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Who done it? Arbitron Phase 2 - caught!

DavidEduardo said:
Most cases of what is called "Ratings Distortion and Bias" are not sanctioned, initiated or approved by station management.

What usually happens is that an employee of a radio station is contacted, denies media affiliation, and accepts diaries. When the book comes out, a station may review the diaries (in Columbia) or review the data in PD Advantage or other sources and file a review request with Arbitron. Arbitron will reverify diarykeepers if there seems to be an issue, and if they determine that media households were involved and... only if the change affects the rank of other stations in the market... will reissue the report, tabulated without the offending diaries.

In these cases, it's almost always a staffer who wants to favor "the home team" who commits this violation of Arbitron policy. Some companies will dismiss anyone who does this kind of thing, and nearly everyone posts the Arbitron Distortion and Bias poster in the station.
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One diary, agreed. But, 6 diaries? How do you get control over 6 diaries? A Craigslist ad?

JO
 
Jonny Onthespot said:
One diary, agreed. But, 6 diaries? How do you get control over 6 diaries? A Craigslist ad?
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No. You just say, true or not, that there are 6 people in the household / dwelling unit.

Arbitron uses the household as the measurement unit. When they recruit, they ask about the family / household size, demos and such. And then they send each individual a diary packet and incentive.

While they place diaries for everyone in the family, but they will tabulate the individual diaries even if one or more are not returned. In the PPM, if one family / household /dwelling unit member does not consistently comply, the entire household will be removed from the panel.
 
Well looky there! Ratings re-issued (minus the 6 fraudulent diaries). KJWL drops in rank from top five to almost 20th 12+. KYNO drops in rank from mid teens to 23rd 12+. KFIG drop from 23rd to 25th.

JO
 
Jonny Onthespot said:
Someone rattled Bentley's cage.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/07/09/3381084/local-radio-ratings-redone-to.html
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Well, they got a lot of facts wrong...

" Based on Arbitron's listing of the Fresno market being 771,000 potential listeners, that means 1,542 diaries are mailed out each week."

Actually, there are on average "in-tab" 1,600 diaries per book in the Fresno market. That means 130 or so diaries are returned for each week of the 12-week survey period. Given the return rate for diaries, they probably mail out about 250-300 each week to get the desired returns.
 
Jonny Onthespot said:
Someone spilled the beans as to the residence where the diaries were filled out. The zip code is 93704.

JO
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It's also very possible that Arbitron's internal procedures caused a "callback" once the data was tabulated. Such callbacks are used for everything from ambiguous diary entries and illegible handwriting to abnormal or atypical listening behaviour by a person or household.

It is also possible that a competitor gave Arbitron a WTF call when the trend was released and that further callbacks revealed the undisclosed media affiliation.

It is very, very uncommon for a trend to be re-released. Generally, re-releases are triggered by deeper analysis of full books. Up until Fresno, I had only heard of two other trend reissues in the 43 years that I have been doing diary reviews and following Arbitron (which is not to say there were not others... just to say that they are very uncommon and, based on my experience with one reissue, very hard to achieve).
 
DavidEduardo said:
It's also very possible that Arbitron's internal procedures caused a "callback" once the data was tabulated. Such callbacks are used for everything from ambiguous diary entries and illegible handwriting to abnormal or atypical listening behaviour by a person or household.

It is also possible that a competitor gave Arbitron a WTF call when the trend was released and that further callbacks revealed the undisclosed media affiliation.
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The latter. Arbitron got WTF calls from CC, Lotus, Peak and Univision.

JO
 
Jonny Onthespot said:
DavidEduardo said:
It's also very possible that Arbitron's internal procedures caused a "callback" once the data was tabulated. Such callbacks are used for everything from ambiguous diary entries and illegible handwriting to abnormal or atypical listening behaviour by a person or household.

It is also possible that a competitor gave Arbitron a WTF call when the trend was released and that further callbacks revealed the undisclosed media affiliation.
Click to expand...

