CBS Detroit Raises $1.5 Million During Radiothon

2-14-13

Many hungry children in southeast Michigan will have full bellies, thanks to the 104.3 WOMC?s Radiothon, held Wednesday for Gleaners Community Food Bank. $1,522,527 was raised during the 14-hour WOMC event. In 2013, the amount raised was around $930,000. PD Tim Roberts said, ?The generosity of our listeners is truly inspiring. Children should never suffer with hunger, and we know that working with Gleaners is a fantastic way to make sure local children get the food they need to thrive.?

Pictured are: Natalie Fotais (Gleaners Community Food Bank); Gerry Brisson (President, Gleaners Community Food Bank); Stacey DuFord  & Bobby Mitchell (WOMC Morning Show); Jim ?JJ? Johnson (WOMC Midday Personality); Dave Fuller (WOMC Evenings); Beau Daniels (WOMC Afternoon Drive) and Tim Roberts (Operations Manager/Program Director WOMC/WYCD).  

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BIA/Kelsey Has You Covered During Shutdown

10-3-13

Are you worried about how you'll search for information on local stations during the government shutdown? Our friends at BIA/Kelsey have you covered with their technical database called Dataflex that you can use to search for all types of information about local stations. BIA's proprietary database includes comprehensive coverage of local broadcast properties that include technical, operational, ownership, and competitive information. BIA has a 25-year, up-to-date database of information. For more information call (800) 331-5086.

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Nothing On Piolin During Univision Earnings Call

7-25-13

Not a word about the departure of Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo from the Univision Radio Network on the company earnings call Thursday. And, not a single analyst cared enough to even ask about him. That's not too surprising being that Univision is a television company first. TV revenue for Univision in the second quarter was $565.8 up from $508 million. Radio revenue was $89.7 million for the quarter which was flat compared to Q2 of 2012.

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Radio Goes Old School During Blackout

2-4-2013

The power outage at the Louisiana Superdome last night wreaked havoc with all broadcasts coming from the big game, including Dial Global's radio coverage. Dial Global tweeted this picture of play by play man Kevin Harlan. Yes, that's Harlan using a landline to get the details out to the DG audience. As they say, the show must go on.

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Arbitron Shows Listeners Turned To Radio During Sandy

11/19/2012

Radio listening increased in the New York radio market as Super Storm Sandy made landfall during the evening of Monday, October 29. Compared to the week prior, the average number of people using radio* in any quarter hour from 7PM to Midnight on the storm night (10/29) increased 70 percent.

Percent increase
10/29 vs 10/22

In the coastal areas within the New York market, radio listening increased by even higher percentages.

Percent increase
10/29 vs. 10/22

When the lights went out, when TV and desktop PCs were no longer available, many New York area residents turned on their battery-powered radios. Many radio stations along the path of the storm, regardless of their regular format, revamped their programming to provide their listeners with weather updates, news, and emergency information. 

In the wake of the storm, radio remained an information lifeline to the residents of New York, particularly in the coastal areas of the market. Average radio listening on Tuesday, October 30 in New York was 1,525,500 persons in any given quarter hour between 6a.m. and Midnight, up 8 percent from 1,406,700 persons 6+ the week before.

The average audience in the NY coastal communities (Monmouth, Fairfield SN, Nassau-Suffolk, Staten Island, and Middlesex) totaled 670,200 on the Tuesday (6A-Mid) following landfall (10/30) which is 38 percent higher than the average of all Tuesdays year-to-date.

The Average in the NY coastal communities (Monmouth, Fairfield SN, Nassau-Suffolk, Staten Island, and Middlesex) totaled 651,200 on the Wednesday (6A-Mid) following landfall (10/31) which is 35 percent higher than the average of all Wednesdays year-to-date.

*radio encoded for Arbitron PPM measurement

Note: The Arbitron New York Radio Metro consists of the following counties:

Connecticut: Fairfield (Stamford-Norwalk Split)

New Jersey: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union

New York: Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, Westchester

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Many Cell Towers Failed During Storm

10-31-2012

This is going to give broadcasters more ammo to push for the FM cell phone chip. That is, if they continue to be aggressive in promoting the benefits to consumers. During a conference call Tuesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said 25% of wireless cell towers and a quarter of cable services in 10 states were knocked out as a result of the Hurricane. Genachowski also said service would get worse before it got better.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA all reported problems. The cellphone issues covered 158 counties from Virginia to Massachusetts.

