RADAR 109: Dial-Global tops again, Rosso details updates

Arbitron reported in its June 2011 RADAR 109 Radio Network Ratings, detailing that some 191.9 million Persons 12+, or 74%, heard one or more network radio commercials in an average week of the survey period, an increase of nearly 1.9 million vs. the June 2010 report. Dial Global again took the top 3 spots in 18-49 and 25-54, with its Contemporary, Complete FM and Adult Power networks.

Citadel Media Networks’ Contemporary FM dropped from #22 to #28 in 18-49 (RADAR 108 to RADAR 109); and #22 to #30 in 25-54. As well, its Media Family FM dropped from 7th place in RADAR 108 to 10th place in RADAR 109 18-49, while staying in the same 10th place spot for 25-54. Citadel Media Networks President John Rosso told RBR-TVBR a bit of why the drops took place: “We don’t aspire, necessarily, to be at the top of an AQH ranker. What’s really important is the impression delivery. So we always take that AQH ranker and multiply it out by the amount of inventory for sale in every network, just to see where we are in terms of impression delivery—and that’s the real story, in terms of the ranking of the networks: the size of each network. A lot of our vehicles are big, multi-units-per-daypart networks. They’re not the small, one-minute a day, where you can stack up a lot of stations and make a 3 or 4 rating fairly easily. But nobody buys a ranker—what people buy is certain demographics and characteristics of a network. They don’t buy the fact that you are the number one or number two-ranked network out of all the networks.”

Rosso also mentioned there is still a lot going on over at Citadel with reconfigurations and specials tabs. “We are continuing to move a lot of stuff around within our networks and create new networks. A year ago we had 14 networks. Today we have 22. And 10 of the 22 are RADAR-rated. The rest we rely upon Arbitron’s Nationwide numbers for. We continue to spin out new more formatically and demographically targeted vehicles, and we’ve launched 8 new ones in the last year.” Two of those—GenX and Young Adult—were launched in the last couple of months.

Rosso notes that a year ago you would have seen WPLJ-FM NY and WABC-AM NY in the same network—as well, WMAL-AM and WRQX-FM in DC: “That just made no sense to a buyer. So we’ve since gone through and moved a bunch of stations around to put all of the News-Talk stations into the same networks; the Hot ACs and the CHRs are in networks that are consistently younger and more female-targeted.”

As well, Citadel has been selling off of special tabs for some three RADAR reports now. So the standard report is not in sync with what the current lineups are as they exist today.

United Stations Radio Networks noted that for Monday-Friday, 6am-7p, its Impact Network saw some increases in the following demos: Women 18-49 #6 (ranked #7 in RADAR 108); Men 25-54 #4 (ranked #5 in RADAR 108); and Women 25-54 #6 (ranked #7 in RADAR 108).

Gross Impressions Share by Network Company:

Highlights:
There are 56 networks reported in RADAR 109 (same as RADAR 108).

Network Radio Gross Impressions are down -3.8% with A 18-49 and -3.7% with A 25-54 since RADAR 108 and down -5.8% with A 18-49 and -5.9% with A 25-54 versus last year (RADAR 105).

Year to year, Citadel Media was up +2.7% overall with Adults 18-49 and +2.4%, with Adults 25-54, and +1.6% with Women 18-49 (RADAR 105 to RADAR 109 Standard Reports). Citadel Media will be doing Special Tabulations to capture additional affiliation changes since April 2011.

PPM Data from all PPM markets are included in RADAR 109. The most recent group of PPM markets contributes 50% PPM data and 50% Diary data. Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, Jacksonville FL, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Memphis, and Hartford-New Britain-Middleton. All PPM markets will contribute 100% PPM data in RADAR 111.

Affiliates as of: April 2011; Newest quarter of listening surveys: Winter 2011.

Overall, News Talk formatted stations were down significantly in the Winter 2011 survey versus Winter 2010, as were most other formats with the exception of Spanish and CHR, which were saw slight gains.

The 18-49 and 25-54 demo rankers:

 RADAR 109—June 2011 Network Rankings By Adults 18-49
Daypart Averages: All Commercial Audiences^##, All Broadcasts, Mon-Sun 5A-12M
Adults 18-49/Total U.S./ Population Estimate: 134,943 (000)

Please note: When comparing these rankers to previous rankers, the RADAR 109 ranks reflect the Monday-Sunday 5am-12m daypart rather than the Monday-Sunday 6am-12m daypart used prior to RADAR 100.
xb Indicates no broadcasts in one or more component dayparts.
^## Indicates that beginning with the RADAR 95 December 2007 report, the audience estimates produced may be based on a combination of PPM and Diary respondents.

RADAR 109—June 2011 Network Rankings By Adults 25-54
Daypart Averages: All Commercial Audiences^##, All Broadcasts, Mon-Sun 5A-12M
Adults 25-54/Total U.S./ Population Estimate: 126,867 (000)

Please note: When comparing these rankers to previous rankers, the RADAR 109 ranks reflect the Monday-Sunday 5am-12m daypart rather than the Monday-Sunday 6am-12m daypart used prior to RADAR 100.
xb Indicates no broadcasts in one or more component dayparts.
^## Indicates that beginning with the RADAR 95 December 2007 report, the audience estimates produced may be based on a combination of PPM and Diary respondents.