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Mike McVay , President, McVay Media
Mike McVay is founder and President of McVay Media, a full-service consultancy, serving Adult Contemporary, Country, CHR, Oldies, Rock, Sports, and News/Talk radio stations. McVay’s 35 years of broadcast experience include stints as an Owner, General Manager, Program Director, and Air Personality.
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During the recent Arbitron Consultant Fly-In, which I attempt to attend yearly, I had the opportunity to watch the presentation on the Urban format and the Spanish format. The broadcasters in the room, made up of mostly group programmers, consultants, researchers, and direct marketing companies, jumped up and down and made a big deal about Arbitron’s having a difficult time in getting African Americans to participate in the People Meter and Latinos are also reticent to participate. Arbitron shared their own concerns and outlined what I thought was a strong and concise plan to improve their rating service.
The amazing thing to me is how we’ve all thrown “common sense” out the window. The B.O.B. (Blacked Out Broadcasters) are screaming because African Americans utilize the People Meter are listening to more stations that simply target blacks. These respondents are also listening to talk stations, music stations that target non-blacks and they also listen to Sports radio, while even some African Americans listen to Adult Contemporary.
What seems crazy to me and why I say they are throwing out common sense, is that normal traditional listening habits or normal traditional people, regardless of race, would stand to reason you would listen to one type of music. Maybe Arbitron has it right. Does the value of African American listeners and increase the overall consumer index? This could be quality in the making.
Spanish broadcasters seem less concerned with what’s going on, but that’s due in large part because they don’t have the same type organization or support system to call attention to the challenges they face. I again offer the common sense reasoning that I touched upon where African American listeners are concerned. If you are a vertically integrated Latino, someone who speaks both Spanish and English, does it not make sense you would also listen to English speaking radio?
If you speak Spanish only, and you are now living in a confusing world where the mother language is English would you not play English on the radio as a way to immerse itself into the culture and learn the language? And if you are carrying a People Meter at the time listening is going between black and non-black programming or
Spanish and English programming, would the People Meter not pick that up?
The buying power and consumer strength of the Spanish market remains strong. One major broadcast company has been scrambling to drop Spanish on their stations and return to Mainstream formats. It seems to me that rather changing your programming based upon on the measuring system you should do research and measure the strength of the format in your market and determine if you can generate revenue with it or not. Did you ever see the |
