This bulletin provides radio stations and other users of Arbitron services with information regarding Winter 2006 survey specification changes, key dates, and other pertinent information.
 

Market Changes

Market Reports Suspended
The Winter 2006 New Orleans Radio Market Report will not be published.

Notes:
The Fall 2005 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX, Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula and New Orleans Radio Market Reports will not be published.

Fall 2005 fieldwork for the Fall 2005 Lake Charles, LA, Radio Market Report was conducted from November 3 to December 14.

Market Type Change
Effective Fall 2005, two markets changed from Condensed markets to Standard markets. These two markets, which will continue to be surveyed 2X/year (Spring and Fall), have been renamed as follows:

TSA Updates
To help ensure the consistency of Arbitron audience estimates, the Total Survey Area (TSA) definition for Fall 2005 in non-embedded Condensed markets remained identical to that for Spring 2005. TSA updates are generally implemented biennially in odd numbered years, effective with the Fall survey. Given, however, that reported audience estimates in most Condensed markets now reflect an average of Spring and Fall listening, TSA definitions remain unchanged.

Total Line Reporting

Effective with the Winter 2006 survey, Arbitron is making an important change in the reporting of audience estimates for 100 percent simulcast radio stations.

Overview
Effective with the Winter 2006 survey, Arbitron will report 100 percent simulcast stations through a single estimate line in all applications and reports.

Arbitron’s new simulcast policy will:

• Be available to stations that simulcast all content, including all commercials, 100 percent of the time the stations are on the air.
• Accommodate partnerships of two or more radio stations in a simulcast.
• Report the estimates for simulcast partnerships through a single estimate line in all Arbitron local market reporting services for simulcast partnerships that request Total Line Reporting.
• Allow the simulcast combo to select the station (from among the simulcast partners) under whose call letters the combo’s combined listening will be reported.

Individual estimates for radio stations that are a part of a simulcast combo that elects Total Line Reporting will no longer be accessible through any of Arbitron’s applications or reports.

This new simulcast reporting policy will completely replace Arbitron’s previous simulcasting policies. The revised policy provides consistency in the reporting of audience estimates for simulcast radio stations across all Arbitron local reporting services and eliminates the two-station limit on simulcast partnerships.

Simulcast partnerships will be identified on the "Station Information" and "Special Notices" pages of the Radio Market Report, and on a special resource page on the www.arbitron.com Web site that will have information on all simulcast radio stations. This special resource page is scheduled to be available by March 1, 2006.

Station Information Collection
Upon completion of processing station information each survey, Arbitron will send a letter to an appropriate corporate contact for each combo that has indicated 100 percent simulcast status. This letter will ask for reconfirmation of the submitted simulcasting information and will provide a reminder that only the primary station will be reported in Arbitron’s local radio reporting services.

Processing Listening Data for Simulcast Stations
Diary entries will continue to be credited to individual radio stations during diary processing. Credit for simulcast partner stations will be “flipped” or recredited to the primary station of the simulcast combo prior to the processing of audience estimates.

Reporting Estimates for Simulcast Combos

• Audience estimates for simulcast combos that meet Minimum Reporting Standards (MRS) will be reported with the call letters of the combo’s primary station (as designated by the combo). MRS will apply to the combined estimates. Stations must simulcast for all 12 weeks of a quarterly survey period to be eligible for Total Line Reporting.
• The secondary stations that are a part of a simulcast combo will not be included in the lineup in any of Arbitron’s reporting services, and audience estimates for these individual radio stations will not be available in any application or report.
• Simulcast stations will be noted on the Station Information and Special Notices pages of the Radio Market Report. No special footnote or flag will denote simulcast combos on audience estimate pages or reports.
• The simulcast resource page on the Arbitron Web site will:  list simulcast combos that are eligible for, and have requested, Total Line Reporting; identify the primary station in each simulcast combo; and identify the primary station’s home Metro and (if applicable) the primary station’s home DMA^®.

Reporting Prior Survey Estimates for Simulcast Combos
The historical information used for trend reports and multibook average estimates will reflect the audience estimates originally published for the combo’s primary station. This will occur regardless of whether the simulcast was in effect during the prior survey(s). Consequently, during transition periods, trends and multibook averages for simulcast stations may include surveys that were simulcast and surveys where the station was a stand-alone.

When a simulcast combo stops simulcasting and the stations return to independent broadcasting, the individual secondary stations will not have any historical data associated with them for the surveys during which they were simulcast.

A list of Frequently Asked Questions relating to Total Line Reporting is available at Questions? Read Simulcast Total Line Reporting FAQ. In addition, inquiries may be addressed to Dave Willinski at Arbitron in Columbia, MD, by calling (410) 312-8396 or via e-mail at dave.willinski@arbitron.com. Please include your name and phone number with any e-mail inquiries.

The tables below contain a simplified illustration of trend reporting and multibook averaging with Total Line Reporting.

Station Requests Total Line Reporting Beginning Winter 2006:

Station Stops Simulcasting Spring 2007:

* Some applications average only the on-air surveys for a station; others may average the entire report period regardless of on-air status.

