On his show today, Mark Simone briefly remarked about a NY talk station, without naming it, whose ratings are so low, they register as dashes, meaning less than zero. I wonder which station he was referring to and how can a station with less than no listeners even remain in business?
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Mark Simone remark about NY talk station
- Thread starter Lee Linwood
- Start date
The no-show stations are ones that are not subscribed to the Nielsen ratings service.
Lots of unsubscribed stations make money by catering to niche audiences, certain ethnic groups and religious followings.
Other lower rated stations make money by selling at lower rates and offering advertising opportunities to customers who can not afford the larger stations.
Also remember that the ratings at the lower levels (below a rating of 0.1 or a share of about 1) are subject to enormous wobble and variation due to the margin of error which is greater at those lower levels.
Just because none of the few thousand PPM wearers listened to the station that month doesn't mean absolutely no one among the NYC markets millions and millions of listeners tuned in. Also there is no 0 or "dashes" rating anymore. The minimum is 0,1. Nielsen also uses N/A but I really am not clear what that means -- not available or not applicable -- and whether it denotes stations that weren't detected on any of the few thousnad meters that month or stations that subscribed to Nielsen in the past but don't anymore, or something completely different. Maybe David or BigA will offer clarity.
As for which station was being referred to, that would be anyone's guess. WBAI, perhaps? Looks like all of the sports and right-wing talkers show up in the ratings
I don’t know about Simone’s ratings, however, he does an excellent show. Piscopo, while a very nice guy, is unlistenable as a talk show host.
Follow-up. In the official Nielsen software, called "PPM Analysis Tool", stations with small cume but no mathematical AQH listening get a 0.0.
Stations with no cume (if subscribed) or listening below a 0.1 rating (not share) get listed with a ~~ in all the data columns, including cume, AQH, ratings, share, etc.
There are no "dash" symbols anywhere.
This change reflects the change of the Minimum Reporting Standards put into effect at the end of last year. So the ~~ can mean unsubscribed or not enough listening to meet the minimum reporting standards.
One clarification to your correct response... meters monitor "hearing" not just listening. They detect anything within earshot of the meter whether the metered person picked it or not. So someone who spends the minimum amount of time in a place where a station is being listened to (a car with the kids, a car pool, in a store, an office) is also detected.
Likely WNYM. Salem does not appear as a subscriber in NYC.
What would happen if you were somewhere where two stations could be detected simultaneously? It's very unlikely today, with the demise of the portable transistor radio, but say you were on a beach and the guy on the blanket to your left was listening to a ballgame on an all-sports station while the couple on the blanket to your right had a CHR station playing. You were wearing your meter ("Is that a PPM in your swim trunks or are you just glad to see me?") but didn't have your own radio with you, just within earshot of those two other radios. Would both stations get credit if the meter detected them long enough?
Thank you very much for bringing up Mark Simone. I did a search and found a few sites besides Itunes that have posted the mp3's of his show over the last 2 years. (iheart stopped posting a downloadable version in 2017) I have plenty to catch up on now.
Thank you very much for bringing up Mark Simone. I did a search and found a few sites besides Itunes that have posted the mp3's of his show over the last 2 years. (iheart stopped posting a downloadable version in 2017) I have plenty to catch up on now.
There is a daily podcast of Simone’s show, which I think is available on WOR’s website.
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