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Bashing Arbitron

F

FloridaBear1776

Guest
A small AM radio station in Sarasota FL that has long been ratings-challenged
and makes its money primarily through brokered shows has this page on its website devoted to trashing Arbitron:

http://www.wtmy.com/arbitron.htm

Apparently even the station's small circle of brokered clients is aware of this station's lack of presence in the ratings, perhaps since 12+ numbers are so widely available and this market isn't embargoed. But is posting an anti-ratings page a good strategy to help this station gain/keep clients?
 
> A small AM radio station in Sarasota FL that has long been
> ratings-challenged
> and makes its money primarily through brokered shows has
> this page on its website devoted to trashing Arbitron:
>
> http://www.wtmy.com/arbitron.htm
>
> Apparently even the station's small circle of brokered
> clients is aware of this station's lack of presence in the
> ratings, perhaps since 12+ numbers are so widely available
> and this market isn't embargoed. But is posting an
> anti-ratings page a good strategy to help this station
> gain/keep clients?

Well, according to their page, their type of format "get's results"...
<P ID="signature">______________


New York City Radio and TV</P>
 
Gawd. Their complaints about Arbitron are so lame even I have to defend them.. not something I'm used to.


Have you ever participated in an ARBITRON survey? Do you know anyone who has?

<font color=red>Answer: Uh, no. What does that have to do with anything? Are you implying that since no one the advertisers knows has been surveyed that they aren't really surveying people? </font>

The facts are these:

· The ARBITRON rating book has NEVER bought a car, never taken a vacation, never eaten out at a fine restaurant nor spent one penny on clothing.

<font color=red>Answer: Of course not. Arbitron estimates the number of people who listen. People buy stuff, right? They're measuring them. Nice diversionary attempt.</font>

· The ARBITRON rating book is simply a reflection of what a tiny fraction of local residents report as their listening habits. The potential for error is enormous.

<font color=red>Answer: That's like saying that the blood sample your doctor took is not a reflection of your health. After all, it only represents a tiny portion of your blood, not all of it. Perhaps you'd like your doctor to drain your body of blood and then test it. </font>

· Many radio stations in large markets no longer even subscribe to, nor participate, in ARBITRON’s rating game because of questions regarding ARBITRON’s methodology and fairness!

<font color=red>Maybe. More likely because A) It's so damned expensive and B) Their ratings suck so bad it would be a waste of money to subscribe and PROVE how much they suck.</font>

· Tourists are never counted by ARBITRON.

<font color=red>Answer: No they don't and it's a good thing too. Those tourists live somewhere and I'd hate to see them counted twice: Once in their home market and once when they go on vacation. Use your head.</font>




> A small AM radio station in Sarasota FL that has long been
> ratings-challenged
> and makes its money primarily through brokered shows has
> this page on its website devoted to trashing Arbitron:
>
> http://www.wtmy.com/arbitron.htm
>
> Apparently even the station's small circle of brokered
> clients is aware of this station's lack of presence in the
> ratings, perhaps since 12+ numbers are so widely available
> and this market isn't embargoed. But is posting an
> anti-ratings page a good strategy to help this station
> gain/keep clients?
>
<P ID="signature">______________
"On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War."-Michael Badnarik</P>
 
While I agree that arbitron sucks and is horribly out-of-date, I don't think that the flamethrowin' WTMY in Sarasota is going to change methodology.

Besides, when you have a station mascot, and that mascot is a rabbit...and you put the rabbit on your page...how can anyone take your seriously?

And in regards to Salty's point on why large market stations aren't buying arbiton...because their ratings suck. Check out WTMY's rates. 9 dollas a holla! They must be doing swimmingly in the ratings, which I could proove...had they shown up in the Sarasota book. Their sister WRXB is banging out a massive square root of 36 in Tampa.

Nice.
 
> While I agree that arbitron sucks and is horribly
> out-of-date, I don't think that the flamethrowin' WTMY in
> Sarasota is going to change methodology.

To say that Arbitron sucks is a broad generalization. Any poll is going to result in an estimate, not a precise number, and is going to wobble in relation to sample size. And sample is determined by what local stations will pay, not by Arbitron.

