Eric F. Richards wrote:
s" apply there.


No, you bring numbers, not listeners. They aren't the same thing.
Advertisers require metrics.

Yes, they do. But the metrics they get are based on a flawed model
that doesn't fit the world. It only allows you to maximize the number
produced by the model.



Eric...you seem to be missing the essential point. The advertisers
don't GET the metrics based on a model, the advertisers CREATE the
model, they create the metrics. They create the tool. Not the stations.
Not the consultants. The stations do what they do to make money with
the advertiser's tool.

So to speak.

The advertisers call the shots. Not the stations.

Any appearance to the contrary is show biz. It's why I say that King
Kong is only 3' 6" (with apologies to Eli Cross). What you hear on the
radio is the magic. The bigger than life sound that conveys the
indomitable spirit, the sense that the station is in control, and that
service is personal and directly aimed at the listener. And to a
degree, that's true. But only to a degree. Reality is that programming
is a means to hold an audience between commercials. And that bigger than
life sound...is an illusion. King Kong is only 3' 6".

The only thing the station has real control over is the creation of
the illusion, and even that must meet advertisers' wants.

The advertisers create the metrics. They create the model. They call
the shots.

Reality is very different on each side of the grille cloth. But the
truth is that it's the advertisers who call the shots. Program
directors, Sales Manglers, General Manglers, Disk Jockeys...even and
especially production folk are there to facilitate the needs of the
advertisers. And the advertisers are ONLY interested in numbers that
fit their own model.