Genachowski asked the public to limit "non-essential" calls and to text, e-mail or use social media to communicate with family and friends instead of calling. Radio stations in the heart of the storm had wall-to-wall coverage of the storm, providing vital information to communities. When stations, such as 1010 WINS in New York City went down due to damaged equipment, they quickly went to an FM (music) frequency to continue broadcasting. The station could also be heard live online without interruption.

A fully powered cell phone with an FM chip broadcasting local stations could have kept those residents who lost power and cell phone service fully informed as Sandy made its way through the storm zone. A chip broadcasting local stations does not use the data network.

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Entertaining The Troops During Tet

8-21-2012

Today's "Blast From The Past" comes from Phil Lenz who started his radio career while serving in the Army in 1967. He was stationed at the Bien Hoa Air Base, which is where he decided to build a radio station that would appeal to a 19- or 20-year-old GI.

While AFVN, the Armed Forces Station in Saigon was playing Percy Faith, Mitch Miller, and Engelbert Humperdinck, he would play top 40 hits like Sam & Dave, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Canned Heat, and Country Joe & the Fish. Lenz says he built a makeshift studio in a "Conex Box" (a corrugated shipping container). When he wasn?t live, he would play hundreds of airchecks of popular stations from back in the States. The station became recognized by the Base and became a critical force of information during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Do you have a "Blast From The Past" with a great story like Phil's? Send it to edryantheeditor@gmail.com

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Entravision Radio Revenue Flat During Q2

8-2-2012

While Entravision TV revenue increased 13 percent, Entravision CEO Walter Ulloa reported flat radio revenue for the second quarter of 2012. Entravision radio revenue was a little over $17 million, almost identical to the 2nd quarter of 2011. Local revenue was down 3 percent and national was up 7 percent. But it appears from Entravision at least that national advertising is starting to come back big.

Ulloa reported that although national revenue decreased 15 percent in April, it did a complete about-face in May, June and July. National advertising at Entravision increased 18 percent in May, 20 percent in June and was on pace for another 20 percent jump in July. Political revenue in the the second quarter of 2012 was $358,000, an increase of 80 percent over 2008, the last presidential election year.

The top five growth categories for Entravision in the quarter were:
Automotive up 27 percent
Services up 19 percent
Telecom 18 percent
Grocery up 12 percent
Healthcare up 2 percent

And Entravision wrote business for 40 new advertisers that spent more than $10,000.

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Farley Proud of His WTOP Team During Storm.

7-3-2012

WTOP Vice President of News and Programming says when the storm hit the DC area on Friday, knocking out power all over the city, his news organization was ready, and vital information was delivered, in every way possible to consumers. "On-air, online and in the social media space we have led the regional dialogue as well as being THE vital information lifeline. There as so many instances of people working long hours and extra days even knowing they were going home to brutal heat and humidity with no electricity, no air conditioning. Our Twitter feed has taken on a life of its own as our listeners/viewers flock there to ask questions and share information."

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What I Learned During My CES Vacation

by Buzz Knight

"Every once in a while I find myself in the presence of purity-purity of spirit and love-and I always cry. It always just reaches in and grabs me." Those are the words of Steve Jobs about the "Think Different" Apple campaign from the Walter Isaacson Biography. This is the emotion we should all attempt to create whether we're Radio marketers or Consumer Electronics marketers. I wonder what the great inventors of yesterday would think of the Consumer Electronics Show?

How would Thomas Edison view the nearly 30 football fields of convention space filled with 150,000 inventors, entrepreneurs, business people and writers that roam for days like zombies looking for the next new thing? Other than complaining that his feet were sore Mr. Edison would no doubt be inspired to take his own ideas back to the lab and experiment and develop. CES 2012 is over and in the books and once again the spectacle here in the center of the digital universe has left me with some thoughts to distill for the radio industry at large.

VIBE AND CORE BELIEF
The vibe that presides over the event is the first element that comes to mind every time I attend. Fred Jacobs from Jacobs Media nailed it when he called it " optimistic, exciting, spirited and BIG!" There's a strong core internal belief that permeates the entire event. Unless you are here you really can't describe it. It's exciting, there are Neon backdrops , inflatables ..it's bigger than life. Radio has to always strive to be bigger than life.

We have the power and imagination to create bigger than life strategies. This has to start with a strong and passionate internal core belief that you can feel when you walk in the door of a radio station. We should  raise our level of excellence in everything we present to match that spirit (to clients and listeners) on a consisent basis.

