8320: Arbitron PPM® OK 4 U?

The digital ad above announced, “Arbitron PPM® radio ratings meet Media Monitors commercial data.” Given all the past problems, is it too early to declare mission accomplished?

6993: Minority Broadcasters Need A Bailout.

From The New York Daily News…

Obama, throw a lifeline to black and Hispanic radio

By Pierre M. Sutton

Now that the transition to digital television has stranded many low-income Americans, broadcast radio is the last remaining free over-the-air medium for millions of low-income families, including many African-Americans and Latinos.

But as the economic crisis leaves wreckage in its wake, minority-owned and oriented radio stations are fast becoming an endangered species, with dire consequences for our diverse democracy.

African-Americans and Latinos — who comprise about 28% of the U.S. population — now own only an estimated 6.3% of full-power radio stations in America. Pittsburgh’s only black-oriented radio station, WAMO, has recently been sold, as have Spanish-language radio station KLOK in San Jose, Calif., and Border Media, a leading chain of Latino-oriented radio stations in Texas.

Imagine how different New York City’s history would have been — or how difficult our future could be — without African-American and Latino radio stations. During the decades of civil rights struggle, the pioneering black-oriented radio stations, WLIB and WWRL, focused listeners’ minds on the movement, while broadcasting the jazz, rhythm-and-blues and gospel sounds that soothed their souls. Pioneering Spanish-language stations played a similar role, publicizing voter registration drives while providing music and talk that helped generations of newcomers feel more at home in New York.

Now, though the soundtrack has changed, these stations still play a vital role in keeping their listeners informed, inspired and involved in their communities and their country, as well as promoting businesses and generating jobs in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

Perhaps you’re thinking: Just about every industry under the sun is hurting during this deep recession, and the traditional media have been adapting and contracting over the course of many years. Why should minority-oriented radio stations get any special consideration or treatment?

Because these radio stations — which serve a vital and underappreciated role — have been suffering economic body blow after body blow in the current crisis.

First, banks and other lenders are becoming de facto owners of the nation’s airwaves, driving out diversity of all kinds.

Second, Arbitron, whose ratings determine where advertisers buy airtime, has initiated a new method of measuring audiences that we believe dramatically undercounts minority stations’ listeners.

Third, advertisers across the board are cutting back their buys on minority radio. That’s especially true of the troubled auto industry, long a leading advertiser on black stations.

Black and Hispanic radio stations must not be allowed to go extinct — but today, that’s looking like a very real possibility.

That is why leading members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and New York’s own Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) and Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn) are urging that the federal government help minority-owned radio stations weather this financial storm.

In a meeting today with senior Obama administration officials, minority broadcasters will make our case for emergency federal assistance. We appreciate the administration’s attention to these important issues thus far and hope for its help.

No new laws would have to be passed. The Treasury Department can easily tap into funds already appropriated under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which has helped to restore credit flows to the financial and domestic automobile supplier industries. Bridge financing or government-backed loans could also be provided until the financial system recovers.

Minority radio stations aren’t failing businesses begging for handouts; they’re healthy enterprises, beset by a perfect storm of bad circumstances, that are in need of a lifeline. At a time when millions of African-Americans and Latinos need information and opportunities to get jobs and build businesses, let’s not pull the plug on black and Hispanic radio.

Sutton is the chairman of Inner City Broadcasting Corp.

6321: Arbitron Loses, Um, Settles Lawsuit.

From Adweek.com…

Updated: Arbitron Agrees to Settle Lawsuits
The suits alleged that the rating company engaged in deceptive marketing in the deployment of its portable people meters

By Steve McClellan

NEW YORK Arbitron said today that it has signed consent agreements to resolve lawsuits brought by the states of New York and New Jersey in October that alleged the rating company had engaged in deceptive marketing in the deployment of its portable people meter in the New York radio market.

The New York suit also charged that Arbitron had failed to disclose flaws in the New York PPM that resulted in the underrepresentation of African-American and Hispanic radio listeners, causing financial harm to minority broadcasters in the market. The New Jersey lawsuit alleged violations of that state’s consumer protection and civil rights laws relating to the marketing and commercialization of the portable people meter.

