"Write it down."

[westlife]

92.5 WXTU in Philadelphia is currently using the liner "92-5, 'XTU... write it down." Isn't that against Arbitron rules?
<P ID="signature">______________

"This is the New York Emergency Broadcast System satellite channel. They took the crosstown bus."</P>

 

[miamimadman]

No question!. Next some nice man will hand out prizes to the staffers who play his Records the most. Who own's "XTU?

> 92.5 WXTU in Philadelphia is currently using the liner
> "92-5, 'XTU... write it down." Isn't that against Arbitron
> rules?
>

 

[gr8oldies]

Used to be pretty popular to use that line. Don't know if its against the rules, at any rate its gone out of fashion.
<P ID="signature">______________
..from the Ball Park Franks sponsored gr8oldies keyboard...</P>

 

[Spozate900]

> No question!. Next some nice man will hand out prizes to the
> staffers who play his Records the most. Who own's "XTU?
>
> > 92.5 WXTU in Philadelphia is currently using the liner
> > "92-5, 'XTU... write it down." Isn't that against
> Arbitron
> > rules?
> >
>

Beasley owns WXTU.

 

[davideduardo]

> 92.5 WXTU in Philadelphia is currently using the liner
> "92-5, 'XTU... write it down." Isn't that against Arbitron
> rules?

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

This is the link for Arbitron's PDF on Ratings Distortion and Bias.

Generally, unless there is a closer reference to diarykeeping and writing down "extra" listening, there is no prohibition per se in using the write it down phrase. However, in context, it can be very borderline and result in a variety of Arbitron actions, ranging from a note on the station's line in every report, a drop below the line or delisting.
>

 

[ChrisTheListener]

> 92.5 WXTU in Philadelphia is currently using the liner
> "92-5, 'XTU... write it down." Isn't that against Arbitron
> rules?
>

Wow.
First of all, thanks, David, for the rules. And thanks, westlife, for bringing this up. I love to listen to radio, and I love this kind of behind the scenes stuff.

Hey, how do you become a diary-keeper?

~CTL<P ID="signature">______________
"Welcome to radio-info.com...where we hate everything!!!!! You people are radio's equivalent to the two old guys in the balcony on the Muppet show!"
~FoReal?</P>

 

[davideduardo]

> > 92.5 WXTU in Philadelphia is currently using the liner
> > "92-5, 'XTU... write it down." Isn't that against
> Arbitron
> > rules?
> >
>
> Wow.
> First of all, thanks, David, for the rules. And thanks,
> westlife, for bringing this up. I love to listen to radio,
> and I love this kind of behind the scenes stuff.
>
> Hey, how do you become a diary-keeper?

Arbitron recruits people to be diary keepers by calling them on the phone. To do this, they use commercial databases with random order sorts. To supplement, they do random digit dialing to get unlisted phones. There is no way to ¨volunteer.¨

 

[JohnnyMorganWXJX]

> Arbitron recruits people to be diary keepers by calling them
> on the phone. To do this, they use commercial databases with
> random order sorts. To supplement, they do random digit
> dialing to get unlisted phones. There is no way to
> ¨volunteer.¨

I'm too lazy right now to look it up, but was Arbitron and the like (Neilsen, et al.) exempt from the Do-Not-Call list requirements? I know political orgs (Congress protecting their own) and charities were exempt. I wonder if there was a similar exemption, with blessings of the FCC, for ratings orgs.

 

[davideduardo]

> > Arbitron recruits people to be diary keepers by calling
> them
> > on the phone. To do this, they use commercial databases
> with
> > random order sorts. To supplement, they do random digit
> > dialing to get unlisted phones. There is no way to
> > ¨volunteer.¨
>
> I'm too lazy right now to look it up, but was Arbitron and
> the like (Neilsen, et al.) exempt from the Do-Not-Call list
> requirements? I know political orgs (Congress protecting
> their own) and charities were exempt. I wonder if there was
> a similar exemption, with blessings of the FCC, for ratings
> orgs.
>

Polling and surveys with no further attempt to sell is an exempt activity. What the legislators put in was something that prohibites a call asking you if you liked to ¨use the telephone¨ and then went into a pitch for calling services. Only polls with no other objective are exempt.

 

[westlife]

> No question!. Next some nice man will hand out prizes to the
> staffers who play his Records the most. Who own's "XTU?

Here's another questionable liner I heard them use today:

"If anyone asks, you listen to 92-5, 'XTU."

<P ID="signature">______________

"This is the New York Emergency Broadcast System satellite channel. They took the crosstown bus."</P>

 

[miamimadman]

I remember in Los Angeles, (San Fernando) KGIL 1260 using the line "If anyone asks you, TELL them you listen to KGIL in the Valley". That was many years ago, but I believe this was deemed inappropriate by Arbitron's guidelines at the time.

Now what if they don't subscribe to Arbitron, would this make a difference?


> Here's another questionable liner I heard them use today:
>
> "If anyone asks, you listen to 92-5, 'XTU."
>

 

[davideduardo]

> > No question!. Next some nice man will hand out prizes to
> the
> > staffers who play his Records the most. Who own's "XTU?
>
> Here's another questionable liner I heard them use today:
>
> "If anyone asks, you listen to 92-5, 'XTU."
>

That would likely be considered a methodology mention by Arbitron. It requests listeners to take an action that is not necessarily true or does not describe the real listening.

 

[DoctorWu]

> Used to be pretty popular to use that line. Don't know if
> its against the rules, at any rate its gone out of fashion.

I was gonna say... brings back memories of the late '70's for me

- Doc