Will 96.9 "Beat" up news-talk to go to music?

[Dave Doherty]

I kept a diary years ago. The diary system, of course, measures whatever the
diarists record. Most record their listening as faithfully as they can. But
they are often driving or not in a position to record as they go for some
other reason, so at best the diary is of a memory of the listening.
Sometimes they mess up the call signs or positioners, and the wrong station
gets the credit. It is not a perfect system, by any means. 

PPM measures exposure.  So in addition to your willful listening, when you
are walking through a mall or standing in line at a donut shop, if they have
encoded music in the background, the PPM will pick likely it up, sometimes
when you're not even aware of the music. It is that sensitive. 

In some cases, there is intentional over-reporting in diaries, but that's
the exception. It may be that the ratings shift in PPM away from talk
indicates that was more prevalent for listeners of that format.



-----Original Message-----
From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
[mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On Behalf Of
Laurence Kranich
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 9:19 AM
To: Bob DeMattia
Cc: Boston Radio Interest Mailing List
Subject: Re: Will 96.9 "Beat" up news-talk to go to music?


Ratings problems for all of Boston's talk stations tanked when PPMs entered
the market. With diaries, Severin had been contending for first place in PM
drive, and suddenly he dropped out of the top 10. Similar drops occurred
across the format. 

Does this mean that fans of the shows had been exaggerating their time spent
listening in diaries? Are people who carry meters more likely to favor music
formats? Maybe. I thought from the start that the most radical "black
helicopter" types would fear that the meters were invading their privacy and
refuse to carry them, and this might work against some talk formats.

But most likely, the PPMs are better at measuring what real-life,
button-pushing, casual (and forgetful) radio listeners are choosing, not
what a smaller minority used to scrawl in a diary.

On Dec 12, 2012, at 7:58 AM, Bob DeMattia <bob.bosra@demattia.net> wrote:

> It's not about the format, it's the content.  Using only one locally 
> originated show, WXTK still pulls a 12+ rating in their market.