800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 Inside Story: New Nielsen Data Helps Radio Play Politics. One of the biggest radio developments for the current presidential campaign comes with Nielsen Local Political Ratings, a service that uses Nielsen PPM numbers and twins them with Experian Simmons PoliticalPersonas consumer data, with a third party putting the results together. Both political parties increasingly use a version of this for rating voter data, and it all allows radio to tap into data-driven targeting. The Local Political Ratings allow campaigns to boil down key voting segments, organizing PPM panelists by address, and targeting by market, station, format and daypart. It will give radio a chance to boast of the kind of pinpoint voter ad accuracy digital does. So far, a handful of radio groups, including Emmis Communications, have said they will use these Nielsen numbers, which identify listeners by 10 specific profiles, from “Super Democrat” to the left to “Ultraconservative” on the right, and include “Unconnected and Unregistered” and “Informed and Unregistered” as well. Nielsen has done pilot testing of the data in the Philadelphia and Los Angeles radio markets to show how many ways it can be sliced and diced. “The markets have dramatically different profiles,” says Brad Kelly, senior VP and sales director for Nielsen Audio. “The data vary not only from station to station in markets, but daypart to daypart. You see the data come back and you say, ‘Holy mackerel.’…Now we can combine radio’s enormous reach with real targeted data.” Rick Cummings, president of programming for the radio division of Emmis, says the station group doesn’t plan at this moment to use Nielsen Local Political Ratings at every station or market where it owns stations, but will test it this fall with an option to expand by next year. “This is Big Data we haven’t had before,” Cummings says. “With TV viewing declining and people DVRing past ads, it’s an opportunity for us.” Hispanic Vote Remains At Center Of Ad Debate. Has it ever been more crucial for political candidates to target Latino voters? If skyrocketing trends in population growth and the immigration issue tell us anything, the answer is a resounding yes, and it’s something radio continues to explore. This election year and next, targeting Latino voters will be vital for local and national office- seekers. Jose Parra, who had worked for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, split last year to form Prospero Latino, a political consulting firm targeting Hispanic candidates and issues. “There will be big spending in radio in 2016,” he says. “It continues to be important and it’s changing because radio is where candidates can reach newer communities of Hispanics, in places like Georgia and North Carolina.” And, he notes, radio has a historic connection to political activism in this country. He points out that in 2006 and ‘07, when Hispanics mobilized to press for immigration reform, “most of that was fueled by Hispanic DJ’s across the country. That made it a really important political voice.” Demographically, Hispanics are also young and avid radio listeners. That gives the reach and frequency of radio a big boost with that voting bloc. The importance of the Latino vote didn’t escape Walter Ulloa, Entravision CEO, on the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call. “Every day, we read another article about the growing influence of the Latino electorate,” he said. “As it relates to the political elections, we’re certainly in contact weekly with both major parties, Democrats and Republicans, about the national race as well as local races.” Radio Ads May PAC More Of a Punch. Radio might be the beneficiary of new circumstances that are also shaking up TV. This is the first presidential election with two non-incumbents since the 2011 Supreme Court Citizens United decision that widely expanded the influence, and spending, of Super PACs. The FCC requires broadcast TV and radio stations to sell a candidate’s campaign ads at the lowest unit rate; not so with the PACs. As a result, some TV stations will charge a bunch for PAC ads. Will [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 Feltus, a renowned researcher and planner at Republican communications company National Media, says radio could attract significant candidate campaign ads if the well-heeled PACs buy the best TV positions. He suspects radio might be aware of an opportunity; an iHeartMedia rep told him recently that the company wouldn’t charge PACs “premium rates” if they place their ads with the station group. Classic Hits Earns Big Summer Swell. Classic Hits can now dust off a new space on the mantel. For the second consecutive year, the Greatest Hits format bagged the largest ratings bump during June, July and August compared to the first five months of the year and earned Nielsen’s coveted “Format of Summer” crown. It’s a historic first—the only time a format has captured the title twice, and the first back-to-back win in the five years since the measurement giant has tracked summertime ratings gains by format. “Summertime spikes are nothing new to the classic hits format,” Nieslen says in a new report to be released today. Looking under the hood at the format’s long-term monthly trends, Nielsen found summer seasonality to be an important factor for the classic hits listener. But while there are noticeable spikes every summer, the past two years stand out “for how consistently and sharply the audience increased from the beginning of the year through the summer,” Nielsen says. During the past two years those spikes were bigger than Bon Jovi’s hair was in the ‘80s. Classic hits stations in PPM markets lifted their 6+ audience share by an average 9.7% this summer after netting a 10% increase in the summer of 2014. The Nielsen analysis compares average 6+ shares in PPM markets from June to August with those of January through May. Classic Hits Gets Summer Sizzle From 1980s. After years of being musically stuck in the ‘70s, classic hits is increasingly moving into the big synth sounds of the 1980s. That’s attracting more millennial listeners and helping it grow its overall share of the ratings pie. This summer, more than half of the 20 most played songs by classic hits stations were from the 1980s, according to a new Nielsen analysis of 30 major-market stations. Three years ago, no songs in the top 20 came from that decade. And since then, the average release date among those songs has shifted by seven years from 1973 to 1980. “Nothing exists in a vacuum, especially our format,” says Anne Gress, program director of CBS Radio’s top-rated WOGL, Philadelphia (98.1). “We’re constantly updating and contemporizing. If you get stuck you’re going to become irrelevant.” Comparing the most played classic hits songs from the summer of 2012 with those of 2015 shows a dramatic musical shift. Three years ago, America’s “Sister Golden Hair” (released in 1975), Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville” (1977) and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” (1967) sat atop the format’s playlist. This summer it was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” (1981), Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There To Remind Me” (1983) and “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” (1983) by Eurythmics. As programmers decide which ‘80s tunes to add, market history plays a major role. Classic alternative works in Los Angeles but R&B floats the boat in Philly. Many use special features and holiday weekend countdowns to test songs out. And with research budgets scaled back, informed instincts have never been more important. “Playing Bobby Brown’s ‘My Prerogative’ makes sense for WOGL but for another station it might be EMF’s ‘Unbelievable,’” Gress says. “A lot of it is programming by feel.” Country and News Are the Talk Of Summer. Any lingering questions about whether country regained its mojo with millennial listeners were erased by this summer’s ratings. Country posted a sixth-straight month of growth among listeners 18-to-34 in August, ascending from an 8.4 share in February to a 9.7. A new summer PPM ratings analysis from Nielsen shows the format’s August results match its August 2013 numbers and trail only August of last year (10.1), which was one of country’s best months ever under electronic audience measurement. Despite the gains in 18-to-34-year-olds, country ended up staying flat during the summer months with both the 6+ (8.2) and 25-54 (8.1) audience. Market watchers will be keeping an eye on the format to see if it can maintain its seasonal swing in the fall. Last year, country’s historic summer of 2014 was immediately followed by a ratings [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 downtrend. Meanwhile, news/talk got a head start in the August survey toward its annual fall ratings gain. Perhaps propelled by intense interest in the race to select a Republican presidential candidate, news/talk trended 8.5-8.7 from July to August among listeners age 6+, outpacing last August’s 8.5. The situation was similar among persons 25-54, where news/talk improved 5.8-6.1 to finish slightly ahead of the 6.0 share reached in August 2014. Fantasy Football Now Big Ad Sales Reality. Fantasy Football, which has evolved from X’s and O’s to big dollars and cents, is now also a burgeoning media buy category across multiple platforms.