HD Radio on the Way Out?

[yeoldeschool]

Well, here is one. I have the TV on in the background all the time that I am working, because about 80% of the WorldRadioHistory job is repetitive and boring.

Anybody archiving old radio publications should be listening to old radio programming.

Mystery Play Internet Radio - https://mpir-otr.com/
- Stream 1: Comedy - http://s3.voscast.com:8454/
- Stream 2: Mystery - http://s4.voscast.com:7080/
Antioch Broadcasting Network - https://radio.macinmind.com/
- Stream 1 - http://208.115.216.90:8000/listen
Yesterday USA - http://yesterdayusa.com/
- Stream 1: Red Network - https://media.classicairwaves.com:8020/stream
- Stream 2: Blue Network - https://media.classicairwaves.com:8018/stream
- Stream 3: Stay Tuned America - https://classicairwaves.com:8020/sta.mp3

Come to think of it, somebody with a massive personal collection of high quality, untelescoped airchecks should start a stream that plays them 24/7 the way streamers like these play OTR programming 24/7.

 

[davideduardo]

Larger markets use PPMs which is a more accurate method of quantifying audiences.

The old diaries were largely works of fiction, only providing a vague picture of reality.

Having been involved as "consultant" to Arbitron when they introduced their service in Mexico, I saw at the street level the diary process.

The biggest "problem" with the diary was not inaccurate entries in the diaries... it was that people tended to do a great job of showing what they listened to each day. But they rounded off times. "2 PM to 4 PM" instead of, really, 2:11 PM to 3:46 PM, with a 20 minute break around 3 PM to go for coffee.

When I was on the committee with Nielsen, Arbitron, and radio and TV representatives, we all got weekly CDs of the test results in Philadelphia and, later, the data for the "real" diary survey of the market. The two looked very similar... but: people in the diary survey tended to write in the listening to their "most favorite" stations accurately, but they often neglected writing down shorter listening periods to those secondary stations they might listen to just once or twice a week.

The PPM showed that "hidden" listening, and that was the principal cause of differences between the PPM and the diary.

 

[davideduardo]

The accuracy of ratings is overseen by the MRC, an outside firm.

And the Media Ratings Council is a non-profit entity assembled initially after FCC investigations into ratings about 65 years ago. It is primarily a group of people who come from the ad agency side of the advertising business, with a few from broadcasting. It has a full-time staff, all qualified in areas of statistics and procedures.

 

[blindowl1234]

That is an inaccurate interpretation of how the written diary system worked. In fact, a family or person recruited to fill in the diary was only "active" for 7 days, during which the would write in a detailed "diary" type booklet what they listened to , when they listened, and where they listened.

Studies have shown that the vast majority of participants give responses as accurately as they can.

The methodology is accurate enough to be accepted by an industry group made up mostly of people from the advertising industry... the ones who used that information to invest millions of dollars in radio ad buys.

In the biggest markets, Nielsen now has a "panel" that can have families / households participating for up to and sometimes over 2 years. Measurement is done by a passive device that detects what is being listened to through the detection of sub-audible codded data streams which can be broadcast as many as 12 times a minute, all day long. Participants get quite significant incentives.

Google AI says:

The Nielsen Personal Meter, also known as the Portable People Meter (PPM), works by detecting hidden audio codes embedded in broadcast audio signals from TV and radio stations. Panelists wear the device, which logs the codes to measure media consumption. The data is then sent to Nielsen, which combines it with other households' information to generate ratings.



How it works

• Audio-coding: Radio and TV stations embed inaudible, unique codes into their broadcasts.
• Detection: The wearable meter detects these codes in real-time when worn by a panelist.
• Logging: The device records which station was being listened to and for how long.
• Data transmission: The meter transmits the collected data to a base station at home, which sends it to Nielsen nightly.
• Data analysis: Nielsen combines the data from all participating households to create audience ratings for TV and radio.

How it's used by participants

• Wear the meter: To be counted, the participant must wear the device throughout their day.
• Keep it on: A blinking green light indicates the meter is working and recording.
• Charge it: The meter is placed on a base station overnight to charge and upload data.
• View messages: Tapping the screen allows participants to check messages and see how many points they have earned.
• Earn rewards: Participants earn points for consistently wearing the meter, which determines their monthly payment.
• Personal use: Each person in a participating household receives their own meter, and it is important to not use someone else's device.

I got the diary in the mail a few times many years ago. I know how it worked and how people could just make stuff up too. I know a few that did too

 

[K.M. Richards]

I got the diary in the mail a few times many years ago. I know how it worked and how people could just make stuff up too. I know a few that did too

And the people in Columbia MD know how to detect diaries that are suspect. Arbitron knew how to detect them as well.

I remember one incident, many years ago, where someone (not an employee, thankfully), showed 16 hours of listening every day during the diary week, alternating between the Top-40 AM and the Beautiful Music FM. That was an easy one for the old Arbitron personnel to cull out ...

 

[yeoldeschool]

And the people in Columbia MD know how to detect diaries that are suspect. Arbitron knew how to detect them as well.

I remember one incident, many years ago, where someone (not an employee, thankfully), showed 16 hours of listening every day during the diary week, alternating between the Top-40 AM and the Beautiful Music FM. That was an easy one for the old Arbitron personnel to cull out...

In my teens and twenties, I would often go on all-day caffeine fueled coding benders, alternating uninterrupted between Classical 105.1 and Arrow 93 whenever the commercial breaks bounced me. They probably unknowingly threw out a bunch of "deep focusing" computer programmers' diaries.

 

[davideduardo]

In my teens and twenties, I would often go on all-day caffeine fueled coding benders, alternating uninterrupted between Classical 105.1 and Arrow 93 whenever the commercial breaks bounced me. They probably unknowingly threw out a bunch of "deep focusing" computer programmers' diaries.

Most of the analysis of diary entries is automated now, as is the input of the data itself. But in the past, each diary and every entry within was entered by hand.

When manual tabulation was done, the staff had very strict procedures on what to do with imprecise entries. Things like names, slogans, dial positions, alternate spellings of station names, names of personalities and the station they "belonged to" and the like had specific handling.

Even cases where a person put "FM 98" and there were two local 98's, they had a formula to allocate in proportion to each station's historical share.

And if a person wrote in "Bill Stevens Rock 98" where Bill was on a different stations, they allocated the information.

Back then, if an entry was still confusing, they had operators who called the diary keeper and clarified. They did this in part to establish additional clarification rules for each market.

Today, it's all OCR and only if the system can't follow a rule do they manually check a diary. I don't know if they call if the computer can't figure it out. But this is a case where AI likely does better than "live" tabulators as it can instantly find the most likely solution.

 

[Lukeradio09]

Now an update to this thread over the past 5 years people have listened to FM/AM Radio. HD Radio isnt dead yet as new ones are forming (Like KPAC San Antonio And my Local KISV-FM) It is growing slowly as more people stray away from streaming

 

[mnw1890]

HD Radio is basically dead in Boston. A number of radio stations have eliminated their HD2 and HD3 signals due to monetary constraints.

 

[cc333]

HD's not so hot here in the SF market either, but last I knew, KOIT had an HD2 and HD3.

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