NEW YORK ARBITRON RATINGS: MARCH 2011

[pjc1961]

http://www.radio-info.com/markets/new-york

Age 6+ overall publicly released data for the March 2011 period of Thu. 3/3/11 to Wed. 3/30/11.
Next report will be for April 2011 (Thu. 3/31/11 to Wed. 4/27/11) with the release date of Mon. 5/16/11.

Vince Santarelli's column from Examiner.com with details & demo breakouts: http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/march-ppm-s

 

[ansky212]

Nice to see WKMK continued to move up and increased cume by an additional 20,000.

 

[davideduardo]

Nice to see WKMK continued to move up and increased cume by an additional 20,000.

Unless part of a sustained trend, 20,000 cume persons is well within the margin of error ("wobble") inherent in the PPM survey. Look at how much the "top" stations vary from week to week or book to book!

 

[ansky212]

Unless part of a sustained trend, 20,000 cume persons is well within the margin of error ("wobble") inherent in the PPM survey. Look at how much the "top" stations vary from week to week or book to book!

Well they gained 20,000 cume between Jan and Feb, and an additional 20,000 between Feb and Mar. I would say that's a trend. If that's considered margin of error then the PPM's really need to be fixed.

 

[mary]

I love that wcbsfm is getting higher, but sad that the age is only to 54 I am older then that. I love the music!!

 

[davideduardo]

Unless part of a sustained trend, 20,000 cume persons is well within the margin of error ("wobble") inherent in the PPM survey. Look at how much the "top" stations vary from week to week or book to book!

Well they gained 20,000 cume between Jan and Feb, and an additional 20,000 between Feb and Mar. I would say that's a trend. If that's considered margin of error then the PPM's really need to be fixed.

Using a stable station within the top 5 in 12+, WHTZ, we see over the last 8 books that the cume has been as high as 4.70 million and as low as 4.08 million, a difference of 620,000 persons. Yet the rolling average of 3 or 4 months is relatively constant.

A very low rated station... one with a 0.3 share... can vary by +/- 30% or more. WKMK has had cumes from 156 thousand to 208 thousand over the same 8 months. The three most recent months are quite a bit lower than October, November, December and Holiday, so there may be a stabilization, but not an uptrend.

Any survey is designed to get the optimum results for the amount of money spent. Radio can not pay for significantly larger samples, and the existing wobbles or margins of error are acceptable for the sale of advertising. Since stations like WKMK, with a 0.2 to 0.3 share in the NY market, are not likely to be selling off the NY book, then the higher degree of wobble at the "bottom of the barrel" is not important.

 

[BJSteigner]

I love that wcbsfm is getting higher, but sad that the age is only to 54 I am older then that. I love the music!!

Radio needs to get rid of the "age demos" and put out an "open demo" targeting all and not the age groups.

 

[davideduardo]

Radio needs to get rid of the "age demos" and put out an "open demo" targeting all and not the age groups.

That would be wonderful for radio stations...

But it's not up to stations, it is up to advertisers. If there is essentially no money being spent by advertisers to reach persons over a certain age or under a certain age, then how can stations be expected to get rid of age targeting of programming. And to get rid of advertiser targeting by age, you will have to convince them not to design specific products for specific segments of the market.

This isn't the "you can get a Model T in any color, as long as it's black" era any more. Goods and services are designed for specific ages, ethnicities, genders and lifestyles. Media that specifically reaches the target are used to sell them.

 

[oldies76]

Radio needs to get rid of the "age demos" and put out an "open demo" targeting all and not the age groups.

Agreed....many people over 55 have to be listening to CBS-FM, especially the 60's segments.

 

[davideduardo]

Agreed....many people over 55 have to be listening to CBS-FM...

On the business side of radio, that observation is irrelevant. If there are no advertisers that want to reach people over 55, then having those listeners is of no use at all.

 

[BMR]

Agreed....many people over 55 have to be listening to CBS-FM...

On the business side of radio, that observation is irrelevant. If there are no advertisers that want to reach people over 55, then having those listeners is of no use at all.

Are there really no advertisers *at all* interested in that demographic?

I would have thought 55-65 'empty nesters' would make quite appealing customers for some products.

 

[davideduardo]

Are there really no advertisers *at all* interested in that demographic?

For 55+? Essentially none and definitely not enough to sustain a radio station, even in a bigger market.

 

[BMR]

Are there really no advertisers *at all* interested in that demographic?

For 55+? Essentially none and definitely not enough to sustain a radio station, even in a bigger market.

That's slightly different from the UK then. London's Smooth FM changed formats a few years ago specifically to target older listeners.