The system is rigged. Dead people are voting. Mailed in entries are being tossed aside. Special interests and the media are doctoring materials and controlling what you see so you’ll support their preferred causes. The choices you made inside the polling booth didn’t get entered into the machine the way you intended them to.
Does this story sound familiar?
Yes it’s true that we have a ton of holes in our political system. It’s why the final results are hard to digest for many who run for office and invest their time, energy and resources into gaining the favor of American voters.
But whether politicians love the results or not, it’s the system everyone plays by. They knew this when they decided to enter the race, and whether it’s flawed, accurate or a complete sham, it’s the one we’ve relied on for previous elections.
Nothing bothers us more than injustice. It’s why we lose our minds over elections, high profile court cases, or something as simple as a Monday night football game between the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks where bad officiating became the focus instead of the great players occupying the field.
But when a call is made, we suck it up, accept it and move forward. We don’t have to agree or feel good about it, but we do have to live with it.
The reason that’s important today is because this election process is exactly what sports radio broadcasters endure on a monthly basis. You can create content that you’re proud of, but the true measure of whether or not you’ll earn the right to create it for a longer period of time comes down to whether or not it helped the brand generate ratings. Ratings advance your company’s ability to generate larger dollars. Without them, you can still succeed, but the road ahead is full of landmines, and larger clients are less likely to invest in your operation if you can’t provide proof of performance.
If you work in our industry and don’t trust the ratings system, I get it. It’s easy to be cynical over a PPM system which hasn’t done much to earn the confidence of broadcasters across the nation who depend on its accuracy to make a future living. Whether it’s been undersampling, panelists being included for two years, or a machine like Voltaire swaying the results, there are many reasons to lack faith. But just like our election process, it’s the only one we’ve got.
I’d love to see broadcast groups pursue outside companies capable of measuring the industry’s performance better. Google, Twitter and Facebook have done an impressive job of measuring online and social media activity. Many of our current media brands see similar success stories with their digital analytics. Yet the radio business seems stuck in a Nielsen ratings system that’s decades behind.
But if the industry as a whole is satisfied with the results because it helps them turn a profit, why on earth would they want to change it? Let’s be honest for a second, would you change the measurement model of your business if it was helping you make money? Probably not.
The other factor to consider are the ‘special interests’. These are the teams, athletes and advertisers who appear on your station or show. In many instances, they expect special treatment.
That may mean avoiding uncomfortable on-air topics, giving them airtime to promote something they care about which your audience doesn’t, offering additional commercial inventory and agreeing to category or client restrictions which undoubtedly benefit the team’s business interests, or if you’re an on-air host who’s considered a ‘friend of the family’, it can even mean providing a slanted view on the team’s performance.
That creates quite a challenge for broadcasting companies who seek to deliver a fair and balanced presentation to the audience yet seek to do business with local teams who generate a lot of listener and advertiser interest. If I could add a strand of hair for every time I heard a team say “as your partner we expect more positive treatment” I’d have an afro.
It may piss you off, but these scenarios are no different than what politicians have to consider when a CEO or business owner is willing to throw large sums of money behind their campaign with the understanding that a ‘future favor’ will be necessary. A sports media brand, similar to a political figure, has to decide if the relationship and everything that comes with it is worth it.
The bottom line is that we all perform in the same system and are held accountable to the results we deliver. It certainly isn’t perfect but you knew that before you accepted an opportunity to perform and be measured in it. Your bosses don’t want to hear excuses when they’re paying you, and advertisers won’t accept them when they’re investing in your brand. It’s simple, you either provide a return on their investment or they’ll find someone else who can.
Maybe your success or failure is being decided on locally by 10 metered listeners. Maybe the competitor has a Voltaire machine giving them an unfair advantage. Maybe 15 people in the same house are all giving time to your rival, causing you to fall behind in the ratings. All of those are valid reasons to be bothered. But instead of bitching about it, familiarize yourself with the system, think about how you can strategically swing the odds in your favor, and go out and do it.
As the Bills learned last night in Seattle, and as either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will discover at the end of this election process, the only thing that matters in high stakes business is the final outcome. Even if the process is flawed or rigged.
