St. Louis Radio: PPM Changes Landscape

The way radio audiences in St. Louis are measured changed three years ago, and two things seem apparent, according to Joe Holleman at stltoday.com:

The new system is a significant improvement.

The new system still has some significant problems.

In September 2009, Arbitron threw away the old “diary” method in St. Louis and switched to the higher-tech “PPM” (short for portable people meter), a device the size of a small pager that reads embedded electronic codes that are unique to each radio station.

Several local programmers and a Colorado-based consultant agree that the new method is better.

Kent Sterling, program director of WXOS-FM 101 ESPN sports talk radio, said diaries gave a big advantage to “heritage” stations — established stations whose reputations carried enough weight to make diary-keepers write down their call letters when they could not recall to what station they had actually listened.

In St. Louis, KMOX was that monster on AM, and KSHE fit the bill on FM. The newer ratings still show both stations having strong followings, but clearly not the stranglehold they once possessed.

“So with the PPM, you get a more accurate picture of who is actually listening to what,” Sterling said.

Lauren Ryan, who heads programming for “The Big 550” KTRS, an AM news talk station, said heritage stations — such as her main AM competitor, KMOX — “got credited with more listeners than they actually had.”

One example of how PPM has changed perceptions of local radio involves talk station, KFTK NewsTalk 97.1. According to November Arbitron numbers, it is the highest-ranked news talk station in the 18-64 age group, even higher than KMOX.

Arbitron does not disclose the names of PPM wearers, present or past. The wearers also sign contracts that requires them to not talk about their experience. The wearers are paid an amount Arbitron does not disclose.

So if the new PPM method is more accurate and less susceptible to abuse and operator error, then what’s not to like about it?

Ask the same consultant and programmers and you quickly get this answer: “The sample size is too small.”

With such a small sample, a station may get most of its rating strength from a core of “heavy-deep” listeners, those who tune in exclusively to one station for large portions of a day, Balis said.

“You have one or two of them go on vacation for a week, and your numbers can really change,” Balis said. “With the PPM, you get a lot more of a roller coaster effect.”

Even with the reservations, Ryan judges the new system to be ultimately fair. “We radio stations can complain all we want, but we all play by the same rules,” she said.

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