PPM and Radio

[August1991]

Canadian radio takes an historic step on December 10th when Montreal will become the first radio market in Canada to leave paper based diary audience measurement behind and adopt leading-edge portable PPM electronic measurement.

The Montreal market launch is the first phase of BBM Canada’s radio rollout plan which will see PPM carried every day by hundreds more people in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton in Fall 2009.

BBM Canada has released advance PPM data today to familiarize Montreal radio data users with the new system in preparation for the December 10th launch. The data released today covers the period from September 1 to October 31, 2008 and provides full minute-by-minute audience estimates for Montreal radio stations.

Link

This is an interesting change.

[Mr.Canada]

Link

This is an interesting change.

Big Brother is watching...

[Michael Hardner]

I can't imagine what the result would be, though ?

Better data, that's understood. But ... then what ?

[Wild Bill]

I can't imagine what the result would be, though ?

Better data, that's understood. But ... then what ?

Exactly! I have friends in that industry who give me a bit of the inside scoop. The great secret that no one wants to mention is that broadcast radio as we know it may be about to die!

Not quickly, of course. Not by next weekend, either. Still, Radio has been chasing the 24-44 yrs. demographic for so long that they weren't paying attention to the other age sectors.

Older listeners have mostly gravitated towards talk radio, for a number of reasons. One is the natural interest in news and issues that comes with maturity. The other is that boomers often can't find the music that they actually listened to during their formative years! So called 'classic rock' stations are really 'classic AM rock'! I suspect the reason is that radio music today is totally a numbers game. DJs haven't picked their own records in probably 20 years! They buy playlists from 3rd party vendors, where every song has numbers for its appeal, in any particular time slot.

The problem for boomer music is that no numbers were kept during the late 60's and early 70's. Those were the freewheeling hippy-dippy days of Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and others. The DJs were usually too stoned to keep numbers! So the playlist vendors seem to use AM radio data. Boomers get to hear the AM hits and never the album cuts. There is a HUGE demographic of boomers who have given up on radio for their music. They have their own libraries of CDs or even vinyl. Satellite radio picked up many in this crowd as well.

When's the last time you heard any Straubs on your local classic rock station? Any early Genesis? Foghat, except for 'Free Ride'? Crowbar, outside of their AM hit 'Oh, What a Feeling"?

Any of you who are old enough to have worn sandals and beads, take a moment and remember what you used to listen to on FM radio. Now ask yourself when's the last time you heard any of those songs. SteelEye Spam? Fairport Convention? Perth County Conspiracy? If they never had an AM Top 40 hit, you likely never hear them at all on today's radio.

Being Boomers, if we don't get offered what we like we won't give any money or attention to it at all.

The real worry for radio however is the kids. There is a generation growing up who have never even TRIED to get their music from radio! They've never even touched a music CD, for that matter, let alone bought one. They download from the Internet directly into their players. They don't watch music videos on TV either. The Internet is their first and main choice.

Gone are the days of teeny-boppers buying boatloads of 45 rpm singles. The record labels did that to themselves. The CD rendered singles obsolete. You could no longer buy singles. You had to buy the entire album. Worse yet, since they had a captive audience you were lucky to get even a couple of good cuts on a particular album. The rest was all mediocre filler.

The 'Net has meant that young folks can download their own choices, as singles. They can listen to them whenever they want, making their own playlists and not at the mercy of whatever a radio station chooses to play, at whatever time of day they care to do it.

The number of kids growing up into the 24-44 demographic of the radio audience has dropped to a fraction of its former self. There is virtually little or no new blood coming on stream.

Ask your own kids! I have two daughters, 18 and 12. Neither has any interest in broadcast radio, nor do any of their peer group. Yet they constantly are listening to music.

So BBM can come up with all the new and modern data gathering techniques they want. Who cares? They already have had the important data for some years now. They appear to be focusing on making their service seem more sexy, in order to sell themselves to their customers. Meanwhile, their radio industry customers are fading away.

This trend has been growing for some years now and is just about ready to pop! If things are they way they appear then we are going to see some major changes in that industry over the next 4-5 years.

[OddSox]

Perth County Conspiracy

I still have one of their albums! Alas, nothing to play it on...

[Oleg Bach]

You guys are old. Just don't leave the records in the sun...or maybe you should..blue grass hippy tunes sound better when they are warped.

[guyser]

The problem for boomer music is that no numbers were kept during the late 60's and early 70's. Those were the freewheeling hippy-dippy days of Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and others. The DJs were usually too stoned to keep numbers! So the playlist vendors seem to use AM radio data. Boomers get to hear the AM hits and never the album cuts. There is a HUGE demographic of boomers who have given up on radio for their music. They have their own libraries of CDs or even vinyl. Satellite radio picked up many in this crowd as well.

Wish there was an album station. Not that every album was good enough for this, but many are and were.

When's the last time you heard any Straubs on your local classic rock station? Any early Genesis? Foghat, except for 'Free Ride'? Crowbar, outside of their AM hit 'Oh, What a Feeling"?

Crowbar...?....I have to listen to it enough, the original drummer is a buddy of mine. Very talented guy too.

Genesis, all the time.....on the ipod. Suppers ready !

Gone are the days of teeny-boppers buying boatloads of 45 rpm singles. The record labels did that to themselves.

Not just boppers. The price per 45 was ridiculous then, and was almost never worth it. Being a DJ in an earlier life I had to buy them , but what a waste of money.

[AngusThermopyle]

Suppers ready !

Such a very very very good song. Genesis at their finest before Disney Phil took over and turned them into super bubble gum music. Oh well, Peter did better on his own than he would have hanging around Phil anyway.