In markets like Fresno , radio ratings cover a three-month period, but each month early reports — called trends — are released before the quarterly books. The second rating trends number from Arbitron, the leading monitor of radio listening, for the spring book had to be re-issued for the Fresno market because six diaries were filled out by those working in the media, according to The Fresno Bee.
Arbitron is very clear when it comes to those who work in the local media. In the "Diary Security Dos & Don'ts" section of the Arbitron guidelines, it states, "Employees of radio and television stations, and members of their households, are not eligible to participate in Arbitron surveys. (If a station employee discovers that a household member has participated — or has agreed to participate — in the survey, Arbitron should be notified immediately.)"
The names of the parties who submitted the biased books have not been released.
Arbitron won't specifically say how the biased books were identified, but Kim Myers, a spokeswoman for the radio ratings company, says there are a series of checks and balances to make sure the numbers are as accurate as possible and something in this group of responses triggered a red flag.
The updated report showed a large drop in listening numbers for KJWL 99.3 FM and KYNO 1430 AM, compared to the first report. John Ostlund, owner of KJWL and KYNO, says, "We have many friends in the media, and sometimes they go overboard in their support."
Ostlund goes on to suggest that there is a bigger question regarding this action. He asks, "If six diaries is all it takes to tilt Arbitron results in a market of 500,000 people, how reliable can the 'research' really be?"
0 comments:
Post a Comment