Six Boston Stations Make the Trenton Book ?

[Steve Green NEPA]

Some commuter or vacationig family has been having fun between state Capitols up til recently.

Boston's own WZLX, WXKS, WBZ 1030, WJMN, WKLB and WBQT all had shown up, with really decent ratings, up until the fall '21 Trenton book.

These six stations all must have their unique PPM encodigs, in each of the major markets. Wassup ?

 

[CTListener]

Interesting, but ultimately meaningless, as the Boston stations aren't targeting Trenton and won't consider reaching out to Trenton advertisers no matter how many Trenton books the Boston stations appear in. It would definitely seem that one family -- or even an individual Trentonian who spends a lot of time in Boston for whatever reason -- is affecting the book and will continue to do so until he/she/they is/are dropped from the panel.

 

[davideduardo]

Some commuter or vacationig family has been having fun between state Capitols up til recently.

Boston's own WZLX, WXKS, WBZ 1030, WJMN, WKLB and WBQT all had shown up, with really decent ratings, up until the fall '21 Trenton book.

These six stations all must have their unique PPM encodigs, in each of the major markets. Wassup ?

Yes, just like the FCC file numbers for stations, Nielsen gives a different identity to each audio service that is included in the PPM rating system in the large 48 markets where the PPM is employed. Trenton is market 149, so no PPMs there!

On the other hand, Trenton is a diary market and any credits to any stations are done based on diary entries. I looked at those stations and don't see them appearing in the Trenton book in recent years.

While Trenton stations may encode via the PPM system to be registered in PPM markets, there is no analysis of out of market PPM data in a diary market. All that is looked at are the local metro survey area diaries. So the PPM has nothing to do with it.

 

[davideduardo]

Interesting, but ultimately meaningless, as the Boston stations aren't targeting Trenton and won't consider reaching out to Trenton advertisers no matter how many Trenton books the Boston stations appear in. It would definitely seem that one family -- or even an individual Trentonian who spends a lot of time in Boston for whatever reason -- is affecting the book and will continue to do so until he/she/they is/are dropped from the panel.

A Trentonian won't have a meter. Trenton is a diary market and anyone not in Mercer Country, NJ, will not be measured in the Trenton book.

 

[CTListener]

A Trentonian won't have a meter. Trenton is a diary market and anyone not in Mercer Country, NJ, will not be measured in the Trenton book.

So if the Trentonian packed a Nielsen diary for those New England business (or whatever) trips and jotted down WBZ, WZLX, etc., Nielsen would do what with the completed diary? Throw it out, disregard the Boston stations or use his reported periods of listening to them in calculating the Boston ratings, while counting only Trenton-area stations toward the Trenton ratings? What if his WBZ listening was at home (skywave) and on the road? What if he listened to WFAN New York City in BOTH locations via groundwave?

 

[davideduardo]

So if the Trentonian packed a Nielsen diary for those New England business (or whatever) trips and jotted down WBZ, WZLX, etc., Nielsen would do what with the completed diary? Throw it out, disregard the Boston stations or use his reported periods of listening to them in calculating the Boston ratings, while counting only Trenton-area stations toward the Trenton ratings? What if his WBZ listening was at home (skywave) and on the road? What if he listened to WFAN New York City in BOTH locations via groundwave?

All listening reported in a diary is tabulated in the market where the diary-keeper lives. Generally, occasional listening to out of market stations by people who travel or take a day trip is so insignificant on a per station basis that few such stations ever "make the book".

We've seen things like listening to short wave stations in diaries occasionally. Or Canadian stations in Buffalo. And lots of Mexican stations along the US border. They all get tabulated.

Whether in a diary or via a meter, the objective is to measure what Trenton residents listen to. It is not just to measure Trenton stations.

The concept of radio ratings includes giving advertisers a true picture of radio usage as a medium. Removing listening of any kind reduces the usage of radio figure and makes the survey inaccurate.

 

[davideduardo]

Some commuter or vacationig family has been having fun between state Capitols up til recently.

Boston's own WZLX, WXKS, WBZ 1030, WJMN, WKLB and WBQT all had shown up, with really decent ratings, up until the fall '21 Trenton book.

These six stations all must have their unique PPM encodigs, in each of the major markets. Wassup ?

Apparently the online service you saw made a mistake and scrambled the data from two markets. I looked at the data from Trenton and there is no Boston station that made the book.

 

[pjc1961]

Turns out that Radio-Online combined data from the Worcester MA market #119 with the Trenton NJ market #152 for Spring 2020, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The data that shows on Radio-Online's Trenton page matches that of the Worcester page for the same time period.

 

[CTListener]

Radio-Online or Wikipedia: Which should we trust more?

 

[CTListener]

Turns out that Radio-Online combined data from the Worcester MA market #119 with the Trenton NJ market #152 for Spring 2020, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The data that shows on Radio-Online's Trenton page matches that of the Worcester page for the same time period.

That explains the low number for WZLX. It's a strong performer in Boston, but in Worcester it has to contend with a popular rock-leaning classic hits station, WWFX.