Shifts In Radio Listening Habits

The Personal People Meter…the new method for measuring radio listening habits…is changing the classical music landscape. Two high profile changes came about last year when WCRB and WQXR were sold to public radio stations. Recently KING-FM in Seattle reported they would change to a non-profit status and take donations. According to KING-FM, advertisers were no longer willing to support the station. At least in the numbers needed to sustain the programming.

A New York Times article by Stephaine Clifford from December 2009 (Never Listen to Céline? Radio Meter Begs to Differ) asserted that classical music fans listened to classical music on the radio a lot less than they had been reporting under the old diary method.  My experience in Connecticut would seem to confirm that. When the station I worked for started getting information from Audience Research Analysis (ARA), the Audigraphics information was adjusted to eliminate diary keepers who seemed to be listening to our station 24 hours a day. Eliminating those four or five diary keepers per quarter had a minimal effect on our weekly cume, but it had a great impact on core loyalty figures and station use figures. It was the first evidence I had that diary keepers were willing to put down what they thought should be in their diaries rather than a true reflection of their listening habits.

Do I listen to Celine? The answer is yes, but only if I have to. It depends on who I am with and who has control over the radio. If I’m riding in the car with my sons, I get to listen to a lot of hip-hop and urban contemporary. That is not my preferred format, but if I had a PPM device on my belt, those station would register as part of my listening habits. Under the diary system, because I did not choose hip-hop, I might not have put that station down as part of my listening. Under the PPM system, my listening might be considered collateral damage depending on your point of view.

According to research from The Radio Research Consortium, it turns out most of us listen to about 12 radio stations on a regular basis. That three to four times as many as previously thought under the old diary method. The common wisdom was that most of us shared our listening with three or four stations. In actuality we spend a lot less time with our favorite station than previously thought.

The resulting lower numbers means that advertisers are gravitating to stations that do better on the PPM system. According to the article in the Times, Country, Oldies and News have fared better. Niche formats like Smooth Jazz and Classical have not.