Delaware 105.9 Debuts with 2.5 and now 1.7? Really?

[raceradio]

I again wonder if the numbers put out by Arbitron mean anything anymore. Back in Feb when 105.9 was just getting off the ground they showed a somewhat respectable 2.5 rating, and has since dropped to a 1.7. I find that much of a drop a little odd or really bad news for a new station. The competition up north was around 2.3 with news/talk, and WGMD numbers which would be included with 105.9 are not available. I'm wondering if Arbitron has changed it's methods or is 105.9 sinking. This is not good news for 105.9 but I'm sure there are a lot of smiles at WGMD.

 

[FredLeonard]

I again wonder if the numbers put out by Arbitron mean anything anymore. Back in Feb when 105.9 was just getting off the ground they showed a somewhat respectable 2.5 rating, and has since dropped to a 1.7. I find that much of a drop a little odd or really bad news for a new station. The competition up north was around 2.3 with news/talk, and WGMD numbers which would be included with 105.9 are not available. I'm wondering if Arbitron has changed it's methods or is 105.9 sinking. This is not good news for 105.9 but I'm sure there are a lot of smiles at WGMD.

No, Arbitron has not changed it's methods. They still use diaries in the Salisbury-Ocean City market. (Funny, they do four surveys a year, while they only do two in Wilmington.) The drop looks impressive because it's a one-third drop but looked at another way it's only eight-tenths of a percentage point. This was a fairly low rated station to begin with. And fluctuations of much more than eight-tenths of a point are not uncommon - especially in diary markets.

Diaries are not to be taken seriously. People wait until the end of the week and then write down what they think they remember listening to. Or maybe they want to show "support" for a station they like and write down more than they actually listened. Or they tuned back and forth but only write down one station and indicate they had that station on all day. When personal people meters were introduced in large and markets, some stations had more listeners than expected and some had less. People's listening habits don't fluctuate so much and when ratings show dramatic fluctuations, the problem is with how ratings are collected.

In all fairness, with a new station in town, some people may have tried it out and then gone back to what they listened to before. A lot of buzz for a new station, and that may have caused people to write it down in their diaries, whether they listened or not.

The major problem with 105.9 is that it acts like a Wilmington station in an area where people are oriented to the Salisbury-Ocean City Metro.

 

[StandingBy]

Salisbury-Ocean City is not a four-survey market. It is only twice a year. And yes, leading to even more opportunity for broad fluctuations in numbers depending on the size of the sample they get back, from where in the market, and what demos, etc etc

 

[OldNumber7]

I have almost zero confidence in this Salisbury-OC book. Does anybody really believe the listening for WGBG more than doubled in one book? Or that ZBH suddenly soared after years of static numbers? Or that so many major players would suddenly have their worst book in at least two years?
This market has always been tough to measure -- there aren't many diaries, most of the signals don't cover much of the measured territory, etc. But these numbers are weirder than ever.

 

[jaydog]

Arbitron is a joke!!! As someone who use to work in the OC/Sals market I can say that it is all about where the diary's land. This looks like a Sussex County book. If you look at the stations like OC104, Magic and Q, which are MD signals, they dropped. While ‘GBG and ‘ZBH went up. I know that they count the same book like 3-5 times because there are so few books that are sent back. Plus we are talking about 12+ numbers, which do not show the whole picture. Clear Channel and Delmarva never change format and GSB, well with the passing of their owner not too long ago, I doubt we will see any format changes due to this book. We are also talking about market #145, so who cares. More and more advertisers are going to TV, because they can get almost the same rate on WBOC and WMDT as they can on radio.