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Boston Radio Ratings September 2018.

RKO up a little bit, probably because

1. they dumped ramsey; 2. k0000nah was on vacation; or 3. there were a lot of holidays so the regular morning crew wasn't on the air
 
freqlost said:
https://ratings.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb013


WHJY FM makes an appearance in the low numbers.
When was the last time that happened ?

I wonder if they changed something ?
Look at all the out of market stations at the bottom.
Click to expand...

WHJY, along with many of the major Providence stations, regularly shows in the lower reaches of the Boston ranker. In fact, over the last two years, July 2018 was the only month in which it did not register.
 
Tomgsinger said:
WXLO has more listeners than WBOS. An obvious sign that alternative on 92.9 needs to stop.
Click to expand...

How so? WXLO is a city-grade signal in much of Metro-West, and it programs the safest, most mass-appeal format there is. Probably nearly as many fans of adult contemporary music in Metro-West alone than there are fans of the dry, rattling husk of current rock that alt represents in the entire market.
 
Don't know what Beasley would put on 92.9 instead of alternative. If it bills OK it may stay. It's the backup station for play by play conflicts. Does it have college age listeners?

--
Spinal Tap:
Ian Faith:
The Boston gig has been cancelled...

David St. Hubbins:
What?

Ian Faith:
Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town.
-------------------
Are college students included in ratings surveys? I remember reading many years ago that the old WCAS 740 had many college age listeners, and "if they were ever included in
ratings surveys, Time magazine may wind up beating a path to WCAS' door"...
 
raccoonradio said:
Are college students included in ratings surveys? I remember reading many years ago that the old WCAS 740 had many college age listeners, ...
Click to expand...

I was one of them, even had my dad send me reels of 'CAS on tape for me to listen to at Syracuse!

Good question about college students and ratings. A ratings household is supposed to include all members of that household -- but what if mother, father, little sister and little brother are in Portland or Pittsburgh or Pasadena, but the eldest child is away at BU or MIT? Do the parents send a meter out to the kid, or is he a non-person when the family's listening is tallied for the ratings?
 
What I'd heard was "should we count someone who's from out of town and temporarily living in the area while they go to school?"
 
TheBigA said:
My understanding is the household thing only applies to TV, not radio. And I believe one needs to be a permanent resident.
Click to expand...

PPM is household based (and called a "dwelling unit"), and unless all members of the household participate, the household is not integrated into the panel; non-compliance by any member(s) of the household causes the entire unit to be removed from the panel.

The diary is more flexible.

Since the desired and, also, maximum time on the panel, is two years, transients such as short-term or seasonal residents are not purposely recruited.

Descriptions of Methodology going back 22 years at https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Arbitron-Market_Maps.htm
 
DavidEduardo said:
PPM is household based (and called a "dwelling unit"), and unless all members of the household participate, the household is not integrated into the panel
Click to expand...

So they all get meters to wear? I thought because one had to wear a meter (vs the TV meter being on the set), it was based on individuals, not households. The household doesn't listen to radio as a group.
 
DavidEduardo said:


PPM is household based (and called a "dwelling unit"), and unless all members of the household participate, the household is not integrated into the panel; non-compliance by any member(s) of the household causes the entire unit to be removed from the panel.

The diary is more flexible.

Since the desired and, also, maximum time on the panel, is two years, transients such as short-term or seasonal residents are not purposely recruited.

Descriptions of Methodology going back 22 years at https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Arbitron-Market_Maps.htm
Click to expand...

Then what of my example? Household, er, dwelling unit in a PPM market -- say, Pittsburgh -- is selected to participate in the Nielsens and all occupants thereof are given their meters and instructions on what they're supposed to do with them. At the time the "unit" is selected, all four occupants are residents of Pittsburgh. Three months into Nielsen participation, though, big brother is accepted to Harvard and heads off to Massachusetts three months after that, stays there for the next six months -- minus holiday vacation -- then comes home for the summer. My question is simple, and one that you did not answer directly: Does big brother take his PPM to Cambridge and have his listening to WBOS, WXLO or whatever else he listens to there count in the Boston ratings? Or does big brother's leaving the Steel City for the Hub of the Universe to further his education immediately disqualify his entire family from Nielsen participation and everybody turns in their meters and slinks off in total disgrace and shame?
 
