How do you start an introductory column? Should I write “It’s really nice to meet you” when we’re meeting virtually and you have to decide if reading on is worth your time? If you’re in the media business and your career success (or failure) depends on the ratings or other forms of research, please stay with me, and let’s get acquainted.
While I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the eponymous owner of this organization, Jason reached out to me on LinkedIn recently and asked if I was willing to write a regular column. After some thought, the answer was easy: Why not? I’ve been in this unique end of the business for so many years and if there is one thing I’m certain of, it’s that most people in the media have no idea of how audience measurement actually works.
Perhaps I know more than one thing: those that don’t know are often afraid to ask, typically for fear of looking dumb in front of colleagues. Number three is that education is needed. Alright, I know at least three things!
We may have met over the years, especially during my time at Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio). If not, here is some background about why you might want to continue reading and look forward to future columns. Those in the business who know me often refer to me as “Dr. Ed”. You’re welcome to call me Ed, but as we all know, branding matters and yes, I do hold an earned Ph.D. in Mass Media from Michigan State (award winning dissertation: “A Model of Radio Listener Choice”).
There were good reasons for leaving my gig as operations manager of WSPA-FM in Spartanburg, South Carolina around forty years ago to start on my doctorate, but the one usually given is that I hated being called “Mr. Ed”. That comedy about the talking horse ended in 1966, but even when I’ve taught, it’s amazing that college students knew Mr. Ed.
Since leaving MSU, with the exception of one year when I went back to teaching, I’ve been in research positions on both sides of the “table”. From the vendor side, it was Arbitron/Nielsen and prior to that, the long departed Birch/Scarborough Research. If you are too young to have heard of the latter, look it up (someone wrote a Wikipedia entry under “Birch Ratings”).
It was a full competitor to Arbitron for a while until late 1991. Other stops included Clear Channel (pre-iHeart), Cumulus, WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh (former Cox TV), and the National Association of Broadcasters. I’ve had the pleasure of working for some wonderful bosses over time, among them Mark Mays, David Lapovsky, and Mike McVay.
Today, I’m retired and have just moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky. For a radio person, that’s a move from a PPM market (Washington, DC) to a two book average diary market. Funny thing that no one in Bowling Green seems to get the radio humor in that remark. Among the other activities available here, sharing my knowledge with you is near the top of the list. Being retired and not looking for the next gig, I can say what I want and that includes commenting on how the current audio measurement system works.
If you remember the late Dr. Roger Wimmer, consider this effort to be at least a reasonable facsimile of his excellent Research Doctor column that ran in AllAccess for many years. One thing that Roger did was answer research questions from readers, so I’ll make the same offer. If you have a question about ratings or research that has been bugging you or have been following some rule that you heard from someone else (who no doubt heard it from another radio vet twenty years earlier), send me an email and it may be answered in a future column.
I’ll keep your name confidential and while we’re at it, let me offer one tidbit. “Confidential” and “anonymous” are not the same thing, which should be obvious, but have you ever been asked to participate in a survey that said you’ll remain “anonymous”? It’s unlikely. “Confidential” means the people running the survey know who you are, but won’t give out individual information. “Anonymous” means you’re unknown even to the survey managers. In this case, I’ll keep your name confidential if you desire.
Next week will be more substantive, but for now, here’s what I’ve told radio people for years about understanding this stuff. If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, or at a minimum, handle the calculator in your phone or your PC, you can deal with ratings and research data. I still use a 40-year-old solar calculator purchased at the Okemos, Michigan K-Mart ahead of my first graduate methods course at MSU in 1983. The KMC-7000 works perfectly and has been part of more ratings analyses than you can imagine.
Thank you for making it this far and let’s meet again next week.