Personal Race/Ethnicity

Effective with the Winter 2006 survey, Arbitron begins to classify the race and ethnicity of diarykeepers based on the individual diarykeeper's answer to a new question that is being added to the diary.

Race and ethnicity are used as weighting criteria in the 179 Arbitron radio Metros that have Black and/or Hispanic controls and are also the basis for ethnic composition audience estimates.

Historically, Arbitron has classified diarykeepers as Black or Hispanic based on the response to a household-level question. Classifying race and ethnicity of diarykeepers based on the individual diarykeeper's response to race and ethnicity questions, instead of a household response, is more appropriate because of the realities of mixed-race and mixed-ethnicity households.

If you have any questions, or if you need any additional information regarding Arbitron's personal race/ethnicity policy, please contact Michelle Robinson at (410) 312-8487 or via e-mail at michelle.robinson@arbitron.com.

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.

Small Market Reporting Enhancements

Effective with the Fall 2005 survey, Arbitron implemented a special initiative in non-embedded Condensed markets—i.e., Condensed markets other than:  Frederick, MD; Morristown, NJ; New Bedford-Fall River, MA; and Stamford-Norwalk, CT (since the Metros of these four markets are embedded).*

The smaller sample sizes in Arbitron's Condensed markets (typically markets ranked 150+) have historically resulted in a "bounce" in estimates from one survey to the next. Working collaboratively with the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council, radio stations, and other customer groups, Arbitron developed a program that addresses this issue by utilizing a full year's sample in these markets, rather than the smaller sample from the traditional three-month Spring and Fall survey periods. The sample size for a single report is effectively doubled as a result of using the entire yearly sample from the market.

As an example, if a market had 500 diaries in Spring and 500 in Fall, rather than having a report based on a sample of 500, the new report in that Condensed market would be based on all 1,000 diaries. Eventually, those 1,000 diaries will be spread over 12 months of the year, rather than only during the traditional Spring and Fall survey periods. This approach results in doubling the reporting sample and eventually providing our customers in Condensed markets four reports per year.

Two-Step Implementation
To help ensure an expedient and smooth transition, this program is being implemented in two steps:

Step 1—Fall 2005
With the release of Fall 2005 radio survey results, Arbitron will include diaries from the Spring 2005 and Fall 2005 surveys when tabulating audience estimates, and will report a two-book average based on the Spring 2005 and Fall 2005 surveys, in (non-embedded) Condensed markets. Each report thereafter will be a two-book average of the current (Spring or Fall) survey and the most recent previous (Spring or Fall) survey, delivering two times the current sample size for audience demographics and dayparts.

* Notes:

Single-survey Fall 2005 audience estimates, rather than combined Spring 2005-Fall 2005 audience estimates, will be released for the following non-embedded Condensed markets:

• The Florida Keys, FL – This market became a new market effective Fall 2005.
• Rocky Mount-Wilson, NC – This market became a new market effective Fall 2005.
• Sebring, FL – This market will become a Standard market effective Spring 2006.

Single-survey Fall 2005 audience estimates, rather than combined Spring 2005-Fall 2005 audience estimates, will be released for the two markets that were Condensed markets for Spring 2005 and became Standard markets effective Fall 2005:

• Santa Barbara
• Trenton 

Step 2—Targeted for 2007
Beginning 2007, ratings reports will be issued quarterly (four times per year) in Condensed markets. The same combined number of diaries formerly placed during the traditional Spring and Fall survey periods will be spread over all 12 months of the year. Each quarterly report will add listening from diaries from the most recent quarter and drop listening from diaries from the oldest quarter.

Level of Information and Granularity
The full six-month report period in Step 1 and the full 12-month report period in Step 2 will be the standard report periods for (non-embedded) Condensed markets. While estimates based on these report periods will be considered the standard for audience estimates, estimates for three-month intervals in Step 1, and for three-month and six-month intervals in Step 2, will also be available on a more restricted basis.

Estimates for intervals of less than a year, as outlined above, will be available to Maximi$er and Media Professional Respondent-Level Data subscribers. To provide greater insight into programming changes in the marketplace, Respondent-Level Data subscribers will be able to look at a variety of listening estimates for three-month and six-month periods, to capture a snapshot of the change in listening patterns. Although there will be restrictions on the available dayparts and demographics for these shorter periods of time, this level of granularity will give Maximi$er and Media Professional subscribers the opportunity to see the high-level impact of programming changes.

Updated Maximi$er and TAPSCAN Software
New Maximi$er 10.1 and TAPSCAN™ 9.4 software mails to subscribers of the respective services during January 2006. Although the revised software contains key service updates for subscribers in all markets, subscribers in markets subject to the Small Market Reporting Enhancements must install the software in order to run data for Fall 2005.

Test of Revised Diary Instructions

In February 2006, Arbitron will conduct a live test of revised diary instructions in 25 markets.

