What are the chances in a market of 18 million people with about 4,400 Nielsen PPM meters that you could have one or meters at your radio event? Actually, the chances are good.
During the years that I programmed WCBS-FM and WNEW I was fortunate enough to have Media Monitors. It allowed me to see the exact moment meters come and go to any station in the market. Throughout my time programming those stations, we did various concert events. I always played the radio station before the bands went on stage. I’d make a very careful note of the exact time we shut the station off and live stage announcements began.
Then Sunday morning when the meter data was available on Media Monitors I’d look at that exact time we shut the station off and went live to the stage. As crazy as it sounds, more than half the time, I would see meter loss at that exact moment. They did not switch to another station, they simply stopped using radio. On one occasion, at a WNEW concert in a New York City venue, I saw the station lose 4 meters. I assumed a family of four was in attendance.
You may ask, how could this be?
If a household agrees to carrying meters, move them for 8 hours a day (less for children) and dock them every night there has to be a reason. Some research tells us it’s the Nielsen incentive. Others say its people who want their opinions known. Then there are some who believe it’s because that family is a fan of radio.
Who would come to a radio station event? That’s easy, a fan of that specific station or radio in general. Yes, we have the power to move our P1’s to come to our events. There may very well be people at that event who affect audience measurement.
The lesson in this is that the entire staff of your station needs to be listener obsessed at every event you participate in. You need to go out of your way to make sure that audience expectations are exceeded. Whether it’s a concert with thousands or a talent appearance at a mobile phone store on a Saturday afternoon. In the era of budget cuts and less station visibility, it’s no less important to be out in your market to increase the bond with your audience. It’s not only the right thing to do in building your brand, but it could also pay off in positive rating gains.
Every single listener you meet or speak with on the phone, should be treated like they are special. In the same way that a sales person would never hang up on an advertising client, talent or promotions should never be rude to a listener. While I’ll never deny the effectiveness of radio promotion, the best advertising may be word of mouth. Let your P1’s spread the word of how you went out of your way for them.
You don’t necessarily have to play your station live to get Nielsen credit. If your appearance is at a car dealer and you don’t want to play commercials of competing sponsors simply take an encoded broadcast from the past 24 hours and edit out the commercials. Play that through the speakers at the event. And if your station is TLR, take the audio of the encoded stream getting you even more credit.
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Jim Ryan is a Music Radio columnist for Barrett Media. In addition, he runs Jim Ryan Media LLC, a consulting company which assists major market radio brands and top talent including national radio personality Delilah. Prior to relaunching his consultancy in 2025, Jim spent 15 years with Audacy/CBS Radio, serving as SVP of Programming. Among his responsibilities included programming WNEW-FM and WCBS-FM. His career includes additional programming stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. Jim was voted the #2 PD of 2024 in Barrett Media’s Top 20 series in the AC category. He can be reached by email at Jim@JimRyanMedia.com.
