Jason Pontius, 39, a technology executive in Oakland, Calif. told The Times, “Soft rock radio is like, ‘Am I really listening to this?’ But it’s the best thing that’s on."

Comments

[AuthenticAndrew]

Another day, and more solid proof that conservatives lie; overrepresenting their devotion to their terrestrial echo chamber, all the while listening to Warm 106.5, wearing knit sweaters and sipping cocoa.

chucks how do you live with yourself?

KUOW shouldn't care; they don't have have ad rates to worry about. Pledge drives are pledge drives are pledge drives.

I don't understand why music stations are doing better than talk or even classical because you'd think iPods would usurp Top 40 completely, while news and talk are not readily available with an iPod, and many people might like to listen to some classical but they're unlikely to have mp3s of it.

[ExPatBrit]

Several of the music stations are talk stations for the first 3-4 hours in the morning. KZOK has re-runs of prior interviews until about 6:15am. Then it's 4 people talking until 10am.

Conversely KIRO is the news on a continuous loop for 6-9am.

How does Arbitron classify that?

[sparky]

Maybe I don't understand Radio Math, but isn't the difference between 34 and 40 more like 6 instead of 16?? Or is there a different magic formula?

My Mp3 player has a lot of classical on it, Andrew! I have a mix of everything. Sometimes I want to listen to something quiet.

[MaltoMama]

Maybe I don't understand Radio Math

Very true statement.

[sparky]

Ok, explain it then. (Like you will do that.)

[David]

AuthenticAndrew seems to always beat me to the punch with his thoughts. I agree completely with his points about iPods etc.

As for Sparky, basically you're confusing percentage differences with real number differences. Look at it this way. If I'm making a cake using one cup of flour (which happens to equal 3% of all the ingredients in the cake) but then make a second cake with two cups of flour (which is now 6% of all the ingredients because I've reduced something else), have I doubled the amount of flour or am I using only 3% more flour? Hope that helps!

[sparky]

Thanks David, for explaining it clearly...and politely!

[David]

You are welcome.

[sox]

Duffman just hits and runs. wish his hits were a little more intelligent, or entertaining.

[Mikey]

Who is Duffman?

[sparky]

Good question.

[nick]

There is nothing to listen to on the radio except morning and evening NPR news. I'm an iPod guy now- even NPR news is podcast. Iused to listen to radio most of the day, at work and in the car.

[David Tatelman]

Wow, where'd you get that picture? Where's the rest of it?

[AuthenticAndrew]

40.1 / 34.7 = 1.1556 (rounded up to 1.16 = 16%)

the dividend is what the current value is and the divisor is whatever the old value was.

if the quotient is below 1 then it represents a drop, if the quotient is above 1 then it represents a climb, and the degree of the climb or drop is represented by how far the quotient is from 1.

[RealityInSeattle]

Anyone have actual numbers for Seattle? I would love to see how KTTH and KIRO are tanking.

[chucks]

Michael has learned how to have fun with the Photo Shop.

[Extreme]

Are you saying that the pic has likely been photoshopped and that is Celine's head but Duffman's body. Incredible, simply incredible.

[Drew]

No, that's just Duffman's dress; just something he throws on for work.

[Extreme]

But I thought it was determined that Duffman was of the feminine gender.

[KS]

This blog has a Duffman obsession. One more time - Duffman has left the building and you can find him on occasion on Sound Politics.

[Duffman]

Thank you, KS.

[Tommy008]

KIRO97.3 HAS GOT TO BE DROPPING like a rock at least from 12 to 3 in the afternoon.Maybe folks are still hanging with milquetoast Ross since he does have pleasant ways, but cetainly they have to be tuning out Monson. Earlier in the week i described how big the Woods story is.Tiger Woods just broke the record for consecutive days on the cover of the New York Post, BEATING OUT 911. MORON dONALD tRUMP IS IN DENIAL, SPEWING OUT NONSENSE ABOUT WHAT A GREAT GUY Tiger IS, AND HOW HE'LL COME BACK BIGGER AND BETTER. We know Trump sees women as commodities so no surprise he isnt putting down Woods. But Woods has been proven not to be a good guy now, and his future is far from certain. actually i don't think it will be a good one. People in general and companies who hired him for ads feel they have been duped and had. The story is huge yet to my Knowledge Dori hasn't even mentioned it. This is an example of how out of touch Monson has become withthe public pulse. i really don't think his show is even mildly entertaining anymore -it's FOCUSED almost entirely now on Monson's silly selfindulgent pet topics that the public really doesnt care about, he way they care about, fro instance, the Tiger Woods freefall. His show is clearly in decline and the rarings drop surely must have already started.

[Tommy008]

Dr. Bill must be getting senile. He just finished hectoring, mocking and lecturing a fellow for ten minutes who called in and mentioned how we dropped fuel air bombs in Afghanistan after 9/11. Wattenburg scoffed at him and vehemently denied we ever dropped such bombs. I read the same news stories that the fellow did- it's common knowledge we dropped so-called Daisy Cutters, or fuel air bombs in Afghanistan. Wattenburg went onto brag about himself again-"don't you know i was the guy who designed how the food was dropped to the people in Afghanistan?' he seems to be like Zelig, appearing everywhere.