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Radio Market Rankings

B

briancraig

Maybe David or Huff will know the answer.

I’ve seen lists ranking tv markets by households for Arbitron since their ADI method started in the mid 60s and Nielsen Station Index rankings even way before they had the DMA.

But I’ve never seen a radio market ranking from Arbitron until the late 1970s. Their ratings books list all the markets, but in alphabetical order. And it seems like when the trades listed markets by rank, they used SRDS.

So did Arbitron rank markets in the 1960s and early 1970s?
 
briancraig said:
So did Arbitron rank markets in the 1960s and early 1970s?
Click to expand...
I've not seen ARB market "ranks" from before the late 70s either.
A few things - ARB's move into radio in 1964 was gradual. There were two trial markets to start with (Detroit and Washington DC).
Twelve more markets were added in 1965, and 16 more in 1966. Though market additions came more swiftly as the decade closed.
Also, ARB really didn't become the "standard" until well into the 70s. Pulse, and to a lesser degree Hooper, were still used by many stations into the early-mid 70s. So SRDS or Census Metro rankings were a much easier standard by which to sort markets.
 
Huff said:
I've not seen ARB market "ranks" from before the late 70s either.
A few things - ARB's move into radio in 1964 was gradual. There were two trial markets to start with (Detroit and Washington DC).
Twelve more markets were added in 1965, and 16 more in 1966. Though market additions came more swiftly as the decade closed.
Also, ARB really didn't become the "standard" until well into the 70s. Pulse, and to a lesser degree Hooper, were still used by many stations into the early-mid 70s. So SRDS or Census Metro rankings were a much easier standard by which to sort markets.
Click to expand...
And those SRDS editions are really hard to find. I have a few... enough to get a couple of views of rank in each decade... at:

SRDS - Spot Radio Rates & Data media buyer guide

Since 1919 when SRDS was founded as Standard Rate & Data Service, they've collected and delivered the data media buyers need to connect with media sellers. SRDS started by covering newspapers, magazines and billboards. Over the decades, radio, TV were added.
www.worldradiohistory.com

And a reminder that Census (OMB) metros are not always the same as Arbitron / Nielsen metros. One is Metropolitan Statistical Area and the other is Metro Survey Area. And that is a really f---ing confusing duplicity of initials!
 
davideduardo said:
And those SRDS editions are really hard to find. I have a few... enough to get a couple of views of rank in each decade... at:

SRDS - Spot Radio Rates & Data media buyer guide

Since 1919 when SRDS was founded as Standard Rate & Data Service, they've collected and delivered the data media buyers need to connect with media sellers. SRDS started by covering newspapers, magazines and billboards. Over the decades, radio, TV were added.
www.worldradiohistory.com

And a reminder that Census (OMB) metros are not always the same as Arbitron / Nielsen metros. One is Metropolitan Statistical Area and the other is Metro Survey Area. And that is a really f---ing confusing duplicity of initials!
Click to expand...
Hate to be that guy but duplicity doesn't mean what you think it means. You mean duplication.
 
CTListener said:
Hate to be that guy but duplicity doesn't mean what you think it means. You mean duplication.
Click to expand...
That's what I get by misspelling combined with autocorrect. I shudda' seen that!
 


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