The Grain of Salt

One of the things I used to love about the radio business is that everyone was #1 at something.

Radio reps would come see you and, with an absolutely straight face, would say things like "Well, we're Number 1 in blond women who own Corvettes" or in "Hispanic Black Gay Males who also go fishing in the weekend" or some other incredible convoluted target.

And, to be fair, all media did it. We'd have magazines who were "Number 1 in fortnightly publications who come out on Wednesdays", cable networks who would imitate radio (Number 1 in Hispanic Asian Women who cook for families larger than 5 members and also had an MBA") or something.

I always told my media directors: Sit back. Take a breather. And ask yourself "does it make sense"? Then do a bit of research.

So I was happy to see this gem courtesy of Vme

I mean, it's still impressive, #2 and a far #2 compared to Telemundo.

Impressive, yes, but a bit misleading.

What is it running against?

Univision has "Muchachitas como Tu" Sundays from 9-10 and clearly delivers 4 times more audience. But... #2. I mean, not bad, right?

Telemundo runs "Pearlie", a cartoon aimed at what looks to be 5-9 year old girls and so cloying that a mom would have to be really dedicated to sit down with their 5 year old to watch it.

Galavision doesn't have programming from 9:00 - 9:30, it runs infomercials. At 9:30 it then runs "Al Sabor del Chef"

Telefutura runs "Plaza Sesamo" also aimed at what, 5-10 year olds?

Discovery? Clear VME win. They run animal shows.

Mun2? Morning Breath. Clear VME win. Then again, Mun2 is so on top of it that, on Monday at 5pm they were still "working on this week's grid". Really.

And Azteca America doesn't even show programming on Sundays at 9:00am, so, infomercials.

Bottom line: Any time you see a statistic like VME's, which clearly, doesn't make any sense a priory, take a couple of shots of salt and go to the bottom of it.