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Sunday, January 14, 2007
1/15: Arbitron adjustments
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Radio stations live and die by the Arbitron ratings, an archaic diary reporting system with reports that come out quarterly. The numbers are often used by advertisers (especially national ones) to decide who to advertise with. This is why we won’t know how the recent changes made by Clear Channel will afffect ratings until the spring at the earliest.
This fall, Atlanta is going to see a major adjustment in its population numbers. They are normally adjusted slightly each year but Fulton County won an appeal related to undercounting its population. Arbitron accepted the changes which increase the African-American sample from 28.2% to 30.2%. So the number of African Americans in metro Atlanta is now estimated 1.24 million, up from 1.09 million. That’s a 14 percent increase. That virtually guarantees when the fall ratings book comes out later this month, stations such as V-103, Praise 97.5, Hot 107.9 and Grown Folks 102.5 which draw African Americnas will benefit while the likes of Star 94, Kicks 101.5 and Dave FM might see dropoffs since the pie is always 100%.
The Hispanic population was readjusted from 323,900 to 359,900, up 11%. So Viva 105.7 will likely go up (though the station has been lagging a bit this year compared to its 2004-05 performances.) That changes the sample from 8.4% to 8.8%.
Overall, the metro Atlanta 12-plus population is now 4,085,000 from 3,860,100. (Arbitron does not measure listeners under the age of 12, which hurts stations like Radio Disney.)
The 20 counties covered are: Barrow Bartow Carroll Cherokee Clayton Cobb Coweta Dekalb Douglas Fayette Forsyth Fulton Gwinnett Henry Newton Paulding Pickens Rockdale Spalding Walton
