January Auto Sales Expected To be Strong

2-2-15

It's typically the slowest month of the year for radio's biggest ad category, however forecasters say auto sales have begun 2015 much stronger than 2014, when extremely cold weather kept car buyers away from many dealerships. GM is expected to post a 20 percent increase, with the other Detroit 3 automakers also on track for double-digit gains, according to Automotive News. January light-vehicle sales should be about 13 percent higher than a year ago, according to TrueCar.com and Kelley Blue Book. Automakers are scheduled to report January sales tomorrow.

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Home Depot Still Strong For Radio

4-14-14

With nearly 62,000 commercials airing on radio stations all across the country, The Home Depot was radio's number one advertiser (for the week of April 7). GEICO was a distant second with 34,146 commercials followed by Walgreens (30,840), McDonald's (28,430), and the United States Department of Transportation, which ran 27,319 commercials to promote the national campaign to discourage texting and driving.

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Is Radio as Strong as You Think?

An article in mysanantonia.com says Internet radio is contributing to the decline of traditional radio. "Since the turn of the century, the onslaught of new technology has contributed significantly to the dimming commercial radio's star." The piece credits huge debt for Clear Channel and others as another negative factor and quotes Edison's Larry Rosin saying ?Pandora is clearly stealing time from commercial radio music stations, primarily among people under 35 years old.?

The article also quotes paragon's Larry Johnson about the decline in radio listening. "While the percentage of the population that listens to radio has remained almost constant during the past decade, time spent listening to the radio consistently has declined by about 15 minutes a year for the past 20 years."Johnson said the drop "has been especially pronounced among younger listeners, who usually are among the early adapters of new technology and services ? such as iPods and Pandora. However, he added, there's no clear way to see if those declines have been caused by listeners leaving radio for online streaming services."

A study by the Katz Radio Group provided by Johnson to mysanantonio.com showed that listeners between the ages 18-34 listened to 15.25 hours of broadcast radio every week during spring 2011, while listeners between the ages 35-64 listened to 17.5 hours of radio every week.

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Auto Sales Finishing The Year Strong

12-28-2012

Kelly Blue Book reports clearance events and new-car sales are expected to push sales over the 1.35 million unit mark for December, pushing the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) to 15.2 million units. After a strong November and December, the final sales tally for 2012 should approach 14.5 million units. This would amount to a more than 13% year-over-year increase and the third consecutive year of double-digit gains. While growth will continue in 2013, KBB does not expect to see a fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains.

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Auto Sales Remain Strong in October

10-26-2012

J.D. Power and Associates is predicting October will be another strong month for auto sales. "New-vehicle retail sales continue the robust pace from September, with another month of strong double-digit year-over-year growth." October new-vehicle retail sales are projected to come in at 943,200 units--a 13% increase in volume, compared to 2011, according to the organization. The forecasted selling rate in October is the second consecutive month above 12 million units, the first time that has occurred since April and May 2008.

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Downs Says His 3rd Quarter Was Very Strong

10-12-2012

For public companies, earnings season kicked off yesterday when we heard from Emmis Communications. Today, in an effort to cover the entire spectrum of operators, we take a look at how one of radio's successful small market broadcasters performed in the 3rd quarter. Ben Downs is the Vice President/General Manager of Bryan Broadcasting which owns 7 stations, all in Bryan/College Station, Texas. Downs says he was up 14% in the third quarter. "The Texas primary season was a substantial influence with considerable political money coming into the stations.  Since Texas is the reddest of the Red states it is not contested nationally, thus we have seen very few dollars for the general election."

Bryan says his station outperformed the market. "Given we?re a market with nearly 60,000 college students, advertising market fluctuations are much less severe; the whole market is most likely up over 2011.  I would estimate it to be up 3%.  Because of that unusual composition our largest category is apartment housing, followed by entertainment, automobiles, healthcare and political.  As far as categories, it?s about the same order as it has ever been.  One interesting outlier has been our sports station.  Perhaps it is a reflection of the mainstreaming of the format and the influx of new talent, but the station is outperforming all our other stations.  During August is was up 25% over 2011.

