Need help finding & understandning radio ARBITRON ratings- Please read additional info below.?

Question

I often hear that, for example, WKXW-FM is the highest rated afternoon drive talk program. Is there a site that BREAKS DOWN the shifts (time slots) so I can see how local stations (radio) do on Arbitrons? I've seen the main Arbitron page, but don't get specific time slot breakdowns.

Also, what does a tem like a Two share (2-share) mean?

I'm curious to see how the ratings changed since Craig Carton and Boomer took over doing morning drive at WFAN 660-AM NY and also breakdowns of Philly radio stations.

The key word I'm looking for is by TIME SLOT.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

A station with a 2 share would mean that 2% of all the radio listeners in a given market are tuned into that station. (There

are 100 shares in a rated market.)

You might check out http://www.allaccess.com and

http://www.radioandrecords.com for some ratings information. It may not be as specific as you mention, but if you look for "Arbitrends" you may be able to locate some of the 12+ ratings information.

You might also check out http://www.radio-info.com and check under the New York board. These questions come up frequently there and someone may have asked a similar question.

I'm in a different market, so I don't have access to the full numbers there. I have seen full Arbitron reports as a former station operations manager. I'm just not quite sure how public some of their info is.

Answer 2

Just to add the RadioBoy's answer, Arbitron is a (highly) paid subscription service. They only release general figures to the press and public such as total audience for the entire day/week in roughly the Top 100-150 markets.

They do not generally make current individual time slots (we call them dayparts) public, that would defeat their purpose. Although you can sometimes get older information on specific dayparts in some of the trade press, they'll be old by a book or two.

To clarify, a "two share" is 2% of the total number OF LISTENERS overall in radio parlance. A "two rating" would be 2% of the POPULATION, regardless of whether they listen to radio or not.

FYI, WFAN has dipped very slightly OVERALL since Imus left. But you can't tie that to just mornings.

- a guy named duh