The states confirmed the agreements, with the New York State Attorney General’s office calling its settlement the first of its kind in the nation and saying it calls for an “overhaul” of Arbitron’s New York PPM methodology.

“The radio airwaves should represent the diversity of New York State,” Andrew Cuomo, New York State Attorney General, said in a statement. “With this lawsuit, we sought to address the misrepresentation of a flawed product in the marketplace and its impact on the communities that need the most protection. This agreement ensures that Arbitron will fairly measure radio listenership in New York and fairly represent New York’s diverse radio market. As Arbitron works to improve this product, which should not have been released in its current form, my office will aggressively hold Arbitron to rigorous standards to make PPM a better product.”

New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said the settlement “will ensure that Arbitron consumers are receiving a more accurate sampling product while, at the same time, ensuring that minority-owned broadcasting outlets are competing on a more level playing field.”

Arbitron CEO Steve Morris stated: “Broadcasters, agencies and advertisers in New York can continue to use PPM measurement of radio without any hesitation or reservation. We are also pleased to be able to resolve this action within the framework of our continuous improvement program for the portable people meter ratings service in the New York radio market. These initiatives are sure to increase the accountability of radio to the benefit of all New York radio broadcasters and their advertisers.”

As part of the agreements, Arbitron pledged to recruit more people for its listenership panels in cell phone only homes and to make greater attempts to recruit people in person. The original lawsuit charged that Arbitron’s failure to do so resulted in the disproportionate exclusion of African Americans and Latinos from its ratings panels.

The company also agreed to take “all reasonable measures” to insure that an average 75 percent of the data issued by the New York PPM system for all demographic groups was usable and reportable by April 1. 2009, “and to ensure that subcategories comprising 10 percent or more of the New York Metro population fall within 90 percent of the overall 75 target.”

Arbitron also agreed to strive to obtain accreditation for the New York PPM service from the Media Rating Council, which previously denied accreditation. The state said it reserved the right to revoke the agreement and restart litigation if Arbitron does not receive the MRC’s formal blessing by Oct. 15, 2009, or if it does not achieve the methodological changes agreed to by certain dates.

The company also agreed to pay $200,000 in settlement of the claims and $60,000 for costs. The company will pay $100,000 to the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) for a joint radio project between NABOB and the Spanish Radio Association to support minority radio.

Arbitron also agreed to fund an advertising campaign in the New York market (of at least $25,000) promoting minority radio and to include a disclaimer on promotional material indicating that PPM ratings are based on audience estimates and should not be relied on for precise accuracy or precise “representativeness” of the New York radio market.

The ratings firm will also conduct a study “to determine and cure measurable bias the PPM methodology may have on racial minorities.” The study is to be completed in July; any biases are to be remedied within six months.

This story updates an earlier item with the news that Arbitron has also agreed to settle the New Jersey lawsuit.

6176: Culturally Biased Reporting From Adweek?

On the one hand, it’s nice to see the typically culturally clueless Adweek providing such in-depth reporting on the conflicts between Arbitron and the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. Then again, is Adweek truly interested in the affair, or is the Nielsen-owned publication simply taking advantage of the situation to spank rival Arbitron?

AHAA Slams Arbitron

By Steve McClellan

NEW YORK The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies wrote to Arbitron on behalf of its member shops late last week chastising the radio ratings company for ignoring concerns it spelled out more than two months ago about the composition of the listener panels in markets where it deploys the portable people meter.

The agency trade group charged that Arbitron continues to offer PPM ratings based on samples that generally underrepresent Hispanic listening audiences. Within the Hispanic sample segments, AHAA, said, the ratings company does not break out income data or country of origin data and relies on recruitment methods that skew toward English-dominant persons.

The panels also omit ZIP code information that was available in diary reports and which is very important for retail clients, the letter stated. Also missing: listener loyalty metrics. Other deficiencies were also spelled out in the missive.

“As Hispanic-specialized agencies, we have a responsibility to our clients to maximize their budgets, and deliver sales and results,” wrote AHAA chairman Jose Lopez-Varela. “With PPM, we are unable to do our jobs effectively and our clients will suffer. When a research sample is inaccurate, the research is invalid. The PPM sample is wrong.”

