[BC] (no subject)

[Tom Taggart]

Rich Wood wrote:

"Arbitron doesn't move things around to give stations ratings. They simply survey, calculate and report."

and 

"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."

Hogwash and balogna!

Look at Syracuse, where Arbitrary simply cut out any mention of the stations of a group that didn't subscribe.
In a public release of 12+ figures.

Their message is clear--pay us off, or your business will vanish.

Our competitor bought a county book that made no mention of our Class A--licensed to that county. Our station shows up in adjoing counties, even where there is no real signal. But not in the home county.  Even our rep can't figure that one out. 

Arbitron hands out reports to the agencies at a deep discount.  Since radio advertising ranks just above keeping the coffee pot filled in most big agencies, the little girls just buy what they like, or whatever 12 to 18 demo that is popular at the moment. Arbitron becomes a crutch, a ouija board. 

I will agree that Arbitron's fiction drives advertising--and programming decisions.  Look at KZLA. The No. One and only country station in Los Angeles  The station was profitable, advertisers getting good results.  But the agencies dictated the change to "moving" or whatever because ARbitrary didn't show the demos they wanted. 


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