The radio industry is starting to replace the old paper diary method of measuring radio listenership, and replacing it with an electronic system developed by Arbitron. While the new electronic system is providing more accurate information, the new information is starting to point out flaws in basic assumptions about the radio industry. For example, in areas where the new electronic system is available, it has shown that “morning drive” isn’t quite as important as many in the industry had assumed for years.
The old pencil and paper diary system has been in place since the 1960s, and is now widely seen as outdated. For the electronic method, Arbitron enlists a panel in each city to carry around a Portable People Meter (which is a pager-like device). The device picks up audio codes embedded in radio broadcats; these codes cannot be heard by humans. At the end of the day, the user returns the pager to a dock that recharges the battery and sends information to Arbitron electronically. Arbitron then crunches the data from the panel into ratings for each station.
In Philadelphia and Houston, where the new electronic system has completely replaced the paper diaries, the results that have from electronic monitoring has caused confusion over how ads are bought and sold. Some radio companies have already raised questions about the reliability of the new ratings following shortfalls in the amount of collected data. Broadcasters say they want to see improvements in the system before it is deployed in New York later this year. The new system is due to arrive in other major markets, such as Los Angeles and Chicago, early next year. In both Houston and Philadelphia, the usable sample sizes have fallen below Arbitron’s targets, and they are having trouble getting young adults to comply with wearing the pager device all day.
The early results from Houston and Philadelphia has revealed some things about radio listenership that even threw radio veterans for a loop. It turns out that far more people listen to radio than had been previously understood. In Philadelphia, nearly every station has roughly doubled the size of their total listenership under the new electronic ratings system. However, the system has also shown that people tend to switch channels a lot more than was previously known; this meant that the total time listening per person went down, resulting in lower ratings at many stations.
Other information that has come out from the new electronic ratings system: men tend to listen to the radio more than women; working people more than those who don’t; people listen to more radio stations than they had reported in the past; and mainstream formats such as rock, country and soft rock fared better than they had under the diary method.
This information has already caused two stations in both Philadelphia and New York to flip to rock or olides formats. Formats aimed at minorities didn’t fare as well. The electronic system also provides ratings information to stations every month, instead of just four times a year.
