Big drop for CC's San Diego LibTalker

[fred flintstone]

Clear Channel's Progressive Talk WLSD, often cited as one of the format's successes, showed a major jump in the fall Arbitrons, breaking a three 12+ AQH share. The just-released Winter book takes away their Fall gains and puts the station's audience back to where it was one year ago. This represents a loss of half their reported Fall audience.Clear Channel progressive talk stations in Boston and Detroit holding steady with fractional shares. Their Akron PT outlet up 50%, still fractional, but almost moving to the left of the decimal point.

 

[tombetz]

Given San Diego's huge Spanish-speaking populace, this story may shed some light on the matter.From http://www.nypost.com/business/65118.htm :April 27, 2006 -- Radio stations that got bad ratings news yesterday have a convenient scapegoat this morning - a new Arbitron policy that appears to give major boosts to Spanish-language stations at the expense of others.In yesterday's winter ratings, New York's La Mega (WSKQ/97.9 FM) shot up 25 percent from the fall to rank a solid No. 2 - after Lite FM (106.7) - with a 5.6 percent total-audience share.Even more noticeable was the fact that Amor (WPAT/93.1 FM) leapfrogged from 10th place a year ago to fourth yesterday with a whopping 41 percent year-to-year gain and a 4.5 share."These new ethnic [ratings survey] enhancements will provide a better picture of ethnic and non-ethnic listening . . . and will reduce bounce," said Arbitron's Gary Marince, referring to oft-criticized ratings fluctuations from survey to survey."That [Spanish-station] gain will come out of English-language stations," consultant Bill Tanner told Inside Radio before Arbitron's winter ratings began rolling out nationwide yesterday.Indeed, for whatever reason, five of the eight remaining Top 10 stations saw ratings declines in winter - Lite FM, Kiss FM, WINS, Power 105 and Hot 97. Z-100, WBLS and WABC were up.Starting last winter, Arbitron made two major changes to the way it classifies ethnic family members who agree to accept ratings "diaries" for a week.It now no longer assumes that all members of a household are of the same race, and two, it takes greater care in determining whether a family member is a "Spanish primary" or "English primary" language speaker and "weights" them accordingly based on each city's ethnic makeup.It looks to me as though (in markets with large Spanish-speaking populations) comparing the Arbs before Winter 2006 with the Arbs from Winter 2006 and thereafter is pretty much a meaningless exercise.

 

[fred flintstone]

It looks to me as though (in markets with large Spanish-speaking populations) comparing the Arbs before Winter 2006 with the Arbs from Winter 2006 and thereafter is pretty much a meaningless exercise.

Agreed. On top of that, this one more reason to take any Arbitron numbers with a grain of salt - maybe the whole shaker. KLSD has a big jump for no apparent reason. Many people hope the progressive talk format will catch on but the increase in the Fall book was beyond reasonable expectations. Now KLSD is all of a sudden back where it was. Ockham's Razor says the first likely suspect is Arbitron's diarys or sampling method. The change reported in the Post article is just one example of how convaluted their sampling has become, or more precisely the ways in which they fudge their sampling.

 

[mr_arbitron]

There was a comparable drop on ALL talkers.. But I can tell you this for certainty: Bet your money on The Mexican (DST's) and i'm not allowed to say anything more (Ask Gleeson for explanation)

 

[dampier]

Clear Channel's Progressive Talk WLSD, often cited as one of the format's successes, showed a major jump in the fall Arbitrons, breaking a three 12+ AQH share. The just-released Winter book takes away their Fall gains and puts the station's audience back to where it was one year ago. This represents a loss of half their reported Fall audience.

Why are we talking about 12+ ratings, which are largely irrelevent. The advertisers and station people look to 25+ ratings. That is where the story is going to be.