RADIO AND CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
More radio people need to attend the Consumer Electronics Show! Those of us who attend are certainly searching for the next new thing and even if it isn't ultimately always discovered the overstimulation of the event provides a motivating perspective. In 1924 the Consumer Electronics Association started out as the Radio Manufacturers Association. Radio is part of the Consumer Electronics Industry and let's get more of us to attend and feed our brain!

CONNECTIVITY
This is the "buzz word" of this years event. Everything changed when the smart phone hit the consumer as a device to connect them to everything and everybody. The smart phone has become the funnel of digital content and services and there needs to be a seamless experience from home to office to car. Radio plays an important part in the connectivity landscape when it relates to reaching our existing and potential audiences.

The car has become a big entertainment system on wheels and radio's place in that available hierarchy needs to be rock solid. I spoke with Jim Buczkowski the Director of Electrical and Electronics Systems for Ford and he said "radio has to stay focused on producing quality content with customers having so many choices."

PARTNERSHIPS
CES teaches us great examples about the opportunity for partnerships. Ford continues to profess a strong desire to use partnerships to build their brand in particular with Sync and My Ford Touch. According to Ford CEO Alan Mullaly .."we want to collaborate with everyone." The world is changing and radio companies are seeing the value of partnerships within our industry to get things done. IHeartRadio is a great example of that. The barriers are only in our mind not in the minds of our listeners.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
There has to be billions of dollars spent on Research and Development within the Consumer Electronics Industry and there are still more flops than winners. New York Times Tech Columnist David Pogue told me he thinks the whole tablet business has gotten "way out of hand" at CES and that 99% of the new product lines revealed at CES will collect dust on the shelves. That doesn't stop this group of wild thinkers from trying new, bold and different ideas.

David's favorite this year is the new Casio G-Shock GB6900 wrist watch that communicates with your phone using Bluetooth technology. Let's get out of the "we've always done things this way" mode and try some new angles on promotions, features and listener engagement. Lab groups are a great way to try ideas out on real people as opposed to radio people. Research and Development on the good and bad case studies is an example for radio to take advantage of from CES.

RADIO
Radio has some stories coming out of CES this year that are worth mentioning. Blackberry which has its own business challenges announced the new Blackberry Curve 9360 or 9380 smartphone with a chip built in for FM broadcast radio. Bob Struble from Ibiquity showed us a phone with a built in HD chip to broadcast in digital quality that could be available in the future. Bob did emphasize that the "digital consumer experience" both on a technical level and a content level needs to at least match the other services available to consumers.

INNOVATION
"You always have to keep pushing to innovate. Dylan could have sung protest songs forever and probably make a lot of money but he didn't. He had to move on. The Beatles were the same way. They keep evolving, moving and refining their art." The words of Steve Jobs once again which apply to CES and to our radio industry.

Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Program Development for Greater Media. He can be reached at bknight@greatermediaboston.com
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New Study Details Retention During Stopsets

12-7-2011

Be listening for the radio industry to start shouting the number 93 from the rooftops in the upcoming weeks and months. Here's why. A study released yesterday has concluded that an average of 93% of your listeners will still be with you from the time your stopsets begin until the time they end. In the age of DVR, iPods, Pandora and all the other technologies and products that put the consumer in charge of music content, radio has been trying to decipher where it fits in. There has always been this in-house battle between Program Directors who believe we need to keep the stopsets short, and sales (and GM's) who will try to squeeze every dollar they can into every stopset of every hour.

Coleman Insights President and Chief Operating Officer Warren Kurtzman says ?The incredible ability of radio stations to deliver audiences during commercial breaks suggests that programmers should not obsess over their stations? spot placement strategies. There is no doubt that running excessive commercial inventory can undermine a station?s brand and hurt its long-term performance, but we see very little evidence that commercials cause nearly as much audience tune-out in the short term as many radio industry professionals believe.?

The popularity of playlist curation has created a perception that consumers want less commercial clutter and talk and more music. Radio has responded by saying listenership is not down, that playlist creation cannot save you during a tornado and the new technology is simply giving consumers more ways to tune in, not tune out. A study released yesterday attempts to shed some light on whether or not consumers will sit through commercials and wait for the return of the content.

The study, done by Arbitron, Media Monitors and Coleman Insights, analyzed 18 million commercial breaks, 62 million minutes of commercials and 866 stations for a year of audience data from all 48 PPM markets. The key point of the study focuses on comparing the audience level for each minute of a commercial break to the audience for the minute before the commercials began. The study did not ask listeners if stopsets were too long, if radio stations should reduce the amount of clutter or if listeners were leaving radio for other music-only technology. It focused on the percentage of listeners who were still with a station from the start of a break to the end.

