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Programmers putting ZIP into PPM.
While programmers have long zeroed in on hot ZIP codes — those that produce the most Average Quarter Hours for their station — PPM data and new tools are helping facilitate finer targeting for marketing campaigns. That’s given rise to new strategies and tactics about how to more effectively market to not only where the listeners are but where listeners with meters are.
Radio has new schoolhouse role.
Radio’s long been a source of information during natural disasters and emergencies, now there’s a troubling addition. As the number of school lockdowns continues to rise, members of the National Association of Independent Schools are hearing a recommendation that a radio belongs in every classroom. Disaster preparedness experts are telling school officials that radio should be part of lockdown kits along with items like duct tape and emergency food rations.
Clear Channel plays ball in Hartford.
In the state that’s home to ESPN, Clear Channel signs on a second ESPN Radio affiliate in Hartford – this time on FM. It launches “97.9 ESPN” WPKX as a sister to “ESPN Radio 1410” WPOP. The station that’s been moved-in to Hartford from the nearby Springfield, MA market has most recently been simulcasting country “Kix 100.9” WRNX. MORE
People Moves this Week.
A news-talk programming veteran returns to radio. There are new sales chiefs in Dayton and Birmingham. And Spanish language radio gets its first syndicated conservative talk show host. Catch up with this week’s People Moves HERE.
Buyer survey: Radio lower on the list.
The number of advertising agency media buyers and planners that say their clients are most focused on radio has fallen to its lowest level in a year. When STRATA asked at the end of fourth quarter which medium their clients are most focused on, just 8% of buyers said radio. That’s half as many as one year earlier.
Activist targets radio over political ads.
One man’s windfall is another’s tornado of political influence. Such is the two-year old Supreme Court Citizens United decision allowing corporations to directly back candidates. While super PACs are expected to help set campaign advertising records this year, one media activist group says radio and TV should become the new choke point.
Readers Poll: Majority doesn’t take remnant ads.
Two-thirds of Inside Radio readers say their stations don’t work with remnant sellers with many voicing objections to turning over control of inventory and the impact on programming. “I can’t think of a better way to drive away listeners,” one reader says. MORE
No truce in senator’s standoff with the FCC.
Until Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and the FCC settle their dispute, the agency will have just three commissioners. With Congress back in session, it doesn’t appear a settlement is any closer. Grassley says his hold on the nomination of Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel continues until he gets answers about the wireless company LightSquared. MORE
More BP-related ads for Florida.
Environmentalists are blitzing the state with a $30,000 two-day, three-market radio campaign hoping to drum up support for a multi-billion dollar Gulf Coast restoration bill funded by BP oil spill fines. The Environmental Defense Action Fund wants to make sure the fund is part of a settlement that’s taking shape under which BP would pay $20-25 billion to settle Gulf Coast claims. MORE
Sutton sells North Carolina AM.
Roy Brunette’s Five Forty Broadcasting files a deal to buy WRGC, Sylva (540) from Art Sutton’s Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting for $289,000. The station has been off the air since September. The deal includes a non-compete agreement that runs through 2015. Sutton still owns 13 other stations in Georgia and the Carolinas.
INSIDE RADIO Webcast
Friday, January 27, 2012
Hosted by Kelly Jenkins
Revenue Tracker: December, A flat end to 2011.
Exclusive: In what may prove to be a symbolic end to 2011, industry revenue held steady with the prior year in December. That’s according to a sample of 94 markets surveyed by Inside Radio. The flat finish for the month was an improvement over November’s 2% decline and October’s 4% drop. READ ON
