KLQB...how about those ratings?

[newhampshiredude]

Station Group Owner Format Fa'06 Wi'07 Sp'07 Su'07 Fa'07
KLQB-FM Univision Regional Mexican 0.0 1.9 4.6 3.0 6.0

How does that happen? I have seen other starnge ratings things like this for spanish stations before, but to from nothing, to towards the bottom of the pack, to near the top, back down again, and then at the top is a really interesting pattern.

Can anybody from the area tell me why this happend?

 

[captex]

it might be seasonal, when people are in austin and when they on vacations. thats my quess on all the stations in austin.

 

[davideduardo]

Station Group Owner Format Fa'06 Wi'07 Sp'07 Su'07 Fa'07
KLQB-FM Univision Regional Mexican 0.0 1.9 4.6 3.0 6.0

How does that happen? I have seen other starnge ratings things like this for spanish stations before, but to from nothing, to towards the bottom of the pack, to near the top, back down again, and then at the top is a really interesting pattern.

Can anybody from the area tell me why this happend?

KLQB is a new station in the Hispanic market. It went on towards the end of the Spring book, so most of the 1.9 it had was from the final 5 weeks of Spring. The Summer book was wobbly for many Spanish stations, but rather unpleasant for KLQB. It has apparently hit its stride in fall, though, with the biggest part of the numbers coming from the Piolín show in the morning... the same show that is #1 in places like LA and San Francisco, too.

 

[Huff]

Station Group Owner Format Fa'06 Wi'07 Sp'07 Su'07 Fa'07
KLQB-FM Univision Regional Mexican 0.0 1.9 4.6 3.0 6.0

How does that happen? I have seen other starnge ratings things like this for spanish stations before, but to from nothing, to towards the bottom of the pack, to near the top, back down again, and then at the top is a really interesting pattern.

Can anybody from the area tell me why this happend?

That's a little deceiving, since the 104.3 frequency had a 4.0 in the Fall 2006 survey when it was still KXBT. But it is true - KLQB has gone from nothing to #1 in less than a year.

 

[davideduardo]

That's a little deceiving, since the 104.3 frequency had a 4.0 in the Fall 2006 survey when it was still KXBT. But it is true - KLQB has gone from nothing to #1 in less than a year.

But the KXBT numbers went to the historic tracking of 104.9, making KLQB a new station for Arbitron.

 

[Huff]

That's a little deceiving, since the 104.3 frequency had a 4.0 in the Fall 2006 survey when it was still KXBT. But it is true - KLQB has gone from nothing to #1 in less than a year.

But the KXBT numbers went to the historic tracking of 104.9, making KLQB a new station for Arbitron.

Absolutely - I'm not arguing that fact at all. Just stating that there was listening on the 104.3 frequency in the Fall '06, that's all.

 

[davideduardo]

Absolutely - I'm not arguing that fact at all. Just stating that there was listening on the 104.3 frequency in the Fall '06, that's all.

I got that. Just wanted to clarify that Arbitron moves history with calls if the format stays the same and there is a frequency swap. So the 104.9 history prior to the swap is actually the 104.3 numbers. It's the standard policy, too.

 

[yeahIwasinradio]

Are the hispanic diaries still weighted like they were 6 years ago? I remember several years ago, we had a Spanish station come out of nowhere, and it turned out it was 12 people in East Austin who put that they listened to that station all the time. Just wondering if hispanic diaries are still weighted like they used to be.

 

[davideduardo]

Are the hispanic diaries still weighted like they were 6 years ago? I remember several years ago, we had a Spanish station come out of nowhere, and it turned out it was 12 people in East Austin who put that they listened to that station all the time. Just wondering if hispanic diaries are still weighted like they used to be.

No diaries are weighted unless the cell(s) they represent are under or oversampled.

If Hispanics are 20% of the market, 20% of the diaries should come from Hispanics. If there is an under or oversample, each diary is weighted up or down so that the diaries in each cell (age, sex, ethnicity, geography, language preference) are totally proportional to the market.

The only reason why any diaries are weighted is to put the cell they belong to into proportionality. The reason why this has to be done is that diary returns are only broadly predictable, and the small differences between returns and proportionalty have to be made up for by means of weighting.

A simple example is a market with 50% men and 50% women. If 100 diaries come back from men, but only 90 from women, then each woman diary has to be weighted up by about 11% to make the sample proportional at the 50/50 level. Of course, the same could be achieved by weighting male diaries down by 10%... but the reason is the same: each cell is proportional in the total sample.

