You’re throwing a party about nine weeks from now on September 14. Parties on Thursdays are unusual, so hopefully people will take notice. If you program or manage a radio station in the US, September 14 starts the Fall book for both PPM and Diary markets. With nine weeks to prepare, lots of things are…

The fall book starts September 14 – about ten weeks from now. With station budgets tighter than ever and an uncertain outlook for the fall, managers are challenging programmers to make dollars go further and programmers are looking for any resources they can find. Nationwide music research is far less expensive than conducting custom music…

As we’ve been working on NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study 22, we realized that after 21 studies we’re able to answer at least some of the questions that have come up from our contacts in the radio business. The first of a series of NuVoodoo Live events where we try to answer some of these questions…

Preparing the questionnaire for NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study 22 this past week had us talking to programmers, managers, and group heads to hear what new questions they’d like us to ask listeners. We also put out the request for ideas in this space and thanks to many of you we’ve gotten some truly great ideas.…

The picture above is one of Henry Ford. Ford is quoted as saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Those words are in our heads as the NuVoodoo team comes together to draft the questionnaire for our next Ratings Prospects Study (our 22nd if anyone’s keeping…

In the TV era, radio’s distinction was that it’s live and local, right? Though, even in the heyday of the DJ era, most of the “local” programming consisted of pre-recorded music. But radio gave more time to its on-air talent (especially in the days before PPM) and that allowed some greater amount of “local” content.…

Carolyn Gilbert and I had a great time last week with the latest CRS360 session: “The CRS Music Test: It Takes All Sorts.” The leader of the CRS research committee Clay Hunnicutt moderated a lively hour with us and two great Country programmers, Marci Braun and Brook Stephens. We discussed the best practices for using…

In a recent episode of American Idol Lionel Richie advised a contestant that you have to play to the entire audience as a performer. It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion and adulation of those in the front row, but it’s critical to spread your attention across the entire crowd. With radio it’s…

The session Carolyn Gilbert, PJ Kling, and I presented at the All Access Audio Summit 2023 last week focused on growing the next tenth of a rating point for stations. Moneyball for Radio involved seven steps, but the most important item was #1 “Stop Looking at Cher Share.” In that initial section we pleaded that…

“We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical” – so said the opening narration of TV’s “The Outer Limits,” premiering in 1963. You have to be of a certain age to even recall TV sets having controls for horizontal and vertical sync, but it was a good reason to learn what horizontal and…