DEON LEVINGSTON “National Get to Know Your Customer Day” on Thursday to Mount Its “Verizon Wireless Social
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 Nielsen Takes Bubba To Court For PPM Influence. In what appears to be the first-ever case of its kind, Nielsen Audio has sued Bubba The Love Sponge in federal court over alleged ratings tampering. Filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, the civil action accuses the host (Todd Clem) and his Bubba Radio Network of fraud, conspiracy to defraud, violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Practices Act and interfering with business and contractual relations between Nielsen and Beasley Media Group, which airs his syndicated show in Tampa. It seeks at least $1 million. In the suit, Nielsen claims Clem met with the “cooperating panelist” multiple times in July and August, offering to pay $300 per month if the listener helped increase his ratings, up to $400 if a target ratings threshold was achieved. According to the Tampa Tribune, Clem sent texts to the panelist including one that read, “U have to PROMISE NOT TO SAY A WORD ... This could ruin me.” The suit describes the lengths Clem went to in an effort to artificially boost his ratings. He bought radios on Amazon.com and had them shipped to the panelist’s house, it claims, and advised the panelist on how to circumvent the PPM’s motion-sensing technology. “He described that by using certain tricks the Cooperating Panelist could make it appear that he was listening to Bubba Clem’s show even when the Cooperating Panelist was not carrying the PPM device,” the complaint states. And when his ratings went down instead of up, Clem allegedly urged the panelist to try harder, saying “Please buddy. Please. I’m paying u!!!” But the charade came to an abrupt halt in August when the panelist contacted Nielsen and blew the whistle on the host. For Bubba, Confession Leads To Allegation. Nielsen’s ratings fraud charge against Todd “Bubba the Love Sponge” Clem in a federal court in Florida comes less than two weeks after Clem publicly confessed to attempted ratings distortion in the Tampa market. “I was accused of attempting to influence the listening activities of a particular panelist,” the host said during an Oct. 6 press conference. “It is with deep regret and embarrassment that I face you directly and say [the accusations are] true.” Clem’s apology followed an investigation by Beasley Media Group, owner of his Tampa affiliate “Bubba 98.7” WBRN-FM, which said it had determined that Clem was contacted directly by a PPM panelist. Nielsen said then that the improper activity was discovered in a timely manner and it removed the tainted panelist’s results from the delayed September survey results. When it took the harsh step of delisting WBRN-FM from the Tampa ratings, Nielsen signaled it wouldn’t tolerate attempts to distort its ratings. “Nielsen is committed to maintaining the highest standards of data integrity and will continue to act swiftly to ensure those standards are upheld, including taking additional measures if circumstances warrant,” the company said Oct. 5 in a statement. It now has taken such measures for what is believed to be the first time it (or predecessor Arbitron) has ever sued a radio personality. Clem is an independent personality, not a Beasley employee, and he hinted during his Oct. 6 mea culpa that the ratings dust-up may not be over. “I’ll subsequently face any consequences here forward,” he said. “I don’t know what the future of my program is going to be.” NextRadio Wants Verizon To Put Its Chips In. NextRadio is setting its sights on its biggest prize—cellphone carrier Verizon. Following deals with T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint, NextRadio NEWS INSIDE >> is unleashing a grassroots social media campaign to pressure Verizon to activate FM chips On The Inside with... on Android-based smartphones on its network. NextRadio execs have promised a high- profile effort to court the last big holdout. The Emmis Communications-owned company used DEON LEVINGSTON “National Get to Know Your Customer Day” on Thursday to mount its “Verizon Wireless Social [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 Media Campaign.” “Verizon needs to know that their customers want FM radio on their smartphones without using a ton of data or draining their battery like streaming apps do,” NextRadio says. It is advising Verizon customers to visit www.freedomonmyphone. org and provides contact information for Verizon, as well as Apple (which has yet to activate FM chips in iPhones) and the Federal Communications Commission. NextRadio is also urging Verizon customers to use the hashtags #unlockFM and #bettermatters to advance the campaign on social media, and share and retweet related posts. NextRadio is even scripting tweets for users