ED SCHULTZ WAS A FRIEND OF MINE • IS ANYONE, ANYWHERE LISTENING TO RADIO’S STREAMING AUDIO CHANNELS?

Ed Schultz on his nationally syndicated radio talk show at the

  height of its success in 2006 (image courtesy The Fargo Forum)

Media host Ed Schultz died on Thursday morning (7/5) of natural causes at his home in Washington, DC. I am proud to say Ed was a friend of mine. 

He and I had something in common.  We both lived in flyover country and have had careers that have taken us far away from our roots.

For a comprehensive look at Ed’s career, particularly his radio work, I suggest you check out the wonderful tribute written by Mike Kinosian in Talkers webzine [link]. Kinosian includes new information about Ed’s rise from Fargo to go into nationwide syndication via the Jones Radio Network. I love it when someone from flyover country kicks a hole in the sky.

I also recommend the coverage of Ed in the Fargo Forum [link].

Ed Schultz at WDAY, Fargo

Ed and I first met in the early 1980s when he was the radio voice of the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Bison on WDAY-AM in Fargo. 

I was briefly the radio voice of the Augustana College (now “Augustana University”) Vikings on KIOV-FM in Sioux Falls.   

At that time the Bison and the Vikings both played in the same NCAA Division 2 conference.

If you know anything about the NDSU Bison, you know that they were then, and still are today, an amazingly great college football team. Ed was the perfect person to be calling their games because he sounded like a big-league sportscaster.

That particular fall, the Bison came to Sioux Falls to play the Augustana Vikings. I met Ed in the press box. I was immediately in awe of him. He had wild energy snd extraordinary storytelling skills. When you heard Ed call a Bison game, you had the feeling of being right there with him. The Bison beat the Vikings 56-7 that day.

Part of Ed’s mystique was his reputation as the advocate for the fans. Ed was then known for an incident that happened at a Bison home game. While doing the play-by-play, Ed all of a sudden unleashed a string of profanities on air after a whiskey bottle came flying into the press box. It messed with decorum of the game.

Ed walked out of the press box and into the fans in the stands with a wireless microphone. He searched for the bottle-throwing culprit who had left the scene. Ed learned the guy’s name and gave it to the police.

Ed Schultz (left) and Ken Mills at AM 950

The Progressive Voice of Minnesota

The next time I saw Ed was in May 2010. By that time his daily talk and interview show was in national distribution.   

Ed was heard across the country on Air America stations along with Al Franken and Rachel. Maddow, who later helped Ed get his gig at MSNBC.

Ed was in Minneapolis to do a promotional event with AM 950, the local Air America affiliate, now called The Progressive Voice of Minnesota. The then-owner of the station, Janet Roberts, knew us both and suggested I stop by and see Ed.

Ed and I had a fine conversation.  His memory of the night we met in Sioux Falls was “a little fuzzy.” But, Ed’s passion for broadcasting and love of people had only grown stronger. We talked about both being from flyover country.

Ed brought up another high-achiever from the Dakotas: George McGovern. We spoke of how we both had been inspired by McGovern.  Now “Fast Eddie” is gone but he always will be an inspiration to me. God bless you Ed.

MORE ABOUT THE DEARTH OF LISTENERS TO RADIO’S AUDIO STREAMS

Mike Kinosian

Today must be Mike Kinosian Day at Spark News because this is the second time we’ve mentioned him today. Kinosian is a Los Angeles-based media journalist who specializes in the radio beat. He is Managing Editor for Talkers webzine [link].  You might recall his byline in Radio & Records where wrote and reported for more than a decade.

Kinosian is a ratings analyst and he is quite good at it. 

Recently he featured a review of the ratings for station-based audio streams in Nielsen Audio PPM markets. He found the same pattern we saw in May [link].  Despite the hype, the truth is that measurable listening station audio streams is surprisingly low.

Kinosian looked at all of the station audio streams that appeared in the May 2018 PPM ratings. There were roughly 40 station audio streams that met Nielsen’s minimum criteria for being listed in the ratings.  Keep in mind that there are 800+ stations in all PPM markets.

We took the Nielsen Audio data as listed in Kinosian’s summary chart (reprinted below) and chose 12 typical stations, 6 with commercial formats and six with noncom formats. Our research question was whether commercial station audio streams tend to have more estimated weekly listeners than noncommercial station audio streams. 

On left are the sample commercial stations, all heavyweights in their markets. At none of the commercial stations does the percentage of weekly listeners rise above 10% of the total cume.

Next, lets look at the six noncommercial stations.  Their percentage of weekly listeners to audio streams is only slightly higher.   

The most interesting comparison is between WXRT and KCMP The Current, two excellent and very successful Triple A stations. Though WXRT has more estimated weekly listeners than The Current, WXRT trails The Current in the percentage weekly listeners listening via audio streams.

Bottom line: The vast majority of people who hear radio listen to it over-the-air, not via online streaming audio.

STATION AUDIO STREAMS IN MAY 2018 NIELSEN PPM RATINGS 

 

(Image courtesy of Talkers)