PG 1 800.275.2840 THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO MORE NEWS» insideradio.com [email protected]| 800.275.2840 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2015 Numbers Rise With New Nielsen Encoding. Nielsen implemented new Critical Band Encoding Technology (CBET) software in the Baltimore and Washington, DC markets Oct. 12, making the November survey in these markets the first conducted with the updated encoders. The survey covers the period from Oct. 8- Nov. 4, meaning all but 4 days were measured with the new encoders. Even without a full survey with the new algorithms, their impact on raw average-quarter-hour persons appears to be evident. Total AQH persons for the Washington, DC metro jumped to 376,800 during the November survey, a 7.2% increase from November 2014. More significantly, the new number reverses a years-long annual decline in AQH persons. November’s AQH persons were also up 7.7% when compared to the January-September 2015 average of 349,800. In Baltimore, the year- over-year increase was far more dramatic, up 26% from 165,200 in Nov. 2014 to 208,100 in Nov. 2015. Like Washington, Baltimore’s November numbers had been slipping prior to 2015. But AQH has been growing in both markets since August 2015. “The enhanced CBET is picking up real listening that the old system may have been missing,” says Charlie Sislen, partner at Research Director, Inc. “But if you take a closer look at the data you see that radio listening in both markets is up for four consecutive surveys. Therefore, this growth in listening was taking place before the enhanced CBET was in place.” Other factors may have influenced the AQH increases, including a number of stations that added Voltair to their audio chain during the past 12 months. Hidden Value—Read more about the technology of the algorithm, and Nielsen’s field tests, at InsideRadio.com. Media Ownership Hearing Moves Yet Again. The long, twisted saga of the nation’s media ownership rules has taken yet another detour. Oral arguments for broadcasters’ challenge to the FCC’s recent ownership rule decision, originally set for Dec. 3 in federal court, have been canceled as the case is transferred to another court. The case involves broadcaster challenges to an FCC decision to count most TV joint sales agreements against ownership limits. The National Association of Broadcasters has argued against the rulemaking, noting that it came even as the FCC ignored its congressionally mandated responsibility to review the ownership rules every four years as part of the quadrennial review. According to a story in Broadcasting & Cable, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided that the case should be heard in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That’s the same court that remanded the FCC’s last attempt to resolve its media ownership rule review and has resisted attempts at further media ownership deregulation. The Philadelphia-based court blocked getting rid of the broadcast-newspaper cross- ownership ban and blocked “duopoly rule” relief that would have allowed TV/radio and TV/TV combinations in the same market. It’s not yet known how the venue change impacts the timetable of the broadcaster challenges to the TV JSA decision. But Prometheus attorney Andrew Schwartzman, which first challenged the FCC’s media ownership deregulation over a decade ago, tells B&C the Third Circuit might be ready to hear the case in late-first quarter of next year. Howard Stern—Close To Contract Decision? Howard Stern has offered few hints about his professional life after his soon-to-expire SiriusXM Radio contract; however, he does know where his bread is buttered. “I can just say I’m interested in continuing on the radio. I’m a radio guy through and through; that’s what I do,” he tells the New York Daily News. The iconic air personality is currently signed to a contract that nets about $80 million per year—set to expire in December. He also recently wrapped up his fourth and final season as a judge on “America’s Got Talent.” Stern adds, “We’re talking to people about the future. I’m interested in continuing working, but we’ll see where it lands. You don’t know till the contract’s signed.”
Numbers Rise With New Nielsen Encoding. Nielsen implemented new Critical Band Encoding Technology (CBET) software in the Baltimore and Washington, DC markets Oct. 12, making the November survey in these markets the first conducted with the updated encoders. The survey covers the period from Oct. 8- Nov. 4, meaning all but 4 days were measured with the new encoders. Even without a full survey with the new algorithms, their impact on raw average-quarter-hour persons appears to be evident. Total AQH persons for the Washington, DC metro jumped to 376,800 during the November survey, a 7.2% increase from November 2014. More significantly, the new number reverses a years-long annual decline in AQH persons. November’s AQH persons were also up 7.7% when compared to the January-September 2015 average of 349,800. In Baltimore, the year-over-year increase was far more dramatic, up 26% from 165,200 in Nov. 2014 to 208,100 in Nov. 2015. Like Washington, Baltimore’s November numbers had been slipping prior to 2015. But AQH has been growing in both markets since August 2015. “The enhanced CBET is picking up real listening that the old system may have been missing,” says Charlie Sislen, partner at Research Director, Inc. “But if you take a closer look at the data you see that radio listening in both markets is up for four consecutive surveys. Therefore, this growth in listening was taking place before the enhanced CBET was in place.” Other factors may have influenced the AQH increases, including a number of stations that added Voltair to their audio chain during the past 12 months. Hidden Value—Read more about the technology of the algorithm, and Nielsen’s field tests, at InsideRadio.com.
