The Sands Report with Jon Coleman Part 2
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JANUARY 23, 2014 THE Sands REPORT UNIFYING THE ALT COMMUNITY Here’s What Is Important To the real audience is built based on the brand and its values not on manipulating meters. In fact, after the first couple of years of PPM manipulation and once we Your Station’s Success got past the obvious negatives, I ast week Jon Coleman, the CEO of haven’t been convinced that the Coleman Insights, was telling us about same methods of meter manipula- his theory of how some PDs are tion are helping ratings in the misreading PPM data. And because moment and I’m pretty convinced they are, these programmers end up that they may be counterproduc- getting rid of so many “tune out” elements, tive to the real values we need to L build into our radio brands. Jon Coleman that there’s not enough “tune in” elements left to make their stations unique or special. How is it counterproductive? Here’s more of our conversation... It’s counterproductive because they take time away ıfrom more important tasks, and counterproductive What brought you to your conclusion that PDs because they throw the baby out with the bath water. are misreading PPM, Jon? Our research has always taken a macro view of radio Makes sense. So how do we build loyalty into brands. The brand is very much about music and music our radio brands? strategy, but it is also about the other values of com- By being entertaining in some way. Music, personality, munity, entertainment, etc. that a station offers. We and the like. More and more it’s personality based and do not see any conflict between what our research tells slowly it’s becoming less about music. This is because us about brands and music and what I’m saying about for those who want a deeper music experience, com- minute manipulation of the audience. I believe that mercial radio may not be ideal. There’s a minor- ➠ Contact: Richard Sands (415) 383-5955 • [email protected] ©All Rights Reserved NEON TREES “SLEEPING WITH A FRIEND” D31* GOING FOR AIRPLAY NOW! GREATEST GAINER #2 MOST 27K SOLD NEW: 91X KBZT KNDD KROX WBRU WHFS FIRST WEEK WZNE WMRQ WRRV KXNA WBTZ KBRE ADDED! ALREADY ON: KROQ KYSR LIVE105 KTBZ WBOS KPNT KNRK X96 KHTB WWCD WLUM WROX SIRIUS ALT NATION MUSIC CHOICE & MANY MORE! NEW ALBUM POP PSYCHOLOGY IN-STORES APRIL 22ND! TV PERFORMANCES ON: LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON! THE TODAY SHOW! THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO! THE SANDS REPORT ● page 2 of 5 ity of music fans we cannot reads The Sands Report loved serve and as a result, the total what you had to say. He asked value of music may be slightly if you could tell us about the less than it used to be. Don’t get TOP 10 theory on what the station’s me wrong though. This doesn’t Specialty ratings numbers mean. mean music is unimportant, but Programming great Michael it means that relative impor- O’Shea taught me this. It’s such tance of music and other values “Homeless Romantic” a helpful way of thinking about may be changing slightly. Early Believers: programming and a way of manag- 89X-Detroit WKLL-Buffalo ing ratings expectations. In audi- I see your point. And now lis- WARQ-Columbia ence share there are two numbers. teners can get elsewhere the 3.3 or 4.7, for example. There’s a “Thank You For Flying” Tour Starts 2/15 exact same music that a typi- number to the left and a number to cal Alt station plays, but with the right of the decimal point. The the ability to skip songs that number to the left is driven by the they don’t like, and without all the commercials. It brand strength or the image strength of the station... really does behoove our programmers to come up with a secret sauce, doesn’t it? And the number to the right? It certainly does. More and more we see people saying That’s driven by small things. Nuances in music rota- they choose stations for things that no other medium tion. Spot placement. Small contests, etc. If you want does or does well. Music is very important, but it’s not to dramatically impact ratings you must deal with the seen as an exclusive part of the station’s appeal. The things that impact the number on the left of the deci- very light users of radio often use radio only in special mal. The big things. A mediocre station won’t go from a circumstances, like when they have no access to other 3.3 to a 5.5 tweaking the small stuff. But, a 3.3 with a big services, news, weather, etc. Heavy users are more compelling and emotion-driven morning show can be- likely to use and