National Data Analysis

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• Morning Edition Grad School
• National Data Analysis
• Strategic Programming Partners
• Peter Dominowski Tim Emmons
• Scott Williams

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Morning Edition is a different program on every
station! 40 of stations analyzed produced
one-quarter or more of the content listeners hear
in the 7-8am hour
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Morning Edition A Local Program

• This chart shows the wide range of local input
  that stations provide in the 7am hour of Morning
  Edition. Each bar represents a station in the
  MEGS 45-station sample, and the number of minutes
  of local programming they include in the 7am hour
  of Morning Edition. Even the station with the
  least local input contributes nearly eight
  minutes, or 13 of the programming heard in the
  hour. One station analyzed by MEGS produced
  2530, or 42 of the 7am hour.

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Morning Edition Major Formatic Elements

• National vs. Local content
• Call letter mentions
• Frequency mentions
• Morning Edition mentions
• Local host name mentions

• Weather
• Traffic
• Time checks
• Web mentions
• Forward promotion
• Station promotion
• Hosting

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Goal of Formatic Analysis

• To determine
• Do all these details add up to a good sounding
  station?
• Is the local information presented listener
  focused or station focused?
• Does the local quality match the network quality?
• What are you telling listeners about your station
  during the most-listened to hour of the day?

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Morning Edition Time Spent Underwriting 7-8am

• MEGS created a new acronym TSU Time Spent
  Underwriting. This chart shows the wide range of
  TSU in the 7am hour of Morning Edition. Each bar
  represents a station in the MEGS 45-station
  sample, and the total number of minutes of
  underwriting included in the 7am hour. Remember,
  listeners do not readily distinguish between the
  source (national, local, traffic) of
  underwriting. To them, its all underwriting!

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Underwriting A Station Managers Perspective

• The goal to make more money from underwriting
  sales, not to sell more underwriting!
• This is a management issue involving rates,
  schedule management, and compensation

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Underwriting A PDs Perspective

• There is concern about sounding too commercial.
• The goal to develop a plan that sounds good to
  the listener and is effective for the
  underwriter.
• Avoid stacking national and local credits.
• Avoid multiple voices reading credits.

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Morning Edition Grad SchoolWhat Now?

• Two workshops completed in August 2006
• Six month follow-up process with 12 workshop
  stations underway
• Future workshops coming in 2007-2008