[BC] Rising Ratings and Higher Costs for WJIB

[Rich Wood]

------ At 07:45 AM 2/6/2007, Bailey, Scott wrote: -------

>    Today, stand alone, small town, stand alone, stations are hurting,
>and BMI and ASCAP are not helping. Arbitron will take a "small town"
>station, and throw it into the nearest metro, to give it some kind of
>rating. All this does is drive up cost for the little station, such as
>the music rights.

Really? Show me in Arbitron's methodology where that happens. If a 
station exists in a metro it isn't Arbitron that put it there. If a 
small station has no reportable listening in that metro it isn't 
going to matter. If that small station puts a signal into a distant 
metro and shows up in diaries it's going to be listed in that metro's 
book. Arbitron doesn't move things around to give stations ratings. 
They simply survey, calculate and report. I don't know where you're 
getting your information. Arbitron has no vested interest in giving a 
station a leg up in ratings. If they did such a thing they'd destroy 
any credibility they have. Arbitron uses the same mathematical 
projections that virtually every mathematician accepts.

>Arbitron is the worst thing since Wal-Mart for the small town stations.

Arbitron has been around for decades and its credibility caused 
Nielsen to leave the radio business to concentrate on TV. Good small 
town stations sell based on service rather than ratings. They're one 
of the few places where advertisers can see results by the number of 
people a station brings into their stores. An advertiser that sells 
based on tonnage like Folgers has no real way of knowing which half 
of their advertising sold that can of coffee. A local advertiser who 
sells 12 washing machines as a result of his small station 
advertising is a happy camper who doesn't care about ratings.

While there have been many disputes over Arbitron's methodology 
changes over the years I see them as a neutral provider of 
information. That information is considered credible enough to drive 
most of the advertising decisions made in the industry.

Your scorn is misplaced.

Rich


Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-454-3258