"HFguy" wrote in message
news:mbOKh.3869$282.773@trndny04...
David Eduardo wrote:

Actually, diaries are placed using a technique based on random digit
dialers, with strict geographic controls within each market's metro.
Participants are recruited based on quotas for age, sex, ethnicity, etc.
based on Claritas quantifications of each market using root Census data
and annual updates. In today's world, this is as close as you can get to
a true random probability sample where there is no recruitment bias.

There is nothing "hand picked" about the sample. Stations can not ask to
have diaries sent to anyone. It's all random.

And the diary method is going away, as the People Meter rolls out over
the next few years. It's already in Philly and Houston, and does full
electronic measurement of a perfectly balanced sample.

I participated in an Arbitron radio survey many years ago. I was first
contacted by phone and they asked if I would be interested in keeping a
diary. I agreed and they sent the diary to me. The main problem I had was
I often don't listen to a station for more than a few seconds to see if I
like the music they're playing. If not, I move on to another station. I
don't listen to most commercials either, so that's another reason for
retuning. I do this a lot with FM. It's almost impossible to enter this
kind of listening into a survey diary. There would be hundreds of entries
in a day. Since I'm also an HF listener, I had to enter the shortwave
stations in the diary. I imagine they threw mine out after they saw that.

No, your diary was not thrown out. Any diary that has been properly returned
is processed, including those that show zero listening.

Arbitron tabulates just two things... station and time listening to it.
Credits are given by quarter hour. To get a quarter hour credit, a listener
has to have been tuned in for a minimum of 5 minutes in each quarter hour.
So dial scanning or seeking does not give credit.

Today, with the Portable People Meter, all of this is done electronically...
with every station in a measured market encoded. This means non-encoded
signals, like, let's say, and Ecuadorian SW station, will not get detected.
Again, nobody in the advertising or radio industry believes this is a
defect.