DID RATINGS SERVICES RUIN RADIO?

I’ve done a lot of thinking and research on this idea for more than forty years, and I’ve come to the

conclusion that they have. At the very least, ratings companies have caused the fractionalization of

radio programming to the detriment of the industry as a whole. Ratings changed the focus from

mass appeal, to narrow casting...the appeal of all demographics, to the appeal of just one. To being a

"Big Fish" in a large pond, to being a "Small Fish" in a smaller pond. Let me try to explain it.

Many years ago, a respected colleague and a National P.D. told me to go to a baseball game and look

around at the makeup of people in attendance. He said that those were our audience to program for.

Kids, teens, adults of all ages and types. I never forgot that. Arbitron came along in the sixties and

arbitrarily decided on breaking the audience into 12+, 12-24, 25-34 etc. Who decided that this was

the correct way to measure groups in a whole "sea" of listeners? Was that correct?. Perhaps not. Even

now, Arbitron, with their new PPMs have a new category: 6-12 (the i-pod generation). As I

understand it, the new emphasis of using Portable People Meters, will be on the cume ratings, more

 than AQH. If this is true, then should there be a return to mass appeal programming ?

In my opinion, yes! How can you have a large cume with a narrow focal point on one particular

demographic? I always had the feeling that anyone had a right to listen to a station and not be

offended. That’s all changed-for the worse! We’ve all heard and seen the various ARB contests to

"trick", or skew the ratings. It’s time to stop trying to program to the ratings, and start programming

to our audience! Again, using the baseball analogy: Imagine a large stadium as a the sum of radio

frequencies available in a market. Imagine game time(sign on), and when the people arrive, they are

herded for counting into groups. 18-24 that way, 25-34 this way, etc. Then when the "attendance" is

announced, it is broken down demographically-but rounded off to zeroes. 12,000 18-24's, 18,000

25-34's and so forth. They all wanted to see the game, but were categorized as if they would see it

differently because they were in a specific age category. Not only that, say the 18-24's had to sit in

left field and could only be marketed food that they would eat. The 35-54's had to sit in right field

and be marketed food that they would consume. Most would cry "foul. It’s almost as absurd in Radio 

the last 35 years. My suggestion to those wanting to attract a larger cumulative audience, you’d best

be thinking of broadening your scope to include-rather than exclude-certain segments of the potential

listening public. I’ve always been a little skeptical of a survey that rounded people off to zeroes

anyway. You can always keep your eye on a certain "player", but don’t ever lose focus on the "game"

itself. Don’t let ratings or advertisers blur your vision. They may not have the best interests of the

"game"(i.e.radio) at heart.     That’s my RadiOpinion, what’s yours?   -gary.allyn@gmail.com