Charlotte Ratings - WEND huge jump

[CLTRadio]

As has been mentioned, Nielsen has had a double PPM problem in the last two years.

First, the pandemic has caused many to drop off the panel. And it has been harder to get new panelists; the reasons why are varied by have to do with people not wanting outside contacts.

Second, the meters are made in Asia. Surprise to all, I am sure. Nielsen has been unable to get new meters for new panel households, so the sample is off in many ways.

The result is more erratic numbers for stations... 4.5 to 5.6 to 4.1 to 5.1 in four months. And, occasionally, some binge listening by a household causes a very strange peak like that of WDAV.

We have to keep in mind that ad agencies look at many combined books and get a feel for trends that are real before making a buy. So month to month wide variations average out, usually at a level that is the station's true rating.

In Diary markets, the issue is different: the slow-down of the USPS has cause many diaries to arrive too late to be "in tab" and are lost. In one market, a top 20 one too, there was a recent period where over a third of diaries were arriving too late to tabulate.

You are correct that there has been problems with a panel shortage and severe weighting. You are also correct that binge listening has caused some recent spikes, like that of WDAV.

I will counter that there have been improvements in the panel numbers and less weighting in the last couple of months in Charlotte. I will also say that WEND is only on their third PD since the station launched in 1995, and he just started in October. There have been some changes on that station, and the increase can be explained. WDAV’s increase could not.

Time will tell if it’s binge listening or some of their changes are paying off.

 

[davideduardo]

I don't know so this is an honest question. Why do they need new meters? Can't they reuse the ones that are turned in? What are they mailing in?

Lots of meters never come back. The panelists may just toss them, not go to the trouble of shipping them back, or the panelists may have dropped out and moved and are no longer reachable.

And the used meters may be in "used" shape... scratched or chipped cases, non-working clips, etc. A household can be on the panel for as long as two years. At that point, the meters are probably not worth using again. And with the pandemic, they have kept some panelist for over two years because of the issues of finding new households and getting new meters.

It's not uncommon for panelists to request new meters during their participation due to wear and damage.

Isn't there a way to submit the information via an internet upload?

When meters are docked each night, they send back their data.

I know some people might not be acquainted with the internet but it would seem like most of those people are well over 50 which we have been told agencies don't care about anyway.

The metered households and the individuals in them are selected to perfectly mirror the market on ages, gender, ethnicity, language usage among Hispanics, income levels, education attainment and even geographic location.

Where I live USPS isn't slow. FedEx Ground and UPS are a different matter.

Nielsen itself has stated that in most markets, diary returns take two to three days more than they did three to four years ago. In some, the delay is as long as 5 or 6 days and that was the case in the market where a high percentage of diaries was not making it to them within the cutoff period.

Remember that the U.S. Mail is only used for diary data return. PPM data is retrieved daily electronically.

 

[gr8oldies]

April ratings for Charlotte. WEND is way up to a tie for #2. Don’t remember a time that they’ve ever been that high.

WLKO 6.7 (5.6)
WEND 6.2 (4.8)
WKQC 6.2 (6.6)
WKKT 5.6 (5.0)
WBAV 5.1 (5.0)


Source allaccess.com

MODERATOR NOTE: I edited out the stations after #5 as the data came from another website. The appropriate thing is to post the top stations, if any at all, and then provide a link to the source.

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Fair enough.

 

[davideduardo]

I will counter that there have been improvements in the panel numbers and less weighting in the last couple of months in Charlotte

And there is the problem: weighting. The PPM system is a panel, not a random probability sample. If correctly done, a panel is built to totally mirror "in miniature" the market and as such there should be NO weighting at all.

If there is weighting in a panel, there is a problem. As the sample is very small, it only works well with a near-perfect proporitionality on all the variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, location, etc.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Today's AC is not yesterday's AC pure and simple but the same can be said about Top 40 and Country. Times change even if our expectations don't.

Today's AC is WLNK.

WKQC is yesterday's AC in more ways than one. Actually, when those songs were popular they were not on AC.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Today's AC is WLNK.

WKQC is yesterday's AC in more ways than one. Actually, when those songs were popular they were not on AC.

Listened for 2 songs tonight. Personally couldn't stand any more. I know the retort, I'm too old. My Mom listened to A/C and she was 78 before she passed away in 1994 and liked many of the songs we played. I'm not that old! A/C has taken a turn and not for the better. I'm surprised anyone listens.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Listened for 2 songs tonight. Personally couldn't stand any more. I know the retort, I'm too old. My Mom listened to A/C and she was 78 before she passed away in 1994 and liked many of the songs we played. I'm not that old! A/C has taken a turn and not for the better. I'm surprised anyone listens.

My aunt who is 90 now didn't like EZ-104 in 1983. I sort of liked music like that, but I wanted something more easygoing. WZXI, which had been AC, changed to beautiful music. Then it was soft AC. And we got WRLX for beautiful music.

Actually, I have this memory of my aunt liking AC, so I don't know.

My aunt who is 75 liked Sunny which I found surprising for someone her age. Sunny is what is now WLNK, so she would have been ... she was about 55 when she moved out of her last house. It was an old logo.