09 May Wednesday, May 2, 2018
This Week in The Lund Letter:
> The power of favorites
> Drive time is radio time
> Radio’s favorite morning show benchmark
> And the latest media trends
Lund Programming Clinic: AC Grows Among Millennials
On a weekly basis, 93% of all adults tune in to radio, the most of any platform according to the most recent “Audio Today” report from Nielsen, and that 93% figure hasn’t changed in decades. TV is second with 88%. Nielsen reports radio has 243 million listeners in a given month from data derived from the Portable People Meter currency in January through March of 2018.
Nielsen also observes both Adult Contemporary and Classic Hits experienced very strong audience increases from first quarters of years past. AC generally sees a spike from stations flipping to an all-Christmas music format in December due to the influx of new listeners. AC historically falls back in January and February. But this year is different.
AC is surging to one of its best starts in the first quarter in the PPM measurement era, particularly among the 18-34 millennial audience. Furthermore, Classic Hits is seeing its best first-quarter results in the PPM era of measurement among Persons 6+, 25-54, and even 18-34. This year’s first quarter is the first time Classic Hits has pulled even with Classic Rock with 18-34 year olds in PPM markets (#8 rank).
Among Millennials, Pop Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) remains the top format, but has declined nearly two full shares in two years. #2 Country remains unchanged over the last two years. AC is #3. #4 Hot AC and #5 Urban Contemporary are also down over the same time.
What’s behind the Millennial increased listening to Adult Contemporary and Classic Hits? There are several explanations:
> Familiarity. AC and Classic Hits libraries are gold-based mass appeal pop music.
> These formats are also built on a familiar format presentation.
> Both formats are strong with time spent listening.
> AC and Classic Hits radio stations attract huge “at work” listening (typically Monday-Friday 8 AM to 5 PM).
With so many Millennials entering the workforce every year, listening to AC and Classic Hits will be on the increase thanks to spiked tune-in from the 18-34 demographic.
Lund Management Memo: Radio Still King of the Road
Traditional AM/FM radio remains the top listening source for adults in-car, despite the plethora of other media choices now available. Of those who have driven or ridden in a car over the past month, Edison Research reports…
+ 82% have tuned into traditional radio (steady over two years)
+ 49% listen to a CD player (down from 52% in 2017 and 56% on 2016)
+ 45% listen to “owned digital music” (steady from 2017 but up from 38% in 2016)
+ 28% listen to online radio (up from 26% last year and 21% the year before)
+ 23% listen to podcasts (up from 19% a year ago)
+ 21% listen to satellite (down from 22% last year but still up from 19% in 2016)
More and more cars are connected (15% of respondents, up from 12% last year), but no new source of entertainment has yet made a significant dent in radio.
Promotion of the Week: Impossible Trivia
This is likely the most popular morning radio benchmark in many formats. Your morning talent asks a single question that comes from a “poll” survey. One example: “54% of women think a man who has this is sexy.” Answer: a bald head. The talent takes callers until someone guesses the right answer.
For 100 more great contests and sales promotions, see the Lund Contest and Promotion Guide.
Lund’s Top 3: Spring Ratings Insurance Checklist
Great radio is show business – a mix of companionship, entertainment, information, and basics. Consider these three tactics:
1. Be the listener’s best friend and deliver improved engagement.
2. Always contemporize your brand to get younger listeners and to generate more buzz and social media attention.
3. Talk to a listener who is at least a decade younger than your target. Older adults will listen to a younger sounding station, but when you sound older, the opposite is not true.
Continued next week in the Lund Letter. Visit www.lundradio.com for more Top 3’s!
This Week’s Music:
“The Middle” by Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey continues to reign atop CHR with Camila Cabello’s “Never Be The Same” moving closer. Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left To Cry” had another spectacular week of increasing airplay. Zayn’s “Let Me” had a strong debut week. In Country, Jason Aldean’s “You Make It Easy” is the leader followed by Kane Brown’s “Heaven.” Both Luke Combs’ “One Number Away” and Carrie Underwood’s “Cry Pretty” made good gains last week.
Hot AC is right behind CHR with Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey holding the number one spot. Camila Cabello is making gains in Hot AC as well. Maroon 5’s “Wait” is moving up quickly. Ariana Grande had a massive debut week. In Bright AC, Ed Sheeran continues his marathon run with “Perfect” at number one. MAX’s “Lights Down Low” is starting to get closer inside the Top Five. Watch Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be” as it is getting more and more airplay in Bright AC.