Lopez-Valera wrote of his “great disappointment” at not hearing back from Arbitron after he wrote on Sept. 11 outlining similar concerns. “AHAA has tried in good faith to work with Arbitron and communicate our reservations clearly and concisely,” he wrote in his follow-up letter, dated Nov. 20 that was addressed to Arbitron vp Rich Tunkel and office of multicultural business affairs director Stacie de Armas. “However, you and other company representatives have been indifferent and refuse to acknowledge the severity of the consequences that PPM in its current state poses to the Spanish-language radio industry and the U.S. Latino communities.”

Groups representing the interests of other minority groups have also complained about inadequate representation in the Arbitron PPM samples, as have numerous broadcasters, focused on both minority and mainstream audiences. The AHAA letter was sent two days after FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein urged the full commission to investigate complaints that the PPM underrepresents minority listening. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is also investigating.

The AHAA letter also followed by just a few days word that Nielsen Media Research (like Adweek, owned by the Nielsen Co.) was entering the radio ratings business and would compete with Arbitron in the space, after winning contracts from both Cumulus Radio and Clear Channel Radio.

An Arbitron rep could not be immediately reached for comment.

6075: Marketing y Medios y Adios.

Hispanic Market Weekly confirmed the news from Laura Martinez that Nielsen Media is completely eliminating Marketing y Medios. In roughly four years, Marketing y Medios has gone from monthly publication to monthly insert to weekly email to memory, as the website is also being dismantled. While it’s a dream come true for the Minuteman Project, the rest of us can look forward to quarterly Nielsen revelations like, “Latinos Love Fútbol!” Of course, there will be no reduction in Latino-related coverage spanking rival Arbitron and its controversial PPM. And as always, Nielsen didn’t even wait for the office cleaning lady to sweep up the piñata debris from the company’s Hispanic Heritage Month party before saying adios. If you need an expression to accurately describe this sad scenario, you’ll find plenty in Martinez’s book.

6056: FYI, PPM.

From Adweek.com…

FCC Unsure About Arbitron PPM Action

By Jeffrey Yorke, Radio and Records

NEW YORK Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin said Wednesday during a hastily-called press conference he isn’t sure the FCC has the “legal authority” to investigate Arbitron’s portable people meter radio ratings service.

The PPM Coalition filed a petition with the FCC to investigate Arbitron’s data collection method’s with the new electronic technology, and attorneys generals in New York and New Jersey have filed suit against Arbitron, which has filed suits against both attorneys general. “We are considering what we should end up doing,” added Martin.

But the PPM issue was clearly not at the top of Martin’s concerns Wednesday. He was clearly agitated with his four commissioner colleagues who on Monday told him they were not prepared to vote on his long-pushed-for plan to force cable companies to also carry some 500 low power television stations throughout the nation. The topic was withdrawn from the FCC’s open monthly meeting agenda on Tuesday and will not be addressed at Wednesday’s FCC meeting being held in Nashville. The late notice withdrawal has been doubly embarrassing for Martin because it has left a handful of powerful cable executives stranded in Nashville, expecting their topic to be discussed.

Martin, whose term as FCC chairman will likely end Jan. 20 when he is expected to tender his resignation to make way for the new president’s choice of chairman, was nearly yelling when he told reporters that he is “very upset that the other four commissioners had months to consider” his proposal. When asked by reporters during the hour-long discussion about the cable executives, some of whom had flown from the West Coast just for the meeting, being stranded in Nashville, Martin shouted, “I am frustrated for them as well.”

The FCC’s open monthly meeting began at 10:30 a.m. and was held in the Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The meeting was part of the university’s Pediatric Obesity Conference. Childhood obesity and the impact and role media serve in the area of children’s health is one of commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate’s key subjects.

6037: Will Arbitron Be Rated In Court?

From The New York Times…

Cuomo to Sue Radio Ratings Company, Claiming Minorities Are Underrepresented

By Brian Stelter

As area radio stations received their first audience ratings generated through new measuring devices on Monday, the New York attorney general’s office warned broadcasters and advertisers not to rely on the numbers.

The office of the attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, said it planned to file a lawsuit this week against Arbitron, the company that compiles the data, because of concerns that minority listeners were not being adequately represented.

