One of the radio industry’s most respected researchers, Dr. Ed Cohen writes a weekly business column, heavily focused on ratings research for Barrett Media. His career experiences include serving as VP of Ratings and Research at Cumulus Media, occupying the role of VP of Measurement Innovation at Nielsen Audio, and its predecessor Arbitron. While with Arbitron, Cohen spent five years as the company's President of Research Policy and Communication, and eight years as VP of Domestic Radio Research. Dr. Ed has also held the title of Vice President of Research for iHeartMedia/Clear Channel, and held research positions for the National Association of Broadcasters and Birch/Scarborough Research. He is adjunct faculty in the Department of Broadcast Communications at Western Kentucky University and welcomes your thoughts. Reach him by email at doctoredresearch@gmail.com.
Nielsen makes a lot of money from the radio service. Without any serious competition, there is little need to invest in improvements unless the subscribers push back.
The company should put together an industry presentation with broad results on Los Angeles audio usage and a comprehensive release with specific information.
When you think about it, the idea of retail media networks makes a lot of sense. Radio’s portability has always been a strong argument for reaching customers just prior to purchase, especially for “bricks and mortar” retailers.