Bill Caralis comments on surveys and microwave ovens. radioinfo exclusive.

2SM, 2KY and Sport 927 all have two things in common: they have all fallen to their lowest ratings ever, and all have opted out of the Commercial Radio Australia controlled Nielsen audience measurement system.

2SM recorded a dismal and unprecedented 0.1% in Survey One. At the same time racing stations 2KY in Sydney and Sport 927 in Melbourne have both, coincidentally, experienced extraordinary drops since the final survey of 2003 to score 0.7% and 0.6% respectively.

2SM owner Bill Caralis does not make a practice of speaking to the media. However, Sydney media consultant Bob Scott, who is as close as anyone really gets to Caralis, spoke exclusively to radioinfo.

“Mr Caralis told me”, said Scott, “that he really finds it very confusing as to why there is continued conjecture as to 2SM’s performance in the Sydney survey, especially when you consider the fact that he has formally withdrawn (as has 2KY) from the current survey system. He does not want to be included in something he is not a part of.”

In Melbourne, Sport 927’s GM, Noel Crowe agrees: “We opted out of the Nielsen surveys about six years ago and out of CRA (then FARB) five years ago. I asked AC Nielsen, at the time, to remove us from the diary. They said no, they wanted to have all individual listening to all stations recorded. I said in that case, they should have around 80 stations listed.”

At the heart of the matter is a change to the way that these stations are listed in the survey books that are given to listeners. radioinfo has learned none of these stations are actually listed in the survey diaries in the same way that the other “paying” stations are. Instead there is a section for “Other” stations. Respondents who tick this box are then invited to identify the particular station they listen to. Independent observers suggest that this would put the stations in this category at a disadvantage.

When first contacted by radioinfo, Noel Crowe was unaware that the diaries had been changed. He believed that Sport 927 (formerly 3UZ) was still listed like all the others, and was surprised to learn from us that this was no longer the case. Crowe then took the matter up with Nielsen Media Research who declined to confirm the detail of the changes to him in writing, instead suggesting that Crowe take the matter up with CRA.

Nonetheless, in a fax sent to Sport 927 today, Nielsen’s client service manager, Libby Doyle, hinted that some changes had, in fact, taken place. In it she states, “These changes were a decision made entirely by Commercial Radio Australia, who have instructed Nielsen Media Research to report the survey results in this way.

Also in contention, is the fact that none of the FM stations that respondents nominate in the “other” stations category have their results published. Collectively, the “other” stations accounted for 10.8% of listening in Sydney’s Survey One – good enough for the number two position behind Nova if it were a single station. In Melbourne, “other” stations account for 6.9%, in Brisbane 7.3%, in Adelaide 8.5%, and in Perth 10.3%.

radioinfo asked Commercial Radio Australia CEO, Joan Warner, why results for 2SM, 2KY and Sport 927 were published at all when they don’t participate? Warner replied: “We want to give a true indication of commercial station listening. So, when someone writes down that they listen to these stations, we report it, but only its shares and not cumes or other figures”.

Joan Warner would not be drawn on whether it appeared to be less than a level playing field if these stations were not listed in the same manner as the others, yet were reported as if they were. However, she did say: “If these stations have concerns they should put their questions to me. They chose to withdraw from the surveys and we’re not critical of that. However, our members pay considerable sums to be involved. If at any time they (2SM, 2KY and Sport 927) would like to rejoin and pay, we would be happy to welcome them back.”

On the question of why “other” FM stations are not reported (some of which would likely achieve respectable figures), Warner made it clear the reason was that none of them had a licence to cover either the Sydney or Melbourne markets and therefore were irrelevant.

Bob Scott says: “Mr Caralis considers the current system to be a game of noughts and crosses in which people have to place ticks in thousands of boxes with great scope for error. As 2SM is not even named as a participant, how would listeners be able to indicate whether they listen to 2SM or not?

“The number of phone calls the station receives daily, coupled with the positive results advertisers achieve, would suggest that the station has a very strong listener base which grows to enormous numbers when you add on his regional markets throughout NSW and south-east Queensland.

“Mr Caralis has made it very clear that he will not be participating in Sydney surveys until such time as Digital Radio is introduced into Australia, and all Sydney stations will be competing on a fair and equitable technical operating and survey basis.”

In Melbourne, Noel Crowe has seen his station plummet to just 0.6% since last December. Most pundits put it down to the introduction of SEN 1116 which has “shot” to 2.1% with an All-Sports format and a cavalcade of big name presenters. Although Crowe concedes there’s been some early cross-sampling following the huge publicity the SEN launch attracted, he doesn’t see them as direct competition in the long term.

“Although we go head to head in breakfast, after that we (Sport 927) go racing and there’s no comparison. So we’re not vulnerable in any sense, post nine o’clock,” says Crowe.

2KY experienced a similar tumble in Sydney, yet there was no rival sports station launched in that city. But like 2KY, Crowe describes his station as “tertiary usage” meaning that many of its listeners have one particular reason for listening that they can’t get anywhere else – racing.

Crowe has been a long time critic of the diary system’s inability to register the 225,000 of his “tertiary users” that he says are routinely gathered in countless TABs each Saturday.

“The most recent survey,” says Crowe, “which is errant bloody bullshit as far as I’m concerned, revealed that we lost about 80% of our racing audience. Yet wagering actually went up”.

“Mr Caralis,” says Bob Scott, “believes that his microwave oven has a better computerised usage tracking system than that currently being used to survey radio.”

The Australian’s Media section also this week carries a story on Bill Caralis and the latest ratings. See Paper Clips when it is available.