The Daily Whim
My Site, My Whims, Your Consternation
Thu. May 03, 2001
Radio's Big Bully
Radio’s Big Bully – OK, I promise not to blow a gasket like I did last time, this article does a pretty good job for me. ” ’It pains me to say it, but radio sucks and it has sucked for the better part of consolidation,’ says Del Calliano at Inside Radio. ’And anybody who loves radio knows that.’ ”
Indeed. About once per week while driving, I spend 5 minutes flipping between the 4 stations in town I can tolerate. That’s the extent of my radio listening, and I spent 8 years in the biz. But I’m not alone. ”In just the past seven years radio listening has declined nearly 15 percent, according to Arbitron. ”
Ah, Arbitron. We used to quaver waiting for judgement to be passed down from Mount Arbitron, and then microanalyze every character of the report in search of sunshine. Today, Behemoth Radio Conglomerates take openly belligerent and economically damaging swipes at them.
”An even more recent example of Clear Channel’s hardball style: On the very day radio-ratings company Arbitron went public with a Wall Street offering this month, Clear Channel decided to announce to Arbitron—and its investors—that the behemoth would not be renewing its contracts for the company’s ratings surveys in 130 markets that were then under negotiation. The announcement represents a huge hit that could cost Arbitron tens of millions of dollars in lost revenues annually—not to mention dampen the company’s newly public stock.”
Clear Channel owns 1200 stations, with one in 247 of the 250 top markets in this country. They control 60% of the Top 40 / rock radio market. They own a concert promotion firm, and if your band works with a competing promoter, they will pull your records from Clear Channel’s national playlist. They now also own the largest independent record promoter, and can in effect dictate to record companies the price for a ”hit.” And they apparently time press releases to damage the stock offerings of other companies, purely for fun.
Talk about yer Evil Empire. Where’s the Department of Justice when you really need them?
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I am an adult male residing in Central NY who was recently contacted by Arbitron to participate in one of their radio listening surveys. Somehow I was talked into participating which I now intensely regret. They promised some sort of financial reward (retrospective translation two dollars) which must somehow be the catalyst that convinced me to participate. Since their initial phone call and receipt of their little survey logbooks, I have received another five phone calls from various telebotherers from Arbitron making certain that I am filling out their survey books like a good little cog. These seemingly constant phone calls make me hate Arbitron and anyone remotely resembling them in any way, so that of course I am purposely creating erroneous data to spite the obnoxious bastards. My take is that as more and more of corporate ("Big Brother") America increases it's privacy invading quantification of the masses (or subsegments therein) for the benefit of themselves and their shareholders, it makes perfect sense for anyone who feels similarly violated to feed them erroneous data whether it be in the form of surveys, supermarket shoppers cards, cashier's requesting zip-code data, etc. Yours truly, An Independent Cog in the Machine
“...as more and more of corporate ("Big Brother") America increases it's privacy invading quantification of the masses (or subsegments therein) for the benefit of themselves and their shareholders, it makes perfect sense for anyone who feels similarly violated to feed them erroneous data...” But that's not what happened to you. Arbitron did not invade your privacy. Whether you later regretted it or not, you chose to invite them into your home. You agreed to provide them with data, in exchange for a meager sum. Maybe you now think that was a bad choice, but they didn't force their way in your door, nor did they bug your radio to steal the data about your listening habits. And giving them false data doesn't impact them, they will still make their vast sum of money from ratings subsciptions, as they always have. You are one of 1,000 to 2,000 Arbitron diaries in your market that will be packaged together and sold. However, it will impact the radio stations who rely on such data to set their ad rates. So, it looks to me like your situation is not the fault of Arbitron, nor will your actions impact them. But thanks for sharing.