TheBigA said:
So they all get meters to wear? I thought because one had to wear a meter (vs the TV meter being on the set), it was based on individuals, not households. The household doesn't listen to radio as a group.
Click to expand...

The PPM is an adaptation of the panel methodology of statistics gathering. The basis is the household, and household size is a stratification variable.

Each person gets a meter. Each person has to "use" or wear it enough time to be "in-tab". Collectively, the family gets points for usage and they earn premiums and compensation.
 
CTListener said:
Then what of my example? Household, er, dwelling unit in a PPM market -- say, Pittsburgh -- is selected to participate in the Nielsens and all occupants thereof are given their meters and instructions on what they're supposed to do with them. At the time the "unit" is selected, all four occupants are residents of Pittsburgh. Three months into Nielsen participation, though, big brother is accepted to Harvard and heads off to Massachusetts three months after that, stays there for the next six months -- minus holiday vacation -- then comes home for the summer. My question is simple, and one that you did not answer directly: Does big brother take his PPM to Cambridge and have his listening to WBOS, WXLO or whatever else he listens to there count in the Boston ratings? Or does big brother's leaving the Steel City for the Hub of the Universe to further his education immediately disqualify his entire family from Nielsen participation and everybody turns in their meters and slinks off in total disgrace and shame?
Click to expand...

If the household unit changes, such as a child going away to college, joining the military or getting married and moving out, that person is no longer part of the household. The meter is deactivated, and the household size is changed. They won't go back on the panel if they come back home for vacation, and they can't be members if living semi-permanently in another market as all ratings are locally based.

Being away on vacation or work travel does not exclude a person from being on the panel. Some people doing "overnighters" may carry the meter, others may leave it behind (it has to be charged daily) but Nielsen has procedures to adjust the panel day-by-day for the existing "in tab" number of meters.
 
Last edited:
raccoonradio said:
-------------------
Are college students included in ratings surveys? I remember reading many years ago that the old WCAS 740 had many college age listeners, and "if they were ever included in
ratings surveys, Time magazine may wind up beating a path to WCAS' door"...
Click to expand...

In the diary, where people are only surveyed for a week, semi-permanent residents like those at college, can get in the survey. However, they have to be "locatable" by Nielsen in order to send them diaries. In other words, a fixed address for address-based recruiting and/or a local phone number for phone based recruiting. Most students are not in one place long enough to get into the system that allows them to be recruited... and that has been a diary issue for decades.
 
BOS only needs to dump their morning show and play some more uplifting Alt and they will be fine.


Huff said:
WHJY, along with many of the major Providence stations, regularly shows in the lower reaches of the Boston ranker. In fact, over the last two years, July 2018 was the only month in which it did not register.
Click to expand...

OK thanks.

Must be having a geezer moment because I don't remember seeing HJY or COD before.
 
DavidEduardo said:


In the diary, where people are only surveyed for a week, semi-permanent residents like those at college, can get in the survey. However, they have to be "locatable" by Nielsen in order to send them diaries. In other words, a fixed address for address-based recruiting and/or a local phone number for phone based recruiting. Most students are not in one place long enough to get into the system that allows them to be recruited... and that has been a diary issue for decades.
Click to expand...

I was selected to receive a diary for a week in the early part of the millennium. As luck would have it, that week coincided with a vacation, resulting in Arbitron receiving a diary full of Albany and Boston stations, along with XM channels, from a Hartford-market participant. There was only one day of home-market listening, total, in the whole book. Ever since then, I've always wondered what happened to the data I submitted: Did they go into calculating the Boston and Albany ratings as well as the Hartford ratings, or was the whole diary worthless?

Some years later, I got another invitation letter -- this time, I'd be getting a meter should I be accepted. I replied, hoping to get the chance to contribute to the ratings in my own market at last, but never heard back.
 
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