ClearChannel's Dirty Little Secret

by Chris Johnson

First off, a small introduction for those of you who don't know the evil that is ClearChannel.

ClearChannel operates a bit over 1,200 stations as of the writing of this article.  They also own 37 television stations and operate over 200 venues nationwide.  They are in 248 of the top 250 radio markets, controlling 60 percent of all rock programming.  They also do outdoor advertising and own the tours of musicians like Janet Jackson, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Madonna, and N'Sync.

Now we add a small division of ClearChannel based out of Cincinnati called Critical Mass Media (CMM) into the mix.

Critical Mass Media is the research arm of ClearChannel's radio business.  CMM does audience research, music research, and also conducts telemarketing to businesses and residences concerning contests or promotions the radio stations might be holding.  Now here's the even more interesting part.  CMM is exempt from the "Do Not Call" list.

That's right!  ClearChannel is using a loophole in the law to force its fecal matter into your home.  Now, keep in mind, all dialing is done from either Norwood, Ohio or Fort Wright, Kentucky.  If they say they are calling locally, they are full of crap.

CMM hires only the best people for its delicate research.  They recruit the vast majority of their individuals from temporary agencies.  CMM holds three training classes a week at two days per class to train new agents if that gives you any idea on the turnover rate.  They also pay these idiots $8.50 an hour.  If you're broke, it can be a lucrative opportunity for money.

Data from all calls is entered into a computer system referred to as CATI or the Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewer.

It's powered by SCO OpenServer UNIX in a dumb terminal-style environment.  CfMC SURVENT is the main program used by the agent to conduct interviews.  The agent has very limited access to the operating system.  Most supervisory tasks including stopping and starting workstations is done by a section operator, referred to at CMM as a "captain" operator.  Agents are monitored in several different ways including roaming or spot monitors done with cordless phones and by computer as well where a supervisor watches what they input into the system and what they are saying to the respondent.  Any PBX phone in the call center can monitor an agent's station.

Now lets move on to how to identify a call from CMM.  The easiest way is to watch for the number 513-858-2250 and the name HAMILTON, OH on Caller ID.

There are several different types of calls that CMM will place.  First off let's discuss the "Audience" call.

The rep will call your home and say "Hello, this is [insert name here] from [insert major city name here] Radio Research."  This is what CMM does to probe for radio listening habits.  Now keep in mind that during this call they will ask you a bunch of different questions such as name, race, and other additional questions that the station wants asked.

Then there is the "Screener" call.  This is much like the audience call except if you pick the station they're screening for, they'll ask you an extra question: "Can you be reached at this number all year round?" and usually lasts around 30-45 seconds.

Let's say you got asked that question and you receive yet another call from them.  However, this time they're asking for you personally and they identify themselves as "[Insert city name here] Radio Ratings Center."

If you agree to take the call, they will ask you some similar questions to the screener call above.  If you pick the right station completing the ClearChannel trifecta, the rep will say "Now let me explain to you how this works" and proceed to read some responses and definitions.  You'll get to listen to around 40 song hooks and be asked your opinion on each song.  This is how stations figure out their playlist for the upcoming week.  If a song (let's use Milkshake by Kelis as an example) triggers 50 people to say that they have never liked this song, then the station will most likely pull it from airplay.

You're probably saying "Why is that so horrible, Chris?"  Well, the reason it is horrible is because of the method in which they contact you.  On the day the project is due, they will not dial any number less than two times in one day and sometimes even more.  I've seen one campaign where they redialed all the previously dialed numbers eight times in one day!  They also will call your house every time they get a new project in from that radio station.  Also, the other downside with this is if you say that you are not interested, then they simply note your file for a callback in a week.  That's right, even if you tell them where to go, they will still keep calling!  However, they'll just wait a week, maybe.

The only easy way to get off their list is to tell them that if they call again that you are going to sue them.

Next we shall move on to the Perceptual.  What this is is a full investigation of your radio listening habits.  CMM will call and identify themselves as "[Insert city name here] Radio Ratings Center."  They first will ask a bunch of qualifying questions.  If you qualify for this survey, be prepared to spend no less than 30 minutes on the phone with these folks.  If you want to get out of it, however, just tell them if they call back you're going to sue the pants off of them.  The agent is required to code your call so that the system automatically places you on their "Do Not Call" list.

Last but not least, let's get to the Nest.

Nest marketing is used by most ClearChannel stations.  Nest takes a few different forms.  I'm not going to describe them all here, but if you really want to know all the different forms this can take, go pay a visit to www.criticalmassmedia.com.

Today we're going to cover the Nest "telemarketing" call.  Now as far as I can tell, this is where CMM definitely abuses the loophole.  Due to the fact that they are not selling anything, they are exempt from the law.  Your phone will ring with the same number used by all of these other studies and a voice at the other end of the line will identify him/herself as "Chris Johnson," "Alex," "Chris," "Pat," or a few other cleverly disguised androgynous names.  They will talk as if they are calling from the station itself and will want to add you to a contest or encourage you to listen at certain times. I will give you a hint.

The times they tell you to listen are key times for the Arbitron diary keepers.  There is electronic monitoring equipment that can allow a station to make an educated guess as to how many listeners are actually listening to the station.  The more listeners at those specific times, the more of a ratings share they can get, the more advertisers they can get, the more money they can make.

Let's talk about what happens if you demand a supervisor.

One of the call center Managers or supervisors will come to the agent's terminal and pick up the phone.  They will give their name and ask how they can help.  Most of the time these names are fake.  There is one manager in the call center that generates a unique name for every supervisor call.  So it's a good sporting possibility that you don't really have that person's name.

Also, if they give you the number to the "corporate office," 513-858-2250, it's only a VMS!  There are no humans there.  Ask if you should call 513-631-4266 instead.  That's the real corporate office.

All of the above studies cost the stations thousands of dollars to complete.  One estimate that I heard was that a Perceptual was around $1500 per complete (they generally do no less than 300-400 completes on this type of project), a music call is around $500 to $700 per complete (generally around 100 people complete these), and an audience call is around $250 to $400 a complete (there are always around 420 completes).