800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2015 Kagan: Analytics Key To Showing Radio ROI. Radio needs to tell its story better to marketers and better analytics will help that happen. That was one of the takeaways from a radio-themed panel at SNL Kagan’s 32nd Annual Radio and TV Finance Summit in New York on Thursday. Radio is now able to use more precise information to prove its effectiveness, said Hartley Adkins, EVP of operations, major markets at iHeartMedia. “We used to compete at the front desk,” he said, referring to checkout clerks who used to ask what advertising source brought them to their store. Now, there’s better, more clear-cut data. “I don’t think we’ve ever been able to get credit [by advertisers] like we can today,” Adkins said. “We’ve been waiting for days like these.” As programmatic ad buying comes to radio, advertisers will get a much better idea of what they’re getting, the panel seemed to say. But during a time of rampant agency reviews, with ad buyers under the gun, OMD U.S. director for national audio Natalie Swed Stone said the explosion of media choices sometimes leaves radio out of sight and out of mind. It’s up to radio owners to tell their story better, Swed Stone said, and it’s become more urgent now that more advertisers have strict ROI requirements. “To be able to converse with today’s marketers, you need to be able to make a splash with them,” she said, adding that radio needs to invest in top notch salespeople as much as it needs to spend on top notch on air talent. Agency Buyer: Radio Has Everything Everybody Wants. Radio may not be the shiny new channel in the media universe. But according to one agency exec who orchestrates tens of millions of dollars in advertising buys, it already has what newer media are striving to deliver. “Everything everybody wants, radio has,” Natalie Swed Stone, US director for National Audio at OMD, said at Thursday’s SNL Kagan’s Radio and TV Finance Summit. “Radio has community, radio has social, and DJ’s were the first to endorse products.” Since returning to the industry as chief marketing officer of Cumulus Media/Westwood One, Pierre Bouvard said what struck him about radio is how many ROI studies have been conducted for the medium. “When I left, there were none. Now there are dozens,” he said. Ad-wise, Bouvard said, his station group is seeing an uptick in recruitment advertising. “Radio is the soundtrack of the American worker,” he said. With a roster of 850 stations, iHeartMedia EVP of operations, major markets Hartley Adkins boasted, “There is no marketing problem 245 million people can’t solve.” But one panelist, Elizabeth Neuhoff, the CEO of Neuhoff Communications, had a somewhat dimmer appraisal. “It’s been a tougher year for us,” she said, suggesting the same assessment applied to other small to medium market station owners. “Interestingly our top stations are just as much in demand as they have been,” but ones on the lower rung are struggling. Some ad categories have “disappeared in the smaller markets,” she said, mentioning mobile phones and restaurant advertisers specifically. Neuhoff expressed optimism about “what a robust programmatic business” could do for smaller market operators. “A person who buys Chevy and likes to go to Burger King is just as valuable wherever they are,” she said. Preaching Radio’s Reach. That radio reaches more than 90% of U.S. adults each week is no surprise to most people in the business. But at the Future of Radio panel at Thursday’s SNL Kagan summit, Cumulus/Westwood One’s Pierre Bouvard said it’s a stat that radio hasn’t emphasized enough. “Radio is America’s number one mass reach medium,” he [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2015 said, reiterating data from Nielsen’s Total Audience Report issued earlier this week that updated radio’s reach numbers. He tweaked the TVB (Television Bureau of Advertising), which trumpeted that it was the medium that people spent the most time with but, Bouvard suggested, swerved away from mentioning reach. The radio reach stat was, he said after the panel, a distinction the radio business should market better. During the panel discussion, Bouvard also touched on how Nielsen’s PPM measurements are missing massive amounts of radio listenership from people wearing earbuds, “none of which we get credited for.” He said Nielsen is working on a fix. In fact, the panel briefly lamented how technology has been unkind to radio--it’s not even easy to find one. But streaming radio, iHeartMedia’s Hartley Adkins noted, is available in a half billion devices. “There was lost listening we’re now capturing,” he