THE “MPR’S” OF PROGRAMMING

PART 18: RATINGS BASICS

Happy New Year! This month the MPRs of Programming  returns with a basic look at the next “R” on the list of MPR’s…Ratings. This time around we’ll investigate the basic ways that radio ratings are derived through Arbitron and other sources.

In review, the MPR’s of Programming are set up to help a radio station analyze it’s Music, Morning Show, Marketing, Management/Morale, Promotions, Production, Positioning, Personalities, Research, Ratings, and Revenue.

Ratings are the ultimate programmer’s report card. Understanding how the ratings system works should be a programmer’s first order of business. How are Arbitron ratings compiled? What is AQH Share and Cume? How can you use this ratings system to gauge how your station is performing in it’s target demos and in key dayparts?

ARBITRON RATINGS

Radio has had the option of using several forms of rating’s systems to measure audience listening. Telephone-based ratings from companies like Birch, Strategic, and Wilhight (which still measures audience in several smaller non-Arbitron markets) have been somewhat successful through the years. But the primary system of measuring radio listening over the last several decades has been the diary methodology of Arbitron.

Since 1964, Arbitron has been measuring radio listening by using a personal, seven-day diary, rating radio audiences in close to 300 markets in the United States, with about 100 markets measured year-round. Survey participants are randomly selected from a list of all telephone households using both listed and unlisted numbers.

Arbitron contacts each household asking them to participate. Once the household consents, diaries are sent to all household members 12 years of age and older.

The diary contains space to write in day, time and location when listening, in addition to the station being listened to. At the end of the week, diaries are sent back to Arbitron, where the listening entries are tabulated. The returned diaries are available for review by subscribers after each survey is released at Arbitron’s Laurel, Maryland headquarters.

ANALYZING THE MARKET REPORT

The Arbitron Radio Market Report has been designed to provide the most important information about your radio station and your market in the most usable format possible. A proper analysis of your market report can tell you not only how well you’re doing, but what you might do to improve your position.

It’s this research aspect of Arbitron’s ratings that are the most important elements for a programmer to dive into. Understanding the basics of Arbitron and it’s ratings terminology is the first step to understanding how to read a Radio Market Report and consequently how to improve your station’s ratings.

Rating and Share

Rating and share are the foundation of station analysis. In order to gain a clear understanding of these two terms, imagine a pie. The pie represents the members of a specific demographic group in your market. Now imagine one large slice cut from this pie- this will represent all the people currently listening to radio (Persons Using Radio).

Next, imagine radio stations coming over and taking pieces of the slice we have cut. Each forkful will represent the listeners to each station. Using this comparison, rating is the number of people listening to your station compared to the number of people in a market. It’s expressed as a percentage. Therefore, rating is the number of forkfuls taken compared to the entire pie.

While a station’s rating would be the ratio of the number of forkfuls taken to the entire pie,  a station’s share would be the comparison between the forkfuls  to the slice  of the pie. Therefore, a share is the number of people listening to your station at a specific time compared to all the people listening to radio at this specific time. Share is also expressed as a percentage.

AQH, Cume and TSL

While rating and share may be the foundation of Arbitron’s ratings system, there are three building blocks which are the key to understanding who your audience is…..average quarter-hour (AQH), cume, and time spent listening (TSL).

Each hour is divided into four equal parts called quarter-hours. Average quarter-hour persons is the average number of persons (from a specific demographic group) listening to a radio station for at least five minutes during an average quarter-hour in a given time period.

Cume persons is the number of different people listening to a station during

a specific time period for at least five minutes. Unlike AQH persons, which counts some of the listeners more than once because they listened during more than one quarter-hour, cume persons counts each person listening during a specific time period only once.

Time Spent Listening is a comparison of cume to quarter-hour audience. TSL demonstrates precisely how long the average listener stays with the station.

PROGRAMMING TO MAXIMIZE  ARBITRON RATINGS

Average quarter-hours (AQH) is often most closely related to the quality of programming. Once listeners find your station, do they stay? And for how long? A wealth of information can be gleaned from these figures by breaking them out for your station and it’s competitors by daypart and by demographic groups.

Among the many factors influencing these AQH estimates are market size and number of stations, number of format competitors, type of format, music selection and rotation, number and frequency of commercials, popularity of on-air personalities, and on-air promotions.

Cume figures are a great way to get a feel for the overall popularity of a radio station in it’s market. Sustained changes in cume are the most basic indication that your audience is undergoing any meaningful growth or erosion.

The cume rating can be very helpful in studying audience trends from book to book. Cume can also shed light on the impact of certain marketing, promotion, technical, and competitive aspects of your radio station.

A major marketing campaign should be expected to cause an increase in the number of listeners sampling your station. A major promotion should have the same effect. An increase in power, tower height or audio improvements can also increase the potential audience for your station.

Finally, a new competitor with the same or similar format may also impact cume by causing your listeners to switch to this new dial position, even though your listeners may continue to sample both stations. A drop in exclusive cume (those listening to your station only) often results when a new competitor enters the market. Conversely, exclusive cume will often increase when a competitor leaves the format.

AQH/Cume Composition and Cume Duplication

While it’s important to pay particular attention to your radio station’s AQH,  Cume and TSL trends, you should also check out your station’s Listener AQH/ Cume Composition and Cume Duplication Percent.

Your station’s AQH and Cume Composition will show you what percentage of your audience spends the most time listening to your station. There are several pages in the back of the Market Report that detail listening percentages of teens, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44 and above in both AQH and Cume for all the stations in the market. Typically, your target demo should always reflect the highest percentage of AQH and Cume usage. It’s important to monitor your target demo’s percentage of change from book to book.

These AQH and Cume Composition figures are also an important way to gauge the effectiveness of your competition in efficiently reaching the same or similar target audience of yours. Somewhere in the 25% range or above is a good percentage to shoot for in your target demo. The most efficient station’s often have over 30% of their AQH and Cume coming from their target demo.

Your station’s Cume Duplication is another important ratings research tool. This feature can be located following the Time Spent Listening numbers in the back of the Market Report. Checking your station’s Cume Duplication is a great way to see how much audience you share with your market competition and vice versa.

Typically, any station that share’s at least 20% of their cume with yours is considered a competitor of sorts, at least from a cume perspective. Direct competitors often share as much as 40% or more of their cume with their competition.

HIGH-TECH RATINGS?

Over the last several years the Arbitron company has been developing a more high-tech form of radio ratings measurement called the Portable People Meter (PPM). This electronic form of measurement tracks any radio, TV, or cable audio within ear shot with a pager-sized device.

The participating listener wears the PPM device all day, then docks it in a base station which transmits the data to Arbitron overnight. Could overnight ratings be in our future? The Arbitron PPM is currently being tested in the Wilmington, Delaware market.

Arbitron will continue experimenting with the PPM through 2002 then will release it’s findings to the radio, TV, and cable industry. Many questions may remain after these exploratory stages are completed. What will the efficient usage of this device cost? Will actual listening dramatically increase or decrease? How much of a difference will this new methodology make and will this transition be met with praise or more criticism?

While the Portable People Meter is still in development and apparently years away from total market usage, we’ll have to continue to get by with the current ratings system. Although the Arbitron ratings report and it’s archaic diary system isn’t perfect, over several trends and ratings books, despite sampling methodology wobbles, the law of statistics usually evens things out. Taken at face value, any ratings system should always be looked upon as another research tool.

Next month, the “MPR’s” of Programming continues with a look “beyond the basics” at  the next “R” on the list…Ratings. We’ll hear from top programmers, researchers and Arbitron executives about the efficiency of radio ratings derived through Arbitron and other sources.