Friday, July 17, 2015

VUHAUS LEADS THE WAY TO MUSIC DISCOVERY, BUT IS IT SUSTAINABLE?


Noncom Triple A radio has a great new way to share new music and build a sense of community: VuHaus [link].  VuHaus is a video aggregator of performances and interviews produced by stations. Content is available online and via mobile app. The point of VuHaus is Music Discovery, a trait shared by Triple A listeners, artists and stations.

VuHaus began when Mike Henry of Paragon Media Strategies [link] and a handful of station programmers sensed growing listener interest in seeing video of the artists they heard on the station.

Most Triple A stations have live segments featuring touring and local musicians. Stations are recording the sessions on video and producing high-quality, non-corporate, mini movies for online and mobile viewing. Enter VuHaus.

The programmers shared the idea with Public Media Company (“PMC”) a Boulder based nonprofit that matches capital with innovative public media ideas.  In addition to PMC, VuHaus collaborators are KCRW in Los Angeles, KEXP in Seattle, KTBG The Bridge in Kansas City, KUTX in Austin, WFUV in New York City, and WXPN in Philadelphia. PMC provided the initial planning. CPB granted initial seed money of $750,000.

HOPING FOR THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

While doing research for this story, I read an interview with VuHaus CEO Erik Langner. (Langner is also Managing Director of PMC.) One comment by Langner that stopped me in my tracks:

Moving forward, we envision continued philanthropic support…
I’ve read hundreds of business plans, proposals and pitches over the years but I can’t ever recall seeing someone propose they will become sustainable with unknown gifts.

From my experience with corporate sponsors and noncom organizations that provide funding for public media, I know nothing is completely free. There are almost always strings of some sort.  Increasingly, nonprofit funders want more than a feel good.  They want results.

Given this reality, I contacted to Langner to learn more.

THE VUHAUS PLAN

KEN: I've seen you quoted as saying that VuHaus will depend in part on philanthropy for operating revenue after CPB funding tappers off. Can provide more info about any prospective donors?
LANGNER: Yes, major gifts are part of our strategy. VuHaus is a unique national nonprofit focused on music recovery and emerging artists.  We hope this will resonate.
KEN: My understanding is that stations that want to become members of VuHaus will pay a fee. How much is the fee and how is it determined? How many billable stations do you need for continued viability?
LANGNER: We are still determining the particulars on this. Within the next month we should be at ten stations and up to twenty by this time next year.  Our company was built to allow for this sort of scale.

If anyone can make this happen it is this team.  Public Media Company is one of the best nonprofit organizations I’ve ever seen. They remind me a bit of the Public Radio Exchange – PRX.

WHAT VUHAUS CAN LEARN FROM PRX

PRX began as an initiative sponsored by the Station Resource Group (“SRG”). SRG is a consulting and advocacy organization comprised of leading NPR stations.  SRG provided PRX support to get it off the ground and nurture its early growth.  PRX then was spun off as its own nonprofit organization.

In its early years PRX faced many of the same challenges VuHaus faces today. Skeptics questioned its financial viability. Major program producers and networks didn’t think PRX would become a major public media factor.  PRX’s content was once described by a pubmedia exec I will not name as an audio flea market.

PRX stuck with their plan and built alliances with stations and key independent producers. They created entrepreneurial projects to get more content providers involved. PRX really got its mojo working when it became a more active curator and started distributing national programs.

PRX’s hands-on curation addressed the grab bag feeling users had when trying to find the good stuff on the site.  They used old-fashioned lists of popular posts, better search capabilities and relentless promotion of notable new content such as John Barth’s recommendations.  In this way, PRX became a virtual community and the continued to raise its profile.

A few years ago, PRX became a national program distributor when online digital audio delivery became cheaper and easier. They perfected their delivery method with distribution of WBEZ’s Sound Opinions and American Routes.  Both programs had been dropped by American Public Media (“APM”).  Both programs added new carriage and revenue with PRX distribution.

[Disclosure: In the past I have worked with PRX as a paid consultant.]

Then PRX helped create, promote and distribute The Moth Radio Hour, and more recently Reveal, with innovative partners who were previously not involved with public radio.  When This American Life left Public Radio International (“PRI”) last year, PRX became its new distributor. PRX’s SubAuto delivery system has proven to be reliable and popular with stations. 

In a decade PRX went from being a fringe player to become an ESSENTIAL PLAYER in public media.  In its own way, this is what VuHaus needs to do.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

UPDATES: KUSP & VOLTAIR



NO DECISION ON THE FUTURE OF KUSP

The Board of Directors of KUSP, Santa Cruz, met on Monday 7/13 but did not reach a decision regarding a path forward for the nearly bankrupt station.  According to press reports and one person in the room, there was a very heated discussion but no resolution of the financial and programming issues.

The most vocal voices during the meeting were representatives of Forward KUSP led by a disgruntled former station employee. Forward KUSP wants KUSP to become sort of like a cable TV public access channel. You can read about their plan at [link]. 

Apparently not satisfied with the Board’s skepticism about Forward KUSP’s plan, one participant (quoted in the Santa Cruz Sentinel) wanted an even more heated debate:

“I think there’s a few people who have really worked hard on this, but the board has not had a good knockout discussion on how each of us feel.”

Feelings are important but they don’t pay the bills.  The biggest unanswered question after the meeting was how long KUSP can keep operating before it runs out of money. Meanwhile, the Board talked about bringing in a consultant to provide fresh perspective.

