ARBITRON AND THEIR RATINGS

[trixter]

I was looking over the ratings a short while ago and I have come to the conclusion that if I was owner/CEO of Clear Channel, Nassau or any other company owning multiple stations in overlapping markets, I would be rather pissed! Case in point: Nassau. Nassau buys into Arbitron in the Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre market only to see the ratings of WSBG! It's a foregone conclusion that WODE (The Hawk) and WWYY (The Bone), both Nassau stations, have local signals into that market (Monroe County), but is left out of the rating process! Same goes for WZZO and WAEB! Does Arbitron expect a subscriber (under their new system) to pay several thousands of dollars more to see their other station's performances as well? I know the old cliche; No one is making you buy the book. But then again, there is so much to say for a business that tries to charge too much for their services. If it was me, I would never do business with Arbitron again. If anyone have suggestions or would like to comment on this, please do.

 

[Zenith Transoceanic]

I think your point is valid.

 

[L.A. Tarone]

Trixter:
Your point probably IS valid, but I don't know there's much that can be done. Arbitron is really the only game in town. Birch, Qualidata (or whatever it was called), and the others are long gone. Neilsen does some radio, but I think it only does the Top 25 markets. And I can't imagine it's any cheaper than Arbitron. The only other one I know of is Eastlan, but no one here has called it in to research the market. Maybe someone will -- it says it's a fraction of what Arbitron costs. By the way, ZZO does usually show in the WB/SCR book -- 12-plus, it's usually somewhere around #15 with a 0.8-1.0 share. Most of that is from listenership around Hazleton.

 

[trixter]

Trixter:
Your point probably IS valid, but I don't know there's much that can be done. Arbitron is really the only game in town. Birch, Qualidata (or whatever it was called), and the others are long gone. Neilsen does some radio, but I think it only does the Top 25 markets. And I can't imagine it's any cheaper than Arbitron. The only other one I know of is Eastlan, but no one here has called it in to research the market. Maybe someone will -- it says it's a fraction of what Arbitron costs. By the way, ZZO does usually show in the WB/SCR book -- 12-plus, it's usually somewhere around #15 with a 0.8-1.0 share. Most of that is from listenership around Hazleton.

In the overall market, that is a relatively low number. However, the breakdowns are very important especially if targeting by county. The numbers would be higher and of course that would be a good sticking point for advertisers. I think Arbitron is charging (gouging?) more for less and I hope programers/operators will find a cheaper alternative. Competition will make Arbitron take another look at THEIR plan.