"Up Your Ratings" Steve Casey's monthly newsletter

From time to time in this newsletter I have spotlighted stations that I think are exceptional examples that we can learn from.

Adam Czerwinski and the team at RMF have achieved their highest ratings ever, with a 27% share (their nearest competitor has a 16%).

The number of people they must try and please is huge. Their daily cume is more than 10 million listeners!

You probably don't read Polish. But it is still worthwhile to look at the site. You'll see one of the most professional, feature-loaded sites in our industry. The quality is obvious.

I also encourage you to listen. From the home page, click on the RADIO link, and then scroll down on that page to listen via Windows Media or WinAmp.

The competition is fierce in Poland: Extremely polished programming, facilities and Web presence are part of the major stations, Competitor Zet is watched over by a number of the best known consultants and research companies. They are part of the Lagardère group. Another competitor, Eska, is consulted by one of the most accomplished consultants in our business. The broadcasters in Poland set a great example for our industry.

For 7 years, I have been working with RMF and providing them with help in researching the music tastes of their listeners.

They use many tools. One of them is leading edge research. And I would strongly suggest that anybody looking for this level of success should contact Steve Casey Research. We can be a valuable part of your plan.

Because radio stations seek to be money making enterprises, we can't afford to do research simply to learn something. Research must pass a more important test. It must allow us to take action.

You're very lucky if this has never happened to you: You spot an interesting or unexpected result from a listener survey, but then you find that you are unable to do anything to act on it because somebody you work for says.. (fill in the blank).

When that happens, the research is rendered useless. And because you're frustrated, it is perhaps worse than useless.

We want to cut down on that. Ask yourself some questions about every question you're considering adding to a listener survey:

Reminder: My blog is up and running at:

www.UpYourRatings.blogspot.com

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www.RssReader.com

The RSS reader subscription address for my blog is:

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I hope you'll take advantage of the Up Your Ratings blog, and feel free to make your own contribution.







"Up Your Ratings" the monthly radio research and programming newsletter from Steve Casey Research. May 2009