Mr. Cuomo’s office said it believed that the new ratings system, which relies on hand-held devices called portable people meters, did not adequately account for young African-Americans and Hispanics, people who do not speak English, and cellphone-only households.

Recruiting and retaining enough respondents from these demographic groups has proved difficult for Arbitron, leading some stations that cater to urban and ethnic audiences to claim that they are not being sufficiently counted.

Arbitron says that they are, and that the company will continue to improve in this area.

During testing periods for the people meters over the last year, the ratings for some minority broadcasters dropped noticeably, prompting concerns about the validity of the devices. Mr. Cuomo’s office began an investigation last month and intended to file a lawsuit against Arbitron by midweek.

For decades, Arbitron measured radio audiences by distributing diaries to listeners and relying on a representative sample of what stations they tuned in to each month. Arbitron has argued that the diary method was subject to errors of memory.

The people meters, in contrast, are carried by members of the ratings panel and automatically record radio signals. With people meters, the total audience for radio grows, because participants tend to listen to more radio than they remember in a given month, but the average audience for each station shrinks, because people switch stations more than they realize.

A coalition of minority radio broadcasters has claimed that the lower ratings recorded by the portable people meters would “disenfranchise minority communities and have a devastating impact on small businesses.”

The urban contemporary station WBLS, for example, was ranked No. 4 in diary-based ratings in the spring, but dropped to No. 11 in September’s people meter ratings. The Spanish-language station WCAA was ranked No. 5 in the spring, and No. 20 in September.

Arbitron denies the disenfranchisement charge, saying that some minority stations have received strong ratings through people meters. They say “The Steve Harvey Show” on WBLS tied for first place in September with the news station WINS among listeners ages 25 to 54.

Mr. Cuomo informed Arbitron last week of his intent to sue. On Monday, Arbitron released the people meter ratings for September, two days ahead of schedule, and requested a restraining order to prevent Mr. Cuomo from halting the publication of the ratings. The motion was denied.

Arbitron would not comment about the timing of the release of the ratings, which affected stations in New York City, Long Island and three New Jersey counties, as well as stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and smaller markets.

In a statement on Monday, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, cautioned stations and their advertisers against “using these prematurely released ratings as we believe they are flawed and will be the subject of ongoing litigation.”

5984: NYC 2 FCC—WTF PPM?

From Adweek.com…

NYC Council to FCC: Probe Arbitron

By Jackie Madrigal, Radio and Records

NEW YORK As expected, the New York City Council voted unanimously yesterday to call on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the Arbitron portable people meter’s potential effects on the diversity of radio.

The Spanish Radio Association -- formed by Hispanic radio groups Univision Radio, Spanish Broadcasting System, Entravision Communications and Border Media Partners -- said the measure “should serve as a wake-up call for local governments and minority communities around the nation.”

In response to the NYC Council measure, the SRA issued the following statement:

“Arbitron’s flawed PPM ratings methodology will severely harm media diversity and ultimately limit the variety of voices and viewpoints on the country’s radio airwaves. It is a real threat not only to minority communities, but it could also have a devastating impact on local economies and needs to be taken seriously. The PPM ratings methodology should not be rolled out until all concerns are effectively addressed.

“Several members of the Spanish Radio Association have a long-standing presence in New York City, working tirelessly as a vibrant extension of the minority communities they serve, and as a strong part of the economic fabric of the communities they serve by creating jobs, paying taxes and supporting small and minority-owned businesses that rely on our airwaves to reach the community. Urban and ethnic stations not only provide vital news and information, they also provide a lifeline for their communities by helping to organize, promote and service a wide range of local civic campaigns and programs. The importance of Spanish-language and urban radio stations in New York and around the nation is immeasurable, and Arbitron’s unaccredited methodology produces unreliable and inaccurate measurement data that will destroy years of progress diversifying radio. Unfortunately, Arbitron is a monopoly, and even though the SRA has invested time and effort to help Arbitron develop a system that will provide reliable rating data, their lack of understanding of minority communities combined with their lack of commitment to these communities has resulted in our recommendations being ignored.

“We commend the New York City Council for working to protect and ensure ethnically and racially diverse radio programming as it continues to thrive in a city of more than 4.6 million minorities.”

