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Pre-Weekend Listening Shows Radio Commands a Crowd. In radio, everybody’s working for the weekend. Fresh data from Nielsen confirms what radio execs and media buyers have long observed: Thursday is the biggest day for radio listening, followed closely by Friday and Wednesdays. These heavy-listening days present advertisers with unique opportunities to reach the most listeners as they’re considering weekend purchases and leisure plans. Across radio stations nationwide, Thursday is the most-listened to day of the week, with 186.3 million listeners, followed by Friday with 184.9 million, according to Q3 2014 ratings and portable people meter data from 2011-2014. In the 48 PPM markets, Fridays are the most-listened to day, while diary markets report Thursdays to be no. 1. While these pre-weekend days command the largest audiences, early week isn’t far behind; On Tuesdays, Nielsen reported 178 million listeners nationally, followed by Wednesdays (177.1 million) and Mondays (176.1 million). Weekends have always been lighter days for radio, and that still holds true, with Saturday tallying 156 million listeners and Sunday garnering 137.6 million. Compared to the same period in Q3 2014, radio audiences were up across the week. “Whatever day of the week it is, if you need to reach a lot of people, radio has reach by carload,” says Pierre Bouvard, chief marketing officer for Cumulus Media, one of the largest radio station owners. Some media buyers and sales execs dismiss the significance of these recent Nielsen figures, saying it is too narrow a slice of time to have an impact on buying. Also, advertisers have for years been loading up on Thursday and Friday radio ads. “It is common sense to hit people hard before the weekend,” says local media buyer Nancy Haynes, principal at Collins Haynes & Lully in Charlotte, N.C. Indeed, Thursdays and Fridays have traditionally been the hugely important ad days for categories like retailers, car dealers, movie studios, movie theaters, and restaurants, looking to drive weekend sales. Thursdays are so important that radio stations have even crafted their own marketing around the heaviest listening days, using Thursdays to launch their own promotions and contests. (Coincidentally, Thursday was also the start of the Nielsen diary week.) But, as other tradition media — namely TV and newspapers — are losing audience share, the new Nielsen data is significant because it affirms radio’s ability to deliver big audiences, even as consumer habits change and media options multiply. “Take any brand or retailer that needs to get people into a store on weekends and then take our mass reach, our affordability, our ability to get working persons with means to make purchases,” Bouvard says. “And that is pretty good combination for a weekend sale.”

Radio Rises, Even as Traditional Media Falters and Consumer Habits Shift. At a time when other traditional media are bleeding audiences, radio’s reach remains strong. Newspaper circulation is plummeting, and many local advertisers have already moved money away from print media. TV ratings are in decline, as viewers stray to mobile, DVRs, streaming services and video on demand. At the same time, mobile and digital use are exploding. Radio, meanwhile, has managed to grow its overall audience. According to Nielsen’s latest Audience Report, 243 million Americans, or 91% of consumers 12 and older, tune into radio weekly. Radio is also strong among digitally-savvy younger consumers, with 91.3% of adults 18 to 34 tuning in weekly. “Radio has been placed on the back burner, first because of television and now all digital media,” says Brad Adgate, SVP of research for Horizon Media. “But radio is still a very viable medium for advertisers.” Radio, he adds, has been a “consistent performer and predictable” for advertisers. The live nature of radio may be its strongest pitch: Not only can it offer mass audience, but radio is consumed mostly live, creating immediacy. That’s particularly important as consumers lifestyles change. Customers are more likely than ever to arrive in a store having heavily researched their intended purchase. And, as more families have two working adults, workdays have shifted, forcing household purchases like groceries, gas and entertainment to happen throughout the week. “Normal household patterns don’t hold anymore,” says Chris Protzman, VP of radio sales for E.W. Scripps Networks. “But radio has adapted.” Radio can follow listeners through the changes, moving from the home, to the car, to the workplace and on mobile devices via streaming. And radio’s local ties make it invaluable. Protzman adds: “The personal emotional connection that local radio can make drives the connection with listeners, and we

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can drive a faster purchasing decisions for our partners.” Researchers say local hosts are key to getting many listeners to tune in, and, when DJs plug a product, their audience is even more likely to consider the product, service or business they are endorsing. iHeartMedia, for one, often integrates its marquee talent like Ryan Secreast and Elvis Duran with movie advertisers, such as plugging the movies on-air and teasing listeners with exclusive content, like celebrity interviews. Horizon Media’s SVP of Research Brad Adgate says Thursday movie advertising could be a big gain for radio given that Thursday night TV is no longer the juggernaut it once was. “There is an opportunity for radio to say we are listened primary live and the message will be heard at the most critical time to build awareness that the film is opening this weekend.”

