BOSTON HOLIDAY 2010 PPM RATINGS

[onair]

Just released: http://www.radio-info.com/markets/boston
Any big surprises? WODS on top, WROR in 3rd with the Ho Ho Ho's

 

[Laurence Glavin]

WBZ-FM has a considerably higher cume than WEEI-AM, but a lower raw rating. What a puzzlement.

 

[Deleted User]

Anyone notice the WODS stream pulled a .3?

 

[onair]

I wonder if that was their Christmas Stream or their "Oldies" Greatest Hits stream?

 

[DToTheJ]

If it was listed as "WODS-HD2 Stream" then it might be the "greatest hits" one.

 

[jlehmann]

If it was listed as "WODS-HD2 Stream" then it might be the "greatest hits" one.

They didn't move the "greatest hits" to the HD2 during Christmas, that was WROR. They continued to run their Soft AC "The Cove."

 

[Eli Polonsky]

How many stations have separate PPM encoding for their streams?

I'd have thought that any listeners to a stream of a stations main programming would end up being rated for the main station, along with the on-air listeners.

 

[Don Juannn]

How many stations have separate PPM encoding for their streams?

I'd have thought that any listeners to a stream of a stations main programming would end up being rated for the main station, along with the on-air listeners.

I know that most of the stations I have dealt with have had separate encoding that identifies the stream differently than the over-the-air broadcast.

Remember, this is used by buyers and advertisers to find the reach of spots purchased....and if people are listening to the stream, they are not listening (typically) to the same spots that are run over-the-air.

 

[thetheo]

WBZ-FM has a considerably higher cume than WEEI-AM, but a lower raw rating. What a puzzlement.

My guess is WBZ-FM sees good chunks of listeners for Pats games that don't come back during the week. So their cume for the period is nice and high, while regular daily listenership isn't as high.

Obviously those cumes still effect the ratings somewhat, but I'll be interested to see what they are in a book or two with no Pats. Bruins help sure, but really a more solid daily lineup would help even more (remove Felger and Gresh and maybe I'd listen).

 

[thetheo]

Also keep in mind these fabulous PPM numbers that Arbitron somehow has an entire industry of people going life or death off of are a sampling of less than 1/10th of 1 percent.

Last I saw there were somewhere between 1000-3000 meters out there.

To tell the world what 4 million people in our market are listening to.

8th grade statistics tell you that's not nearly a good enough sample to really come up with "ratings" yet an entire industries formats, jobs, ad rates, etc are based off of it for some reason.

Do I expect them to have 200,000 meters out there, no. But anything under 5000 isn't even trying. 10-20K may START to produce a decent sample size, and start to throw out some anomalies that happen in these books.

But with them being the only ratings system in town, and the Clear Channels and CBS' of the world willing to just let them do it their half-assed way, why would they even try to do better?

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

How many stations have separate PPM encoding for their streams?

Arbitron requires it. Any programming transmitted apart from the main-channel on-air programming (i.e., Internet streaming or HD secondary) requires separate encoding. In order to show up in the ratings, each audio stream must meet Arbitron's minimum reporting requirements, just the same as the main on-air audio.