After decades of what many in radio and advertising have considered to be an outdated system of surveying listenership, local radio ratings will never be the same!
Last
New Jack City: Radio Ratings Shake Up About to Begin
After decades of what many in radio and advertising have considered to be an outdated system of surveying listenership, local radio ratings will never be the same!
Last
Bees
Good story Jack, It will be VERY interesting to see what the real results are, although I am sure there will still be naysayers who debate WHOM GETS THE PAGER …. actaully; how do they decide who gets the pagers? not that I want one, (heck I dont even like keeping the same blog name let alone be tracked by a device; ), but who/how/where do they decide whom gets a pager?
This reminds me of what happened when record sales went to real time cash register sales versus written reports back in the 90s.
The results were that country music came of age. Before realtime reporting the rocker dudes in music stores under reported country sales, after the system change, country went mainstream, and it still is to this day I am still sad about that because I deeply dislike country music almost as much as I dislike rap crap, I am a rocker, but that is another tale.
ManDshagger
Jack: What if I’m at one of my rental properties and the plumber is listening to KFKF and the carpenter is listening to THE ROCK….not all that unusual in my business. What’s the PPM gonna do?
sean
Good scoop. Beat the KC STAR, Business Journal gateway city radio even bottom line com with this one.
jojo
JACK…stop living in a cave. Media people have known for decades the ratings were bogus. The only people who cared were the 25 year old media
buyers who bought radio without researching the
market and the client.
I imagine you using invalid information. i WOULD
NOT HIRE YOU AS MY AD AGENCY. If you worked from
the ratings then you are out of touch.
The ratings are so outdated and unreliable and
if you are just realizing this then you need to
move into the new decade.
Analyzing which media to buy is about 35% ratings, 20% qualitative research, 20% market
research via outside sources, and the rest analyzing your customer base on about 100 different criteria points to fully determine the
exact makeup of your potential customers.
The radio stations with good ratings love you.
Your clients are probably now out of business.
jojo
jack…this is not a scoop. Anyone who is in the
marketing business knew this over a year ago.
Its old old news.
Stick to movies and movie reviews and that
phony accent.
Bess
fkU jojo, Jack is great, this story is great. HOW ABOUT YOU STICK TO THE SPORTS THREADS YOU FKN WHINEY BITCHY PMS soocer mom posing as ,,, whatever the fk it is you are posing as.
sally
Message to jojo. That’s one of the dumbest replies I’ve ever read. I have dealt with Jack’s ad-pub biz in the past and he’s always been on top of it. He knows what he’s talking about. You sound like a loser to me.
His PPM story may not be news to media types but it is to the general public. So congrats to Jack for breaking it.
As to his accent it’s real. If you didn’t know it he is a refugee from the old east germany.
I believe he escaped with his family from the communist country and they immigrated legally.
Now jojo do the dishes and watch As the World turns. Bet you can’t wait for Dancing with the stars either.
Beatbox
Here’s some PPM info from someone who really knows, not from a guy who talks movies on one or two stations a week and calls himself a radio insider, but THAT’s for another story.
The PPM has about the sensitivity of the human ear. If you can hear it, the meter will hear it. The question about conflicting signals was a good one. In this case the meter will choose the stronger of the two and record that for listening.
Unfortunately the winners and losers may not end up so topsy-turvy. The minority broadcasters story is a good one to follow. In markets where they ran the diary and PPM concurrently for a book there is concrete evidence where a minority listener wrote in the diary that she listened to her P1 station from 8:15a-5p. In the meantime her PPM showed that she actually listened to FIVE stations in that time and didn’t even listen to the radio between 10:15a and 2p. However, when Al Sharpton and these other minority broadcasters got hold of this and saw their numbers drop due to recording of ACTUAL listening as opposed to PERCEIVED listening, they sued until Arbitron weighted the numbers and put the minority broadcasters back on top! Keep watching this story, it will only get more interesting.
A few other points: there is no longer a TSA (or Total Service Area). Arbitron is only concerned (as radio operators should be) about the 10 county metro. In fact, if you are a PPM panelist your meter will stop recording when it has moved 50 miles beyond your base station (and yes, it knows where it is in proximity to its base).
By the way, panelists are in for a much longer period of time than they were under the diary method. Arbitron is trying to increase their incentives to encourage participation for one to two YEARS. And the entry method is the same: Arbitron must contact you first, gain your consent, then admit you to the panel. They claim a 6% turnover rate, month-to-month.
But people who are on the no-call list, don’t return the calls, or plain say no are still unaccounted for. To Arbitron’s credit they ARE finally admitting cell phone only households, which will get a better look at the younger end. However, watch as radio operators still spin the numbers as PPMs get in the “wrong hands” (i.e. – people who don’t listen to MY station) and yet the broadcasters are stuck with lower ratings longer because people are in the panel longer!
This is an interesting story. Let’s just see where it leads.
jimbo
Thanks for the detailed info on PPM’s Beatbox but did you have to rag on Jack for reporting the story? What’s your beef with him? He never claimed to be an insider. He simply reported on the new way of gathering listening data across the country and now in Kansas City. I found his story interesting.
mermaid
Jojo you think you’re f..ing perfect don’t you? You think you go to all the right parties and all the right events. You think you’re smarter than everyone- writers and bloggers. But you know what I think – I think you’re a straight up wanna be asshole with a little wing wang and you try to make up for it by trying to outdo everyone and put everyone down. Do you drive a yellow Corvette too?