A. You're assuming the NY or Philly station wouldn't pay to show up on the NJ market list.
Well, you can look at the new local market ratings and see for yourself, only the few local stations are listed. The big metro stations have never paid to be listed in the local ratings before, and there is no reason to believe they would want to now. They sell advertising spots with prices based on their total metro audience. They have nothing to gain by paying to be listed against "local" stations in embedded markets, like Morristown, or Middlesex-Somerset-Union, or in smaller adjacent markets like Sussex, Trenton, or parts of Monmouth-Ocean.
B. You're forgetting the AC/CMC market where there's almost virtually no overlap of Philly stations, and NO NY stations
You're right, it would have been more accurate to say "some" NJ "public" lists have become irrelevant. AC/CMC don't really have outside signals coming in with big numbers, but even some local stations may disappear from those lists because they don't subscribe for the full data. There are many AMs and a couple of FMs that no longer show in the New York ratings because they don't subscribe, chances are some lower budget stations in AC/CMC don't subscribe either.
C. Who is it irrelevant to? The board hopping, radio-phile? I fail to see who would think it irrelevant from the station or advertiser standpoint.
Remember, this change is for "publicly reported data," what's often referred to as "the beauty contest" 6+ 6-AM to Midnight.
Both the subscriber stations and advertisers should be using the full data base that they pay to use. That breaks out age demos, day parts etc. And that's how spot buying decisions are made. Using the free public data to help sell radio spots is illegal.
What has become irrelevant, especially in the local markets, is the "beauty contest" data that was made available free to the press and general public.
The best example is the embedded Morristown market in North Jersey, 25-miles from NYC, where most people regularly listen to NYC radio.
The local ratings will now be reported only for the "two" local stations that subscribe just for that market. So if you want to know what kind of music people in the area listen to on the radio, or what type of talk formats they follow, that is now a Big Secret.
There are embedded suburban markets in NJ where the #1 station is often from New York. Now that fact will be another Big Industry Secret. And when news outlets are writing stories on the popularity of various kinds of radio in local areas, they will only be able to authoritatively say "the most popular local station" because "the most popular station in the area" will be a trade secret and not made public. And the "most popular station in the local area" could come from New York or Philly which isn't "local."
So, if you used to have a list of 50-radio stations that people in an area listened to and now that list is down to only "two" or "three" or "four" stations that transmit locally, the information really is irrelevant. And some of these local stations were far down on their local lists all along, and now they will be number four even if almost no one is listening, because only four stations count.
It's not just the "board hopping, radio-phile" who is interested in radio ratings. There are numerous newspaper stories and columns, website blogs, and other news outlets that report on radio ratings regularly. If the public lists are only partial then they can't be accurate, and there's a greater chance that the public will be mislead or feel deceived. For years Arbitron has understood that the public relations situation benefited them and the radio industry, it would be interesting to know "why" they feel the need to kind of "cover up" now?
