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Gaming The Ratings

J

JustPastBuffalo

Used to be PDs and air talent stayed awake at night cooking up ways to game the rating system. Arbitron, Birch, Pulse, Hooper....

Now it's the listeners who are doin' the home cookin'.

http://harkerresearch.typepad.com/radioinsights/2011/03/arbitrons-perverse-ppm-panelist-incentives.html

Buffalo and Rochester are not yet PPM markets. Maybe 2012. Many stations in Buffalo were wired in 2008 for PPM on air and streaming, but pulled the units and returned them to Arbitron. Given the issues with PPM measurement and the methods used by some panelists to game the system, the diary may actually better serve broadcasters, especially in medium and small markets. At this point and from here on out, is it possible to accurately measure radio listening such as it is today?

Many of us remember the slide rule nomographs in the back of every Arbitron book and sometimes calculating the margin of error, wherein a station with a 12 share and a competitor with a 10 share could conceivably be tied given the variables applied.

Arbitron, it seems, devises methods to keep itself in the revenue game as much as to measure radio listening, however inaccurately, imperfectly or dubiously. I know the shortfalls of the diary, but this report (and previous reviews by knowledgeable sources) doesn't make inspire trust the PPM any more than the diary.

Accounts such as those mentioned in the link are mildly amusing but disconcerting, especially when we consider how ratings affect so many peoples' lives and livelihoods.
 
Pastrick --- et al

Your reference to the ratings warms the cockles of my heart. Suffice to say...I have always always been on record as to my concerns you mention. Arbitron makes $$$, people lose jobs. (bygones)
I don't care how high tech you get...GOOD radio is just GOOD radio!!

Nuff said

HDBG
 
Ratings will be very closely analyzed for the next two books as the suits @ Entercom Buffalo advise their sales reps to saturate the market if WECK's numbers don't improve when compared to what WBEN and WGR pull in for ratings.

Likewise, Riter and whoever he will have selling for him will be trying to figure out some way of convincing their current advertisers and potential new advertisers that "people are listening but they just aren't reporting it."

Let the games begin...
 
The "art" of radio programming has been about gaming the ratings for decades. Now, Arbitron has made it attractive for respondents to game the rating for monetary gain. And you wonder why advertisers have a "Herb Tarlek" response to radio sales people?

Good radio sales people sell results. Bad radio buyers base their choices on bad numbers. It's still guy more to do with listener's perception of stations more than it does their actual listening habits. If you're gonna attach the PPM to a ceiling fan, you still pick a station to turn on while it's whirling away in an empty room.
 
New station promotional item: Bobble-Heads with no heads, just a slot for the meter. They'll have a huge surge in listening during an earthquake, even if they don't have news departments to cover the story.
 
How many sales reps does WECK/WLVL currently have employed?

Is it Brad's goal to hire more to get out there and hustle and sell some new spots?
 
GeorgeKramer said:
How many sales reps does WECK/WLVL currently have employed?

Is it Brad's goal to hire more to get out there and hustle and sell some new spots?
Click to expand...
It's not Brad's call to do anything about hiring sales people and hustling. That's Dick Greene's bailiwick with assistance from Dave Polito, his Sales Manager. Program directors design a product, make sure all the moving parts work properly, hire and mentor the staff and make decisions about promotions and programing. Some experienced pros here will read the preceding sentence and laugh. Inside joke. Glad I could brighten your day. With the exception of GMs and owners like Savage, Bittner and Dave Mance who are experienced programmers, most GMs don't understand programming or the concept of what attracts potential listeners to a radio station, but will put shows like swap shop, tradio and ask the plumber on so many small town stations. In an age of Craig's List, eBay and Google, those features don't attract many listeners, but they make some money. Here's the WLVL rate card (subject to negotiation and discount.) The WECK rate card isn't available on line. Considering WECK has a better signal in Buffalo and Erie county, you'd expect the rates to be higher than those for WLVL, but WLVL has been an established and recognized station in Niagara county for so many years, it may have more stable rates than WECK.
 
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