turkeydance said:
help a non-radio brother out here....just exactly what do the numbers/book mean?
questions:
1. is this a percentage measurement of the local market radio audience?
2. is this a "weighted" percentage? maybe drive-time counts more?
3. does pod-cast/iHeartRadio/streaming and all that new-fangled stuff count?
4. and How in the World could one *prove* the numbers? says who? who pays for that?
5. finally, after reviewing the numbers, there's a listing of age groups.
personally, i Know of No One from age 7-22 who would voluntarily listen to radio.
why do the rating services even bother? as you might guess....i don't get it.
1 - Yes, that's what the share numbers indicate. Same as the TV ratings, essentially.
2 - AM and PM Drive will always count more for advertisers, but the broad ratings you see posted here are more a measurement of the entire broadcast day.
3 - If a person listens to a station via the internet, I believe they are able to put that in a diary.
4 - Therein lies the problem with the whole arbitron system. PPM will fix that.
5 - Even though that isn't the "money demo", people still like to know exactly who is listening. Example: If a station is trying to slant more towards the 35 year old male and notices a jump in listernship among 22 year olds, they may tweak some on-air content to appeal to an older audience.
BTW, Sniffthamic, what ARE you sniffing? None of those stations are flipping anytime soon. KZL is locked into an old fashioned radio war with 105.7, people have been saying 98.7 was going to flip for about 3 years now and still, Simon stands. And WPTI's numbers are growing as they actually moved ahead of WZTK this book, while WSJS falls even lower.
Seriously, have you ever actually worked in radio before?