like music, but even their profile is come a 5.5. A 3.3 might become a 4.5 with a big contest. changing as other services are used for music. Things A station that places it’s spots correctly or eliminates a ılike personality and other “secret sauce” becomes few polarizing elements here and there throughout the more important. programming will go from a 3.3 to a 3.6. Know the dif- ference between the two. Don’t ignore the little things, After the column last week, one of the PDs who but focus on the big things. ➠ ENTIRE A LT PANEL THE BREAKOUT #17* ALT IN ALT SMASH 2 WEEKS! CLOSED! OF 2014! LORDE NEW @ WSUN! WRXL! KCXX! KMYZ! WRRV! NOW #3* ALT! THE MOST SPUN ARTIST Already On @ KROQ!! Alt 98.7!! KRBZ! KXTE! KROX! @ ALT FOR THE WBRU! WZNE! KFRR! KRAB! WWWX! WVIC! KNRK! MOVING TO POWER PAST 6 MONTHS! LIVE 105! KNDD! KUCD! KBZT! WHFS! 96X! KKDO! EVERYWHERE WWCD! WBTZ! WLKK! WEQX! KRXP! ALT NATION! VIA MASSIVE PURE HEROINE MUSIC CHOICE! WRMR! WRFF! Q101! 91X! X96! KHTB! CERTIFIED GOLD OFF WBUZ! WXEG! KRZQ! KJEE! KNRQ! KXNA! ALT CALLOUT & ALT AIRPLAY!! MSCORES! THE SANDS REPORT ● page 3 of 5 TAME IMPALA Here’s What Is Important (Con’t) “Feels Like We Anything else on your mind before we go? Only Go Backwards” I don’t want to come off sounding like PPM has been bad for radio or that “tune out” is always misunderstood. The new single from Lonerism, Grammy- I think we have to be smart. I know nominated for Alternative Album of the Year! smart PD’s who understand that ALREADY ON: KBZT, KNRK, KROX, “Don’t the brand value of some content Alt. Nation, WWCD, WARQ, WKZQ! ignore the supersedes the in the moment Follow-up to the Top 10 Smash “Elephant” response. I also think part of the Album sales over 150,000! little things, reason we focus on “in the mo- but focus ment” manipulation is that sta- Contact: Jeff Stacey 310-865-7610 Karen Glauber 818-506-8800 on the big tions do not have the resources to do things to capture the audience’s things.” imagination. By resources I usually mean money. So, we work on what we Selfie City can when we can’t work on more important things. Thanks for taking the time these last two weeks! You’re quite welcome. One final thought. I think that unfortunately the digital revolution, the economic downturn in 2009, and PPM all happened at exactly the same time. So, when we should have been making radio more compelling in order to compete with digital content, we were forced to squeeze out a few hundred ılisteners in order to make this week’s ratings. We could not experiment with programming for the future when the present was at serious risk. I would say the last five Here’s Chris Stowers of Hard Boiled with Chris Payne years we’ve been in the perfect storm. n of KRZQ before a Crosses concert in Chicago. Rush your Alt selfies to [email protected] Contact: [email protected] Our Mailing Address: The Sands Report • 38 Miller Avenue, #469 • Mill Valley, CA 94941 “the mother we hare” Mediabase Top 5 w/ Persons 18-24 (#6 w/ Women 18-24) & Potential Scores of 100+ BUILDING SPRING 2014 TOUR DATES: TOP 10! 4/12-COACHELLA 4/19-COACHELLA 160,000 albums / 100,000 tracks 4/21-Tempe, AZ sold/downloaded! NEW AT: DC101 4/22-Salt Lake City Google Play Promotion: NEW INCREASES KICKING IN 4/24-Denver 80,000+ Album Downloads (12/26-1/7) 4/25-Kansas City TW AT: LIVE 105, 91X, KRBZ 4/28-Carrboro, NC 4/29-Washington DC (Sold Out) 4/30-Washington DC RateTheMusic 5/2-New York City (Sold Out) Top 10 w/ Persons 18-34, Persons 25-34, Men 18-34 & 25-34 5/3-New York City (Sold Out) TOP 5 w/ Men 18-24 THE SANDS REPORT ● page 4 of 5 Added/New in the Top 50 Buzzing At Alt WRDA-Atlanta No adds WLUM-Milwaukee Bad Suns, 1. Foster The People Haim KROX-Austin Neon Trees 2. Neon Trees KCMP-Minneapolis Beck, WHFS-Baltimore Kongos Grizfolk, KINS, Painted 3. Sleeper Agent WBOS-Boston No adds Palms, Sam Roberts Band 4. Kongos WEND-Charlotte Fitz & The Music Choice No adds 5. Bastille Tantrums, Foster The People WBUZ-Nashvile Bastille, 6. Phantogram WKQX-Chicago Arcade Fire, Bastille Foster The People, Seether, Wild Cub 7. Beck CD102.5-Columbus Beck, 8. Manchester Orchestra Max Frost, Lo-Fang, Morning Parade, WROX-Norfolk Bad Suns, Sleeper Agent Bastille KDGE-Dallas Beck WJRR-Orlando No adds Kings of Leon, Neon Trees KTCL-Denver Bad Suns WRFF-Philadelphia No adds Live 105-San Francisco Airborne Toxic Event, Beck, Kongos 89X-Detroit Bastille, Foster The WXDX-Pittsburgh No adds People, Itch KNRK-Portland No adds The End-Seattle Beck, Dead Weather KTBZ-Houston Crosses WBRU-Providence Arcade Fire, Foster The People, Neon Trees KPNT-St.