Interestingly, the People Meter tests in Philly and Houston show listening levels (share) that are quite compatible with the diary. In fact, the Philly test's greatest finding is that the diary is actually an excellent tool.

The defects, today, in the diary, are mostly int he tow areas of slow issuance of results (due to manual processing of mailed diaries) and the lack of multi-media measurement (the diary measures radio, the PPM measures radio, tv, cable, even storecasts).
 
> Interestingly, the People Meter tests in Philly and Houston
> show listening levels (share) that are quite compatible with
> the diary. In fact, the Philly test's greatest finding is
> that the diary is actually an excellent tool.

Compatible, but not the same. If the diary is an excellent tool, we should keep it and pass on PPM. It isn't and we won't. The days of the diary are long past and it is headed for the dust bin. It's too bad it has lasted as long as it has.

About all I can say in favor of it is that it beats nothing and it beats the crappy surveys that so many advertisers still rely on.<P ID="signature">______________
"On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War."-Michael Badnarik</P>
 
>
> Well, according to their page, their type of format "get's
> results"...
>
An apostrophe in the word 'gets'. That's a new one for me.<P ID="signature">______________
"I have the feeling about 60% of what you say is crap."--David Letterman underestimates Bill O'Reilly</P>
 
Bad apostrophe usage

Somebody else, I think it was Westlife, recently posted this link to a site about the worst uses of the apostrophe. Link HERE

> >
> > Well, according to their page, their type of format "get's
>
> > results"...
> >
> An apostrophe in the word 'gets'. That's a new one for me.
> <P ID="signature">______________
"On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War."-Michael Badnarik</P>
 
> > Interestingly, the People Meter tests in Philly and
> Houston
> > show listening levels (share) that are quite compatible
> with
> > the diary. In fact, the Philly test's greatest finding is
> > that the diary is actually an excellent tool.
>
> Compatible, but not the same. If the diary is an excellent
> tool, we should keep it and pass on PPM. It isn't and we
> won't. The days of the diary are long past and it is headed
> for the dust bin. It's too bad it has lasted as long as it
> has.

Actually, in the Philly test the shares were statistically identical on all stations (that is, within one standard error) for all stations. The Houston test can not be statistically analyzed since not all stations are encoding and there are not 100 shares.

What changed was TSL, because every station had increased cume. The increased cume was due to deep P-level listening, below P3. And each of these incidental tune ins dragged the TSL down, but increased total cume. Then net result was less TSL from more people, and the same share.
>
> About all I can say in favor of it is that it beats nothing
> and it beats the crappy surveys that so many advertisers
> still rely on.

The PPM is mostly to make advertisers happy on delivery speed and to provide cross platform media evaluation. It really does not improve the data at all, and the sample is much smaller.
>
 
> The PPM is mostly to make advertisers happy on delivery
> speed and to provide cross platform media evaluation. It
> really does not improve the data at all, and the sample is
> much smaller.

Even if that's all you see it as good for from a technical perspective, there is one other thing it will do: It will improve radio's image among media planners. I know several big hitters who just won't consider the medium as long as it relies on diaries. It is arguable that they are wrong about PPMs being an improvement, but not that the a methodology reliiant on the use of paper and pencils adds to their perception that radio is a technological backwater.<P ID="signature">______________
"Radio is like my family. I love it but it's like one big dysfunctional freak show." - Salty Dog</P>
 
> > The PPM is mostly to make advertisers happy on delivery
> > speed and to provide cross platform media evaluation. It
> > really does not improve the data at all, and the sample is
>
> > much smaller.
>
> Even if that's all you see it as good for from a technical
> perspective, there is one other thing it will do: It will
> improve radio's image among media planners.

That is indeed the big point.

Arbitron killed Hooper, The Pulse, Burke, Birch and others because the agencies were sold first and best. The same is happening with the PPM.

> I know several
> big hitters who just won't consider the medium as long as it
> relies on diaries. It is arguable that they are wrong about
> PPMs being an improvement, but not that the a methodology
> reliiant on the use of paper and pencils adds to their
> perception that radio is a technological backwater.

The good thing is that delivery is nearly instant. There will be 12 books a year, and they will come out a day or so after month end. The reason is that the sample is the same panel always, so there is no sample building. Every day has the same sample, in fact.
>
 
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