CONTENTS Market Changes Total Line Reporting Personal Race/Ethnicity Language Usage Weighting Small Market Reporting Enhancements Test of Revised Diary Instructions Winter 2006 Diary Revisions Winter 2006 Response Rate and Sample Representation Initiatives Minimum Reporting Standards (MRS) Key Dates Station Information Updates During the Winter 2006 Survey Print-friendly version. More Survey Bulletins

Radio Survey Bulletin,
Winter 2006

Language Usage Weighting

Effective with the Winter 2006 survey, Arbitron is implementing Language Usage Weighting in the 21 Hispanic-controlled Metros listed below. This means that in addition to weighting based on sex/age, county, and race (where applicable), in these markets, language usage among Hispanics will be an additional weighting factor.

Language usage for diarykeepers will be collected through a question in the bilingual diary. This question asks "Thinking about the languages you use in the home, would you say you speak…

• Only Spanish in the home
• Mostly Spanish but some English
• Mostly English but some Spanish
• Only English in the home"

"Both equally" will be an acceptable response if the respondent writes it in, but will not be included in the response list.

Nielsen Media Research is providing the Hispanic population universe estimates for language dominance to be used for weighting, based on the company's two-year rolling Hispanic language enumeration survey. The survey provides five-way language estimates (All Spanish, Mostly Spanish, Both Equally, Mostly English, or All English).

It is likely that in the initial implementation, categories will be collapsed into two classes (Spanish dominant and English dominant) for weighting purposes. Language weighting for more discrete classes will only be possible if samples in both Nielsen's survey and Arbitron's diary base are of sufficient size.

At the outset, customers using Maximi$er/Media Professional data will have the ability to perform language breakouts using the current two-way split (Spanish dominant and English dominant). Plans are under way to expand the options in 2006.

If you have any questions, or if you need any additional information regarding Arbitron’s Language Usage Weighting policy, please contact Michelle Robinson at (410) 312-8487 or via e-mail at michelle.robinson@arbitron.com.