• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Arbitron Ratings prove to be bogus

J

joshzz

PDs lose or keep their jobs based on Arbitron. The rating system was just a little better than a ouiga board and now as further proof, we see the numbers changing significantly now that PPM is in place in many markets.

The stations that will do best are those that are played at your local store, the doctor's office, repair shop, etc.. Expect AC and soft oldies to trounce other formats.

Years ago I remember that a local station in the area, WMGK/Phillly, gave away free radios that had no tuning device. You turned it on and could only listen to WMGK. The only knob on the radio was the volume on/off control. Actually my mother still owns one of those radios.

With that said, maybe it's time for a special radio promotion! How about this? Give away good looking, specially tuned "to one channel" radios to all businesses that promise to keep the radio on and at their workplace.

Arbitron, there's got to be a better mouse trap.
 
The issue, in my opinion, is not the method by which the ratings are obtained — the issue is the sample size. Arbitron is using far too small of a sample to get any real results. The sample was too small when they did diaries and it's still too small now that PPM is being implemented.
 
I agree 100% & should have included that in my rant. :-*

It's sad to think that PDs lose or keep their jobs based on these ratings... and that the Advertising companies make all their decisions based on the silly system.

I would like to see someone actually go into a market and contact at least 50% of those that have radios including kids....

Arbitron is to an accurate rating system what electric football is to professional football. josh
 
whitfm said:
The issue, in my opinion, is not the method by which the ratings are obtained — the issue is the sample size. Arbitron is using far too small of a sample to get any real results. The sample was too small when they did diaries and it's still too small now that PPM is being implemented.
Click to expand...

Arbitron would be pleased to increase sample size for any market that will pay the incremental costs of the increase. And since radio pays for the research, that means doubling or tripling the cost for every station. That won't happen.

In the diary, which is a random probability sample, in order to reduce sampling error we increase the sample size (Because of the square root formula, the standard error is reduced by half if the sample size is quadrupled. Thus, if samples of 100 produce a standard error of 5%, the sample size must be 400 for 2.5%. So to reduce the margin of error slightly, we have to increase the sample by a factor of 4 times. No station could afford this.

In the PPM, which is a panel, in theory a very small panel can represent a very large universe since the panel is maintained as a perfect miniature of the universe under study. Increasing the size slightly has little beneficial result.
 
josh said:
I would like to see someone actually go into a market and contact at least 50% of those that have radios including kids....
Click to expand...

The cost of doing this even once would be more than the total annual billings of every station in the market. It's a census, not a survey. The US government can't even afford a census every year.

A sample of 1200 can be used to predict national elections within a few percent, and that may be a big deal in a tight election, but not in radio.
 
The bottom line is this: If you're going to ask someone for money, they're going to want something in return. In the radio equation, the thing advertisers want in return is audience. If you're at a station and you can document audience in some way other than conventional Arbitron numbers, then include that in your presentation to advertisers. What I mean is the amount of money you raise for charity, the number of hits on your web site, track record for station-delivered coupons, the number of people you can deliver to a station-sponsored event, etc. All this is part of radio metrics and should be included in local ad presentations.

But the fact is I've seen PDs of #1 stations with great ratings get fired. So to say it's all about the metrics misses the rest of the story.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom