Too Big to Fail

I note with interest that members of the minority broadcast industry are calling for emergency federal assistance.

Why not? I’m sure we’ve got a few billion kicking around that we can throw at the problem.

What’s that, you say? Your business is hurting too? Well, let’s see what we have for an unorganized bunch of independent business people with zero political clout. Um, we’ll have to get back to you on that.

Remember what I said about believing in a free market? Assuming for a moment that such a thing could actually exist, the logical extension is that in that environment, businesses are free to succeed—and they are free to fail.

Minority broadcasters have a bunch of burdens that the rest of us don’t, and I’m in favor of a helping hand. I agree with Inner City’s Pierre Sutton that “Black and Hispanic must not be allowed to go extinct.” But I feel less charitable toward anyone who leverages political clout to misinform and overstate.

I certainly don’t want to see obviated the too-short history of minority advancement in radio. But I want to see fairness and honesty in the process.

My Friend George

George Taylor Morris died over the weekend. You may know George as the longtime host of Deep Tracks on XM. . .or the morning guy in Boston and New York. . .or the host of the syndicated Reelin’ in the Years.

I met George when he came to work at WBLI on Long Island, an experiment in youthful self-indulgence that, thanks in large part to George’s prodigious talent, ruled the ratings from a tiny town near the East End of the island. He and I became fast friends, but we both moved on and lost touch, although I, for one, followed his career with interest and just a little brotherly pride.

I found out about his diagnosis about six months ago from a mutual friend. I hadn’t talked to him in many years, but I called him, we reconnected, and the years fell away. Subsequently he visited many friends around the country—a farewell tour, as it turns out—and we spent a wonderful day together.

Even though George had not been central in my life for some time, his passing leaves a big hole. I thought of the line in James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”: “. . .but I always thought I’d see you again.”

Typical GTM: When he showed up on our doorstep, I told him (truthfully) that he looked great. He gave me a big smile, that trademark cock of the head, and said, “Of course.”

Only George could pull that off.

Why the PPM Mess is Important to Us All

With Arbitron’s Portable People Meter coming under more and more politically-driven fire, it’s tempting for diary-market folk to think this is a good thing for the diary methodology.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Before all these unwarranted, unfounded attacks on the PPM methodology, there were myriad discussions among small and medium market operators about the impact of the new technology on diary markets: Would the PPM cripple the credibility of the diary?

The consensus was, Not really. Sophisticated advertisers and buyers will use the tools available to them. Main street advertisers will be guided by their trusted media partners—that would be you—to use survey tools better to understand their market qualitatively, not to compare radio stations quantitatively and arbitrarily.

Unfortunately, all the negative attention on the PPM affects the stature of the Arbitron brand and the credibility of everything they do. It hinders our ability to help our clients be better informed advertisers.

It also gives rise to alternatives; Nielsen comes to mind, and Eastlan, and several lesser players. Competition is not a bad thing, but competitors should build their market share on legitimate advantages, not the unwarranted perceived weakness of their counterparts.

Is It Just Me?

I watch with mounting amazement (and more than a little trepidation) as more and more politically-motivated, ignorant people and groups latch onto specious, baseless arguments that because the PPM methodology delivers results that are less kind to certain societal segments, the methodology must perforce be wrong.

My heart goes out to those so affected, but Arbitron’s PPM initiative has been perhaps the most scrutinized, researched and cross-checked methodology in the history of statistics. Is it perfect? Of course not. The results of any sample-based research is subject to statistical error. (Statisticians don’t like the term “error,” preferring the more glass-half-full “significance.” Whatever.) But it’s demonstrably closer to reality than what it supplants. And no broadcaster or statistician with whom I’ve talked disagrees.

We are going through very strange times. Truth is irrelevant. We, as a society, shrug off the most outrageous misstatements of fact. Our BS meter has pegged so much that it’s now broken. It would appear that Orwell’s 1984 has finally arrived, a mere 25 years late.

