Houston-Galveston Radio Ratings: June 2013

[pjc1961]

AllAccess June 2013 PPM Ratings Analysis including top 5 in 25-54, 18-34 + 18-49 (scroll down for Houston-Galveston):

http://www.allaccess.com/arbitron-p.../june-ppm-analysis-for-houston-washington-d-c

 

[Mediafrog+]

If CBS is gonna make any of there stations a real rock outlet it better be KLOL. Sorry CBS but I think Univision and Liberman got it covered lets at least make it an English station already.

Rock 101 has been gone for nine years, and the audience has changed and moved on. Let it go. Hispanic targeted formats are a growth market. Rock 101 was a creaky shell of its former self in its last days.

Liberman may not be long for the radio world, so Mega 101 should stay put.

Legendary call letters such as these should be in the top 5.

Outside of radio geeks, nobody cares about call letters, "legendary" or not.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

There are Houstonians, that still don't know that 92.1 isn't airing gospel music, or for that matter classical.

I can't help but think that any format other than the current news would rate higher. With nothing to lose - why don't they try oldies?

 

[stan]

There are Houstonians, that still don't know that 92.1 isn't airing gospel music, or for that matter classical.

I can't help but think that any format other than the current news would rate higher. With nothing to lose - why don't they try oldies?

Oldies needs to go on 100.3 or 101.1. Of course, Houston already has oldies on 104.1 HD2. ;D

 

[bturner]

Granted oldies might produce higher numbers, it seems All News, much like Sports Talk, does well financially regardless of Arbitron 6+ numbers. We need to keep in mind 6+ numbers really don't tell the story. You can have low 6+ numbers but be strong in your target demographic.

Oldies is something I'd like to hear as well but since all stations on the dial can't be at the top of the heap, it boils down to revenue and revenue potential.

It would be interesting to know if News 92's monthly operating expenses versus revenue makes sense. My initial thinking, as uninformed as it is, is that News 92 is making it financially.

 

[mikerichardson]

I wonder, how often are the PPM tones transmitted? I couldn't find any information. I assume they're transmitted continuously, or very frequently - but if the transmission is infrequent, that might skew the results for a station such as KROI.

 

[mikerichardson]

Update: This article seems to reveal a lot of information http://rbr.com/a-technical-look-at-arbitrons-ppm-system/

My understanding of the article: Certain types of audio, perhaps, a male announcer's voice (such as on KROI), allow for fewer usable "channels" available for encoding the tones. With fewer of these channels, there is less tolerance to a noisy listening environment, that is, a moderate amount of noise (such as a car on the freeway with the AC on) might be enough to temporarily interfere with the successful reception and decoding of enough tones to identify the station. If you combine this problem with perhaps the listening habits that might be unique to KROI (one may tune in for just 10-15 minutes at a time to get the headlines and then tune elsewhere for the rest of the time), then it seems possible that legitimate ratings could be lost.

I'm not a radio or audio engineer or anything, I studied computer science, so I only really understand one factor of several here, but it seems possible to me. Is it really happening? I don't know the ratings of other all news on PPM in other markets.

You could argue that, well, the AM talkers have good ratings, Rush Limbaugh is a male announcer, but then I would say that listeners of those shows probably tune in for a much longer duration, which would increase the chances of enough tones getting through.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I wonder, how often are the PPM tones transmitted? I couldn't find any information. I assume they're transmitted continuously, or very frequently - but if the transmission is infrequent, that might skew the results for a station such as KROI.

I think it was David Eduardo that mentioned on one of his posts a while back that the encoded data is sent every five seconds.

 

[davideduardo]

I wonder, how often are the PPM tones transmitted? I couldn't find any information. I assume they're transmitted continuously, or very frequently - but if the transmission is infrequent, that might skew the results for a station such as KROI.

I think it was David Eduardo that mentioned on one of his posts a while back that the encoded data is sent every five seconds.

Close. It's a 4 second data burst, and can repeat as many as 13 times a minute as long as there is enough audio to mask the data.

A detection only needs to be made once in each of five discreet minutes in a quarter hour period to give a station credit for the quarter hour. Arbitron also gives credit for "missing minutes" such as the case where a detection might happen at 4:07, 4:09 and 4:11, all to the same station and no other station was detected in the intervals. In this case, 4:08 and 4:10 are given to the station and the station gets the full quarter hour credit.

Similarly, if a single detection is made at 4:01, 4:05, 4:08, 4:12 and 4:15, that's five discreet minutes and the station gets credit for that quarter hour.