And looking ahead to the 4th quarter Downs says it looks like things are cooling off. "We?re seeing some softness developing in our 4th quarter.  Our tracking is about 5% below our projected growth curve for 2012.  As a local, direct market I suspect that there is a lot of attention on the Presidential campaign.  Once that is settled we expect our advertisers to turn their attention back to the business at hand: growing market share and profitability.
If I had to test the waters this early in the 4th quarter, I?d say the mood is less positive among clients than earlier in the year.  Perhaps it is simply election fatigue."

Reach out to Ben Downs HERE

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August Auto Sales Numbers Expected to be Strong

9-3-2012

Automakers will report August sales numbers today, delayed a few days due to the Labor Day Holiday weekend. Analysts predicting sales of about 1.2 million vehicles for August. If those numbers come in, that would result in a 20 percent increase over August 2011. Honda and Toyota should report strong numbers. It's been a year since an earthquake in Japan resulted in lower inventory for the two companies. Both companies now have a full supply of vehicles and are working off lower comps.

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Report: Auto Sales Looking Strong in August

8-26-2012

The Detroit Free Press reports there's a lot of optimism around Detroit for the second half of 2012. It appeared as if auto sales were tapering off but the paper has several optimistic quotes about the auto market. J.D. Power and Associates Senior V.P. John Humphrey said, "August continues this summer's trend of healthy growth in retail sales as dealers work to sell down inventory in time to make room for 2013 models."

Ron MacEachern is a GM for several dealerships. He's quoted as saying, "The market growth is very, very steady." The paper says U.S. consumers are on track to buy 1.3 million vehicles in August, or 16 percent more than a year ago. That would translate to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14.5 million -- the strongest pace for any month this year. Automotive website Edmunds.com also is projecting a selling rate of 14.5 million.

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Two Consecutive Strong Quarters From Radio One

8-2-2012

Despite his stated philosophy that radio is a flat-to-slow growth business, Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins has put up two pretty good quarters in 2012. On Thursday, Liggins reported that his radio division was up over 6 percent compared to the same three months in 2011. In the first quarter, Radio One also rose 6 percent. It's certainly not Apple- or Google-like numbers but it's at the top of the public radio pack. Liggins said, "I'm really pleased with how radio performed in Q2, and Q3 is pacing very well. We are now focused on 2013." Here are more details from the Radio One earnings call.

The top Radio One markets for Q2 were Baltimore (up 16.5%), Raleigh (up 16.3%), Atlanta (up 8.5%), Washington, D.C. (up 5.9%) and Houston (up 2.2%). The top-performing categories for the quarter were Retail (which made up 14 percent of the total Radio One business), Food and Beverage, and Entertainment. Liggins said Political was just starting to hit last week, earlier than expected. Radio One has budgeted for $4 million in political revenue. And, while Liggins plans to vote for Obama, he's hoping for a tight race. "I'm rooting for a very tight race. It's good for our business. We own almost every black radio station in the major markets of Ohio. We're in Raleigh and Charlotte. It's going to shape up very nicely for us."

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CMA: "Country Music Listening Remains Strong"

6-15-2012

The Country Music Association says consumers are "doing as much radio listening as ever." The CMA released its annual study from Country music fans which consisted of a random sample of 1,109 respondents aged 18+ from the CMA Insider Fan Panel. Compared to a year ago, 87 percent of respondents are listening to local Country Radio stations as much or more, with 18-24 year olds being twice as likely to listen to more Country Music than the prior year.

