On the anniversary of his 28th year as a national talk show host, radio historians will remember Rush Limbaugh when he called himself Jeff Christy, an AM radio Top 40 disc jockey working at KQV in Pittsburgh. 28 years is an incredible run. Few have the talent to make it almost three decades on the…
We’re about four months until the presidential election and arguably our choice is between two turd candidates. On November 8th, we’ll walk into the voting booth and there will sit two steamers. One, our brain reasons, has whipped cream on top. The other is just plain crap. We’ll stick the ballot in our mouth and…
People are outraged. People are sad. People are in shock. People are now, finally, speaking up over the execution of one of America’s former great and “heritage” stations, KGO-AM in San Francisco. Why now? What happened last week to KGO has been happening to radio stations, personalities, talk hosts, support personnel and news staffs for…
A lot can be learned from data and tracking it. For example, in radio and television, there are Nielsen ratings. You analyze ratings by the week, month or over a year to develop and see a trend. Is the station or program going up or down? Trending up is good. Trending down is bad. One…
A number of people seem to be “excited” about Rush Limbaugh’s new radio homes in Indianapolis and Boston. I just don’t believe Rush is. In Indianapolis, the heritage news/talk radio station is WIBC. Most radio geeks, me included, remember the bigger than life top-of-the-hour ID voiced by Chuck Riley. “Radio Indiana. (sfx) W-I-B-C Indianapolis.” …
I’ve been reading a lot about the Telos/25-7 Systems’ Voltair “black box” that some claim gives an unfair advantage to radio stations trying to game Nielsen’s PPM methodology. The box allegedly increases the chances the embedded PPM “watermark” on a station’s signal will be detected on a panelist’s meter. Is the Voltair unfair? I guess…
I had a conversation with a radio station general manager once…my boss. He wasn’t comfortable with the changes I was making to better our station. The station had a big, high powered signal and a modest four share. I said to him, “Given the power and size of the signal, I’ll need to think about…
As I write this on July 7, 2014, I am exactly 2 months from becoming irrelevant. In just 8 weeks I turn 55. I will be leaving the coveted “Persons 25-54” demographic, the age group considered key by most advertisers. Oh well, this aging Baby Boomer did have some fun in the previous 3 plus…
I can’t say this any clearer. Ratings are your report card. Nothing else matters. Associated Press awards don’t matter. A plaque from a local charity for community service work, while nice, doesn’t matter either. Nielsen numbers are what matters. With higher ratings, come higher revenues. It’s what I call “Rule #1 – Ratings and Revenue.”…
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