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Leigh Jacobs
Back when radio stations did a lot more focus groups than they do now, every moderator’s guide included what became known as “The Magic Wand Question.” Respondents in the focus group were asked to imagine that the moderator had given them a magic wand they could use to change anything about the radio station that…
Read MoreBroadcast radio has long been fighting listener concerns about too many commercials. Over the past few decades, chasing the opportunity to program some types of stations primarily as music distribution services, commercial load has even been part of the positioning at times. While programmers may not be able to unilaterally reduce spotload, they can often…
Read More420 years ago, Sir Francis Bacon is credited with using the phrase “knowledge is power.” Given the comparatively small size of Nielsen’s samples and the limited universe of people who are likely to carry a meter or return a diary, it’s critical to know as much as possible about not only those in the Nielsen…
Read MoreWe’re all aware that current spot loads leave radio painfully over-commercialized at times, compared to even the free levels of Spotify, Pandora and other online players. In the PPM world, fewer breaks yield better ratings than more breaks. So, in the most extreme cases, breaks get long enough that some advertisers complain. While the digital…
Read MoreLast week we wrote about using the Amazon Echo (or Google Home) to listen to radio in your home. While there are a few venerable clock radios still on nightstands and some homes may have a Bose Wave Radio lurking somewhere, there are fewer and fewer radios in homes today. Among music station P1’s across…
Read MoreA few weeks back, we wrote about the experience of hosting a focus group of Millennial-aged Country music fans at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville. Asked if they have a radio at home, one respondent memorably answered, “There’s one at my mom’s house.” A couple of the panelists admitted they do have a radio…
Read MoreNuVoodoo’s Carolyn Gilbert was with Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media at Talk Show Boot Camp in Atlanta last week sharing some findings from the first-ever NuVoodoo Podcast Study. Starting from a sample of nearly 9,000 Persons 14-54 across all PPM markets, we drilled down to just under 3,000 respondents based on at least regular, monthly…
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Last week, we wrote about a focus group we conducted in front of an audience at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville. Millennial Country music fans talked about their listening habits (smartphone-centric and channel agnostic) and their relationships with radio (car-centric and relatively passionless). We wanted to conduct the focus group to see if the…
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In school, you’re taught to begin consumer research with qualitative research, like focus groups. You unearth consumer perceptions that might be lurking out there among lots of people. Then, you develop a quantitative research project, with a larger, scalable sample, to determine what the actual percentages of people are who share those opinions. Last week…
Read MorePilots are trained to give priority to flying the plane during a crisis in the cockpit, because it’s human nature to focus on crises – things that appear urgent – even though there may be higher-priority tasks at hand. Similarly, as radio finds itself challenged on many fronts, programmers and managers still need to focus…
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