Loyalty is a top influencer for choosing Country Radio as evidenced by 75 percent of listeners reporting they have been listening to the same station for years. While AM/FM car radio is the top source Country Music fans tap for music listening, fans are also fueling their passion for music online as well. Listening to music online via a desktop or laptop computer ranks second with 74 percent of Country Music fans reporting this listening behavior. Of those online listeners, Country Music fans currently prefer Pandora over Spotify at a ratio of nearly 2 to 1.
Read the full CMA release HERE

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PROGRAMMING - 12 Quick Tips For a Strong 2012

12-12-2011

With a new year less than a month away this is always a good time to regroup and set new - perhaps higher - standards for how you run your department. Time does not stand still and with the amount of hours everyone is now putting in, a blink of an eye turns into another year in the rearview. Here are 12 tips to help you hit the refresh button, gear up for 2012 and be better than your competition.

1) Be less consumed with answering or deleting every email and more consumed with thinking about big ideas that can make a difference and generate ratings and revenue.
2) Take control of the amount of time spent in meetings. Eliminate non vital meetings and gain discipline with the meetings you need to have.
3) Invest in your "brain" by attending industry functions such as: Radio Ink events, NAB or RAB events along with non-industry functions such as CES.
4) Stop the insanity! If your process for a particular task isn't working than come up with a new process.
5) Learn from case studies outside our industry as a way to become a sharper problem solver within our industry.
6) Listen to your own radio station more frequently and require all on your team to do the same.
7) Use your "third shift" time away from work to calibrate big, bold thinking.
8) Plan your strategy for the entire year more completely and effectively.
9) Recognize great stories about your organization and spread the word.
10) Re-evaluate emergency contingency plans.
11) Talk with your listeners and customers more frequently about how you can improve.
12) Require your organization to be more entertaining and fun.
13) Bonus. Look for positive stories about your brand. Dispense with negativity.

Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Program Development for Greater Media and he can be reached at bknight@greatermediaboston.com. Knight was named among ?Best Programmers? by Radio Ink Magazine in 2007 and 2010. He has served on the programming subcommittee of the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) and is currently a member of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) COLRAM Committee.

(12/14/2011 10:24:12 PM)
"Time does not stand still" says it all, Buzz. My motto for the coming year is "Manage it or lose it." Thanks for the wise words, Buzz!

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PROGRAMMING - 12 Quick Tips For a Strong 2012

12-12-2011

With a new year less than a month away this is always a good time to regroup and set new - perhaps higher - standards for how you run your department. Time does not stand still and with the amount of hours everyone is now putting in, a blink of an eye turns into another year in the rearview. Here are 12 tips to help you hit the refresh button, gear up for 2012 and be better than your competition.

1) Be less consumed with answering or deleting every email and more consumed with thinking about big ideas that can make a difference and generate ratings and revenue.
2) Take control of the amount of time spent in meetings. Eliminate non vital meetings and gain discipline with the meetings you need to have.
3) Invest in your "brain" by attending industry functions such as: Radio Ink events, NAB or RAB events along with non-industry functions such as CES.
4) Stop the insanity! If your process for a particular task isn't working than come up with a new process.
5) Learn from case studies outside our industry as a way to become a sharper problem solver within our industry.
6) Listen to your own radio station more frequently and require all on your team to do the same.
7) Use your "third shift" time away from work to calibrate big, bold thinking.
8) Plan your strategy for the entire year more completely and effectively.
9) Recognize great stories about your organization and spread the word.
10) Re-evaluate emergency contingency plans.
11) Talk with your listeners and customers more frequently about how you can improve.
12) Require your organization to be more entertaining and fun.
13) Bonus. Look for positive stories about your brand. Dispense with negativity.

Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Program Development for Greater Media and he can be reached at bknight@greatermediaboston.com. Knight was named among ?Best Programmers? by Radio Ink Magazine in 2007 and 2010. He has served on the programming subcommittee of the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) and is currently a member of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) COLRAM Committee.

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Myers Predicts Strong 2012 Growth

Forecast 2012 co-chair, media economist, and Media Advisory Group Chairman Jack Myers promises this year's Radio Ink Forecast summit will be "a very different and unusual conference." As the "financial side" of this year's Forecast chair, Jack Myers brings some of the strongest credentials to the post. For more than two decades, he's been among the media industry's leading visionaries and economic forecasters.