Lovelytheband’s “Broken” continues another week atop Alternative. Muse is making increases inside the Top Five with “Thought Contagion.” Watch Walk The Moon’s “Kamikaze” as it is getting interest. Lund clients receive weekly music research information on current music plus regular updates on the best-testing recurrent and gold titles.
Lund Trend Watch:
Amazon Versus Walmart Online
Despite having a marketplace on its website that allows shopping similar to that found on Amazon, Walmart has only about one-fifth the web traffic. SimilarWeb found that Amazon gets 30.7% of online shopping traffic and Walmart has 5.9%. Amazon’s visits are also longer (over 2.5 minutes longer) and get more page views (five more pages per visit). But that may soon change. Walmart has become more aggressive with price matching and offers identical prices on 53% of all products (that’s compared to 37% matched by Target and 35% by Jet).
No Skip Button
First Facebook forced ads into video content found on the social media platform, and now Snapchat is following suit. Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has confirmed that they will be testing six-second ads in their “TV-like shows.” How long before they are found in the average Snapchat user’s personal content as well? And how much will users put up with before leaving for commercial-free new territories?
Speaking Of Video Ads…
They now make up more than half of Twitter’s advertising revenue. Twitter execs credit lower cost per engagement, new video ad formats and teed up content plays.
Good News for Dow Jones
Among all of the closing papers, foisted CEOs and other doom and gloom heard about print media, one daily newspaper is growing. The Wall Street Journal says that for the past two weeks, they have made their goal of 3 million subscribers, up from 2.5 million last July.
Programmer’s Planner:
Today, 5/2
Create a Memorial Day weekend promotion (5/25-28). Plan sales promotions for June/July and summer; develop with sales department.
TV Premiere – Colony returns for its third season on USA.
Streaming Premiere – Cobra Kai, a sequel series to the original Karate Kid movie, debuts on YouTube Red.
Thurs., 5/3
Begin diary ratings week #6. Begin second week of the May PPM.
Make it your responsibility to be sure your station has the best creative locally-produced retail commercials and promos that create sizzle and sell.
Critique and coach each full-time on-air talent and on-air news talents.
Do a mid-book check-up. How are the 3 M’s – Music, Mornings, and Marketing?
Fri., 5/4
Meet with Chief Engineer to discuss signal quality, processing, compression, loudness, etc.
Reevaluate and refresh your major spring promotion liners and promos.
Monitor competitor’s contesting and marketing next week – include your findings in your State of the Station report.
Streaming Premieres – Netflix has a big day of premieres including comedy “advice” 
show (featuring kids and the title comedy legend) A Little Help With Carol Burnett, sci-fi movie Anon, and season two of Dear White People.
Movie Premiere – Overboard (a remake) and Tully (Charlize Theron).
Sat.-Sun., 5/5-6
This weekend, conduct monitor of weekend “street” visibility and sales remotes.
Saturday is Cinco de Mayo in areas with a Mexican population. Stage a block party, cook-off, half-price fair. Is that a lime in your beer? Be ready for festivities to be more enthusiastic since it falls on a weekend this year.
Mon., 5/7
Plan Mother’s Day (May 13) Weekend promotion.
Update the station website. Be sure it is timely and that nothing visually dates it. Now your Facebook page: are you posting to your wall often enough to keep your “friends” interested… without overloading them?
TV Premiere – Running Wild With Bear Grylls returns on CBS for its fifth season.
Tues., 5/8
Today’s programming meeting… What are our core listeners reading in their free time? Check Amazon and Barnes & Noble for the top selling magazines (print and Kindle/Nook versions). Bring the latest issues to the meeting, and discuss the topics and how they relate to your target listener.
Note big promotional and public service events occurring locally this month. Co-promote station involvement.
TV Premieres – Reality shows Chrisley Knows Best and The Cromarties return on USA.
About the Lund Media Group:
For over 20 years, the Lund Media Group has provided programming, music consulting, operational guidance, and research to commercial and public broadcast stations throughout North America and overseas. Whether you program all sports, all t
alk, or all music, the Lund Goal is to help stations get more listeners and keep them listening longer. The Lund Consultants are a multi-format custom programming and management consultancy.
Call John Lund for more information about how the Lund Media Group can help your stations achieve more listeners, higher ratings, and more revenue.
Phone: 650-692-7777.
Email john@lundradio.com.