NIELSEN AUDIO TO ADDRESS VOLTAIR CONCERNS NEXT WEEK

The trade publication Radio Ink [link] reports that Nielsen will conduct a webinar on Tuesday, July 21 at 1:00pm ET to present their Voltair Testing Update.

Nielsen says it has been testing the impact of Voltair for six months. Some industry observers believe Voltair enhances a radio station’s PPM digital watermark so Nielsen Audio’s PPM device doesn’t miss it.  Of course, this brings up the bigger question: Why is PPM not picking up the encoded signals in the first place.

[Radio Ink has a very helpful YouTube video about Voltair.  See it at [link]. 

A TIMELY QUESTION FROM A SPARK! READER

Daniel Costello asked: Has anyone studied whether audience numbers have become more volatile with PPM relative to diaries?
I’ve wondered the same thing.  If someone knows of such a study, please let me know at publicradio@hotmail.com.

A big reason is the difference in methodology from the older Diary Method that Nielsen Audio still uses in medium and smaller markets.

Diary data comes from respondent entries in a daily log of stations they’ve heard.  PPM data comes from devices carried by the respondent that sense the digital watermark embedded in station signals and streaming audio. Voltair claims to enhance the robustness of the watermark.

Robustness matters in the real world.  Imagine you have a PPM meter and you enter a store where the background music is from a radio station.  It is noisy in the store and you really aren’t paying attention to the ambient sound.  Will your PPM meter detect the station’s watermark even if you aren’t listening to the station? That is why Voltair was invented.


Wednesday, July 15, 2015

KKJZ GAINS 85,000 WEEKLY LISTENERS IN SIX MONTH PPM TRENDS


Today we have a comparison of Nielsen Audio PPM data for Jazz stations from June 2015 and November 2014. The top chart shows the estimated Weekly Cumulative listeners.  The bottom chart shows the estimated Average Quarter Hour (“AQH”) share percentages.

During the six month period, KKJZ Los Angeles added an impressive 85,000 weekly listeners.  However KKJZ’s AQH remained the same. How can this be?

More people were hearing KKJZ in June 2015 but, overall, the average time spent listening by each person was a bit shorter in November 2014. So the good news for KKJZ is that more people are tuning in.  The good news for the Jazz format is that half of the PPM stations increased their weekly cumulative listeners in an environment where all radio listening is declining 1% - 2% per year.

SIX MONTH TREND: WEEKLY CUMULATIVE LISTENERS
STATION
NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET
METRO RANK
NOV 2014
WEEKLY CUME
JUNE 2015
WEEKLY CUME
TREND
WBGO
New York
1
278,600
280,600
+ 2,000
KKJZ
Los Angeles
2
371,800
456,600
+ 84,800
WDCB
Chicago
3
182,500
127,300
- 55,200
WRTI*
Philadelphia
8
194,300
217,300
+ 23,000
WCLK
Atlanta
9
166,100
186,500
+ 20,400
WRCJ*
Detroit
12
169,600
159,200
- 10,400
KPLU**
Seattle/Tacoma
13
298,200
297,200
- 1,000
KBEM
Minneapolis/St. Paul
16
60,600
63,100
+ 2,500
KSDS
San Diego
17
59,700
66,900
+ 7,200
KUVO
Denver
20
106,100
108,400
+ 2,300
KMHB
Portland OR
23
127,200
114,000
- 13,200
WNSC
Charlotte
24
37,500
25,400
- 12,100
KUNV
Las Vegas
32
56,400
37,100
- 19,300
WUCF
Orlando
33
69,700
69,500
- 200
WICR*
Indianapolis
40
42,200
46,900
+ 4,700
WSHA
Raleigh/Durham
42
29,200
23,700
- 5,500
WNCU
Raleigh/Durham
42
14,700
22,000
+ 7,300
WHOV
Norfolk
43
90,200
89,900
- 300
* Station also airs classical music
** Station also airs Morning Edition & ATC

SIX MONTH TREND: WEEKLY AQH SHARES
STATION
NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET
METRO RANK
NOV 2014
METR0 AQH
JUNE 2015
METR0 AQH
TREND
WBGO
New York
1
0.6
0.6
NC
KKJZ
Los Angeles
2
0.7
0.7
NC
WDCB
Chicago
3
0.5
0.2
- 0.3
WRTI*
Philadelphia
8
1.6
1.4
- 0.2
WCLK
Atlanta
9
1.1
1.1
NC
WRCJ*
Detroit
12
1.8
1.3
- 0.5
KPLU**
Seattle/Tacoma
13
3.4
2.4
- 1.0
KBEM
Minneapolis/St. Paul
16
0.3
0.2
- 0.1
KSDS
San Diego
17
0.3
0.4
+ 0.1
KUVO
Denver
20
0.8
0.7
- 0.1
KMHB
Portland OR
23
1.4
1.4
NC
WNSC
Charlotte
24
0.3
0.3
NC
KUNV
Las Vegas
32
0.8
0.2
- 0.6
WUCF
Orlando
33
2.1
1.6
- 0.5
WICR*
Indianapolis
40
0.8
1.2
+ 0.4
WSHA
Raleigh/Durham
42
0.4
0.2
- 0.2
WNCU
Raleigh/Durham
42
0.2
0.3
+ 0.1
WHOV
Norfolk
43
1.3
1.1
- 0.2
* Station also airs classical music
** Station also airs Morning Edition & ATC

DATA © NIELSON AUDIO
Provided by RRC, Inc. for use by subscribers only
© Radio Research Consortium, Inc. // www.RRConline.org // RRC@RRConline.org
Format designations & trends are the sole responsibility of Ken Mills Agency, LLC. Contact us publicradio@hotmail.com