NEWS users who liked to sound sophisticated by shifts from July to August. For example, ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE METERS listing their local public radio station – KUT alternative rock station KROX (101X) saw posted strong numbers in July and its audience share jump dramatically for no New radio ratings system kicks in August, especially the national- apparent reason. BY KEVIN BRASS ly syndicated Morning t
Much-discussed KGSR-FM, Edition and All Things “Radio Austin,” which Local radio executives are hard at work Majic 95.5FM, which tended to finish around Considered programs. switched its frequency to examining the first round of data from a new fifth in the diary system. Majic was followed Along the same 93.3FM and tweaked its ratings system, the biggest shake-up in the by hit jukeboxes Bob-FM and Kiss-FM, country lines, in other mar- format to add more radio business since Marconi invented the KASE, and Mix 94.7FM. Even oldies station kets Spanish- classic hits, finished car dealership commercial. KXXS-FM, “True Oldies 92.5,” which didn’t language stations a solid but unspec- This summer about 780 Austinites started register a blip in the diary system, showed up plummeted in tacular 10th in the carrying small, beeper-sized devices called as the 17th-ranked station, beating out PPM rankings, August ratings. Portable People Meters, which automati- sports stations KVET-AM, “The Zone,” and one of the rea- Beyond the perfor- cally register radio signals. The results will KTXX-FM, “The Horn.” sons Border mance of the individ- create the ratings used to sell advertising, In general, PPM tends to punish talk-heavy Media jettisoned ual stations, radio replacing Arbitron’s antiquated diary system, stations, with meters diligently recording most of its executives are which called on survey participants to write every time a listener channel surfs to find a Spanish-language buoyed by the overall down their daily listening habits, a laughably familiar song. To compensate, many Austin formats in Austin. numbers, which sug- unreliable system. shows have been reining in disc jockeys and But the initial PPM gest a much larger audi- Austin’s radio pooh-bahs have been adding more music to morning shows. numbers don’t show any ence for radio than report- reconfiguring their stations for months in “We’re trying to minimize the useless chat- huge drops in Austin’s ed by the diaries. And, unlike preparation for the new system, which will ter,” said Alan Kirshbom, market manager remaining Spanish-language other markets, where PPM dictate the future of on-air program- for Enter com Communications, which formats. “It appears prognostica- shows listeners bouncing from station ming. Changes have ranged from owns three stations in Austin, tions of the death of Spanish radio to station, audiences in Austin are dis- dropping Spanish-language for- including Majic and Mix. are not true,” said Bob Proud, playing loyalty to their favorite brands. mats that didn’t perform well in With that in mind, KLBJ-FM’s senior vice president and Austin Of course, translating those numbers other PPM markets to more all-chatter Dudley and Bob market manager for Border Media. into revenue will still be a challenge for subtle tweaks, such as media Morning Show pulled something Some of the other interesting tid- the struggling radio industry. The rearrang ing commercials, elimi- of an upset by ranking No. 1 in bits gleaned from the ratings: meters pick up radio signals but don’t nating traffic reports, and watch the 25 to 54 age group, testimo- t
Although the morning rush hour measure if the participant actually lis- instructing disc jockeys to ny to the loyalty of the show’s lis- has traditionally been considered tened to the station. “Unless you can announce upcoming songs instead teners. In a similar fashion, news- the largest draw of get them to listen for a of recently played songs, in order to talker KLBJ-AM beat the odds by post- the day, PPM shows reasonable amount of entice listeners to stick around. ing strong numbers. In other markets, Rush Austin’s largest lis- time, it doesn’t make “We’ve all been very nervous with the Limbaugh and his cohorts have seen a sharp TOP 10 STATIONS, AUGUST tening audience tun- any difference to your changes at a time when the economy is so drop-off, but KLBJ is managing to remain in Monday-Sunday, 6am-12mid; ages 25-54; ing in at midday, fol- ability to sell,” Gillmore tough,” said Scott Gillmore, market manag- the top tier of local stations. “KLBJ-AM tar- cumulative audience lowed by the after- said. But the larger er for Emmis Communications, which owns gets a younger audience than many news-talk noon drive, 3-7pm, 1) KKMJ-FM, adult contemporary numbers and the more six stations in Austin. stations, and that helps,” said Chase Rupe, with mornings third. reliable system should Although final numbers for the quarter are director of programming and operations for 2) KBPA-FM, adult hits t
For the first time, at least help their still not available, preliminary results for July Emmis, which runs KLBJ-AM and -FM. 3) KHFI-FM, pop contemporary hits stations streamed on cause. “It allows us to and August don’t show the massive shifts The new PPM numbers also include public 4) KASE-FM, country the Internet showed compete more with tele- expected (or feared) by many in the industry. radio station KUT, which was never part of 5) KAMX-FM, hot adult contemporary up in the ratings, vision,” Gillmore said. “It Following the trend in other markets with PPM, the ratings mix under the diary system. 6) KLBJ-FM, album-oriented rock hinting that the shift will give advertisers stations playing generic pop hits performed Although many public stations around the 7) KROX-FM, alternative rock toward Web-listening more confidence.” best. In August, the top-ranked station country haven’t fared well in PPM – there was 8) KVET-FM, country is a very real phe- Executives hesitate to among listeners ages 25-54, the most desir- an assumption that public radio’s audience 9) KPEZ-FM, rhythmic contemporary hits nomenon, even for make too much of the able demographic, was perky pop machine was inflated under the old system by diary 10) KGSR-FM, adult album alternative established terrestri- early numbers; the sum- al stations. “It mer is a notoriously speaks to what we know, which is that Austin oblique quarter, with many listeners traveling is a very tech-savvy city,” Kirshbom said. and students out of school. But they are still h�h�h�h�h�h�h�h�h�h�h�h � t
PPM is supposed to eliminate the wild breathing a sigh of relief, after months of 5)&
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1PXEFST 26 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E OCTOBER 8, 2010 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m