Re: One Newspaper's Tale on Arbitron

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 23:12:23 -0500, "Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net> said:

> Good points.  In Portland, there are only two surveys per year so the
> numbers do sometimes vary significantly from book to book.

What is very common in smaller markets with only a few full-market
signals (think of a hilly two- or three-county market with a few
heritage B/C FMs and a bunch of recent drop-in As) is that the ratings
of the smaller stations will vary significantly with diary placement.
Particularly in markets 100+, the placement of just a few diaries in
the hands of fringe households can make a significant difference in
the ratings of a smaller station.  (I recall that NERW has in the past
noted full-point swings in some of the Southern Tier, N.Y., markets
that can be clearly explained by diary placement.)

-GAWollman