During my time with Cumulus media, I have been given a great opportunity to get any ratings questions answered by a Doctor.
Meet Dr. Ed Cohen.
Dr. Ed, until recently, was the VP of Ratings and Research for Cumulus. He was a victim of the pandemic downsizing but is professionally comfortable and has a bigger mission. He is the primary caretaker for his wife who suffers from lung cancer. But, Dr. Ed will still answer my questions.
Ed went into programming and back to school to get his PH.D then dove into the research side of radio. He spent 16 years working for Arbitron/Nielsen on projects like PPM, mobile phone research and diaries. He did it all including measuring listening by Chinese speakers.
He gets it.
So, I interrupted Dr. Ed’s daily walk and NHL podcast from The Athletic to tell me the ramifications of Nielsen dropping the non-subscribing stations from their RLD ratings.
The Respondent Level Data is in the hands of most stations but some, including Cumulus and most importantly ad agencies, don’t buy it. Nielsen is hoping they will now. How can advertisers buy a station that doesn’t even show up in the ratings? Dr. Ed knows why Nielsen is doing this and it’s why we all read this column hopefully.
MONEY!
Dr. Ed forecasts that a few more owners in diary markets will now subscribe to Nielsen but he thinks nearly all the major radio groups in PPM markets already do so. The ad agencies though have a tougher problem and thus, so do some radio stations. Agencies will be asked to buy RLD data or they won’t see non-subscribing stations’ information. If the agencies stay with the summary data Nielsen sells to them now they won’t see the whole picture.
Will agencies pony up in a pandemic challenged economy? I have my doubts.
But, how will sports radio be affected?
Dr. Ed thinks that the smaller independently owned sports radio stations will be affected the most. I was once one of those guys. KTIK was a non-subscribing all sports radio station from 1994-2003 until Citadel/Cumulus purchased the station.
At times, we did well in the ratings, at least I heard. If agencies can’t show a client the cost per point or GRPs, will they buy a station that doesn’t show up? Dr. Ed thinks it is logical to forecast agencies just pouring that money into rated Male targeted stations and maybe move on from buying non-rated stations. I realize the out of market agency business isn’t a big part of sports radio revenue, especially for smaller station groups, but if Dr. Ed’s hunch is right, it may never be.
Dr. Ed thinks Nielsen may just be scrambling for more revenue because of the impending split of the company into 2 divisions. The Nielsen Media business will be coming to your inbox in early 2021. And, the new money will at least be coming from the backs of ad agencies and non subscribing stations not the iHeart and Entercoms of the world.
And, the Good Doctor Ed is probably okay with that.
Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio and digital sales for Cumulus Media in Dallas, Texas and Boise, Idaho. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop Sports Radio The Ticket in Boise, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at jeffcaves54@gmail.com or find him on LinkedIn.