Myers has advised more than 250 media companies, marketers, and agencies on business transformation, revenue development, and organizational best practices -- his clients have included Disney/ABC, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Campbell Soup Co., Reebok, AT&T, CBS-TV, Fox Broadcasting, and many more.

In a recent interview with Radio Ink Editor-in-Chief Ed Ryan, Jack outlined some of his vision for Forecast 2012, set for December 6, 2011 in New York. He also made some bold radio revenue predictions for 2012.

Click here to listen.

In addition to comprehensive analysis and insight into radio's economic forecast for 2012, this all-encompassing summit will include:
*Views from interesting companies in diverse categories such as gaming, digital commerce, and online digital video that aren't typically talking to the radio  industry. These companies have some of the best perspectives on where the business is headed in terms of incremental and new revenue opportunities in the near term.
*A solid tutorial on where new opportunities are and how to integrate those opportunities without disrupting the day-to-day flow of business, as well as insights on where the industry is headed and how to optimize revenues in 2012.
*Outlook on political advertising in 2012: How big? How much? Which candidates and issues will lead the way? And how will digital impact the flow to radio?

Forecast 2012 is closed to the working press, and sessions will not be recorded. The only way to learn and absorb all the information delivered at Forecast 2012 is to attend. There are only 200 seats available, so early registration is encouraged.

Forecast is Radio Ink's eagerly anticipated annual radio industry financial conference -- the only one of its kind. Radio owners, CEOs, CFOs, group executives, managers and Wall Street analysts gather to discuss the state of the radio industry and predictions for the coming year. Participants hear about current and upcoming trends and opportunities, and meet the trendsetters of tomorrow.

Each year after the conference, Radio Ink invites the 40 Most Powerful People in Radio to pick up their plaques and join us for cocktails in their honor. The 2011 40 Most Powerful featured more new faces than any time in the list's history, and Forecast attendees will get the exclusive opportunity to mingle with both new entrants and the perennials in New York's elegant Harvard Club. Only registered conference attendees are guaranteed invitations to the after-party. Attendance is limited to 200.

Don't miss your chance to gather with, and learn from, the best in radio at Forecast 2012. Get your tickets today!

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CBS Radio Sales Boss: "2011 Looks Very Strong"

By Ed Ryan

CBS, nor any radio company for that matter, ever reveals hard sales numbers to a nosy reporter. However if you ask enough times you get glimpses of how the pacing looks, which is better than nothing. Michael Weiss is the President of Radio Sales for CBS. Weiss tells Radio Ink CBS is in good shape. "We had a good first quarter. We are having a good second quarter. Early signs for third quarter are good. I feel pretty good." That's how a lot of radio big wigs felt in January. Some had to pull back their expectations, and eat a little crow, mostly due to a Tsunami in Japan. More proof that radio puts a lot of eggs, perhaps too many eggs, in the auto basket and are unprepared to replace those dollars when they dry up, for whatever reason. But radio has been that way since back in the day when stations used to announce the artist and the song.

Weiss says things in Japan may improve faster than people think. "Listen, everything I am reading about the Japanese auto makers is they will get up to production a lot quicker than they did.  If we have problems with the Japanese auto makers we are replacing it with other advertisers.  We are continuing to grow our digital business.  I feel very positive about the remaining half of this year and I feel very positive about 2012.  I think over the air business is strong.  Digital business is very strong.  We spend a lot of time on NTR, non traditional radio, we feel we are doing very well there.  The company is willing to invest if we can get a good return on our investment.  I look at the Japanese auto makers and there is always some sort of blip every year in any industry, our job is just to work through it.  We have done that and we will continue to do that.  I look at those things as opportunities.  I think it?s an opportunity with the domestic auto makers.  What a great time for them to pick up some additional market share and what a great time for CBS radio to help them."

Michael Weiss will be on the June 20th cover issue of Radio Ink Magazine.
You'll only be able to read this extensive interview if you steal your bosses copy of Radio Ink or you can do it the easy way: SUBSCRIBE HERE

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