Stopset Insanity

There a couple of very interesting blogs in my inbox today.

First, Jerry Del Colliano writes about the questionable responses radio as an industry has come up with for many of our challenges.

What I want to focus on is his point #7: Too many commercials.

Jerry suggests (along with some other ideas):

"No stop set is longer than one spot. You heard me right -- one spot. You've been wrong -- listeners don't like to listen to commercials crammed into stop sets and advertisers don't like it, either. Drake had it right in his glory days."

Basically, he is right.

At least he is a lot closer to the truth than most of the industry.

The newest fad is dropping down to 2 stopsets an hour.

Insanity.

The rationale: They don't tune out. So no problem. But, as Tom Taylor relates in his blog today:

"This is real Kool Aid”, about 92% of the audience staying through a good-size commercial pod. “A station that has consistently long stopsets and higher than average total commercial load will be a less desirable overall choice for listeners. Most of us have seen in research that the listener is very able to distinguish differences of as little as two minutes in total hourly load if this is consistent over time. The simple comment on this is that ‘if the listener is still using your station, they already made the decision that it is listenable and has a bearable commercial load.’ If you have too many commercials, measuring how long they stay during stopsets is GIGO [Garbage In, Garbage Out]: the listeners who notice this or even perceive this, are just not there to begin with…at the start or at the end of the stopset. They are gone.”

Jerry may have gone overboard to make his point.

The research I've seen in my short 38 year career suggests that (as Jerry asserts) Drake and others did have it right. In simplest terms, you can get away with two units. And than you must also work hard on the production quality, spot placement and separation, compelling promos and jingles to increase the overall "what's in it for me" level, and carefully prioritize spot placement for those times when the log isn't 100% sold out.

I, and other researchers, have suggested time and time again: Ask your listeners. Give them a scenario: Some cardboard pie slices to represent songs and more pie pieces to represent some commercials. Tell them to become the program director. Have THEM put the pie together. If the people who listen love it, they will get a raise. Now, go! Build an hour.

How do they group the commercials?