TWO STORIES ABOUT NUMBERS

 

(1)  Paying is Different From Free

Former radio personality Steve Dahl has announced that starting August 1^st, people will have to pay $9.95/month to download his daily podcast.  Dahl has been off terrestrial radio since being ousted from WJMK-FM in 2008 and has been podcasting from his basement since September 2009.  His contract with CBS, which expired last week, paid him about $1 million/year to refrain from broadcasting on the air.  He now is free to do what he wants, so let’s look at the numbers.

Dahl’s spokesperson said his daily podcast has produced about 7.5 million downloads per year.  That seems like a huge number until one does the math.  He has had the show about 2 years, so I am guessing he has done about 600 podcasts (daily without weekends).  If we divide 7.5 million by 600, we get 12,500 downloads a day.  Since Dahl’s Facebook account has 13,000 followers, the 7.5 million downloads number makes sense.

So if between 12 and 13 thousand people currently listen to him for free, will that number go up if it costs money to hear the podcast?  OF COURSE NOT!  And how many of those people will choose to pay $9.95/month to listen to him?  If even half (6,000) paid the $9.95/month, that would give him an income of $59,700/month.  That is not chump change to me, but it multiplies out to an annual income of $716,400—much less than he was receiving when he was on the air.

From that gross, he has to pay his producers’ salaries which will leave him even less.

If he were so great, that terrestrial or even satellite radio wanted him, he would have a job lined up.  The problem is that no station would hire someone who only has 12,000 daily listeners!  If I were on WGN or WLS, even I would have more people tuning in than that!

(2)  Numbers Too Corny For Words!

If I had not read this story on the web site of Illinois Lt. Governor Shelia Simon and then become even more astounded when I saw it on the web site for CBS news, I would have thought it was a spoof from The Onion.  But the big news is that Simon released “promising” figures that show more low-income residents are accessing fresh food at farmers’ markets. There was a 269 percent increase between 2009 and 2010 in the amount of food stamp benefits (LINK) redeemed at Illinois farmers’ markets, which sounds exciting until one hears that the total amount redeemed went from $11,146 to $41,146.

Want to guess how much money the citizens of Illinois spent on food last year? FORTY EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS!!

And the Lt. Governor of this state calls it “promising” that LINK card users spent $41,146 at farmers markets.  Even my calculator cannot figure out what that percentage is, but it’s probably about ONE MILLIONTH OF ONE PERCENT of the total food spending.

Simon’s quote is even cornier, “I am committed to helping expand LINK usage at farmers’ markets to improve the health and economy of our state.”

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is quoted in stories about how he is giving hundreds of millions of dollars to companies to persuade them not to move out of state, yet the Lt. Governor talks of improving the state’s economy because LINK card users spent $41,146 in an entire year of farmers’ market revenues!

I wonder what Simon’s next stand-up comedy act will tell us?   That she will run for President because she knows how to “improve the economy?”  People may laugh at Sarah Palin, but I’m shaking my head at Ms. Simon.