Small-market radio group turns to in-car data to prove its audience
7 Mountains Media has no traditional ratings in any of its markets. It has replaced them with in-car listening data, merged with its own numbers in a custom dashboard.
What the premium tier costs
Owner and CEO Kristin Cantrell gave Radio World the pricing. Markets ranked 125 and above pay $200 a month per station, with deep discounts for 2026 and 2027.
Every station in a cluster must subscribe. She said there is no cherry picking, and added that you can make the cost back in one sale.
The group started on premium data in May. Custom markets arrived only about two weeks before the interview. Olean, N.Y., now shows up under its own name instead of the Buffalo DMA.
Why a small group skips ratings
The broadcaster delivers local radio to 18 markets, and sells integrated media solutions to local businesses. All its markets are small to medium in size.
Cantrell said the company does not subscribe to traditional ratings services anywhere. She named cost and sample size as the reasons.
It recently began using the premium tier of DTS AutoStage analytics. The group pairs AM and FM listening in cars with first-party data, meaning figures it collects itself: streaming, app usage and event engagement.
She says the sample is far larger than anything it has had, and arrives in real time. "This is the breakthrough we have been anticipating for years," she said.
A dashboard built in-house
The company used AI coding tools to build its own app. First-party data, DTS AutoStage data and station coverage areas sit in one dashboard, and client locations can be overlaid. That lets a seller show reach and proximity for one advertiser.
Cantrell said the tool is still in beta. One view covers every station and market that reaches Rural King locations. It can be drilled down by daypart, traffic corridor, county population and zip code.
Cantrell named heatmaps, daypart rankers and listener trends as the most useful tools so far. In her view they let a client see where listeners are and how engaged they are.
What changes for sellers and programmers
Programmers use the data to see what moves the needle and what does not.
Salespeople are asked whether the station has ratings and whether anyone still listens to radio. For new sellers, she said, that stopped the conversation. Now they have a confident answer.
Gaps she acknowledges
The data covers in-car listening for 14 brands only, so it is not the complete audience. Cantrell called that the start.
She wants to know about the other car brands, how many people are in a car, and which brands are registered and on the road in each market. With those answers, she says, total listening could be extrapolated.
Her advice to stations in unrated markets is to start with the basic free level, which she says gives more data than they have now.
She also wants stations to pair the figures with their own local material: community events, promotions, streaming and podcasts.
Source: Radio World