Every year the Thanksgiving holiday brings us together with (non-radio) family and friends and reminds us just how odd our business can sound to folks. We've written about describing diaries to non-radio people – folks trying to remember their listening for a week and writing it all down in a pamphlet. Of course, this leads to a discussion of PPM methodology, inevitably ending with friends asking, "Why don't they use smartphones?" and "What about when you're using earbuds?!" Indeed.

Never mind the per person value ascribed to each diary or meter or the challenges of getting the PPM codes picked up at all. After talking about PD's who become violently ill facing the new ratings data, I describe PPM market PD's having ...

We last asked about purchases of technology devices in NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study Nine back in January of 2017. We saw that about as many people had bought a new radio (not installed in a car) in the prior year as had bought a new landline phone. We even wrote ...

The great stations have always done it: included listeners as part of the fabric of their on-air presentation. Listener voices and implied listener presence (talking about listeners' input and connection with stations) made radio interactive before folks used the word ...

Just after the holidays, we'll begin fielding our next NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study and we'd like your help. Over the years, we've made it a habit to check in with clients on an informal basis as we're readying our questionnaires to get input on the issues they're ...

A friend was complaining that the new owner of the station where he's PD wants to add daily listener salutes. He's concerned that they'll sound "small market." I recalled our NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study 11 from the winter of 2018 where we asked whether people have ...

Last weekend I went into an upscale department store to exchange a gift. I found the item in the right size and looked for a salesperson to make the exchange. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, I realized that the register stations had been removed from the ...

We'll get the same answers and make the same decisions we've always made. When more stations could afford to budget for annual perceptual studies, that every-year repetition allowed the stations to eliminate questions that didn't yield actionable answers – and ...

Wikipedia says, "Gerrymandering is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies." The term goes back to an 1812 redistricting map in Massachusetts set by Governor Elbridge Gerry. Political ...

Given the current news cycle, we wanted to replay this finding from our Ratings Prospects Study 13 in January, even as we're starting work on the questionnaire we'll field in January 2020. No matter which side of the political aisle you're on, you're aware of the ...

Last week's NAB/RAB Radio Show in Dallas had many signs that radio is thinking differently about its future – which is, of course, a good thing. Around the atria at the Anatole we heard lots of talk about podcasts, Smart Speakers, new personalities and a renewed ...