The latter. Arbitron got WTF calls from CC, Lotus, Peak and Univision.

JO
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Ok, I can't resist. How do you know?
 
Jonny Onthespot said:
The latter. Arbitron got WTF calls from CC, Lotus, Peak and Univision.
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I'd be willing to bet that UVN only looks at Spanish language FM stations in the trends. Why would either of the "adjusted" stations even be noticed?
 
Jonny Onthespot said:
Anyone want to get this discussion back to the subject of ratings manipulation by a supposedly stalwart, pillar of the community broadcaster? Or, do y'all prefer to pretend you're all fairy god-princess programming gurus? If it's that later, start a new thread (or resurrect one of the 100 other old thread on the subject of a oldies station in Fresno. Sheese, what a bunch of myopic syncophants.

JO
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supposedly stalwart?? by who's definition? Arbitron is as sleazy if not sleazier than music producers. They have been sued, settled, and been in more troubles than I care to google. As I said in a much earlier post, they should change their name to "Arbitration" Here's one I just picked out random from the web http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c...prove-how-it-counts-minority-radio-listeners/

but there are more, MUCH more proofs of arbitron's arbitrary ratings "system" (quotes intentional)

Whenever someone posts the "latest Arbitron ratings" I sneer and snicker.
 
kinphoenix2 said:
Whenever someone posts the "latest Arbitron ratings" I sneer and snicker.
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Yet something like $10 billion a year in radio advertising is placed based on those Arbitron numbers.

Any statistical sample will have a margin of error. But the data is good enough for Coke, McDonalds and P&G to trust, an article about a misguided effort by disgruntled stations not withstanding.
 
kinphoenix2 said:
Jonny Onthespot said:
Anyone want to get this discussion back to the subject of ratings manipulation by a supposedly stalwart, pillar of the community broadcaster? Or, do y'all prefer to pretend you're all fairy god-princess programming gurus? If it's that later, start a new thread (or resurrect one of the 100 other old thread on the subject of a oldies station in Fresno. Sheese, what a bunch of myopic syncophants.

JO
Click to expand...

supposedly stalwart?? by who's definition? Arbitron is as sleazy if not sleazier than music producers. They have been sued, settled, and been in more troubles than I care to google. As I said in a much earlier post, they should change their name to "Arbitration" Here's one I just picked out random from the web http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.c...prove-how-it-counts-minority-radio-listeners/

but there are more, MUCH more proofs of arbitron's arbitrary ratings "system" (quotes intentional)

Whenever someone posts the "latest Arbitron ratings" I sneer and snicker.
Click to expand...
Funny Arbitron story. In the late 90's. When I was working with some guys who were buying brokered time on KFSO 1400, a CC salesperson showed us (I say us cause I hosted one hour a week, other than that I tried to sell spots) how we were the number one AM station with men 25-54 in the Visalia-Tulare-Hanford market. Wow really. I don't remember what that made us overall vs the FM stations, and nobody cared. Art Nugent was doing mornings and 733-1400 would ring off the hook, anytime he asked it to. We knew we had listeners. Jonny B with "Positive Talk Radio" in the afternoons (Thank you so much for that hour on wednesday afternoons) and Bobby Goodsby with Radio Real Estate on the weekends. For the rest of the day a simulcast of "Oldies 92.9" in a city where 92.9 sounds great.

We couldn't believe the good news. Literally, I didn't believe it. We were beating KTIP, KJUG-AM and, KMJ. (KM freakin' J!) with MEN 25-54!

Whatever. Didn't stop me (or any of us) from taking that xerox all over town. Nearly had the Hanford Fox theater as a client. Shortly after cc flipped 1400 to sports. I didn't make any money cause I didn't work for CC.

I would love it if anyone had any history on 1400 in Visalia. I know it was KEY "the Key to the valley" at one time. But that's the most history I know.
 
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