Lose an important programming element that draws listeners to the station and you’ll likely lose listeners, according to Richard Harker at Harker Research. If your competitor capitalizes on the change, perhaps by hiring a key personality you let go, you could ulitimately pay for it.
The graph illustrates what’s happened in New York and Los Angeles over the past few months.
Harker created an 6+ share index based on station ratings in the fourth quarter of 2013 before the switch. He then calculated how ratings have changed since Limbaugh switched.
Indexing this way enables one to easily compare rating trends across markets. All stations start at 100. An increase to 200 means a station’s share has doubled, 300 tripled, and so on.
An index that moves below 100 means the station has lost share. An index of 33 means that the station only has a third of its original audience. Put another way, an index of 33 means the station has lost two thirds of its listeners.
In Los Angeles, KFI has drifted down and stands at an idex of 78. Harker writes that tranlates into a loss of about half a share point. The station has been a dominant News-Talk station for years, and it remains so, but even it took a hit from the departure of Limbaugh.
Given PPM’s rating compression, a half share loss can add up to a three or four station rank decline.
KEIB, Limbaugh’s new home, saw immediate gains. The station now indexes at 265. While it still ranked well below KFI, KEIB has seen its full week AQH nearly double, and Limbaugh’s time-slot numbers nearly triple. (All comparisons are based on three month averages to smooth out wobbles.)
Harker notes that Clear Channel owns both KFI 640 AM and KEIB 1150 AM, so the move was made for strategic reasons. The fact remains, however, that the group's flag-ship News-Talk station took a hit.
Read More Now
No comments:
Post a Comment