One of the radio industry’s most respected researchers, Dr. Ed Cohen writes a weekly business column, heavily focused on ratings research for Barrett Media. His career experiences include serving as VP of Ratings and Research at Cumulus Media, occupying the role of VP of Measurement Innovation at Nielsen Audio, and its predecessor Arbitron. While with Arbitron, Cohen spent five years as the company's President of Research Policy and Communication, and eight years as VP of Domestic Radio Research. Dr. Ed has also held the title of Vice President of Research for iHeartMedia/Clear Channel, and held research positions for the National Association of Broadcasters and Birch/Scarborough Research. He is adjunct faculty in the Department of Broadcast Communications at Western Kentucky University and welcomes your thoughts. Reach him by email at doctoredresearch@gmail.com.
Weighting is done because the rating services want to reflect the population. The weighting variables should have a direct correlation with what is being measured.
If you’re uncomfortable with ratings, I’m here to tell you that it’s really not hard. For years, I’ve said if you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you’re good.
"Working at ESPN, you’re working with arguably the best people in the industry. Because of that, a great deal of our goals were accomplished through collective effort and teamwork. It’s nice to sit back and reflect on the things we accomplished as a team together."