New Way to Count Listeners Shakes Up Radio

NEW WAY TO COURT LISTENERS SHAKES UP RADIO
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah McBride]
Philadelphia radio listeners started hearing less Marc Anthony and more Modest Mouse in May, when WRFF 104.5 flipped to alternative rock from a Spanish-language format called Rumba. The Clear Channel Communications Inc. station made the change after a new electronic method of measuring radio audiences showed rock music is more popular in Philadelphia than older, diary-based measurements had indicated. The switch shows how much power the new ratings system may have to shake up radio. For years, Arbitron Inc. has measured radio ratings based on paper diaries filled out by listeners. But it's now in the early stages of moving to a new electronic system, called the Portable People Meter. Already in use in Philadelphia and Houston, the system will be rolled out more widely soon. The People Meter, a pager-sized device that automatically registers what radio station survey participants are listening to, is already yielding more specific -- and, in some cases, surprising -- data. The results from the first two markets indicate that people flip among stations more frequently than they say, that men listen to significantly more radio than women and that employed people listen a lot more than people who don't work.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118903798218018792.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
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