Knowing the
terminology used in the measurement of radio listening is essential
to a better understanding of audience estimates. The definitions
that follow are generally accepted by the radio industry as published
by the National Association of Broadcasters, The Arbitron Company
and Research Director Inc.
If you have
any questions, or if there are terms on our site that you'd like
us to explain further, please contact us
for more information.
Average Quarter Hour (AQH)
AQH
answers the question: "How many people are listening to a station
at a specific moment?" The estimate is determined by adding all
of the quarter hours of listening during a daypart and dividing
the sum by the number of quarter hours in the daypart.
Average Weekly Time Exposed (AWTE)
The amount of time the average listener is exposed to a radio station during a daypart. The estimate may be expressed in number of quarter hours or in hours/minutes. AWTE answers the question: "How much time does the average listener spend with this station?" This measurement is used in meter-measured markets.
Core
Audience
The contiguous ages that make up the central
tendency, the middle 50% of listening by exact age. This may be
defined by total audience or First Preference.
Cost Per Rating Point (CPP)
The
cost of reaching one percent of the target population. CPP is calculated
by dividing the cost of the schedule by the gross rating points.
National and regional advertising buyers frequently use this cost
efficiency measure, since it can be applied across all media.
Cost
Per Thousand (CPM)
The relative cost of a schedule of announcements
may be calculated by dividing the cost of the schedule by the sum
of the average quarter hour audiences of the announcements purchased.
Cumulative Audience (Cume)
Cume
is estimated by determining how many different people listen to
a radio station for a minimum of five minutes in a quarter hour
within a daypart.
Daypart
A
time period for which audience estimates are reported. For example,
Monday-Friday 6AM-10AM, Monday-Sunday 6AM-12Mid, and Monday-Friday 5PM-6PM.
Demographic
Group
Any definition of the audience by age,
gender, and/or ethnicity.
Diary
The instrument used to gather radio listening
behavior in some markets by The Arbitron Company.
Diarykeeper
A
person who maintains a record of their radio listening behavior.
Duplicated
Audience
The percentage of one station's cumulative
audience that also listens to another station during a specified
daypart.
Exclusive Cume
The
percentage of the Cume (different persons) who listen only to one
radio station during a daypart.
First
Preference
See preference.
Format
Programming of a radio station aimed
at a specific audience such as Country, Adult Contemporary, Urban,
Rock, etc.
Frequency
The
average number of exposures to the commercial or song heard by the
average listener or a frequency distribution revealing the number
of persons estimated to have heard the commercial or song one time,
two times, three times, four times, etc.
Gross Impressions
The
sum of the average quarter hour persons exposed to a given schedule.
Gross
Rating Points
The
sum of the average quarter hour rating points for a given schedule.
HDBA/HDHA
High Density Area—an Arbitron-defined
sampling unit that contains a high concentration of ethnic (Black
or Hispanic) households based on ZIP codes and used to control sample
representation for these segments of the population.
Heavy Listener
A
diarykeeper who spends 100 or more quarter hours with a single station
within a week.
In-tab
The diaries that are returned usable
in the survey and actually tabulated to produce the survey results.
Life Group
A
classification of listeners that prefer a particular type of station
above all others.
Meter
The instrument used to gather radio listening behavior in some markets by The Arbitron Company. Also called a Portable People Meter (PPM).
Metro / TSA / DMAŽ
Metro
stands for Metro Survey Area, and generally corresponds to the federal
government's Office of Management and Budget's Metropolitan Statistical
Area, Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area, or Consolidated Metropolitan
Statistical Area. TSA (Total Survey Area) includes the Metro and
surrounding counties that qualify based on listening criteria for
the metro county radio stations. DMAŽ (Designated Marketing Area)
is Nielsen's geographic design for measuring and reporting television
viewing. Each county in the U.S. is assigned to only one DMA based
on viewing patterns.
Minimum
Reporting Standards (MRS)
The criteria used to determine which radio
stations are included in the Arbitron local market report.
Panel
A research technique whereby the same
sample of survey respondents is measured over a longer period of
time.
Persons Using Measured Media (PUMM)
The total amount of listening to media (in this case, radio) for a particular demo/daypart/geography. PUMM is used in meter-measured markets.
Persons Using Radio (PUR)
The total amount of listening to radio
for a particular demo/daypart/ geography. PUR is used in diary-measured markets.
PPDV
Persons per diary value, the number of
persons that a survey respondent represents in a diary-measured market.
PPM Weight
The number of persons that a survey respondent represents in a meter-measured market.
Population
The
estimated size of the group being measured for which audience estimates
are projected.
Preference
Segmentation
of listening by the relative amount of listening to a specific station,
e.g., First Preference (P1) means the survey respondent listened
to that station more than any other. Second Preference (P2) refers
to the station that was listened to second most.
Proportionality
The percentage of a segment of the population
that is in the survey sample as compared to the distribution of
this same population in the area being measured.
Qualitative Research
Audience estimates that deal with behavior
other than radio listening such as shopping and purchase preferences.
Random Sample
Also known as a probability sample because
the selection of survey respondents is based in the principles of
probability.
Rating
The
percentage of the population listening to a given radio station
during a daypart. Ratings apply to both average quarter hour and
cumulative audiences.
Reach
The
total number of different persons exposed to a commercial or song
during a specified daypart. Reach can be calculated using a computer
for a single station, multiple stations, or across media using formulas
generally accepted by the advertising industry.
Recycling
There are three types of recycling for
radio. 1) Daypart recycling is the percentage of audience
listening in one daypart that also listens in another specified
daypart. 2) Recycling by listening location is the percentage of
audience that listens in one location of listening that also listens
in another. 3) Recycling by day is the percentage of the total week's
audience that listens on any given day of the week.
Response Rate
The percentage of respondents that provide
usable data for the survey compared to the designated sample.
Sample
A
small group randomly selected to represent the population being
measured.
Sample
Balancing (a.k.a. weighting)
The process by which the sample gathered
from the survey is adjusted to a known set of values from the total
survey population, in order to correct for any improper representation
of certain specified subgroups of the population.
Sampling Unit
The individual units that are listed
in the sampling frame for the survey, but more specifically a geographic
area consisting of a county or split county.
Share
The
percentage of people listening to a specific radio station in a
particular daypart compared to all those listening to radio in that
daypart. Share answers the question: "What percentage of the radio
audience is listening to a specific station at a particular time?"
Slogan
An identifier other than the call letters
or exact frequency, such as "Mix," "Star," or "Z106," which is used
on the air to identify the station.
Spot
A single commercial unit.
Station Name
See slogan.
Survey
In radio, the survey is the study of radio
listening behavior in a specific geographic area over a specified
length of time such as the Birmingham Metro survey for Fall or the New York Metro survey for February.
Time Spent Listening (TSL)
The
amount of time the average listener spent listening to a radio station
during a daypart. The estimate may be expressed in number of quarter
hours or in hours/minutes. TSL answers the question: "How much time
does the average listener spend with this station?" TSL is used in diary-measured markets.
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