‘The Book’
Attaturk and David Atkins have joined on the celebration of ‘the fall of Rush’, but they need to look closer, as this is the fall of a network, Cumulus, not just one of their ‘voices’.
‘The Book’ looms large in this based on comments by Cumulus that the big agencies and media buyers, have dropped them as a vendor. That isn’t just about Rush, that is the entire line-up.
‘The Book’ is the ratings book put out primarily by Arbitron in the radio market. A ‘good Book’ is worth a lot of money to station owners and will be a feature of salary negotiations. It means that the ad prices will rise, and more advertisers will buy. A ‘bad Book’ can result in a blood bath, and possibly format change. If you wonder why your favorite rock station is now sports talk, it is because of ‘The Book’.
These days your audience share might hold steady or even increase, but if your listeners aren’t in the advertiser preferred group, you will not get ads. There was a local station that catered to the ‘Greatest Generation’ with music from the Swing era, and features for seniors. It had a solid, and loyal listener base. One day it switched to talk radio without warning. Advertisers didn’t want the station’s listeners.
Protests affected Rush’s advertisers, but Cumulus’s problems are demographic, so its stations will start switching their format to stay in existence.
2 comments
Of course, the Cumulous ‘book’ looks a whole lot like the Republican Party in general — old, white, grumpy. Which is why the Republicans are so desperately attempting to suppress as many young or brown votes as possible…
– Badtux the Numbers Penguin
That’s the problem, Badtux, and they live in the wrong radio markets to be attractive to advertisers, especially the big brands. If MalWart did radio, they would have a national account, but the Waltons only really spend on direct mail.
I had an ad agency as a client, and there are a lot of women in the field, but no one makes account rep right out of college, and the road to the position is littered with bodies. They tend to be nice only to clients, and they make their decisions based on what the client needs or wants. If a client needed or wanted the Cumulus demographic, the account reps would buy the ads. Personal preference has nothing to do with it – it’s business.