said. As an example, he said, many commuters arrive by car at work and go from their car radios directly to their mobile devices to keep tuned to iHeartRadio programming. Though it might be hard to find a real radio, he said, in fact, “There are more radios out there than ever. It’s just not called a radio.” Say It Out Loud: LGBT Radio Sets Up Shop. Within a 10-day span, new stations serving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities with a mix of music and talk have launched in major markets. iHeart Media’s “96.7 Pride Radio” in Minneapolis-St. Paul and CBS Radio’s “Pulse Radio” in San Francisco appear to be the first 24/7 broadcasters in the U.S. openly targeting local LGBT communities. With HD Radio and FM translators having expanded radio choices across the dial, more programming experimentation is reaching listeners. The Pulse, which airs on the HD2 channel of CHR sister “99.7 Now” KMVQ and streams online, speaks directly to an underserved community, says CBS SVP of programming and music initiatives Michael Martin. “I have talent that lives the lifestyle and no one was openly, loudly speaking to them and interacting with them,” he says. The Pulse talent are “99.7 Now” morning show hosts Fernando and Greg and afternoon personality St. John, talking in an “LGBT context,” Martin says, on relevant topics. “Because this is new and uncharted territory,” Martin says Pulse programming “will be fluid” and evolve over time. In Minneapolis, program director Don Parker says 96.7 Pride Radio intends to be “a year-round partner for local LGBT organizations, helping to raise awareness for issues that impact the community.” Broadcasting from a new downtown studio, the station airs on FM translator W244CS and streams on the station’s website and the iHeartRadio app. The station’s staff and on-air talent are part of the local LGBT community. Internationally, there are several LGBT-format stations, including Toronto’s “103.9 Proud FM” CIRR-FM and “Joy 94.9-FM” in Melbourne, Australia. SiriusXM Radio offers OutQ, an LGBT-themed news, talk and entertainment channel. LGBT Market Comes With $884B Buying Power. How large is the opportunity for broadcast stations targeting underserved LGBT communities? The combined buying power of the U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adult population for 2014 was estimated at $884 billion, according to a new report by research firm Witeck Communications. About 16 million adults in the U.S. identify as LGBT, or 6%-7% of the adult U.S. population, according to the report. Like the radio industry in general, San Francisco’s “PulseRadio” and the Twin Cities’ “96.7 Pride Radio” intend to offer advertisers more than just 30- and 60-second spots. Both stations say they will sponsor local events and concerts. “We’re very involved in promoting Pride Week festivities and helping to raise the profile of those events, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Pride Radio program director Don Parker says. In the Bay Area, The Pulse’s marketing plans include branded parties during upcoming Pride Week. “We want to get the brand out there and connect with an audience,” says CBS senior VP of programming and music initiatives Michael Martin. For now, The Pulse isn’t selling radio spots as stand-alone buys, but rather as part of KMVQ deals. But Martin believes that opportunity will come in time. “First we have to brand the station, prove who we are and show the community that we are a great, viable channel,” he says. Some Specialty Shows Have That “Out” Factor. While “96.7 Pride Radio” and “Pulse Radio” have made headlines with new LGBT formats, some stations air specialty shows aimed at local listeners in that demo. Newsweb Corp. progressive talk WCPT, Chicago (820, 92.5) offers “Out Chicago with Scott Duff,” covering LGBT issues, entertainment and lifestyle, and the station recently promoted host Wayne Besen, a prominent gay rights activist, to host weekday afternoons. In Philadelphia, three iHeartMedia stations feature monthly LGBT-oriented segments under the name “Speak Out,” hosted by local lawyer and [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2015 LGBT advocate Angela Giampolo. The company’s urban “Power 99” WUSL just signed a new long-term deal with on-air talent Mutha Knows, part of its “Rise and Grind Morning Show.” Knows hosts the show’s popular “The Tea” gossip segment and is an advocate for the market’s African-American LGBT community. Mike & Mike Staying Put in Bristol. Last month, ESPN announced ambitious plans to move its ESPN Radio “Mike & Mike” morning show from Bristol, CT to a slicker TV studio in New York.