• 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

Buffalo Phase I Spring Trends Are In

> Comments?
>
Mid-book trends are always dangerous to depend on, or even to give any credence.

A format change will create a temporary sampling spike (watch what Jack does in the NEXT trends) and distort not only the format changer's numbers, but all of its competitors, before more normal and lasting listening patterns set in a few months down the line. And for news/talk stations, the news cycle makes a difference (look at the temporary spike most principal news/talkers enjoyed last year, and look at how they've come back to earth since November). And the potential for skew in any 30 day sampling in terms of diary distribution, response rate or demographic reach can also create the appearance of some strange listening patterns, until the following months' samplings smooth things out over the course of the whole book.

I know Arbitron is just trying to please the stations and agencies who are its customers and want instant gratification---and instant validation for any tweaks made. But the rolling trends, unless they're read over time and taken in full context over months of samplings, can potentially do us a disservice by misleading us about what's really going on.
 
> How can we comment? The trends are embargoed in Buffalo.
> We only see the four books.
>
They'll be reported in the trades. and changes may even be made as a result (and IMHO, any such changes on the strength of one measurement will be a mistake). My own observations were cautionary thoughts about the use of any such info we eventually do get, and we will eventually get some.
 
> > How can we comment? The trends are embargoed in Buffalo.
>
> > We only see the four books.
> >
> They'll be reported in the trades. and changes may even be
> made as a result (and IMHO, any such changes on the strength
> of one measurement will be a mistake). My own observations
> were cautionary thoughts about the use of any such info we
> eventually do get, and we will eventually get some.
>

All this begs the question how accurate are ratings anyway. I know lots of people who have NEVER EVER seen an ARB diary. To think that stations and advertisers base decisions on this is really a joke. A better guage of radio's ad power is how many customers your commercial brings into the store.

Talk about ratings is getting as usefull as a dog chasing its tail. It's fun to watch but I wouldn't want to make any big decisions based on it!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom