cwkradio said:
How do you get a high ranked station if no one is listening to it? Sorry, guess I must be a little out of date with how PPM works
OK...easiest way to explain it. PPM rewards "incidental" exposure.
Imagine your cellphone can detect a specific sound. In this case a radio signal. You get up in the morning...Pop on the local morning show to find out what's going on with traffic, and they have some movie star on, or they're shilling some concert coming to town. Then, you get in your car to go to work. Pop on the radio, and it's on the station your wife listens to and they're playing a good song, so you keep it on. On the way to work, you stop at 7-11 to get a coffee. There's a radio on in the store. You wait in line to get coffee. Pay for it, get back in the car and go. Your cell phone rings so, you shut your radio off and take the call. It's a nice day, so the window is down on your driver's side. It's a long ride. Perhaps you're going from Granite Bay (because you have a great house) to Orangevale. You've taken surface streets & caught every light. At each light, someone pulls up next to you with their radio on. And you've occasionally been gridlocked and passed in the next lane by several cars. Some of which were playing the radio. You realize you need toner at the office, so you stop at the mall. Walk in and see Panera bread. Decide the coffee you have sucks, and go in to get a better one. Then, over to the office store at the other end of the mall. Passing 2 dozen stores along the way. The office store doesn't have the kind you need, so you hit Best Buy's computer section. On the way you pass through their home entertainment section. With 14 different stations on the receivers. But...you don't stop to listen. you go into the DVD section to grab a copy of "Inglourious Basterds." You snag the DVD, and go to pay for it. Back into the car. Passing a dozen cars gridlocked in the parking lot on your way. Get in the car, fire up the radio again and head to work. When you get there, all morning the guy two cubicles away has the Jim Rome show on (which you hate). But they have the right to listen. So you put on your ipod headphones to listen to what you want to hear while you're working at your desk. Then...lunch comes and you and three friends at work take one of their cars to Granites. You get in and your bud's car has some station on but you guys are shooting it about the MaGoof's latest attempts to block the new downtown arena. 20 minutes in traffic. And you're at Granites. They have the radio on. You guys kill 45 minutes, and consumes 5300 calories and love every bite. Back in the car and back to work. In the cubicle, your co-worker's listening to some other music. Called into your boss's office, he has music on. Then you have an afternoon meeting with a client. Back into the car, you put on the radio for the ride. Hey!...it's your favorite U2 song! Cool! You get to the client's. They make you wait in the waiting room with country music playing. Geez...45 minutes late. Really? You go in and have your meeting. Then back into the car. Radio on. Driving back to the office, top down on the car. Phone rings. You take the call. It lasts all the way back to the office. Back to the cubicle. Co-worker left his radio on when he left. You're done for the day. Felt good. Back into the car and there's a huge accident @ Sunrise & Greenback. You're stuck in it. At least the top's down and you can make calls. So...you do. Finally get home after 75 minutes. Your kid has the radio blasting upstairs. You make plans to hit Mel's for dinner. You play the "penis" game (inside joke for any of my friends reading this). Radio on in the car both ways. Wife hates your music. So you switch to her station and turn it down so it's barely audible while you guys share your day. Hit Mel's, mow down some serious eggs. Then back home, but you stop on the way to pick up smokes & Powerball (Like you need it...you're in Granite Bay!!!).
Do you know what stations you heard today? All of them? Every red light? What they were playing at your client's? Granites? At the 2 dozen stores in the mall? Was Panera listening to the radio? Jeeez...can't really be sure. You know you hate the Jim Rome show. Doesn't matter...you "listened to it" today. Kid's music is terrible. You listened to it. Boss listening to CD or radio? Hmm...no idea huh? You listened to it.
Every radio signal you encountered today was picked up by your cell phone. And
you listened to it.
That's how PPM works. Doesn't matter if you heard it. Or, wanted to hear it.
You listened to it. As long as the meter picked up the signal. That what
you listened to. For years we complained about the diary system. How it could be manipulated. At least the diary system showed
preference. At least you voted for what you liked.
PPM makes radio even more inconsequential by reducing us to the background score music you hear during films. How often do you recall those songs?
Or...here's an alternate scenario. Not quite as long.
Your cellphone records radio signal. But it's also one of those two way walkie-talkies You get up. Attach your cellphone to the dog's collar and turn on KFBK for Fluffy to listen to while she's alone all day. Occasionally two-way contacting Fluffy to say hello and let them know you love her. Fluffy makes her 26 rounds around the house and in-between, lays on the couch and hits the scan button on the remote, and it settles on something else. Then...at some point in the day. Fluffy rolls over and hits the remote and shuts the radio off.
Guess what station Fluffy listened to? For how long? What time did she change the station? Was it an accident? Or, does Fluffy hate Kitty's litter box?
PPM is every bit as easy to manipulate and screw up as the diary system ever was.
And it's costing good people...their jobs.