Here’s why I love Radio ratings:
When the industry debates whether one Portable People Meter is as good as two or three diaries, that means there would be only one-third to one-half as many measuring instruments in the market as there are now. Meanwhile we’re talking about going HD, which means multiplying the number of stations by three. Further, we’re hoping for so-called “granular level” data which means we’ll be evaluating our stations moment-by-moment in real-time.
This creates a scenario (and correct me if I’m wrong) where instead of having, say, 3000 diaries in a market and 30 stations we’d have, say, 1000 or 1500 meters in a market and 90 stations.
So instead of 100 measuring instruments per station we’d have 11 or 17. Yes, 11 or 17.
Assuming an HD world, I could probably guess the ratings at random and come closer to the truth.
We’re debating how few meters we need because, of course, the costs are enormous. But what’s the answer? Digital measurement is great, but doing it right means we will have to pay the price.
You can’t buy a car if you budget for a Big Wheel.