What you describe is wobble... the occasional fluky result for a station based by heavy users or, sometimes, lack of any heavy users in a sample period.

 

[MMtP]

KLBQ and KHHL went on air and told their listeners how to fill out an Arbitron diary. Couple that with Arbitron changing the way they weight their diaries (to appease BMP), and you have this book. I'm not opposed to Arbitron fixing their weighting strategies, but telling your listeners how to fill out their diaries is f%^&ing cheating, plain and simple.

 

[davideduardo]

KLBQ (sic) and KHHL went on air and told their listeners how to fill out an Arbitron diary. Couple that with Arbitron changing the way they weight their diaries (to appease BMP), and you have this book. I'm not opposed to Arbitron fixing their weighting strategies, but telling your listeners how to fill out their diaries is f%^&ing cheating, plain and simple.

1. Neither station instructed listeners how to fill in diaries.

2. Weighting is not a "strategy" but, instead, a way of achieving proportionality for small imbalances in the returned diary sample. Proportionality procedures have not been changed since 1965.

3. Two years ago, Arbitron added "language dominance" to the stratification variables for Hispanics in about 25 markets where such data is avaialable for purchase from Nielsen, and with the consent of the MRC. Language preference simply insures that, book to book, the representation of Hispanics is also proportional on the subsets of that group based on language and that neither is misrepresented.

4. BMP has not caused any change in Arbitron procedures.

 

[MMtP]

1. Neither station instructed listeners how to fill in diaries.

...not according to BMP sources. They decided that their arbitron showings were low because their listeners didn't understand how to fill out a book, and set about teaching them.

You may be right about arbitron not changing their weighting strategys, but BMP did go to them and complain that their audience wasn't fairly represented. Same thing they did a year ago. You can't tell me that a station DOUBLED their listeners in three months - not saying that they should be lower or higher - adding or dropping a point or two is believable...When Arbitron is this 'fluky' and being use it as a benchmark, there's something wrong.


I'm one of the few radio-people who can't WAIT for PPMs - hopefully they're more consistent and accurate.

 

[davideduardo]

...not according to BMP sources. They decided that their arbitron showings were low because their listeners didn't understand how to fill out a book, and set about teaching them.

Believe me, if they had done this, any number of other stations would have reported them to Dave Wilinsky at Arbitron.

In any case, diary keepers know how to fill in diaries. Each Hispanic houshold's diaries is bilingual, and has full instructions and examples, and an instruction page is included with each diary packet. Besides that, after sending the diaries, there is a followup call to see if they came and are understood, plus a start of diary week call, a weekend call, a midweek call and a send them back call. At each call, diarykeepers can ask questions.

You may be right about arbitron not changing their weighting strategys,

Weighting is not a strategy, it is a procedure used in all polls so that over or under samples of any cell within the survey universe is projected into the universe in proportion to the number of people, as a percentage, in each cell. Arbitron does not do weighting any differently than any of hundreds of research companies in the country and world.

In any case, any change in procedure by Arbitron requires MRC approval or the survey loses its accreditation, The diary survey procedures are the same in every market Arbitron surveys (except Puerto Rico which has much lower landline penetration and no recognized demographic databses).

but BMP did go to them and complain that their audience wasn't fairly represented. Same thing they did a year ago.

An Arbitron person once told me that there are three kinds of clients: happy ones who went up and do not complain, satisfied ones who did not change and do not complain, and unhappy ones who went down and complain. Or, when a station goes up, it is good programming, and when it goes down, it is a bad Arbitron sample.

The fact is that BMP has had fairly consistent ratings for KHHL, while the rimshots wobble like mad, just as all rimshots do because, inside a county, there is usually no geographic quota by area of the county. If in one book, a rimshotter gets lots of diaries in the area they cover, they go up. If the sample favors weak signal areas, it goes down.

In the last year, of course, they have had new competition. That is not Arbitron's fault.

You can't tell me that a station DOUBLED their listeners in three months

Which station? It is very common for stations that change talent, format or signal to double or triple.

- not saying that they should be lower or higher - adding or dropping a point or two is believable...When Arbitron is this 'fluky' and being use it as a benchmark, there's something wrong.

Rimshots bounce a lot, as stated. And Austin is a small market with a small sample, and that adds tons of margin of error.

I'm one of the few radio-people who can't WAIT for PPMs - hopefully they're more consistent and accurate.

The system does not work yet. We will not know until they fix the system and get MRC accreditation, which is a long way off. And Austin will not be a PPM market till 2010 or 2011 now. Keep in mind that Austin now has about 2000 diaries per book, but there will be only about 650 PPM panelists for the market.