The current diary does not ask respondents to indicate whether they listen to radio stations over the Internet or via satellite services. The revised instructions will clarify that listening can be to over-the-air radio, the Internet, and/or satellite radio. The diary instruction page will modify the definition of "listening" as follows:

"Here's what we mean by 'listening':  'Listening' is any time you can hear a radio—whether you choose the station or not. You may be listening to radio on AM, FM, the Internet or satellite. Be sure to include all your listening."

Instructions will refer to Internet and satellite radio in the diary "Checklist":

"Include AM, FM, Internet or satellite for each entry?"

We will include an Internet and satellite reference in the diary example:

"If you listen over the Internet or to a satellite radio service, please include the station name or channel number."

 Examples: "Internet - WGXP" and "Alpha Satellite - Ch. 288"

Winter 2006 Diary Revisions

Personal Race/Ethnicity
To support the implementation of Personal Race/Ethnicity, effective Winter 2006, personal race and ethnicity questions have been added to monolingual (English) diaries; and personal race, ethnicity, and language questions have been added to bilingual (English-Spanish) diaries. Hispanics in all radio markets will receive bilingual diaries.

Greater Placement Control
To help ensure greater control of diary placement, effective Winter 2006, the county, state and zip code to which diaries are mailed will be used to place survey diaries in the in-tab sample; county, state and zip code information will no longer be solicited in the diary.

Winter 2006 Response Rate and Sample Representation Initiatives

Response Rate Treatment in "Low-Response" Metros Extended
Effective Winter 2006, an ongoing response rate initiative will be expanded to three additional markets. All mailable households in these markets receive a letter and a cash incentive prior to the diary placement call. In addition, households that meet Arbitron's Differential Survey Treatment (DST) criteria—including Black, Hispanic, presence of Male 18-24, and presence of Male 25-34—receive a cash "thank-you" for agreeing to participate in the radio ratings survey. A letter with the cash premium is mailed within 24 hours of the consent.

Special "Thank-You" Premiums
Effective Winter 2006, households that contain a Black member will receive a special "thank-you" post-placement premium in three Black ethnically controlled markets without an HDBA.

Effective Winter 2006, households that contain a Hispanic member will receive a special "thank-you" post-placement premium in two Hispanic ethnically controlled markets without an HDHA.

Minimum Reporting Standards (MRS)

The stations listed in Arbitron Radio Market Reports and other Arbitron services are those that meet the applicable Minimum Reporting Standards (MRS).  

To meet MRS for Arbitron's Radio Market Report (RMR), Summary Data Set (SDS), and Arbitrends^SM services, a non-simulcast station must meet all three of the following criteria (Persons 12+, Monday-Sunday, 6AM-Midnight):

1. At least five minutes of listening within a quarter-hour in 10 Metro diaries; and
2. .495 Metro Cume Rating; and
3. .05 Metro Average Quarter-Hour (AQH) Rating.

Noncommercial stations are not reported in the RMR, SDS, or Arbitrends.

To meet MRS for Arbitron's Maximi$er and Media Professional services, in Standard markets (and Condensed markets that contain an embedded Metro), a non-simulcast station must meet only one criterion:

• At least five minutes of listening within a quarter-hour in 10 diaries in the Metro, the TSA, or, if applicable, the DMA.

To meet MRS for Arbitron's Maximi$er and Media Professional services in non-embedded Condensed markets, a non-simulcast station must meet only one criterion:

• At least five minutes of listening within a quarter-hour in one diary in the Metro or the TSA.     

Key Dates

Station Information Updates During the Winter 2006 Survey

Please remember to notify Arbitron in writing immediately of any call letter, Station Name, or other facility changes that occur at your station during the survey (January 5 – March 29).

Station updates that should be forwarded to Arbitron include:

* Diary edit information is not retroactive and becomes effective upon our receipt.
** Fall times used for Phase 1.

Please address updates to:

Address:
Radio Station Relations
Arbitron Inc.
9705 Patuxent Woods Drive
Columbia, MD 21046-1572
Attention: Station Information

Fax:  (410) 312-8619

Station information updates will be accepted through March 29. All updates will be acknowledged by letter or postcard. If you do not receive an update confirmation postcard, please contact Radio Station Relations at (410) 312-8062.

Station Information Profiles on file with Arbitron for the Winter 2006 survey can be reviewed online at www.ArbitronRadio.com. Click on the "Station Information Profiles" link, and enter the call letters of the station you want to review.

The policy and procedure amendment(s) set forth in this bulletin are hereby incorporated by reference into and deemed to amend and supersede in pertinent part the most recent Description of Methodology as published in the Local Radio Market Report or as otherwise furnished to subscribers.

For more detailed information on the topics in this bulletin, including the specific markets affected by Arbitron's ongoing efforts to improve sample quality, please contact your local Arbitron sales representative.

Arbitrends^SM, Maximi$er^® and Media Professional^SM are marks of Arbitron Inc.
TAPSCAN™ is a trademark of TAPSCAN Inc.
DMA^® is a registered service mark of Nielsen Media Research, Inc., and is used pursuant to a license from Nielsen Media Research, Inc.