Understanding Arbitron’s National Radio Ratings Services
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RADAR (Radio’s All Dimension Audience Research) provides a national measurement of radio listening and network audiences. Reports are issued four times a year. The study is based on a probability sample of more than 395,000 respondents, aged 12 and older. These reports are designed to provide estimates of national radio usage and network radio commercial audience during an average week within the United States. The estimates are derived from listening information from Persons 12 years of age and older living in the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii (based on Arbitron radio market reports for Diary and PPM™ methodologies). For more information, see the RADAR Description of Methodology, accessible via the secure Arbitron client Web site, my.arbitron.com.
The respondent provides 7 days of radio listening. Network station affiliations, as of a specific date, and clearances for two specific weeks are used to compile the network audience estimates. To prepare Network Radio Audience estimates, usage information is merged with clearance data for broadcasts and commercial exposures.
Estimates and ratings include daypart averages and Cumes for standard demographic breaks, and are reported on a national basis. TV DMA® groups, all 210 individual DMAs, the Census Region and County Size, as well as other socioeconomic factors, are also reported. Population estimates for the reported socio-economic and age/sex categories are either based on Census 2000 data updated and projected by Claritas, Inc., developed by Arbitron from the Current Population Survey, or developed by Arbitron based on RADAR sample data.
Nationwide is a national radio audience service that provides information on the size and demographic composition of radio audiences for commercial and public radio networks. The audience is reported for overall U.S. and for U.S. Designated Market Areas (DMA), and can be generated for various networks and syndicated radio programming based on their affiliate lineups. Nationwide is issued twice a year, following the Spring and Fall surveys.
Nationwide estimates are based on a sample size of more than 450,000 respondents for each report, covering seven days of radio listening, and are conducted over a 12-week period.
Estimates include overall U.S., individual station and individual DMA daypart Average Quarter-Hour and Cume audience for standard demographic breaks. Nationwide permits users to evaluate radio networks on market-by-market and station-level bases. The age/sex population estimates shown in the Nationwide reports are used for rating calculations. They are developed by Arbitron based on the weighted Nationwide sample data.
The list of network subscribers to each service is available on the Arbitron Web site.
Q. I want to find out how many Men 25-54
were listening across the nation when
commercials
ran on a particular network.
Which service should I use?
A. RADAR is the only service that measures
audiences
to cleared commercials.
Q. How can I determine the audience for this
network
in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area?
A. Nationwide enables you to analyze listenership
to networks or syndicated shows within
all DMAs and at the station level. RADAR
provides market- and network-level audience
estimates for all 210 DMAs.
Q. Is it possible to determine the Working
Women 25-54 audience to a network?
A. RADAR provides 109 socio-economic
categories,
including Working Women, Working Men and Working Adults.
Q. I have been given information on a new
talk show and told that the estimates will
be revised
as the affiliates increase. Where
do those estimates
come from?
A. The estimates are from the Nationwide
service.
As more affiliates are added to the
lineup, new estimates can be developed to
show a growing audience.
Q. Are the population estimates from RADAR
and Nationwide different?
A. The Nationwide population estimates are
larger than the population estimates for
RADAR because Nationwide includes
Alaska and Hawaii and RADAR excludes
those states. For total Persons 12+ in the
continental United States, the difference
between the population estimates for the
two services is 0.1%.
Bruce Supovitz
Director
National Radio Services
bruce.supovitz@arbitron.com
(410) 312-8797
Jane Shapiro
Manager, National Radio Research Services
(410) 312-8732
jane.shapiro@arbitron.com
RADAR® and PPM™ are marks of Arbitron Inc. DMA® is a registered mark of Nielsen Media Research, Inc., and is used pursuant
to a license from Nielsen Media Research, Inc.
Last updated: 12.6.10
