Do I understand this correctly?
April 20, 2019 5:48 PM Subscribe
I am trying to explain radio station market share and average quarter hours. I wrote these two paragraphs trying to compare the listening area of New York City verses Beckley, West Virginia. I've researched this to death but want to make sure what I wrote makes sense. Can you tell me if this is correct?
Once stations know how many people listen, that number is compared to the number of people who are within range of the station’s signal. That’s the station’s “potential” audience. AQH is divided by the number of people a station’s signal could reach and multiplied by 100 to get the percentage of people actually listening, the “AQH Rating.” For example, an AQH of 1 equals an AQH rating of 1%.
New York City’s market, which includes parts of New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, is the number-one rated “Metropolitan Statistical Area” (MSA) in the United States. That means New Yorkers listen to radio most. With a population of 16 million, an AQH of 1 would mean 160,000 people, or 1% in the New York MSA are listening to Morning Edition on WNYC at 8 a.m. Beckley, West Virginia, with 66,000 people, is 272nd, making it among the smallest radio markets in the country. According to the FCC, West Virginia Public Broadcasting operates WVPB in Beckley. But if WVPB had a comparable AQH rating, it could do proportionally as well as WNYC.
Once stations know how many people listen, that number is compared to the number of people who are within range of the station’s signal. That’s the station’s “potential” audience. AQH is divided by the number of people a station’s signal could reach and multiplied by 100 to get the percentage of people actually listening, the “AQH Rating.” For example, an AQH of 1 equals an AQH rating of 1%.
New York City’s market, which includes parts of New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, is the number-one rated “Metropolitan Statistical Area” (MSA) in the United States. That means New Yorkers listen to radio most. With a population of 16 million, an AQH of 1 would mean 160,000 people, or 1% in the New York MSA are listening to Morning Edition on WNYC at 8 a.m. Beckley, West Virginia, with 66,000 people, is 272nd, making it among the smallest radio markets in the country. According to the FCC, West Virginia Public Broadcasting operates WVPB in Beckley. But if WVPB had a comparable AQH rating, it could do proportionally as well as WNYC.
"That means New Yorkers listen to radio most."
Did you mean that there are more New Yorker's available to listen to the radio?
posted by Marky at 7:26 PM on April 20, 2019
Did you mean that there are more New Yorker's available to listen to the radio?
posted by Marky at 7:26 PM on April 20, 2019
"That means NYers listen to radio most..."
Not so sure that is accurate. More NYers listen to the radio in terms of shear numbers, but any one NYer does not necessarily listen more than anyone else.
I also think you are missing some listeners. There is a controversy (sort of) here in NY between tweo sports radio afternoon shows (Michael Kay v Francesca). Part of the issue is do you count streamers as listeners and do you count the TV simulcast viewers as listeners. Advertisers do (sometimes). If you are only talking about signal reach and not total listeners, then you are on the right track.
posted by AugustWest at 8:32 PM on April 20, 2019
Not so sure that is accurate. More NYers listen to the radio in terms of shear numbers, but any one NYer does not necessarily listen more than anyone else.
I also think you are missing some listeners. There is a controversy (sort of) here in NY between tweo sports radio afternoon shows (Michael Kay v Francesca). Part of the issue is do you count streamers as listeners and do you count the TV simulcast viewers as listeners. Advertisers do (sometimes). If you are only talking about signal reach and not total listeners, then you are on the right track.
posted by AugustWest at 8:32 PM on April 20, 2019
Response by poster: Thank you. What I get is it's not clear and I need to look at it again.
posted by CollectiveMind at 10:00 PM on April 20, 2019
posted by CollectiveMind at 10:00 PM on April 20, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
WVPB is West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which covers the entire state. It has repeaters in a number of locations. The one in Beckley is WVBY. This means your number of potential listeners is off.
posted by irisclara at 7:12 PM on April 20, 2019