"Now, with two years' worth of data in some markets, program directors are figuring out nuances like the optimum ratio of talk to music, or how many commercials a listener can bear before switching the dial. And the highly detailed information is putting programmers under more pressure to make sure listeners don't bolt midprogram."
The most interesting trend to watch is what the PPM data means for our clients and our advertising schedules...
"Some stations are tweaking their advertising schedules, believing they can keep more listeners if they run shorter blocks of ads more frequently. Radio One Inc.'s Doug Abernethy, who oversees the Detroit and Houston markets, is encouraging stations to run no more than three ads in a row, compared with as many as six in the diary days. He believes the tinkering helped his once top-ranked urban stations KMJQ and KBXX rise back to their top slots after declining significantly after the People Meter replaced diaries two years ago in Houston."