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Herald: It's Mrs.DePetro

Blackroc said:
http://www.bostonherald.com/jobfind...ed_in_ratings_scandal/srvc=home&position=also
Hardly a surprise, the explanation is a bit weak, but may be the best they can do?
Click to expand...

A BIT weak? She...and he...knew precisely what they were doing. They're both as phony as a three-dollar bill.

Arbitron phone calls to recruit diary households always begin with the question: are you or any member of your family media-employed? Whoever answered that question lied about it. It also strains credibility to believe that he knew nothing about it.
 
Wow, I could understand a single diary, but six?

Then again, if they told the "truth" as we're speculating, DePetro would be fired and the station probably embargoed regardless. This is the best pile they can throw back at the fan, but DePetro is now permanently damaged goods. Will he make it to September? If he's not been fired yet, well, he might make it.

Now who's the more ethical morning show, DePetro or Tommy Taxes?
 
dumber than a box of hair said:
Blackroc said:
http://www.bostonherald.com/jobfind...ed_in_ratings_scandal/srvc=home&position=also
Hardly a surprise, the explanation is a bit weak, but may be the best they can do?
Click to expand...

A BIT weak? She...and he...knew precisely what they were doing. They're both as phony as a three-dollar bill.

Arbitron phone calls to recruit diary households always begin with the question: are you or any member of your family media-employed? Whoever answered that question lied about it. It also strains credibility to believe that he knew nothing about it.
Click to expand...

Wiki says he is married with 3 kids. That makes 5 individuals living in his household. Granted, some of his kids may be under 12 but will
use Chinese Olympic age rules and let that one slide. So, was the wife requesting one extra diary for the family pet or the undocumented, non-English speaking babysitter/cleaning lady/landscaper?

Yes, he is using the wife excuse as a shield. His career and reputation is at stake, not hers. He's done. Good-bye.
 
Blackroc said:
http://www.bostonherald.com/jobfind...blamed_in_ratings_scandal/srvc=home&position=
Click to expand...

Why is everyone giving Arbitron a free pass on this fiasco? Let's assume that whoever falsified his or her identity for the purposes of the survey was smart enough to give an address with a different "apartment number" for each of the six "people" who received a diary. That would still mean that Arbitron provided diaries to six "people" who lived in what Arbitron would have had to believe was one building (a six-unit apartment building that was, in fact, a single-family house). It makes no sense that Arbitron should have furnished diaries to six people who lived in the same building--even if the company honstly believed that each one lived in a different apartment and thus that no two were members of the same household.

Having six people who live in the same building as part of a total sample that had to be less than 100 should pretty obviously invalidate the claim that the sample was statistically representative of the market population. And BTW, it would make no difference if the survey had used the PPM or diaries. If Arbitron can send diaries to six people that it believes live in the same "apartment" building, it can also send meters to six people who live in the same building. Given the small size of the sample that is being used to represent the market population, I very much doubt whether Arbitron could justify sending meters to six people who live in the same apartment bulding in New York City, where the sample size would be several times the size of the Providence sample!

The radio execs (and I'm not referring just to radio execs in Providence; I mean radio execs nationwide) who let Arbitron get away with this nonsense should get together and sue Arbitron over its use of what appears to be obviously flawed sampling methodology. The problem is deeper than the accuracy of diaries; the problem is what appears to be a totally invalid sampling method!
 
Arbitron may have it's share of problems, but I feel confident in saying that Depetro has much more serious problems to deal with now.
 
DanStrassberg said:
The radio execs should get together and sue Arbitron over its use of what appears to be obviously flawed sampling methodology. The problem is deeper than the accuracy of diaries; the problem is what appears to be a totally invalid sampling method!
Click to expand...

This is what you get throwing all your eggs in one basket. Radio and its advertisers have put way too much faith in this system, despite knowing its shortcomings. If 'PRO is smart, DePetro will be taken off the air. Maybe give him a different job, but definitely take him out of the talk show arena.

Okay, for the DePetro supporters, say it WAS his wife. Should he divorce her, for having such little faith in him that she thought fudging the numbers was the only way to keep his show alive? Is that the only way he can get his credibility back???

I'm kidding, of course, but this is just ugly. It says a lot about Arbitron AND DePetro.
 
Here's the question to ask: what, if any, cost to WPRO has DePetro incurred through this fiasco?

I don't mean potential cost, I mean real dollars. If the advertisers all scream that WPRO cannot be trusted and they're not going to pay the ad rates WPRO wants...? Then yes, DePetro is toast. If only a handful complain, or possibly none at all (as Dan points out, Arbitron deserves some blame here, too) then despite his relatively weak numbers, he's not so bad that he's not worth keeping around. On the other hand, if mgmt feels his numbers aren't all that great to begin with, they might fire him because he's not worth the potential embarassment. But, you can just as easily turn that around and say that his numbers will improve (under the theory that there's no such thing as bad publicity).

I do find it interesting that his wife is willing to be thrown under the bus on this. Either she and him are exceptionally pragmatic and loyal to each other, or John's really gonna be in the doghouse tonight! (j/k) ::)
 
A caller to Howie's show right now (he says he works in local radio too) says that Arbitron can sue
The Independent Wife for falsifying a diary...
 
aaronread said:
Here's the question to ask: what, if any, cost to WPRO has DePetro incurred through this fiasco?

I don't mean potential cost, I mean real dollars. If the advertisers all scream that WPRO cannot be trusted and they're not going to pay the ad rates WPRO wants...? Then yes, DePetro is toast. If only a handful complain, or possibly none at all (as Dan points out, Arbitron deserves some blame here, too) then despite his relatively weak numbers, he's not so bad that he's not worth keeping around. On the other hand, if mgmt feels his numbers aren't all that great to begin with, they might fire him because he's not worth the potential embarassment. But, you can just as easily turn that around and say that his numbers will improve (under the theory that there's no such thing as bad publicity).

I do find it interesting that his wife is willing to be thrown under the bus on this. Either she and him are exceptionally pragmatic and loyal to each other, or John's really gonna be in the doghouse tonight! (j/k) ::)
Click to expand...

WPRO is damned lucky they weren't listed "below the line" (alongside the out-of-market stations) or de-listed altogether for the Spring book. If they had been, the damage probably would have been enough to insure Depetro's immediate firing.

As it is, it's still possible they'll boot him out the door. They may not have his replacement lined up yet.
 
What he did is ass ad as Barnicle the Xerox copier. They are both disreputable dirt bags who should forever be banned from the field of public communications. Why would any audience pay attention to people who have proven beyond ANY doubt that their words cannot be relied upon to be true? Why would any outlet want them? Any of us who have worked in the field should subscribe to the old axiom, "We enter this field with two things; our word and our b**** and we never break either of them."
 
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