2011 Radio Show Wraps Things Up In Chicago

Closing Time

With many attendees out late THURSDAY night for the MARCONI Awards ceremony and gala, the NAB and RAB RADIO SHOW's final half-day on FRIDAY got off to a quiet start, with the hallways sparsely populated despite this year's 2,206 registered attendees, a 24% increase from last year.

ESPN/Knowledge Network Study Examines How Guys Use Audio

ESPN VP/Audio Research and Special Projects Dr. TOM EVANS and KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS VP/Group Account Director, Media Team DAVID C. TICE presented a study on male listeners' cross-platform audio consumption in an early FRIDAY session.  The study asked what devices the respondents use to listen to audio, where and why they use the devices, how much they listen, and what their attitudes are towards what they hear.

Among the findings: While 62% of the men had listened to the radio in the past week, 37% had streamed radio on the Internet and 16% had downloaded a show, and 61% of the streamers and downloaders said they had listened to the whole show.  For both broadcast and Internet, music was the dominant choice for listening.

Regarding ESPN, the study showed 49% of listening to ESPN radio was at home, 37% in the car, 5% at work, and 8% "in someone else's home."  4.1% of the respondents listened to ESPN RADIO on terrestrial radio only, but 1.4% more "listen" via TV simulcast.  Among avid sports fans, 10.1% listened via terrestrial radio and 2.5% via the TV simulcast, with 1.3% via streaming.

Reasons ESPN RADIO listeners gave for using the terrestrial radio version were led by accessibility and confidence.  Satellite users touted programming choices, quality of audio and location.  Streaming users said they used the service mostly because they don't have accessibility to radio, and downloaders said they do so to catch shows they missed.  And streamers and downloaders said they learned about the availability of the services through friends and through on-air mentions on terrestrial radio.

Overall, most downloaders and streamers said their use of the services didn't change their listening to terrestrial radio, but balancing those who listened more against those who listened less, a 6% net loss of listening to terrestrial was shown.

The study also looked at how long after hearing an ad the listeners made a purchase, and terrestrial radio was closest to the purchase time (2.5 hours), with Internet and TV next, followed by smartphone, streaming or downloading, and print.  A large majority agreed that ads are a "fair price to pay for free content" on terrestrial radio, but also agreed that ads "take away from the enjoyment" of the programming, and most said they did not buy from advertisers or pay attention to the ads, which are similar to what researchers find for other media, TICE said.  Results were similar for streaming and downloading users except that fewer felt that ads were a fair price for the content.

PDs' New World

The changing role of the PD was the topic at hand for a panel moderated by MCVAY/COOK AND ASSOCIATES' CHARLIE COOK and featuring CUMULUS' MIKE MCVAY, CBS RADIO Urban WPEG (POWER 98)-Urban AC WBAV (V101.9)/CHARLOTTE OM/PD TERRI AVERY, and MID-WEST FAMILY BROADCASTING Top 40 WIZM (Z-93)/LA CROSSE, WI PD/midday host JEN O'BRIEN.  AVERY said that the addition of the PPM and the need to use social media have changed her job; responding to COOK's question on whether she checks what her air staff does on FACEBOOK and TWITTER, AVERY said she does read their blogs and crtiques them, and O'BRIEN agreed that "you do your best" to monitor what's going on with the air staff online. 

O'BRIEN added that she prefers her staff to use FACEBOOK, with short posts, than blogging with longer posts.  MCVAY said he looks for knowledge and experience over ratings success in hiring PDs, because the latter might be beyond a PD's control, plus organization, strategy and management skills.  The discussion encompassed dealing with corporate (with MCVAY offering a look at how he plans to deal with changing the culture at CUMULUS and the former CITADEL stations), coaching talent, and other aspects of the PD's responsibilities, and prompted by an audience question, talked about the difficulty of finding new talent.

Sports Partnerships Enter New Era

CHICAGO CUBS Chairman TOM RICKETTS, CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS Pres./CEO JOHN MCDONOUGH, and MIAMI DOLPHINS SVP/Corporate Partnerships and Intergrated Media JIM RUSHTON joined sports radio consultant RICK SCOTT to talk about the new breed of sports-radio partnerships and the changing landscape for sports media rights.

RICKETTS said that the relationship between radio and baseball is "really important ... it's a real partnership" between TRIBUNE Talk WGN-A/CHICAGO and his club, which has aired its games on the station since 1952.  MCDONOUGH, whose team is also heard on WGN, said that for the partnership to work, the team needs to offer accessibility of players, coaches and staff to the station and to know the radio station's on-air staff well; he added that the team needs to "overdeliver on a regular basis" and offer the station partner exclusives on breaking team news.  RUSHTON said that both parties need to understand each other's objectives, from selling tickets to getting ratings, and to remember that "the partner is the steward of the brand," upholding each other's image.  He explained the DOLPHINS' deal with CLEAR CHANNEL that involves the DOLPHINS owning the time for game broadcasts from pre-game to post-game plus a two-hour weekday afternoon show in which they sell all inventory, and said that the future involves more teams keeping rights in-house and doing more deals that give teams more access to all stations in a cluster plus digital assets.

MCDONOUGH called radio's impact on the team's development of ties to its fan base "immeasurable," and credited WGN GM TOM LANGMYER (in the audience along with WGN PD BILL WHITE) with helping that happen.  RICKETTS called WGN "a great ambassador for the brand," while RUSHTON said that radio's value to the team is to sell "tickets, tickets, tickets," plus to publicize the team's community efforts and develop the team's brand.

That's All, Folks!

The RADIO SHOW's closing events FRIDAY include the annual Radio Luncheon, featuring a keynote by DIAL GLOBAL's MICHAEL SMERCONISH and the presentation of the National Radio Award to COMMONWEALTH BROADCASTING's STEVE NEWBERRY, and the afternoon Career Fair.

On To Dallas

The 2012 RADIO SHOW, scheduled for SEPTEMBER 19th-21st, 2012, will be held at the HILTON ANATOLE hotel in DALLAS.

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