Who Determines What Places Comprise Radio Markets ?

[Steve Green NEPA]

... and the boundaries of such markets?

Arbitron? Nielsen? The Department of Commerce ? Other ? Pulse? Hooper ?

* * * * * * * * *

Here is a county-by-county map of the US.

http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/arb_us_metro_map_11.pdf

(There's a little '+' tool that slides out from the right side of the screen to help zero in on a market, or a state. I have to click the '+' button maybe a dozen times to magnify all of the counties within a market)

I was just curious as to how various cities and regions got to claim the outlying places that are used for radio ratings (and perhaps for other ratings).

Tia !

 

[AMRocks]

I always find it interesting that, in some cases, the TV market is very very different from the corresponding radio market. For example, in Greenville SC, the radio market is Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson, yet the TV Market includes Asheville NC.

And then there are the unique markets that all sort of blend together like Miami/Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach/Boca or Washington DC/Baltimore.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Yessir. Balt-DC are two distinct radio markets. I don't know or care about TV, though ; I never watch it unless I'm in some bar where they have it on.

I'd always figured that the original mold for markets was determined by the reach of television stations. They were mostly omnidirectional at the start, back when it'd been exclusively a VHF dial. WGAL ch 8 from Lancaster PA, for example, seemed to be advertised on the front page of every Broadcasting Yearbook I ever saw.

And if I recall reading correctly, the very early radio ratings were designed not to gauge individual stations as much as they followed the penetration of *network* programming. So perhaps the *radio* markets in the same general area were adjusted in part to reflect the behaviour and migration of listeners who responded back then to all of those newer directional AM stations?

Radio-wise, we live in apparently-unrated Schuylkill County PA ('SKOOK-ull'). I understand that there is some indifferent methodology distributed here (diaries, most likely) but that it counts only toward the ratings of adjacent books, like Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and Allentown.

As you might deduce, I know very little about the composition of markets, despite having spent 26 years in radio. I was merely asking how/why/by whom radio markets have been defined. No doubt, someone here -- maybe EVERYBODY here -- can provide an explanation.