Most Popular Formats Acc. to Arbitron

[atlantaboy]

Average Arbitron Ratings of Current Music Formats '07:
(Top 50 Markets Only, excl. Puerto Rico)

*Average rating calculated by adding up all stations' ratings in that format from Top 50 U. S. markets (excl. Puerto Rico) and dividing by number of markets (49)

#1 Country 7.94 average rating
#2 AC 6.82 average rating
#3 Urban AC 4.57 average rating
#4 CHR/Top 40 4.48 average rating
#5 Urban 4.25 average rating
#6 Rhythmic 3.52 average rating
#7 Hot AC 3.39 average rating
#8 Regional Mexican 3.28 average rating
#9 Alternative 2.50 average rating
#10 Adult Hits 2.03 average rating
#11 Smooth Jazz 1.95 average rating
#12 Rock 1.67 average rating
#13 Active Rock 1.59 average rating
#14 Gospel 1.35 average rating
#15 Latin Pop 1.06 average rating
#16 Triple A 0.97 average rating
#17 Rhythmic AC 0.95 average rating
#18 Tropical 0.80 average rating
#19 Christian AC 0.62 average rating
#20 Latin Rhythmic 0.43 average rating

**Average Arbitron Ratings '07, Grouping by Similar Formats

#1 AC/Adult Hits 8.85 average rating
#2 Country 7.94 average rating
#3 CHR/Top 40/Hot AC 7.87 average rating
#4 Urban/Rhythmic 7.77 average rating
#5 Rock/Active Rock/Alternative 5.76 average rating
#6 Latin Pop/Tropical/Latin Rhythmic/Regional Mexican 5.57 average rating
#7 Urban AC 4.57 average rating
#8 Smooth Jazz 1.95 average rating
#9 Gospel 1.35 average rating
#10 Triple A 0.97 average rating

[EvanJ]

That must have been time consuming if you did it all yourself. Do you realize that for every season Arbitron does this using constantly monitored markets using the diary system (all of the Top 50 except for Philadelphia and Houston-Galveston which use PPM and below the Top 50 I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to what markets are constantly monitored)?
wargod.arbitron.com/scripts/ndb/fmttrends2.asp has not been updated for Summer 2007 yet. Unlike what you did, I'm assuming Arbitron weights the markets based on population. arbitron.com/downloads/bluebook_sp07.pdf provides the market populations for Spring and Summer 2007 (the populations are updated every Spring and Fall).

[atlantaboy]

^Thanks for the link! Yeah it was time consuming...

Don't really agree with the way they group a lot of the formats though...Urban and Urban AC are about as similar as CHR/Pop and AC - and IMO Rhythmic is much more similar to Urban in its playlist than it is to CHR/Top 40 - AC and Hot AC are nothin alike either

I would def. group Urban/Rhythmic (Hip/Hop and Rap)
CHR/Top 40/Hot AC (Pop/Rock)
AC/Adult Hits (Baby Boomer Pop/Rock)
Urban AC (Baby Boomer R&B)
Country Formats
Alternative/Rock/Active Rock
Hispanic Formats