The study is called What Happens When the Spots Come On and the authors concluded "that radio maintains its audience delivery during commercial breaks, contrary to the common misperception among advertisers, agencies and even radio executives that audiences during commercial breaks are a fraction of the numbers that were listening to the station just before the commercials began."

In what may be the most helpful stat, the study says one to three-minute commercial breaks keep listeners engaged the longest. Listeners who were onboard before the stopset began will be with you when you come out of a break. While they may not be the exact same people, the study says nearly 100% stay if the break is one minute, two-minute breaks deliver 99 percent of the audience and three-minute breaks deliver 96 percent. You might conclude that shorter stopsets are better. The question is how many radio stations actually still running 1-3 minute stopsets and how concerned should you be if you play 6 or more minutes per break.

The longer the breaks, the more tune-out you get according to the study. For longer breaks of four to six minutes-plus, the study says 90 percent of the lead-in audience stays. Four-minute breaks delivered 92 percent of the lead-in audience; five-minute breaks delivered 87 percent. Breaks of six minutes or longer delivered an average minute audience that was 85 percent of the audience level before the commercials began. The study says commercial breaks in morning drive deliver 97 percent of their lead-in audience, on average.

Arbitron and Coleman also conducted a web poll about the perception of commercial loads and the results were included in the study. People identifying themselves as members of the advertiser/agency industry (362 responses) said that, on average, the size of the audience during a radio commercial break is only 68 percent of the size of the audience before the commercial began. On average, respondents identifying themselves as members of the radio industry (1,178 responses) believe radio holds only 78 percent of the audience during commercials.

(12/8/2011 7:48:00 PM)
Ed, it appears as if you've updated the story. When it was first posted, I believe you said that 93% of the listeners there at the beginning of the break were there at the end of the break. I was there when the study was presented in Baltimore yesterday and the presenters made it very clear that this was not what their study was claiming.

For the record, I'm an APD/MD for two stations in Virginia.

(12/8/2011 4:55:51 PM)
Dan:

Why don't you be a little more specific about what is wrong about the story I wrote. And, please do tell us all what you do and where you work as well.

Thanks
Ed

(12/8/2011 3:01:42 PM)
The only listeners not tuning away from stop sets are those who are uable to do so at the time the set is running. And those who are unable are just getting annoyed if the stop set is long AND the spots annoying (as so many are....more tolerance for clever, well-produced spots, but those are more and more few and far between..).
Any programmer who thinks the length and "quality" of the stop sets don't matter would do so at their peril.
(12/8/2011 1:02:54 PM)
I don't listen to radio stations with long stopsets. I'm not there at the end because I'm not there at the beginning.
(12/8/2011 12:43:52 PM)
Read the report instead of this article, which misstates many of the study's conclusions. You can get it from arbitron.com, colemaninsights.com or mediamonitors.com.

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The FCC's How to Behave During a Disaster Top Ten List

The FCC and FEMA have released new tips for consumers aimed at preparing them for major disasters when communications networks are more likely to be compromised or damaged. Listening to radio comes in at number 7, despite the FCC consistently poniting out how unreliable cell service is.

Today's joint letter said "Consumers with questions about their particular mobile phone devices should contact their wireless provide or equipment manufacturer." Although it does not tell consumers how to contact their provider when disaster strikes and their phone doesn't work.

Without further ado...here is the governments Top Ten List during a disaster:

1. If you have a life-threatening emergency, call 9-1-1. Remember that you cannot currently text 9-1-1.  If you are not experiencing an emergency, do not call 9-1-1.  If your area offers 3-1-1 service or another information system, call that number for non-emergencies.
2. For non-emergency communications, use text messaging, e-mail, or social media instead of making voice calls on your cell phone to avoid tying up voice networks.  Data-based services like texts and emails are less likely to experience network congestion. You can also use social media to post your status to let family and friends know you are okay.  In addition to Facebook and Twitter, you can use resources such as the American Red Cross?s Safe and Well program (www.redcross.org/safeandwell).
3. Keep all phone calls brief. If you need to use a phone, try to convey only vital information to emergency personnel and/or family.
4. If you are unsuccessful in completing a call using your cell phone, wait ten seconds before redialing to help reduce network congestion. 
5. Conserve your cell phone battery by reducing the brightness of your screen, placing your phone in airplane mode, and closing apps you are not using that draw power, unless you need to use the phone.
6. If you lose power, you can charge your cell phone in your car. Just be sure your car is in a well-ventilated place (remove it from the garage) and do not go to your car until any danger has passed.  You can also listen to your car radio for important news alerts. 
7. Tune into broadcast television and radio for important news alerts.  If applicable, be sure that you know how to activate the closed captioning or video description on your television.
8. If you do not have a hands-free device in your car, stop driving or pull over to the side of the road before making a call.  Do not text on a cell phone, talk, or ?tweet? without a hands free device while driving.   
9. Immediately following a disaster, resist using your mobile device to watch streaming videos, download music or videos, or play video games, all of which can add to network congestion. Limiting use of these services can help potentially life-saving emergency calls get through to 9-1-1.
10. Check www.ready.gov regularly to find other helpful tips for preparing for disasters and other emergencies. 

