Urban radio execs talk about finding success in a PPM world

From RadioInk.com
(March 28, 2008) Radio One Regional VP Doug Abernethy, who oversees Radio One Rhythmic KBXX (97.9 the Box) and Urban AC KMJQ (Magic 102.1)/Houston, explained Friday during Arbitron's monthly client call on PPM progress how the stations got back on top after dropping significantly in their target demos in early Portable People Meter ratings.

"If you look at where we were in a diary world," Abernethy said, "we were one and two, or two and three, consistently, every book, so the diary method was working just fine for me." When Magic dropped out of the top 10 25-54 and the Box dropped nearly out of the top 10 18-34, he said, "that turned into a phase of anger." But after that, he said, "The next phase we went through was, OK, what are we going to do?"

The initial approach, Abernethy said, was to encourage retailers, sports venues, and others to play Radio One stations. Then, he said, "We just looked at the things that we're doing, and what made us successful in a diary world is not going to make you successful in a PPM world."

Abernethy said, "We looked at everything," at the Houston stations, including stopset placement, contesting, and breaks. Station PDs are now doing weekly aircheck sessions, he said, because "in a diary world, you can get away with having a bad break, or a bad shift, or a bad week, and in recall, people will forgive you, but they're not so forgiving when there's a bad break in a PPM world."

Magic and the Box, he said, "sound completely different from what they did in a PPM world," and are now back to the number one and number two positions in the market.

Looking at the AQH persons trends for the stations, KBXX has seen some "stumbling blocks," Abernethy said, but has "consistently grown from month to month." He noted, "One of the nice things about PPM is that we've been able to really drill down and look at, hey, this is working and this isn't working, and the things that are working, we do more of, and the things that weren't working, we throw away."

Abernethy said that early on, Radio One focused on converting P4 and below listeners into P2s or P3s, but continued, "That's not the way to go. The focus has got to remain on your P1s and P2s, and you'll see in PPM that they're going to go to five or six other radio stations. Your job is to get them to come back to your radio station quicker, and we have found ways to do that."

As the call moved into the Q&A, Emmis President/Radio Rick Cummings talked about Emmis' PPM success with its New York Urban stations, Rhythmic WQHT and Urban AC WRKS. At the beginning of 2008, he said, "We began to see considerably better results" at the stations.

Cummings said, "There's been this myth for many, many, many months out there that if you were in Urban radio in PPM markets, whether that is black or Hispanic, you were in deep trouble. And the truth is, that is not the case. The truth is that, like with all measurement systems, you've got to take your product and figure out how to make it work. And we have had some success in doing that in New York. We hope that we'll be able to say the same thing in Los Angeles."

He agreed with Abernethy that the focus must remain on P1s, saying, "What we have learned is that the P1 listener is more critical than ever in this change from perceptual to behavioral measurement -- and that the P1 is not what we always thought it was. I think we tended to think of the P1 in the diary world was somebody who hangs on our every word and stays with us for years, and that's just not the case. And when you let go of that notion, and you start to really study your P1s and understand how to nurture them and satisfy them, you'll be on your way to having a success in PPM, whether that's with a general-market station or an Urban station."

Cummings also said advertisers have to get the message. "It's also important for us to get out there and tell the story to buyers out there who still seem to think that perhaps PPM has sort of been a death sentence for some of us in Urban radio," he said. " That's just not true."

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