Media Ownership Hearing Moves Yet Again. The long, twisted saga of the nation’s media ownership rules has taken yet another detour. Oral arguments for broadcasters’ challenge to the FCC’s recent ownership rule decision, originally set for Dec. 3 in federal court, have been canceled as the case is transferred to another court. The case involves broadcaster challenges to an FCC decision to count most TV joint sales agreements against ownership limits. The National Association of Broadcasters has argued against the rulemaking, noting that it came even as the FCC ignored its congressionally mandated responsibility to review the ownership rules every four years as part of the quadrennial review. According to a story in Broadcasting & Cable, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided that the case should be heard in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That’s the same court that remanded the FCC’s last attempt to resolve its media ownership rule review and has resisted attempts at further media ownership deregulation. The Philadelphia-based court blocked getting rid of the broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership ban and blocked “duopoly rule” relief that would have allowed TV/radio and TV/TV combinations in the same market. It’s not yet known how the venue change impacts the timetable of the broadcaster challenges to the TV JSA decision. But Prometheus attorney Andrew Schwartzman, which first challenged the FCC’s media ownership deregulation over a decade ago, tells B&C the Third Circuit might be ready to hear the case in late-first quarter of next year.
Howard Stern—Close To Contract Decision? Howard Stern has offered few hints about his professional life after his soon-to-expire SiriusXM Radio contract; however, he does know where his bread is buttered. “I can just say I’m interested in continuing on the radio. I’m a radio guy through and through; that’s what I do,” he tells the New York Daily News. The iconic air personality is currently signed to a contract that nets about $80 million per year—set to expire in December. He also recently wrapped up his fourth and final season as a judge on “America’s Got Talent.” Stern adds, “We’re talking to people about the future. I’m interested in continuing working, but we’ll see where it lands. You don’t know till the contract’s signed.”
At 61, he also shared with the Daily News that his own success continues to surprise him. “I never thought I was good on the radio. I worked at it and hoped I would get good enough that audiences would appreciate what I was doing. It was never like waking up in the morning and going, ‘Yeah radio! That’s where you can make a lot of money.’ It’s a very tough profession.” Meanwhile, one of Stern’s biggest proponents, Mel Karmazin, recently offered suggestions for potential next steps, should Stern opt to not remain with SiriusXM. Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Nov. 4, the former SiriusXM CEO offered, “He’s an extraordinary performer. I think that he would have a tremendous amount of alternatives.” According to Karmazin, those include Netflix and Apple Music. With Netflix, “it’s original content. He does the video [and] it could be a TV show that could be available worldwide.” And since Apple recently launched a proprietary music streaming service, that would also be a good fit, he said. Syndi-pendence Days—Karmazin wonders if Stern, who owns all his radio shows, will just try to syndicate his library; read more at InsideRadio.com.
Study: In-Store Still the In Way To Shop. Amid all the reports about how consumers will do more of their holiday shopping online this year than in past years comes new research that suggests brick and mortar is still where it’s at for retail. The vast majority of purchases (90%) happen in-store, according to a new “Retail Report Card” from data and analytics provider Neustar Retail Advertising. While 47% of people shop online, they still mostly cross the threshold of a retailer and plunk down their cards, the report concludes. And that could provide radio sellers with more ammo to target retailers heading into the biggest shopping day of the year and the remainder of the holiday retail season. The numbers are especially provocative when coupled with Nielsen’s recent radio return on investment studies. Nielsen found radio delivered $17 of department store sales for every dollar of advertising and $16 of mass merchandiser sales for every dollar of advertising. What’s more, Nielsen’s analysis of Black Friday 2014 found 63% of all 25-54-year-olds were reached by radio on the biggest retail day of the year. Or, as Cumulus Media/Westwood One CMO Pierre Bouvard put it, “Radio’s stellar ability to increase retail sales is due to the mobile nature of the radio audience. Most listeners work and spend the majority of their radio time listening out of home during shopping hours when stores are open.”
Wheeler, House Members At Odds Over AM Order. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has replied to a dozen House members about their concerns that the commission’s AM revitalization order doesn’t go far enough to help struggling minority broadcasters. In the Oct. 26 letters, publicly released on Tuesday, Wheeler defended the agency’s historic Report & Order as “the kind of common sense compromise that serves the public interest.” Representatives Bobby Rush (D-IL), David Scott (D-GA), Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) and David Payne (D-NJ), among others, wrote the chairman about the lack of an FM translator window dedicated exclusively for AM stations. In his response, Wheeler said that the agency reached a compromise under the leadership of commissioner Mignon Clyburn that gave the technically challenged Class C and Class D stations first dibs in two options for relief. One would allow them to partner with an existing FM translator and move it up to 250 miles; the second to participate in an AM-only auction to begin in mid-2017 after the TV incentive auction is completed. “The modification window option will get translators in the hands of AM station owners who most need them by early next year,” Wheeler said in the letters. “For those stations that can wait, the addition of the auction window after the 2017 incentive auction gives AM stations another opportunity to enhance their audience reach by providing clearer signal reception.”
