May 29, 2018, Issue 595
Norfolk’s Ratings Experiment
For nearly two years, neither of Norfolk’s big Country stations – Max Media’s WGH 97.3 The Eagle and Sinclair’s WUSH US 106.1 – have subscribed to any ratings service. Programmers, station owners and consultants have been watching the battle to see what can be learned about competing in a ratings vacuum. Part of the answer might be found in the fact that one of the two is getting back into the ratings game. Snubscription: In June 2014, Sinclair’s Norfolk stations dropped their subscription with Nielsen. Just over two years later the market’s Max Media stations followed suit. WGH PD Mark McKay remembers the first months being without Nielsen, “I don’t know that anything changed immediately with the Mark McKay exception of [not being] perched waiting for the numbers every month,” he says. “To a certain degree it was like trying to fly a plane without the instruments, but it also meant less reports to do every month and I’m ok with that. It freed me up to do other things.” The Norfolk market was no stranger to Nielsen ratings fluctuations, both in technology and methodology. “A lot of really rash and hasty decisions were based on PPM numbers initially,” McKay says. “A lot of things changed and not necessarily for the better. People knee jerked, [but] I think that’s settled down some now.” Nevertheless, the system has its challenges. “You lose one meter out of a week and it could crush your whole month, especially in a market this size,” McKay adds. “A lot of stations could make a snap judgment Dave Parker that something is really wrong when in fact it was just that the Smith family went on vacation.” As welcome as parting ways with PPM’s problems may be, both PDs had to find new ways to tell their story to advertisers. “Our station has gone out of its way to elevate our personalities,” says WUSH PD Dave Parker. “For that reason, we do very well with testimonials. (continued on page 7)
Five More People: Triple Tigers’ Scotty McCreery with WNNF/ Cincinnati staffers. Pictured (l-r) are Anne Menkhaus, the station’s Katie Schroeder, McCreery and the station’s Chris Clare, Amanda Orlando and Austin ‘Tater’ Ratcliff.
Music, Big Hearts & A Little School
A small fundraising effort to help a Mexican school has grown into a country music passion project over the last nine years. With planning now underway for the 10th annual Island Time Music Festival on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, the event is poised for deeper music business connections, a bigger charitable footprint and possibly some radio tie-ins. “We have quietly grown into somewhat of a phenomenon in paradise,” says Studio1Bee Co-President Skip Bishop. But don’t take his word for it: American Express recently featured Island Time as one of Skip Bishop 15 top island music festivals.
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