READER COMMENTS

• ITEM ONE: We want to make certain will have all of the facts correct regarding our Monday, November 4^th post Flawed Planning Doomed VuHaus From the Start [link]. We heard from Mike Henry, co-founder and Brand Manager for VuHaus, who told us we didn’t have the complete story.

Mike Henry

Mike Henry: There is no longer a “VuHaus.com”. VuHaus is no longer a public-facing name. Through the stations and our own press and publicity efforts we continue to inform the public about the name change."

"Live Sessions IS VuHaus, so the offerings to stations are the same.  Live Sessions and VuHaus Group (our B2B name) are run by us and the stations, not NPR."

We asked Mike about what "VuHaus Group" now offers stations.

Mike Henry: "Each member station is part of our sponsorship efforts – all of our proposals include station underwriting, digital inventory and/or events. Some of our clients only buy station inventory and Live Sessions is not included.

Each of the member stations are included in collaborative editorial projects, including Slingshot with NPR and other forthcoming projects that do not include NPR. We also work individually and as a group with the member stations for other strategy, consulting, and industry goals.

Live Sessions IS VuHaus

Henry also told us that the revenue sources for VuHaus are “sponsorships and underwriting, philanthropy and station fees.” He did not provide specific numbers for each revenue source. We are contacting Public Media Co and CPB for this information.

From our first post about VuHaus in July 2015 [link], we have wondered whether the company’s over reliance on philanthropy as a major revenue source was a factor in the recent changes. When we pay our rent, we can’t say the money will be coming from “the kindness of strangers.” It is the same for companies and not-for-profit organizations.

• ITEM TWO: Last Wednesday [link] we published the October PPM ratings for KNPR in Las Vegas. We called KNPR’s most recent numbers “anemic.” This brought a response from Dave Becker, PD of KNPR:

Dave Becker:  “October is pretty anemic compared to most of 2019. For all of the financial headaches we’ve uncovered, the rest of KNPR’s year has been utterly surreal.  May’s 5.8 share put us at #3 in the Las Vegas market. So far CY19’s ten-month average share is 4.4, which is good for #5 overall.”

Becker included the chart on the right that shows KNPR’s AQH shares for the past ten years. It shows KNPR’s rise into the top radio stations in Las Vegas.

• ITEM THREE: Regarding our reference to Nielsen Audio’s PPM ratings for “October” an anonymous Spark News reader sent this question:

Anonymous: How is it possible for Nielsen to say these are October ratings when the data was derived from September 12 - October 9 listening?

The short answer is that Nielsen owns the data and they can call it whatever they want. Nielsen lives in world that has 13 months – the 12 you know and a month called “Holiday.” 

Most of Nielsen’s clients are commercial stations, ad agencies and professional time-buyers. These clients want to know how well stations that play Christmas Music 24/7 perform from Halloween through the end of the year.

• ITEM FOUR: We received a message from am anonymous Spark News reader about our October 11^th post [link] about the changing job demands for station engineers and tech workers:

Anonymous: “Unfortunately, engineering is considered by management as a cost center, but expected to do everything and be available 24/7/365.”

Toilet clogged up? Call engineering!

Lights out in the atrium-- engineering will fix it!

“One station tried to make engineering responsible for doing janitorial for offices and studios.  Have you been to a Society of Broadcast Engineers meeting? It looks like scene from Grumpy Old Men.”

It sounds like our anonymous reader has cleaned a few toilets at work. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it.