to cut and paste, such as “Hey @Verizon it’s #gettoknowyourcustomersday and they want to listen to us with no data using @NextRadioapp on their smartphone! #unlockFM.” The social strategy has proved successful in the past. Following a clever vlog campaign initiated in August by NextRadio and its president Paul Brenner, T-Mobile president & CEO John Legere took to Twitter to commit to NextRadio. The Verizon campaign is set to run through the end of the month. The company is supplying suggested social media posts to keep the pressure on, including highlighting how FM radio uses less battery and less data than streaming, and can help disseminate emergency information. As one sample tweet sums up, “Free radio is better for your listening experience w/ @NextRadioapp’s LiveGuide. #bettermatters” AudioBurst—A Good Listener Masters Search. A new curation website has launched that claims to offer a searchable platform for U.S. talk radio content, making audio available and shareable in real time. Based in Tel Aviv, AudioBurst.com allows users to plug in any topic—for example, Donald Trump—and discover relevant on-air content that is then clickable to hear. The site is powered by the company’s proprietary AudioBurst Engine, which it says, “transcribes and understands the meaning of auditory content in real time, [bringing] consumers a new digital medium for talk radio content to be accessed anytime, anywhere.” The company says the search engine scours hundreds of radio stations across the U.S. and captures audio segments, called “bursts,” which are then curated and served to users via AudioBurst.com. Content can then be shared on social networks and embedded for bloggers and websites. AudioBurst is pitching a premium partnership with radio stations to provide tools that would give them a guaranteed minimum of three bursts per week promoted through the website and social media channels. Broadcasters would be automatically notified every time a burst is created from their content. The company says that in addition to helping radio show owners with distribution and content longevity, its platform increases general talk radio consumption online as a result of its bursts ranking prominently in search engines. Amir Hirsh, AudioBurst CEO & cofounder, said in a release, “AudioBurst.com has been designed to make radio content more available in people’s day-to-day online and search activities.” AudioBurst.com also aims to organize audio info with products for radio broadcasters, Internet users, publishers, app developers and those in need of in-depth auditory search capabilities. New Deal Switches NPR One To Drive. With just a few touches on the digital dashboard, drivers can now tune into NPR’s “All Things Considered” or the latest episode of “Serial.” NPR One, the customizable public radio app that allows listeners to select their preferred national and local public radio content, can now be accessed directly on select car dashes through a new partnership with MirrorLink. NPR One users can connect the app via Mirror Link, a car industry standard for smartphone and in-car connectivity, and its Rock Scout app, which delivers Android audio apps into a car’s digital dashboard. The new integration will allow NPR One to appear as its own icon, much like iHeartRadio, Spotify and Pandora do on many car displays. It creates a safer way for NPR fans to access their favorite content, says Joel Sucherman, NPR’s senior director of digital products. “Compatibility with MirrorLink makes NPR One driver-aware and accessible via large icons that conform to established guidelines in driver distraction,” Sucherman said in a statement. MirrorLink was created by the Car Connectivity Consortium, a group of 100 companies that includes carmakers, smartphone manufacturers and after-market consumer electronics vendors. It features large icons designed to minimize driver distraction and recognizes if a car is in park or drive mode. “Access to NPR One is a major turning point for the MirrorLink app ecosystem,” Alan Ewing, president and executive director of the CCC, said in a statement. “RockScout has attracted the attention of some of the world’s most iconic music and audio brands because, with zero integration, the platform extends access to millions more potential subscribers.” Tips On When To Play Serious X-Mas Music. Plenty of AC and classic hits stations are wondering when—or if—to pull the trigger on an all-Christmas format. Tracy Johnson Media Group’s namesake president & CEO offers valuable tips on his website about when [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 to begin season’s greetings. While the format is a ratings home-run for scores of stations, typically boosting cume “through the roof,” Johnson notes it has some risk: Regular P1 time spent listening among core station fans may sometimes decline.