Spot Loads

Everybody knows that as soon as your station starts an ad break, you start to lose listeners. This is a fact that every sales guy has had to contend with. Bridge ratings did a study they released earlier this year on this very phenomena. The study was not well received. But nobody likes bad news.

The study was limited to a listeners singular "favorite" radio station.

They calculated the actual pace of audience degredation. This estimates how many listeners a radio station had at the end of each ad. Everyone already knew that it dropped off. But nobody knew exactly how fast. This data Exerpted below.

Spot Audience
1..............33,600
2..............26,208
3..............19,656
4..............14,742
5..............11,057
6................8,182

By the end of the commercial break this station was left with 19% of the audience it brought into the break. remember this was their "favorite" radio station. The secondary listeners probably fade even faster. In similar studies they conducted in eight markets listener attrition occurs at the following rates:

Spot Percent Listener Attrition
1..........................20%
2..........................22%
3..........................24 %
4..........................25%
5..........................26%
6..........................25%

That's only a 6 spot ad break. I have heard a station's break run 15 or 20 solid minutes of ads! After 15 minutes there cant be anything left but crickets chirping. What's left at 20?