Is Your Website Hurting Station TSL?

 
The formula shown above is the only algebra a Program Director needs to understand. Average Quarter-Hour (and share) is a product of a radio station’s cume, and the amount of time listeners spend with the station, time spent listening (TSL).

A smart Program Director maximizes his or her share by growing TSL. Getting every listener to listen just one or two more quarter-hours a day can have a significant impact on share.

That’s why quarter-hour maintenance is so important. We develop strong benchmarks. We recycle listeners from one daypart to the next. And we tease listeners about things coming up in the next few minutes.

Teasing work. It keeps listeners hanging around.

So it is odd that one of radio’s most effective quarter-hour maintenance tools has been perverted into a device to lower TSL, to drive listeners away rather than hold them.

How many time have you heard this: Win a thousand dollars tomorrow morning, details on the website, or We’ve got a special free concert coming up. Find out how you can get tickets on the website.

Too many radio stations are doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing.

A radio station shouldn’t use the station to drive people to the website. The station should use its website to drive listeners to the radio station.

Nearly all the revenue that a radio station earns comes from its on-air product. A website generates a tiny additional sliver of revenue, but not much.

Arbitron ratings drive revenue. Yes, there are other factors, but as a rule, higher ranked stations generate more revenue than lower ranked stations.

To maximize revenue then, listeners need to spend as much time listening as possible (and being counted by Arbitron), and less time on the website.

The new-media folks will tell you this is ludditious. The future is on the web, and we need to show listeners that we are forward looking and preparing for the day when our towers are turned into power generating windmills.

Don't believe them.

Maybe five years ago stations needed to promote their website, but now websites are taken for granted. They have become a utilitarian tool and extension of the radio station. Radio stations can stop luring listeners to their website.

What we need to do is create compelling programming that keeps them listening. Then tease the hell out of it to keep them listening.

Comments

[Richard Harker]

Nick, you're correct. We can assume that some people listening to the radio might go to the web site and continue to listen. We don't have numbers for radio, but Nielsen has documented simultaneous net/television usage. The numbers aren't large. The larger issue for radio, however, is engaging then retaining the listener. Even shared usage works against us. BTW, We're always pleased to hear from thoughtful new-media people who understand that radio isn't going away. Thanks for your input. Richard

[Nick Kempinski]

Doesn't you're argument have a flaw? You're assuming that people turn off the radio to check the website. There are loads of opportunities to look at the website while listening.

While I agree that the website is flogged to death on radio, I also think it's still an important place for "more info" I think there can be a happy medium, although I don't know where it is.

Maybe when RadioDNS is working and our devices will just show what the announcer want's us to see on the website, the lingo will go away.

Thanks

And yes, I'm a new media guy. But I don't think radio is going away. I just want them to get along somehow.