Mainstream Rock Gets Rolled Away By Mediabase. Mainstream Rock is dead…at least, in name only. With rock radio growing less fragmented, Mediabase will retire its Mainstream Rock chart effective with the airplay week of December 27, 2015-January 2, 2016. The airplay provider will move stations currently classified as Mainstream Rock to one of three categories—the Active Rock Published Panel, the Active Rock All Stations Group, or the Classic Rock Panel. The shift follows a long, slow blurring of format lines between the Active and Mainstream rock formats. The designations first emerged in the ‘90s, when a new crop of younger, more musically aggressive rock stations sprung up in markets such as Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles. Dubbed Active Rock, they were harder-edged and more current than heritage rock stations that
targeted older audiences and were more musically conservative. But the two formats have become less distinguishable in the ensuing decades. “The Mainstream Rock and Active Rock stations over time have become more closely aligned, with the larger markets only slightly more recurrent in nature,” Media Monitors/Mediabase president Philippe Generali said in a notice to clients, adding that the change has been under consideration for some time. “Adding these highly rated Mainstream Rock stations to the Active Rock format will greatly enhance the overall Active Rock panel,” Generali said, noting that consolidating the formats will increase the audience of the top songs on the Active Rock chart. Roster Change—For a look at the stations currently listed as Mainstream Rock, go to InsideRadio.com.
Talk Radio Poll Reveals Big GOP Splits. The conservative talk radio audience is putting up its dukes against its own political bedfellows. A late October poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal & NBC News reveals that talk radio is providing a strong message for the upcoming GOP Presidential race—and it ain’t all “Kumbaya.” WSJ reports, “Republican leaders in Washington are under siege from their own activists, in part, because conservative radio hosts are almost as likely to rail against the party brass in Congress as they are to lament Mr. Obama’s failings in the Oval Office.” The newspaper posits that a decade ago, Republicans touted conservative talk radio as a “foolproof medium to communicate directly with their most ardent supporters. Now, the tables have turned.” With one-third of Republican primary voters “strongly identifying” with conservative talk radio, they are also demonstrating weariness for rank-and-file party members. The poll—conducted by the Democrats at Hart Research Associates and the Republicans at Public Opinion Research—shows that Ben Carson is their top pick, followed by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Only 3% prefer Jeb Bush. “It’s hardly a surprise that these anti-establishment views have upended the GOP—and made compromise in Washington that much harder—but the extent of shift will continue to reverberate for years to come in how Republicans deal with issues including foreign policy, taxes and regulation,” the story concludes.
Saga Goes Outlaw in NC Ratings Quest. Saga is loading its guns for a country format duel in market No. 159, Asheville, NC, with the launch of “105.5 The Outlaw.” Offering a novel mix of current and classic country acts and a dollop of Southern Rock, the HD3-fed station airs on Asheville-licensed translator W288CQ. That adds a fifth brand to the Saga cluster of mainstream rock “105.9 The Mountain” WTMT, AC “Mix 96.5” WOXL-FM, the sports simulcast of “ESPN Radio 1310 & 970” WISE and WYSE and classic hits “Rewind 100.3,” another HD/translator combo or what Saga calls “metro stations.” The new outlet is Saga’s second “Outlaw” branded country, following its September debut in Des Moines. While it has a smaller footprint, the hybrid format will compete with Asheville’s No. 1-ranked “99.9 Kiss Country” WKSF, owned by iHeartMedia. In the Spring 2015 Nielsen ratings, that station scored a walloping 18.1 share—with the caveat that iHeart is the only group owner that subscribes to Nielsen ratings in the market.
FCC’s Zero-Sum Fine Collection Irks Congress. With the FCC already getting a wary eye from members of Congress, a story in Politico says that despite levying hundreds of millions of dollars for illegal or unsavory company practices, the commission’s wherewithal to collect those fines tallies a big zero. Politico outlines a few of the FCC’s big ticket fines—$100 million against nearly a dozen firms for defrauding a phone subsidy program, $35 million against a Chinese company for selling illegal wireless jamming equipment and $100 million against AT&T this June for throttling customers on unlimited data plans—which it says are mired in an impossibly complicated enforcement process. “After the agency proposes a fine, companies have approximately 30 days to either pay or challenge it. The fine isn’t officially due until the FCC completes its investigation, a process that can take years,” Politico reports. “Even after that review is complete, the FCC has to rely on the Justice Department to collect the money if a company doesn’t agree to pay.” This rigmarole has drawn more ire from Congress. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said at a recent hearing, “I am beyond confused as to why not one dime of that has been collected. We might as well have a big flashing sign that says, ‘Doesn’t matter, do whatever you want…because we’re not even gonna bother to collect the money. And we’re gonna keep paying you.’” FCC Speaks—The commission has an answer for these charges, but some people just aren’t buying it; go to InsideRadio.com.
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Hearst is one of the nation’s most diversified media, information and
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Our Baltimore stations are news/talk powerhouse WBAL-AM and the legendary 98 ROCK, and we are the
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To Apply and Learn more about Hearst and these leadership opportunities:
