It seems paradoxical. You’d think being the loudest station on the dial would increase your ratings. But often, it won’t.
Or perhaps I should say being the loudest station on the radio dial will help listeners find you, but it may not help you keep them with maximum quarter-hour maintenance. Good for cume, bad for TSL.
Why? Because heavily processed audio often leads to listener ear fatigue and tune-out.
Normal music has soft and loud parts and comes without distortion. Audio processing that seeks to maximize loudness almost always (OK, maybe really absolutely always) seeks to make the music “all loud, all the time,” and introduces distortion. The LOUDEST (did I just shout that?) stations on the dial create two kinds of distortion when making the music really LOUD – harmonic distortion which in small amounts isn’t too bad, and intermodulation distortion which even in small amounts is really offensive to the ear, especially to the female ear.
You read that right – heavily processed audio drives away listeners – particularly women. Yes, being loud may make you stand out on the dial, but it also reduces time spent listening (TSL).
So what’s a station to do? Like all things, moderation becomes the golden rule. Yes, you need audio processing. No, you don’t want too much of it.
Is there any kind of audio processing that has been proven to be really driving shorter TSL? You bet ! Clipping. Back in the 70’s during the “loudness wars” I remember putting a clipper on one AM rock station. It was really, really loud. But listener ear fatigue took its toll, TSL went down (cume stayed up), and we took the clipper out of the circuit. And then we did the same thing for our FM station (composite clipper) with the same results. That clipper came out, too.
Perhaps the best judge of your audio is asking listeners you know how they like your sound. Probe with them, do they want more bass, do they want more crisp, do they want more (or less) punch? You may be surprised at the answers. You’ll also get quite an education in how the limiting factor for nearly all listeners is limitations in the receiver. Car radios don’t sound like portable radios don’t sound like table radios don’t sound like computer speakers or ear buds playing your Internet stream. And audio processing for your Internet stream will sound best when it’s processed differently from your broadcast signal.
Bottom line? How does your station sound to your listeners’ ears? Forget all the modulation meters and forget wanting to be the loudest station on the dial. Concentrate on providing the sound quality and the content your listeners want to hear! And keep its modulation sounding sweet and staying legal!
Mike/
