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MarketingVOX: Since landing in Philadelphia and Houston, Arbitron's new electronic ratings are already altering broadcasters' perceptions of radio listening habits.
This may not be as surprising as the pitch suggests, considering most assumptions about radio use are based on those determined by low-tech diaries that have served the $20 billion radio industry since the '60s.
Data from the two markets reveals good and bad news for advertisers. Though more people are listening to the radio - with the majority sitting at work at the same time - they don't listen for long and prefer to surf around, according to the Globe and Mail.
Electronic data, based on the new ratings system implemented by Arbitron, finds listeners like good old-fashioned rock, country, and soft rock. This has already led two stations in New York and Philly to switch formats to rock.
The ratings system also finds that "Morning Drive," typically the most expensive time slot for a radio station, isn't as packed with listeners as previously thought.
Arbitron has been working toward electronic ratings since 1992. The system enlists a panel in each market to carry a "pager-like device called a Portable People Meter that picks up audio codes embedded in radio broadcasts but can't be heard by humans."
While low-tech diaries gave stations data on a quarterly basis, people meters will release new data every month.
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