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FMQB Thinking Ahead!

Monday, May 20, 2013

August 10, 2012

How To Talk About The Numbers With Your Talent
By Jon Miller

Jon Miller

As we roll through this summer of 2012, the Arbitron ratings books are hitting your market, or will be soon. Spring Diary ratings are rolling out as I type this column, and the next PPM monthly report is never more than a month away.
            So at this point, no matter what market you’re in, you’ve either broken out the book (using suggestions from a few of our earlier articles, here and here), or are about to. You may have also discussed the results and implications with your General Manager, your Operations Manager, your Director of Sales and maybe you’ve even ventured into the sales meeting to give a report.
            Now comes the hard part: evaluating how your on-the-air talent fared in the latest ratings report.
            These conversations are far different than any of the others you’ve already had and frequently require a higher level of sensitivity. Remember that, much like the overall station numbers are a reflection of your work, so too are a host’s ratings an indicator of how they do their job day after day. The numbers can have a surprising impact on their self-confidence and in some cases, their salary.
            And while I would never suggest you sugar-coat the results, I would point out that it’s important to be prepared when you discuss the ratings with them. Here are a few suggestions to help guide the conversation.

1)       Be Flexible and Think Ahead
There is no one-size-fits-all ratings discussion when it comes to talent. Some of these conversations are entirely numbers driven, an analysis of every data point in the report.   Others are less numbers-centric and focus more on less quantifiable indicators.
          It’s important to understand which type of discussion you are about to have, and most importantly to know what you are talking about. Don’t start digging into the host’s specific daypart numbers for the first time when they are sitting across the desk from you. Look at the analytics ahead of time and consider what your message is going to be.

2)       Start with the Big Picture
Start the meeting with a quick rundown of how the station did overall. This puts a lot of context around the numbers you are presenting. And it’s not just about the station, but the market as well. Seasonal patterns, shifting habits and day-to-day local factors mean the radio landscape is rarely static from one book to the next.
          In order to understand what is going on from the 40,000 foot view, make sure you take advantage of the features in each Arbitron programming software that allow you to analyze what we call “Persons Using Radio (PUR)” for Diary markets, and “Persons Using Measured Media (PUMM)” for PPM. These are terms used to describe what the total market’s Average Quarter Hour (AQH) audience looks like. Check for these estimates the next time you are setting up a report, or create a combo of all stations in the market, in order to run that as a single entity. This will allow you to see how the total radio audience ebbs and flows in your market book-to-book.

3)       Next Comes the Daypart                                                                                                                                               Now it’s time to drill down into the specific sets of hour(s) that your radio host occupies. Just as you should trend the overall station performance, you’ll want to examine each of the major dayparts in tandem with each other.
          There can often be cause-and-effect situations for your numbers – i.e. mornings are growing but mid-days are flat. To try and find out why, look at audience sharing levels or (see item #2) trend the market during each hour of the day to see what other factors are impacting the ratings.

4)       Look at Trends
This seems obvious, but it’s important to remember to always show the host how their show is trending, and not just what happened that particular month. Same goes for using long-term trends and year-over-year comparisons. Look at their results across the last three books and then compare their performance to the same time last year in order to see both a short-term and historical perspective on how the audience is reacting.
          Each of the different Arbitron programming software allow you to cobble together 2-or-4-book trends (Diary) or 13-month compilations (PPM) in order to have a full year’s worth of data to dig through.

5)       Examine the Competition                                                                                                                                 Particularly when looking at individual dayparts it’s vital to know how other stations in the market that target the same audiences are performing. You’re on the lookout for both significant changes in an individual month and trends over time.
          There are two main ways to do this. One is by using Cume duplication…the raw number of listeners to your station and how many of them sample the competitors. The other is to dive a little deeper by looking past the number of listeners and into their contributions and habits for tuning around the dial. Arbitron’s PD Advantage software has reports for Diary (“When listeners leave a station, what stations do they go to?) and PPM (Audience Sharing) that we have profiled in the past.
          Finally, as a program director you know that the psychology of dealing with hosts should have its own textbook…or be a course of study at major universities! But since you aren’t heading back to school anytime soon for a psychology degree, here are a few closing suggestions for helping talent face the ratings.
          Remember to maintain an even keel. There will be ups and downs in the ratings over time. Don’t go too crazy celebrating the good books and don’t get overly upset about the bad ones. The example you set will go a long way in how your staff views the ratings and their related job performance.
          Don’t get into comparing one host’s performance with another on your station. Talk to each host individually about their ratings and your goals for them going forward. Don’t let it turn into a discussion of how much better or worse one person performed vs. another.
          Keep them focused on doing great radio which is what ultimately leads to good numbers for everybody on your air.

Follow the Arbitron Programming Services Team online at www.arbitrontraining.com/programming and on Twitter at @ArbProgramming.