Afternoon Drive

4:00 – 8:00 p.m. – the second most important time slot in radio. Both morning and afternoon drive time relies on a large number of people in their cars.

AQH – Average Quarter Hour

The average number of people listening to a station in any given 15-minute period.

Both morning and afternoon drive time relies on a large number of people in their cars

ASCAP

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

BMI

Broadcast Music Inc., a cooperative music licensing organization.

Cume

The cumulative audience – the estimated number of people listening to a station for five minutes or more in any given 15-minute time period.

Demographics

Personal characteristics of the audience, such as age, sex, income level, marital status, geographic location and occupation.

Deregulation

Government action that removes restrictions on the business operation of an industry.

FCC

Federal Communications Commission oversees and regulates radio, television, wireless and telephony.

Market Manager

The person in charge of the group of stations in one market. Example: Infinity owns four stations in San Francisco. The person in charge of all four stations I the market manager. Each of the stations has a general manager who reports to the market manager.

Media

Plural form of the word medium

Medium

The means  by which a message reaches the audience. Some examples of a medium: radio, television, newspaper, satellite, internet. The singular form of the word media.

Morning-Drive

5:00 – 10:00 a.m. – this is the bread and butter of the radio business.  Both morning and afternoon drive time relies on a large number of people in their cars

Narrowcasting

Segmenting the radio audience into narrowly defined groups.

National Public Radio

NPR was founded in the late 1960’s. It is commercial-free radio, partly supported by the federal government and partly supported by both individual contributions, donations from large corporations and from non-profit foundations.

Payola

The practice of accepting payment to play specific recordings on the air.

Program Director

Oversees and directs the programming of a radio station; deals directly with on-air talent and liaison for sales department and upper management.

Rating

The percentage of the total population that a station is reaching.

RIAA

Recording Industry Assocation of America.

A group whose members account for about 95 percent of the record/CD sales in the U.S.

Share

The percentage of people listening to the radio that a station is reaching.

Sirius Satellite Radio

One of the two satellite radio services, the other is XM. They are currently asking for permission to merge their companies.

Telecommunications Act of 1996 –

The first major overhaul of broadcast regulation since the FCC was established in 1934.

Its legacy today is deregulation. It removed the limit on the number of stations one company can own.

Time Spent Listening – TSL

The amount of time on the average a person listens to a particular radio station.