Opportunities in Early Week and Weekend. Heavy demand for pre-weekend advertising time typically drives up pricing for Thursday and Friday. Those two days often sell out, leaving early week and weekend slots for other advertisers and messages. While perception is these are less desirable days, local radio execs say Monday to Wednesday, as well as the weekend, offer some benefits. Inventory is less expensive, which is helpful for a client on a tighter budget or an advertiser looking to concentrate a heavy load of spots on particular days. And early week and weekend ads can work well for categories looking to reach listeners heading back to work, such as recruiters and legal services, or after weekend incidents, like a car repair shop. Some opportunities are specific to local markets. In Knoxville, TN, where E.W. Scripps VP of Radio Sales Chris Protzman is based, he says Mondays are popular with recruiting advertisers, while Sunday afternoons and Wednesdays evenings are “church drive times,” creating opportunities for real estate and restaurant advertisers. These examples, Protzman says, show how advertisers can place effective ads by analyzing their intended audiences. “Each product or retail prospect should know their consumers, their buying behavior, and how they access information they need to make decisions,” he says. Early weekday can also be valuable for “advertisers who don’t need to hype the weekend,” says Charlotte, NC media buyer Nancy Haynes, principal at Collins Haynes & Lully. In all likelihood, she says, clients could buy a Monday to Wednesday schedule for a discount and buy a heavier schedule. “That gets you more frequency and that’s what radio is all about,” she adds. Most stations typically design their ad packages as Monday through Friday or Monday to Sunday schedules with a mix of dayparts, or clients can buy lower-cost weekend packages. Separating out Thursday and Friday a la carte is possible, but more expensive. Still, that makes sense for some advertisers, like a retailer driving attention to a big sale, or a one-time entertainment event, like a concert or festival. Buying a full week, sales execs say, gives a client maximum exposure, particularly important as purchasing decisions are now made throughout the week. “We create a brand for our advertisers Monday through Sunday,” says Brigid Allinger, senior account executive for Saga Communication’s Cayuga Radio Group. “In our community, we want to have our advertisers be top of mind in their category or develop a niche in which they can be top.”

Radio’s Challenge: Communicate Its Strengths. Radio might have a good story to sell, but getting the word out to advertisers and media buyers is always challenging. Sales reps need to seize on radio’s positive stories and drive the message home with clients and prospective advertisers. But radio salespeople also need to be educated, says Pierre Bouvard, Cumulus Media’s Chief Marketing Officer. After a stint in television, Bouvard recently returned to the radio industry and says he is surprised how many radio salespeople don’t know about changes in media consumption. “They were unaware of the erosion going on in television,” he says. To help educate the sales force, Bouvard’s team circulated a presentation to more than 1,000 Westwood One and Cumulus staffers illustrating changes in media consumption and radio’s strong position. “It shows radio’s consistency in audience and reach, and that radio is now going to be highly valued,” he says. The presentation highlight’s radio’s ability to reach the largest total audience, as well as younger demographics. It also drills into TV’s losses, and shows how radio stacks up strongly against streaming music heavyweights Pandora and Spotify. One important fact: More than half of radio listening occurs out of the home, where consumer purchases are made. That’s a

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huge strength of radio, any day of the week. As radio looks to grow its business, that’s just the kind of information that needs to get conveyed to media buyers and clients. And since radio stations are masters at promotion, and Horizon Media’s SVP of Research Brad Adgate says the stations would be wise to take advantage of that expertise. Says Adgate: “The industry has to work a little bit harder in letting advertisers and buyers know just how big radio really is.”