Good News, Long Overdue

The NAB and small market broadcasters deserve to congratulate themselves on a job well done on the “AM on FM” issue—and not just because of the issue itself.

Listen carefully to the pronouncements of our frenemies and you’ll hear evidence that our message is getting through: free, over-the-air broadcasters are committed to service.

Listen to FCC Commissioner McDowell, commenting on the translator issue, talking about “an opportunity to strengthen the contributions that [AM stations] make in furthering our long-standing public policy goals of localism, competition, and diversity in broadcasting.”

While the ability to fortify our AMs with FM is a great advance, I hope that what is taking hold among our regulatory masters is the mind-set that what we offer to our listeners and communities is worth protecting at all costs.

The Politics of Radio

Remember the good days when we could operate our radio businesses (successfully, hopefully), send our dues to the NAB, RAB and our state associations, and call it a day?

Those were also the days when our towns boasted more than one menswear shop and a few boutiques for the ladies. . .when we had several good car dealer clients. . .the DMV wasn’t the anchor store at the local strip mall. . .and your AM/FM combo was the only radio service in the market.

Well, fugaddaboutit. These days, in addition to retailers being as hard to find in our markets as a five-dollar haircut, we have to deal with the fact that everything we do as an industry is politicized. Congressional committees are convened to discuss what music we play, what words we utter (profanity is one thing, but political opinions are really under fire), and now, the ability of a public company to exercise its best efforts to survey our industry.

More on the Arbitron insanity in another post. In the meantime, when did radio become so dangerous to require such vigilance from so many people?

Was it the spawn of the lucky-13-year-old Telecommunications Act? Was it the increasingly prevalent conviction—fed first by reality television and call-in radio; then, haltingly and ultimately unsuccessfully by LPTV and LPFM; and now by YouTube and Twitter—that everyone, in fact, deserves to be a star?

Of course, all of this stems from the conceit that the airwaves are public property—a notion disputed hotly, if mutely, by some of our finest legal minds. And while we may celebrate the demise of local newspapers across the land, their decline clears the way for more heat on us.

The newspapers have always presented a problem to the powers that be. Just a we bear the burden of one conceit, so the print industry has benefitted from one of their own, rooted in the Constitution, called freedom of the press. (Why that one only peripherally applies to us, I leave to the aforesaid legal minds to address.) In their heyday, newspapers were royal thorns in the side of the ruling elite, and nothing could be done—overtly, legally, anyway—about it.

The government couldn’t prohibit newspapers from advertising a legal product, but they could force broadcasting to cease cigarette advertising. Ditto spirits. Ditto obscenity. Ditto free speech itself.

We live in contentious times, where no holds are barred and the loudest voices control opinion. Opinions expressed on broadcast media can be, and are being, manipulated in the name of public ownership of the airwaves. And who represents the public? Our good-hearted but industry-ignorant legislators, spurred on by a highly vocal minority.

As Bette Davis said in All About Eve (according to Google, anyway), “Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

The Arbitron Insanity

Okay, everybody in radio has some issue with Arbitron. But really, does anyone really buy the political firestorm about the Portable People Meter?

Yes, the change in methodology has caused a seismic shift in reported listening patterns. Perhaps some groups have lost ground as a result. Perhaps those groups will lose revenue as a result.

Get over it.

What about the plight of poor Caucasian broadcasters in Los Angeles when Arbitron modified heir diary methodology and overnight the top five stations were Hispanic? Who raised a political voice in protest then?

I am a staunch civil rights advocate, but I think the prevailing MO of attacking and inflating every situation in the name of civil rights is madness. Are we so afraid of being branded as politically incorrect that we refrain from speaking out against minority leaders who use their bully pulpit to distort situations and, well, bully the opposition into politically-correct submission?

Back to Arbitron: the PPM is an advancement, but no survey can ever be accurate. (If you want accurate, you want a census. And look how well they turn out.) The PPM is arguably more accurate than the diary; but because it reflects a different reality, it should be suppressed?

What country are we living in, again?