| Talk Radio Has a Variety Issue - Welcome to the Club! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For Immediate Release: Bridge Ratings has been providing rating and research data for multiple markets and formats over the past three years. Of interest in the last twelve months has been the state of Talk radio. Beginning in January 2005 our composite group of talk radio markets and stations* began showing more pronounced instability in an area of measurement we call the "Passion Index" which measures a station's favoriteness shares among its weekly cume audience. Bridge Ratings has trended this information since January 2005 and we continue to see attrition among talk radio listeners as a whole. While there are talk stations in our composite group who continue to buck the trend for very specific reasons, the talk stations that comprise the format's favoriteness shares clearly are weakening for very specific reasons. This chart also indicates that other stations in these markets are gaining in favoriteness coincidental to talk radio's attrition which may be only temporary. In Bridge Ratings market surveys, in many cases, Talk radio has been blessed with extremely high passion scores. Passion is measured by the degree of favoriteness a radio station receives from its weekly cume audience. Passion scores above 45 suggest a very high perception of loyalty among a station's weekly audience, converting 45% of its weekly cume to favoriteness status. Scores above 50 have been measured at the top performing talk radio stations in the country. Stations with Passion scores at this level tend to score very well in Arbitron surveys primarily due to a) extreme time spent listening sessions and/or b) higher than average tune-in occasions across any given week. However, every strength can often be a weakness in the right combination of events and this is what appears to be affecting talk radio in genera in recent months. It is the format's high passion index which is causing its core or primary listeners to become fatigued with the content and presentation of the format. Talk radio's longer listening sessions generate higher exposure to weakening topic and/or talk host content. The more frequent this exposure the more likely talk primaries will tune out. We have found that at some point, talk radio primary listeners who have been disappointed too many times by the content or host performance, will reduce their tune-in occasions and time spent with the station or will fall out of the primary listener category simply because they no longer consider the station their favorite. Members of this study were both talk radio cumers, those that spend at least five minutes per week listening to a talk radio station, and talk radio primaries - those who told us their favorite station is a talk radio station. The following table exhibit shows the results of the responses by talk radio primary listeners when asked "Are you listening to your favorite talk station more, the same, or less than you were six months ago".
Bridge Ratings Standard: In similar studies measuring listening over time, "Listening the Same" comprises the majority of the responses from the group. Regardless of format, there is usually very little movement on either end of the "more or less" spectrum. Any measure over 15% would indicate significant movement. Nearly one-third of all talk radio listeners with a favorite talk radio station told us they were spending less time with their favorite station than they were six months ago. The following table indicates the top responses to the question: "Of the following, select the one reason that you are spending less time listening to your favorite talk radio station".
*Markets and stations included in this study: KFI Los Angeles, KOGO San Diego, KIRO Seattle, WJR Detroit, WBZ Boston, WTOP Washington DC, KGO San Francisco, KOA Denver, WCCO KSTP Minneapolis-St. Paul Sample: 2000 Adults 25 -54. Margin
of error: 2.2% |
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