RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION
It’s a time-honored tradition. At 5pm Eastern, the 12+ “glamour numbers” reflecting the latest overall ratings — “meaningless data no one sells,” one esteemed radio programming consultant has uttered for years — can be published by the radio industry trade publications rushing to send out eBlasts with the data.
On April 19, with the release of the first batch of Nielsen Audio March 2021 reports, something was peculiar. Two huge stations were missing.
It wasn’t an anomaly. Thursday’s release of March 2021 data from one of the biggest non-PPM markets, Buffalo, immediately put the RBR+TVBR I-Team into overdrive. Several stations were missing from the report. They were subscribers.
What’s the problem?
UPDATED AT 3PM ET WITH FULL BUFFALO 12+ SUBSCRIBER-ONLY RATINGS DATA
That’s a question with few answers as the final hours of April 2021 arrive, with memes galore of Justin Timberlake proclaiming “It’s Gonna’ Be May!” cluttering social media.
Two weeks ago this Monday, the trouble started when the New York Nielsen Audio ratings for March 2021 were distributed by several radio trades that afternoon. We took a look. Then, we received communication from a couple of readers, wondering if we noticed what they noticed: WBLS-FM, the Adult R&B station owned by Emmis/Standard Media partership MediaCo; and WAXQ-FM, the surviving rock n’ roll radio station owned by iHeartMedia, were absent.
Absent?! Those are two of the most-listened-to stations in North America!
A Nielsen spokesperson was contacted. An hour later, the missing data was supplied to RBR+TVBR by way of a screen shot. The ratings results for WBLS and WAXQ seemed accurate. But, why were they omitted from the report release? A Nielsen employee was “looking into this.”
Fast-forward to April 29, at approximately 5:12pm Eastern. The Nielsen Audio ratings report for market No. 59, Buffalo-Niagara Falls, is released. The numbers are distributed by Inside Radio, AllAccess and Radio-Online.com. There’s a big problem.
Data for the following stations doesn’t appear:
- WECK-AM and its collection of FM translators, owned by Buddy Shula
- CFLZ-FM “101.1 MORE FM,” a Fort Erie, Ontario, Adult Hits station owned by Byrnes Communications and represented in the U.S. by Shula’s Radio One Buffalo
- Townsquare Media‘s WBUF-FM, a Rock station that recently switched formats from “JACK FM,” and esteemed R&B and Hip-Hop station WBLK-FM
- NPR member station WBFO-FM
- Audacy News/Talk giant WBEN-AM
The RBR+TVBR I-Team immediately wrote to Nielsen.
Any insight into what the problem is? Is there a software glitch?
“Our tech team is looking into this to resolve this issue,” the Nielsen spokesperson said, offering a screen shot of the 12+ rankers for two stations:
WBEN-AM Average Share: 8.9 Weekly Cume Persons: 109,600
WBUF-FM Average Share: 1.3 Weekly Cume Persons: 58,900
Zoinks, Scoob! While the WBEN numbers are on target, the WBUF results suggest the format change to Rock — even as WGRF “97 Rock” suffered the loss of its morning show due to a bad decision by a veteran air talent to say something offensive and stupid — is a flop. Or, is it?
The WBLK results arrived in a separate email early Friday (4/30).
WBLK-FM Average Share: 7.9 Weekly Cume Persons: 110,900
“Were there any other stations missing?,” the Nielsen spokesperson asked in the e-mail.
Um … yeah. WECK. We communicated with Shula on Thursday. He confirmed he was a Nielsen Audio subscriber. We were blunt in our reply to Nielsen.
How are these data flaws occurring? It calls into question integrity concerns.
Some two hours later, in the 9am hour on April 30, Nielsen supplied the WECK data.
It also commented on our concerns that the integrity of Nielsen Audio could be called into question because it doesn’t have a simple system of proofreading and editing a market report before it’s sent out. Even we have a process of proofreading and editing our afternoon headlines e-mail (it’s not perfect and there are typos on occasion, but we try our best!).
Responding to the “integrity concerns,” the Nielsen representative said, “Our tech team has confirmed that the data integrity is good — stations subscribing are reporting in our data as they should. It is just something with the Topline application which they access. Our tech team is working to get this resolved ASAP!”
So, how does WECK look?
We’re pleased to share the following:
WECK-AM and FM translators Average Share: 2.9 Weekly Cume Persons: 62,000
At 3pm, data for WBFO and CFLZ, along with WBFO HD2, finally arrived.
A Nielsen spokesperson again thanked us for our patience as it compiled the full, and verified, list of subscribing stations in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls market for the March 2021 ratings period.
“The omission of certain stations was due to a technical issue on our end that is being corrected,” the Nielsen representative said, again explaining that all of the ratings running through Nielsen Audio’s buying systems — the data sets which are provided to advertising agencies as well as the sales teams at radio stations — were unaffected by these issues.
“To clarify, these ‘TopLine’ ratings are provided by Nielsen as a courtesy to press outlets and radio trades to report on current rankings in the market, at a higher and less-detailed level,” the Nielsen spokesperson said. “This is to protect the investment of our subscribing clients.”
We shouldn’t be the ones sharing this information, and on a piecemeal basis. And, we shouldn’t be the ones pointing out to Nielsen that, by its own admission, these “glamour numbers” are nothing more than rainbow sprinkles on a soft-serve waffle cone from Whit’s Frozen Custard.
But, we are pleased to do so as a service to the radio broadcasting industry. Reliable, complete data is essential for the longevity and long-term fiscal health of an industry that just saw one of its biggest players toss more than 50 years of brand heritage into a landfill, emerging as the Phoenix known as Audacy. It’s now audio-centric. After all, who wants to be radio-centric when the dominant data and audience measurement provider can’t even distribute a complete 12+ glamour shot?
The views expressed in a RBR+TVBR Observation are those of the editor and are not representative of Streamline Publishing, its associated publications, or its executive leadership.
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