Monmouth/Ocean ratings rant

[JerseyShor]

WAYV is one of the VERY FEW FM stations strong enough to get CLEARLY on a walkman inside the big box stores (K-Mart/Wal-Mart/Kohl's/etc.) on Rt. 72 in Manahawkin, BUT according to Arbitron, NOBODY is listening.

The #4 rated station is Adult Contemporary WLTW. WLTW is over 80 miles from Little Egg Harbor. WFPG-FM has the exact same format, is 50,000 watts and just 15 miles away, but WFPG-FM doesn't even show up. People in Tuckerton can pick up WFPG-FM on thier kids' braces yet according to Abritron NOBODY is listening.

The station rated #9 is WAXQ, a station transmitting from over 80 miles north of Beach Haven. HOWEVER, nobody is listening to the 50,000 watt Classic Rock station less than 10 miles away (WMGM).

According to Arbitron, WHTZ has well over a 2 share.
WHTZ is over 70 miles from Manahawkin and over 80 miles from Tuckerton.
WJRZ is pumping out 3,000 watts on 100.1 from Forked River.
WPHI is cranking out a Class B FM signal from 55 miles away ON WHTZ'S FREQUENCY.
WHTZ has a 2.6!!! How can that many people in Ocean County be strugging through bleed over from WJRZ and co-channel interference from WPHI be listening to WHTZ?!

Monmouth/Ocean ratings are a JOKE. Any advertiser that uses these ratings is a moron.

 

[westlife]

> WPHI is cranking out a Class B FM signal from 55 miles away
> ON WHTZ'S FREQUENCY.
> WHTZ has a 2.6!!! How can that many people in Ocean County
> be strugging through bleed over from WJRZ and co-channel
> interference from WPHI be listening to WHTZ?!

First of all, as you darn well know, the "Monmouth/Ocean" market is largely Monmouth-centric. They really should have split Ocean County in half, with the upper half going to the Monmouth book and the lower half going to the Atlantic City book, but I don't know if Arbitron allows counties to be split.

And anyway, you should be so lucky.... there are some NJ counties which have no direct Arbitron market representation whatsoever.

Also, as I understand it, if you live in Ocean County and commute to NYC to work, and listen to NYC radio stations there, then your ratings would be counted towards the Monmouth/Ocean book if you were doing an Arbitron survey. So that's why you see NYC FM stations in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA book, which is much too far for direct reception of any NYC FM signal to be possible, except with serious "DXing" equipment.

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"This is the New York Emergency Broadcast System satellite channel. They took the crosstown bus."</P>

 

[MikeD]

If ya wanna get picky about it (and I can tell that you do)... Atlantic Highlands is in the same market, and from there you can see the tower for WLTW & WHTZ (Empire State Building). While standing there looking at WLTW you're just about 80 miles from WFPG.