Arbitron released the following statement in response to the resolution passed by the New York City Council:

“We are disappointed by the council’s failure to recognize: that broadcasters, agencies and advertisers in New York and other major markets have made it clear that PPM is critical if radio is to remain competitive in an increasingly challenging media marketplace; the quality of the PPM samples in terms of African-American, Hispanic and Spanish-dominant representation; the continuing dialogue Arbitron maintains with urban and Hispanic broadcasters and agencies; and the outreach we are making to highlight the value of African-American and Hispanic consumers in the PPM world.

“While Arbitron does not believe that the FCC has jurisdiction over our company, we are willing to continue our voluntary meetings with the FCC and other government officials. Arbitron’s role as an independent research company is to provide stations and advertisers with information that is based on the actual behavior of radio audiences. That is what PPM delivers today.”

5937: P.S., PPM.

From Adweek.com…

Arbitron Says Its Sample Is Solid

By Mike Boyle, Radio & Records

NEW YORK Despite mounting scrutiny over its portable people meter (PPM) service by the Federal Communications Commission and New York State attorney general Andrew Cuomo, among others, Arbitron kicked off Wednesday’s monthly PPM conference call with president of sales and marketing Pierre Bouvard saying, “We have another set of great news for you on the PPM sample.”

“It’s ironic when you read about the concerns of ethnic broadcasters. In actuality, we have a major overrepresentation problem. We have an overrepresentation of Spanish speakers in all our panels,” Bouvard said.

Some of that news culled from the August data across 10 PPM markets included:

-- An average 6+ Designated Delivery Index (DDI) of 106, with an average DDI in 18-54s of 102.

-- 18-34 DDI is at 93.

-- Arbitron also said it is meeting or exceeding 56 of 57 benchmarks for 18-34s across the 10 markets.

Addressing ethnic sampling, Arbitron svp, marketing Bill Rose pointed out that the black sample is averaging 109 percent of goal across Philadelphia, Houston, New York (nonembedded), Nassau-Suffolk, Middlesex, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. However, the same markets are bringing in an average DDI of 116 among Hispanics, with Spanish-dominant Hispanics at 133 and English-dominant Hispanics at 115.

For the second month, Arbitron’s PPM measured AM and FM streams and HD Radio subchannels. There are now 395 HD or Internet streams encoded and ready to report. To show up in the PPM data, a station must have a .495 weekly cume rating. Those stations making the grade in August were Clear Channel AC WLTW and CHR/top 40 WHTZ in New York and Clear Channel AC KOST and CBS Radio alternative KROQ in Los Angeles.

The next milestone for PPM will be Oct. 8, when eight new markets will become currency: New York, Nassau-Suffolk, Middlesex, Los Angeles, Riverside, Chicago, San Francisco and San Jose.

5921: FCC OK W/AHAA+PPMC.

From Adweek.com…

FCC to Address PPM Petition
The groups claim that Arbitron’s methodology does not adequately sample ethnic audiences

By Katy Bachman, Mediaweek

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission may not have authority to investigate Arbitron, but it set comment dates to address the emergency petition filed by the PPM Coalition and the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.

The two groups, made up of a number of Hispanic broadcasters, as well as urban broadcaster ICBC Broadcast Holdings and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, filed a petition earlier this week requesting the FCC investigate the accuracy of Arbitron’s portable people meter technology.

In addition to its PPM markets in Houston and Philadelphia, Arbitron plans to commercialize eight markets Oct. 8, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The two petitioning groups claim that Arbitron’s PPM methodology does not adequately sample ethnic audiences and that subsequent ratings will seriously harm minority broadcasters.

“A Section 403 inquiry is the only way the commission can shed light on the methodological problems identified in early PPM markets and avert harm to minority broadcasters from a rollout of PPM with a flawed methodology that undercounts minority audiences,” the groups wrote in their petition.

The commission moved at lightning speed. Comments on the petition are due to the FCC by Sept. 24, and reply comments are due Oct. 6.

Arbitron continues to maintain the FCC, which regulates the nation’s airwaves, does not have jurisdiction over media research firms.

--with additional reporting by Julie Gidlow Radio and Records