Moneyball: National vs. Local Callout
• NuVoodoo founder, Carolyn Gilbert is not known for mincing words. About national callout, she has said, “National music research is great if you’re programming a national format. Regional music research works fine for programming a regional format. And to make the best music decisions for programming a local station, you need local research. Your market. Your listeners. The specific songs you want to know about.”
If you’re faced with subscribing to one of the national callout surveys in 2026 because local callout is just too expensive, we have an alternative: NuVoodoo Local Snapshot.
We’re big believers that data-based decisions are better decisions. But, for local music programming, you may be misled if you’re relying on national (or even regional) data to make those decisions. If you look at enough music testing data from markets across the country (and we do), you realize that local tastes do vary — sometimes wildly.
Making matters worse, few local markets have functionally identical station options across the dial for listeners. The alignment of your local competition can have a massive impact on your music programming. Plus, the heritage and branding of your station can influence the kinds of music you should play. Following results from one of the four or five regional breakouts probably won’t give you the right recipe.
The very nature of national samples is that most of the respondents end up coming from the largest markets. So, if you’re in a market that’s not well represented by the population (ethnicity, ideological, etc.) and station mix in the very largest market in your region, regional numbers may not be pointing your playlist in the right direction. It’s not bad sampling; it’s the very nature of a probability sample.
NuVoodoo Local Snapshot is an alternative when it comes to your research budget. Starting at less than $600/month we can deliver 10 reports across the year, each with a sample of 50 screened respondents in your market, in your demo, who listen to your station or its direct competition, who have rated 40 songs of your choosing. The per report price comes down with more frequent reports. We can arrange barter to cover 50% or more of your outlay.
NuVoodoo can also deliver OMTs and tactical perceptual studies for under $10K. For group clients we’re having great success with coordinated library tests (OMTs) and coordinated callout — running coordinated hooklists across co-owned, co-format stations to give maximal information for programmers and deep insights for format captains at steep savings over typical per market pricing. Reach out to me at leigh@nuvoodoo.com for more information. — Leigh Jacobs