	In This Edition: We are focusing on: The Excellent Stations Series: RMF, Poland and Use Research to Deal with Disappointing Ratings and Research Basics: You Learned Something. So What? and When Your Next AMT is Far Away Enjoy! And as always, your feedback is welcome. "The broadcasters in Poland set a great example for our industry." "Not in the budget? Sorry. Either you will see the budget as a guide for normal times and throw it out when times are not normal - or be prepared to die in the ratings." About Steve Casey Research I want you to feel confident about your programming. My approach: Focus on learning what your listeners want and appreciate about your programming. We work with you to do essentially one thing: Ask better questions. Of firms based in the USA, we are the most experienced in providing radio programming and research advice to the international broadcast community. We've been honored to provide our help to exceptional broadcasting companies like TV2 Radio (Denmark), AMP (Malaysia), Cox (USA), NRJ Group (France), Chrysalis (UK), Start (France), Millennium (India), Primedia (South Africa, Israel), SBS (United States, Puerto Rico), SBS (Scandinavia, Romania, Greece), RMF (Poland), Prima (Romania), Clear Channel (USA), Virgin (Thailand and India) and dozens of great radio stations around the world. Visit us on the Web at: www.UpYourRatings.com Call us: +1.406.388.5309 office +1.406.388.5324 fax +1.406.209.1541 cell Email us: scasey@UpYourRatings.com Write us: Steve Casey Research 100 Willem Way Belgrade, Montana USA 59714	Excellent Stations to Learn From: RMF, Poland From time to time in this newsletter I have spotlighted stations that I think are exceptional examples that we can learn from. This month I'd like to bring to your attention national station RMF in Poland. Adam Czerwinski and the team at RMF have achieved their highest ratings ever, with a 27% share (their nearest competitor has a 16%). The number of people they must try and please is huge. Their daily cume is more than 10 million listeners! Access The Web site for RMF is: www.RMF.FM You probably don't read Polish. But it is still worthwhile to look at the site. You'll see one of the most professional, feature-loaded sites in our industry. The quality is obvious. I also encourage you to listen. From the home page, click on the RADIO link, and then scroll down on that page to listen via Windows Media or WinAmp. Competition The competition is fierce in Poland: Extremely polished programming, facilities and Web presence are part of the major stations, Competitor Zet is watched over by a number of the best known consultants and research companies. They are part of the Lagardère group. Another competitor, Eska, is consulted by one of the most accomplished consultants in our business. The broadcasters in Poland set a great example for our industry. Research For 7 years, I have been working with RMF and providing them with help in researching the music tastes of their listeners. They use many tools. One of them is leading edge research. And I would strongly suggest that anybody looking for this level of success should contact Steve Casey Research. We can be a valuable part of your plan. Research Basics: You Learned Something. So What? Research is one thing. Taking action is another thing. Because radio stations seek to be money making enterprises, we can't afford to do research simply to learn something. Research must pass a more important test. It must allow us to take action. You're very lucky if this has never happened to you: You spot an interesting or unexpected result from a listener survey, but then you find that you are unable to do anything to act on it because somebody you work for says.. (fill in the blank). When that happens, the research is rendered useless. And because you're frustrated, it is perhaps worse than useless. We want to cut down on that. Ask yourself some questions about every question you're considering adding to a listener survey: If the answer to this question isn't what we expect, what are we as a station willing to change? Does the programming team trust this question as a means to learn where we must make changes? Do we need to ask about this same issue again, but in a different way? Would doing so make everybody more confident in the results (assuming they agree)? The UpYourRatings Blog Reminder: My blog is up and running at: www.UpYourRatings.blogspot.com If you need a free blog reader: www.RssReader.com The RSS reader subscription address for my blog is: www.upyourratings.blogspot.com/atom.xml I hope you'll take advantage of the Up Your Ratings blog, and feel free to make your own contribution.	Use Research to Deal with Disappointing Ratings A real test case: A heritage youth-oriented station suddenly watched its ratings drop by more than half. Management had a lot of ideas about what might have happened. But they were only guesses, and at the end of the day they were powerless to take action in any kind of informed way. Let's look at some ways to make your station more prepared than these broadcasters were. We want to accomplish several things: Avoid a huge ratings drop Notice if we are in trouble Determine whether the ratings drop is real If real, understand the issues that may have caused it, to better focus our efforts Avoid It You've got to have good call-out and library research going. The reason is that listeners pay attention. Younger listeners care about your new music. You can't afford not to walk your talk, or to walk the talk of the record companies. For every current-based music format, the pressure from record labels is great. But the listeners have their own priorities, likes and timetables, none of which will match those of the music industry. Nor will they match your personal opinions. If a new competitor appears, you will be affected. Your research should be monitoring the interest shown in any new or rejuvenated station. Be prepared to use what you learn, and market aggressively to defend your franchise. Not in the budget? Sorry. Either you will see the budget as a guide for normal times and throw it out when times are not normal - or be prepared to die in the ratings. See It Coming You've got to have good audience tracking. If the call-out is set up properly, you'll get that for free from the screening process. Don't do something funky with the screening call design that cuts off this opportunity. If ratings are slipping, you'll see it coming. Is It Real? Does your own research show that your ratings are solid? Then do the right thing. Don't panic. But just in case, don't automatically discount the official ratings. A little paranoia is a good thing. Start to question anything that might truly be less than perfect on your station. But minus the panic, you'll think a lot more clearly. Are you still worried? Then, with the tools in place to regularly take the pulse of your listeners, you're prepared to take another step and really study the shift in ratings: You have a record of the people you’ve been talking to? Good. Call back 100 of them that you first talked to six months ago. Ask them the listening questions again. Don’t make mention of their answers from six months ago. But you WILL take notice. In fact, you’ll do a little report: x% of our P1s still are P1s, x% now only cume us, and here is the new distribution of their P1 listening, and x% no longer cume us. Also, x% of our former cume base has now converted to P1. You get the picture. You’ll expect to see 15% to 20% churn, but hopefully no net loss. If there was a net loss, who benefited? When Your Next AMT is Far Away Programmers have asked me how they can stay on top of their oldies when the company has decided to dramatically cut back on how often they can conduct a library music test. Sometimes you are worried that an oldie is now less popular. But without an AMT, you cannot know whether you should play it less or even take it off of the radio station. You have to do it entirely from your opinion and experience. If you have weekly callout music research, you have some options: If you will keep a small list of songs that you have a question about, then when this list grows to about 30 songs, do this: Option 1: For one week, stop your research of the new music. Substitute a test of these oldies. At some point, learning about this group of 30 old songs could be so important that it is worth skipping a week of new music research. It will not kill you, I am confident. Do this no more often than every 5 or 6 weeks. Option 2: You could extend the callout research cycle from 5 days of calling to do a music test, to 7 days of calling. Then, you could use the extra 2 days to make progress on an oldies test. You will be adding music on a day two days later each week than for the previous week. After 3 cycles of the music research, you should be done, and you can return to the normal weekly music research cycle. I have seen stations do both of these things. And both can work. It is a matter of what you are comfortable with. This can only help you for a few songs. But if those songs are the ones that you have a big concern about, it could be very valuable. This newsletter is free. And you are free to share it and any of the ideas included here. If you have questions, ideas for articles, or something to say to the world about programming research, please let us know. Corrections and Additions: If you need us to make a change to your name or email address, or if there are others you'd like us to add to the list of those getting these research and programming ideas, please let us know. We'll be happy to make changes and include new friends.