Audience Impressions?

[Sparky]

Hi,

How does say MediaBase for example determine audience impressions for a radio station? Do they ever increase and how do they know when to increase a radio stations audience impressions?

Thanks. :)

[EvanJ]

I would expect the audience to change when the radio station ratings change but I haven't tracked a station's audience per spin in detail over time. I doubt Mediabase will tell somebody not in the industry their audience calculations.

[Sparky]

How can you determine the radio the radio stations ratings? Or like you said is that just for people in the industry.?

[tico]

Sparky said:

How can you determine the radio the radio stations ratings? Or like you said is that just for people in the industry.?

Arbitron--the dominant radio ratings service--sends a diary to a small group of people during each ratings period. Larger markets are surveyed four times a year, while smaller markets are surveyed twice a year. Based on the number of responses Arbitron gets back, they tally up the number of people listening to stations and how much time is spent listening. The most important part of the ratings is time spent listening (TSL). Station A could have 50,000 listeners and Station B could have 40,000 listeners, but if Station B's listeners tune in longer than Station A, Station B could be rated higher. Sure, how many people actually listening does carry some weight, but those TSLs is what really counts.

It's a little more complex than this, but that's a basic overall view of determining ratings.