Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Nielse

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Greg Goodfellow
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Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Nielse

Post by Greg Goodfellow »

An administrator for Tyler County Schools asked me this question: "How many listeners does your station have?" I told him we've never subscribed to any service, so we don't know. Several businesses have said that people tell them they listen to the station when these owners asked. I have a lot of anecdotal information, but nothing concrete. Should we go through Arbitron (or Nielsen) to find out how many listeners we do have? During our summertime show, some days we were jammed up, struggling to get all the requests in, while other days, especially Tuesday, my final day on (school starts for teachers next week), only one person bothered to call in a request.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Jay Nunley »

No. They will never have enough in tab for the numbers you would get to mean anything. I'm not even sure what their policy is on measuring public stations or LPFMs. Get a statistics class at the school to do a call out research project as a real world learning experience. Win/Win.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Greg Goodfellow »

Great idea, Jay! I will have my radio class do this as an ongoing project.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

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Greg Goodfellow wrote:An administrator for Tyler County Schools asked me this question: "How many listeners does your station have?" I told him we've never subscribed to any service, so we don't know.
Are you in a rated market? Are you aware of these folks....? http://www.rrconline.org/
(I think the online version contains only those subscribing to their service.)

By the way, requests are meaningless unless you know their meaning, which virtually no one can....or can with any certainty.

Requests can mean any of the following....

"Your programming, for me, is a '9,' and here's what would make it a '10!'" (That's about the only positive.)
"Your programming sucks, so I'm taking it upon myself to fix it."
"You're stupider than your competition, and I think my odds of suckering you into playing something are better than with the others."
"I know you have few listeners, so, for the sake of retaining me, I bet I can twist your arm."
"I just read 'Personal Power Through Manipulating and Intimidating Radio Personalities,' and I'm about to practice on you."

...and so on, but know that most of the meanings aren't really big positives. Think of it like psychics on talk radio -- producers think they're doing something right because the phones light up, but, in reality, there's no bigger tune-OUT....in this case, the hot phones are really meaning less listening! Phones can often mean the opposite of what you're thinking or hoping they mean. I'd trust the anecdotal comments from those business owners more, especially if those business owners seem happy about hearing them.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Big Media »

Greg Goodfellow wrote:An administrator for Tyler County Schools asked me this question: "How many listeners does your station have?"
You're answer should be what does it matter? It's not about how many listeners, it's about how many students are learning a skill that can lead down a multitude of paths after graduation. Obviously there aren't many jobs in media these days, but speaking on the radio is bound to improve communication skills, interpersonal communications, and articulation skills. These are skills that are severely lacking across the board. In this OMG I LOLed until I CMEO, anything is better than nothing.

Further, there's a serious lack of qualified engineers. The majority of engineers are nearing or have surpassed retirement age. If you can get two or three students interested in the RF side of the business, they could have their pick of jobs in a few years.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Jay Nunley »

Arp2 wrote:
Greg Goodfellow wrote:An administrator for Tyler County Schools asked me this question: "How many listeners does your station have?" I told him we've never subscribed to any service, so we don't know.
Are you in a rated market? Are you aware of these folks....? http://www.rrconline.org/
(I think the online version contains only those subscribing to their service.)

By the way, requests are meaningless unless you know their meaning, which virtually no one can....or can with any certainty.

Requests can mean any of the following....

"Your programming, for me, is a '9,' and here's what would make it a '10!'" (That's about the only positive.)
"Your programming sucks, so I'm taking it upon myself to fix it."
"You're stupider than your competition, and I think my odds of suckering you into playing something are better than with the others."
"I know you have few listeners, so, for the sake of retaining me, I bet I can twist your arm."
"I just read 'Personal Power Through Manipulating and Intimidating Radio Personalities,' and I'm about to practice on you."

...and so on, but know that most of the meanings aren't really big positives. Think of it like psychics on talk radio -- producers think they're doing something right because the phones light up, but, in reality, there's no bigger tune-OUT....in this case, the hot phones are really meaning less listening! Phones can often mean the opposite of what you're thinking or hoping they mean. I'd trust the anecdotal comments from those business owners more, especially if those business owners seem happy about hearing them.
This is hard for me to admit, but when I read this muscle memory kicked in and I found myself trying to hit a "like" button.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

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Jay Nunley wrote:This is hard for me to admit, but when I read this muscle memory kicked in and I found myself trying to hit a "like" button.
Yeahhhhh.....good times.

Muscle memory? Does that mean you're off The Facebook? Good for you....or are you saying the whole internet has come together in your brain like it's all The Facebook?

Hope you're well and are finding and creating value in life.....
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

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I thought the Internet was Facebook. Damn. :D
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by cgarison »

Big Media wrote:I thought the Internet was Facebook. Damn. :D

And 15 years ago, a majority of online users did not realize there was a world outside the confines (a.k.a the "Walled Garden") of the AOL browser. It is only a matter of time that The Facebook joins the ranks of AOL, Yahoo!, and Google Plus. It could even sink as low as Friendster or MySpace.
The first step in a successful revolution is to defeat all competing revolutionaries.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Big Media »

Yep. I can't tell you how many minds I melted at a friend's house when I connected to AOL, which was their ISP, minimized their shit software, and brought up Internet Explorer. They thought I was a wizard. :lol:
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by ashton »

..thus negating the proxy server and seeing bewbies in less pixelated glory.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Jay Nunley »

Arp2 wrote:
Jay Nunley wrote:This is hard for me to admit, but when I read this muscle memory kicked in and I found myself trying to hit a "like" button.
Yeahhhhh.....good times.

Muscle memory? Does that mean you're off The Facebook? Good for you....or are you saying the whole internet has come together in your brain like it's all The Facebook?

Hope you're well and are finding and creating value in life.....
Muscle memory from overuse of Facebook and just hitting the like button all the time. Shameful. I still use Facebook daily, although it tends to be once a day instead of ten times a day.

I am finding and creating value. I am also creating challenges and those seem to find me as well.

I hope all is well in your world, in whichever corner of it you now reside.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Big Media »

ashton wrote:..thus negating the proxy server and seeing bewbies in less pixelated glory.
Well, I was barely out of my teens during the AOL dominance days, so yeah. :mrgreen:
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by lastone »

I think the worry here is that this administrator may be thinking adversly about the radio program. 'The football team needs new equipment and we spend $40 a month for the radio club' kind of thing. I hope not. I can only believe the station serves the community and the children and therefore should not be judged by how many people are listing.
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Re: Should a high school FM station subscribe to Arbitron/Ni

Post by Greg Goodfellow »

"lastone," they are planning on moving the studios downstairs after the Board of Education moves out in a few months, so they are solidly behind the station-at least, that is what he tells me. They have a translator lease due next year (several months after I retire from full-time teaching), and the one for the big stick due down the road. I also have several Board members who have supported the station for years, plus two new ones that have made it clear that they don't want anything negative to happen to WRSG on THEIR watch. Tom Taggart has saved them untold thousands of dollars over the years in a variety of ways. We shall see.

Greg
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