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So How Did Radio Perform During Storm?

by Ed Ryan

It was just another day at the office for radio stations all long the east coast this past weekend. The Internet made it very easy to monitor storm coverage as Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene came ashore this past weekend. And, admittedly, living in South Florida, it was a little odd listening to stations in New York City and D.C. and Long Island as the snowstorm communities were dealing with a weather event typically reserved for us. However, it's going to be hard to do the industry justice because so many stations we listened to did an excellent job there's no doubt many will be left out of the praise.

As expected stations informed the public by carrying live newscasts from public officials and taking calls from and interacting with listeners. On-air personalities usually relegated to a line or two between songs were interacting with people in the eye of the storm, even if it was and small eye. And, just a thought. When I turned on my favorite Pandora station, all my songs were still playing. Just my songs.

The FCC reported only 3 stations would wind up being knocked off the air as a result of the storm (see flood pictures below of Cumulus which stayed on the air). Despite the early warnings being issued by local governments - and carried live by most radio stations - 21 deaths are attributed to the storm included six in North Carolina, four in Virginia, four in Pennsylvania, two in New York, two in rough surf in Florida and one each in Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey.

New York lifted its evacuation order for 370,000 people and said subway service, shut down for the first time by a natural disaster, will be partially restored today, though it warned riders to expect long lines and long waits. Philadelphia restarted its trains and buses. "All in all," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "we are in pretty good shape." In those major metropolitan cities, CBS's 1010 WINS and CBS-FM along with Merlin's FM News 101.9 and ABC's WOR were constantly providing storm coverage (just to name a few stations). We have more coverage on the storm coverage below.

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CC Cluster in MA. Superserves During Last Weeks Tornado

2011 seems to have already been a busy and crazy year for natural disasters. However, you'd be hard pressed to find a radio station anywhere in the country that has not been ready with backup systems to stay on the air and detailed plans to inform listeners. When a tornado swept through Massachusetts last week, killing a handful of people, the Clear Channel cluster was ready to deliver. We wanted to be sure to recognize the Clear Channel cluster. Here's what they did.

On Wednesday, June 1 Clear Channel immediately simulcasted our entire AM storm coverage broadcast on the following stations WHYN-AM, WHYN-FM, WRNX and WPKX.  On Wednesday, June 1 Clear Channel Springfield?s news director, John Baibak, and afternoon jock, Kevin Johnson, took calls from listeners until Midnight.  In addition to dozens of calls from area residents, the Governor called Clear Channel?s WHYN-AM exclusively to speak with Baibak to tell listeners what to do and where to go.

Through Thursday, June 2 WHYN-FM, WRNX and WPKX had full storm coverage, no music all coverage until the end of morning drive.  While WHYN-AM, the ?News Talker? opened up airways to local politicians and area charities.  The broadcast included calls from:
Mayor Sarno of Springfield
Mayor Kanapic of Westfield May
Mayor Gibson of West Springfield
Governor Deval Patrick
Lt. Governor Tim Murry
Senator Scott Brown
Congressman Richard Neil
Rick Sullivan Secretary of Environmental Affairs
Rick Lee Head of the Red Cross 

During the call with Lee, he also cut a 30 second spot to tell Springfield residents where to get help and how to donate to the Red Cross.  The spot was on air by 10 a.m., with one airing per hour every hour on all four stations.

Clear Channel also took care of listeners by utilizing the Internet. Clear Channel began posting storm information on Wednesday, June 1 at 3:00 p.m., and included home page alerts.  Information was also posted about area shelters and where and when outages occurred. WHYN sent an e-blast on Wednesday, June 1 about the storm that included photo galleries, videos and dedicated pages. 

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