• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Washington/Baltimore? Or Just Baltimore?

P

Pattern.Guru

How much is Baltimore still a separate market, or is Washington gradually smothering and absorbing it?

Even though Baltimore is still a separate MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) according to OMB, and remains its own Arbitron radio market and Nielsen DMA, many people and organizations around the country seem to consider Baltimore not really a separate market.

Even here at RadioDiscussions, this is a combined Washington/Baltimore board; no separate board for Baltimore at all.

In examining the latest publicly-released Arbitron rankings for the two markets, I count 27 stations shown in the Washington Metro report, and 24 stations in the Baltimore report.

My manual comparison shows an overlap of only 2 stations shown in each
WAMU-FM whose COL is Washington, DC (#1 Washington, #16 Baltimore)
WGTS-FM (#15 Washington, #19 Baltimore) whose COL is Takoma Park, MD which is DC market (Prince George's County)

So, one question I have is how reflective these results are of real-world listening patterns in 2013?
Is it accurate to conclude that there is very little overlap? Or is it just an artifact of the Arbitron system, and maybe there is a lot more cross-listening than is reflected in the reports?

The OMB has the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area, which evidently means there is enough commuting to create this CSA, but not yet enough to combine them into a single MSA.

So, I am asking you Bawlmer people, do you agree with Frank Deford that you remain a separate and distinct Big-League Town, or have you become like Fort Worth to Dallas, or San Jose to San Francisco?
 
Pattern.Guru said:
How much is Baltimore still a separate market, or is Washington gradually smothering and absorbing it?

Even though Baltimore is still a separate MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) according to OMB, and remains its own Arbitron radio market and Nielsen DMA, many people and organizations around the country seem to consider Baltimore not really a separate market.

Even here at RadioDiscussions, this is a combined Washington/Baltimore board; no separate board for Baltimore at all.

In examining the latest publicly-released Arbitron rankings for the two markets, I count 27 stations shown in the Washington Metro report, and 24 stations in the Baltimore report.

My manual comparison shows an overlap of only 2 stations shown in each
WAMU-FM whose COL is Washington, DC (#1 Washington, #16 Baltimore)
WGTS-FM (#15 Washington, #19 Baltimore) whose COL is Takoma Park, MD which is DC market (Prince George's County)

So, one question I have is how reflective these results are of real-world listening patterns in 2013?
Is it accurate to conclude that there is very little overlap? Or is it just an artifact of the Arbitron system, and maybe there is a lot more cross-listening than is reflected in the reports?

The OMB has the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area, which evidently means there is enough commuting to create this CSA, but not yet enough to combine them into a single MSA.

So, I am asking you Bawlmer people, do you agree with Frank Deford that you remain a separate and distinct Big-League Town, or have you become like Fort Worth to Dallas, or San Jose to San Francisco?
Click to expand...

The reason you only see two stations overlapping is because the public ratings do not include non-subscribing stations. Most Washington stations do not subscribe to the Baltimore book and vice versa. Those two stations are non-commercial and are licensed to show publicly in any book by virtue of a national licensing arrangement with the Radio Research Council.
There is significant overlap of DC stations in Baltimore, with nearly a dozen Washington stations pulling at least a 1.0 share on average. Far fewer Baltimore stations show in the Washington book, with much lower listening levels.
Is Washington a more dominant market than Baltimore? Yes, but Baltimore is not to the point where listening to Washington stations has diluted its own identity as a market. Nor do stations market themselves to both markets, as the case is with Dallas/Fort Worth, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Greenville/Spartanburg, Seattle/Tacoma, etc...
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom