Ratings Question

[ronkaram]

Driving home from work, I enjoy the Clark Howard show on KTLK. For those unfamiliar with him, he talks about and takes calls dealing with comumer problems. He's on 5-7 PM. I know when he says its 29 minutes after the hour, there will be commercials until 37 minutes after the hour, so I turn off my radio, watch the clock and turn it back on after the commercials are over. When he says its 49 minutes after the hour, I know there will be commercials untill 55 mintues after the hour and so I turn the radio off again. When its 59 minutes after the hour, I know his show is over. So out of 31 minutes, my radio is turned off 15 of them. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this. When someone who has a people meter does this, I would think that his *** would look bad and it looks like people are only listening to him half the time when in reality they are listeneing to his entire program. When management decides whether to keep or dump a show, how would they determine how popular he is.

 

[davideduardo]

When someone who has a people meter does this, I would think that his *** would look bad and it looks like people are only listening to him half the time when in reality they are listeneing to his entire program.

I hope you mean "cume," right?

Cume is the total of all people who listen to a show (in a particular age group) in a particular daypart. To be part of the cume, one has to listen to only 5 out of any 15 minute period. There is both daily cume and weekly.

I think you are really asking about whether tuneout for periods of time during a show cost the show what is known as "Average Quarter Hour" audience, expressed as average persons, AQH share or AQH rating.

Arbitron uses the quarter hour as the smallest measurement of time. If a person's meter detects a particular station for 5 consecutive or non-consecutive minutes in a quarter hour 00 to :15, :15 to :30, etc.) they get full credit for the quarter hour.

So, if in any quarter hour you listen for 5 minutes or more, the station gets credit for that 15-minute interval. Your tuneout has no effect.

When management decides whether to keep or dump a show, how would they determine how popular he is.

Generally, by the average number of persons listening during the shows hours... AQH persons (share and rating are just different ways of expressing this). And they would look for several books, probably.

 

[ronkaram]

Driving home from work, I enjoy the Clark Howard show on KTLK. For those unfamiliar with him, he talks about and takes calls dealing with comumer problems. He's on 5-7 PM. I know when he says its 29 minutes after the hour, there will be commercials until 37 minutes after the hour, so I turn off my radio, watch the clock and turn it back on after the commercials are over. When he says its 49 minutes after the hour, I know there will be commercials untill 55 mintues after the hour and so I turn the radio off again. When its 59 minutes after the hour, I know his show is over. So out of 31 minutes, my radio is turned off 15 of them. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this. When someone who has a people meter does this, I would think that his cume would look bad and it looks like people are only listening to him half the time when in reality they are listeneing to his entire program. When management decides whether to keep or dump a show, how would they determine how popular he is.