Smulyan Savors “Satisfying” AT&T Deal. Jeff Smulyan, CEO of Emmis Communications, and the executive pushing the NextRadio app that currently sits on 25 million smartphones, declared last Friday, “In my 40 years in the business, I’ve never had a more satisfying moment.” He was referring to his work to get AT&T to urge its Android smartphone providers to activate the FM chip. While it had to be satisfying, the AT&T deal may lead to even more pleasing moments for the exec, especially considering the fact that AT&T counted 120.59 million subscribers at the end of 2014, putting them second only to Verizon. Smulyan said NextRadio isn’t paying AT&T for its agreement to activate the chip, but that AT&T will receive a percentage of the new interactive-generated revenue. The result is that “many more millions” of smartphone users will be able to access FM radio stations through NextRadio. Smulyan is hardly the only exec happy with the move—the NAB, NPR and even some FCC commissioners (and the BBC overseas) have expressed for years their desire for phone manufacturers to activate the chip that comes built in to most smartphones. But some wireless carriers, and its trade association, the CTIA, claimed there was no consumer demand, although that might have been because consumers weren’t aware the chip existed. Questions sent to the CTIA regarding the wireless association’s objection to activating the FM chip received no response at presstime.

AT&T One Step Beyond For NextRadio. “I got congratulatory calls from every radio group in America,” said Jeff Smulyan, CEO of Emmis Commmunications, regarding the AT&T-NextRadio deal, which, by all indications, is more favorable to NextRadio than the one the company struck with Sprint in 2013. According to an SEC filing, Emmis, the firm behind the app, is paying Sprint $15 million per year, with some revenue sharing requiring Sprint to preload NextRadio on at least 30 million smartphones. AT&T on the other hand will receive a percentage of the new interactive-generated revenue. Smulyan, noting that Cumulus CEO Lewis C. Dickey even saluted him during that company’s earnings call last Thursday, added, “I wouldn’t worry [about not getting] industry support,” for NextRadio. With AT&T joining Sprint now as the two wireless carriers selling phones with the active FM chip, Smulyan predicted, “Apple will be last, but we’ll get them all. I think [other wireless carriers] will move pretty fast.” According to eMarketer, an additional 14 million smartphones will be sold in the U.S. next year, bringing the total to 198.5 million. Gallup Poll data says about 40% of Android users would upgrade their smartphones every two years. When it announced earnings a little less than two weeks ago, AT&T said it added 1.2 million new smartphone in the quarter, but didn’t disclose updates. Verizon is the largest carrier with 108.2 million subscribers. AT&T is the second, with 86.2 million subscribers. (An earlier InsiderRadio story said it had 121 million subscribers, which also tallied in virtual network “machine-to-machine” subscribers.)

Papal Visit Sparks New Station. One might say that Philadelphia’s CBS Radio-owned KYW Newsradio 1060 is trying to do the Lord’s work. It has launched PopeCast, a 24-hour radio station devoted to the visit of Pope Francis and the World Meeting of Families that will come to the City of Brotherly Love in late September. The special station is at 96.5 FM-HD3 and online at CBSPhilly.com/papalvisit. While Philadelphia is excited about the events, many residents are anxious as well, fearing, among other things, an unholy amount of gridlock. And while PopeCast will be covering the religious aspects, the station hopes to also be the go-to place for traffic, housing and logistics. The World Meeting of Families confab will be held Sept. 22-25 with hundreds of thousands coming to town. The crowds could swell to 1.5 million on Sept 26-27 when Pope Francis arrives. Philadelphia media has had many reports of anticipated store closings, alternate public transit routes and major road closures planned as safety and security precautions, attempting to make the visit as seamless as possible. Steve Butler, director of news and programming at the station, says KYW had been planning PopeCast for months, adding material to its “Hear Philly” streaming channel that has been retitled “all-Pope, all the time” as Butler put it. “When you’re in the short-form news business, you know a lot of material ends up on the cutting room floor, so to speak” so KYW has kept some longer pieces and is adding material all the time, he says. “There are a lot of angles to this story. There’s a lot happening.” PopeCast channel sponsors include, among others, First Priority Bank; a company producing a commemorative Pope Visit coin; and Lourdes Urgent Care, owned by a Catholic health care company.

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