Agree some, disagree some ...

From Tom Taylor:

“I’ve had it with all the complaining about the PPM being unfair to ethnic broadcasters.”

A former group head emails this self-described “rant” - “In order to say that the PPM is wrong, you have to take the huge leap of faith that the diary was right. First, for years, the system has weighted and manipulated the numbers to produce results whose statistical accuracy is at best suspect.

Second, if you think about it logically, every wide disparity you're seeing in the PPM is to be reasonably expected. Some examples: #1, Listening to public radio stations is down - not a shock. Listening to NPR is a 'hip, sophisticated' thing to do, and people who drop by for a bit will naturally overestimate how long they stayed when they get around to filing out the diary. #2, Listening to Oldies stations is up - not a shock. It’s the reverse, listening to the oldies station isn't hip unless you're over 60, so underestimating was naturally going on. #3, Listening to smooth jazz stations is down - not a shock. See NPR explanation. #4, Urban stations are off. In the diary, I listened all day to my favorite urban station. In the PPM world, I might have heard the soft AC in my boss's office, I used the rest room, I went out for lunch, etc. #5, Hispanic stations are off - same as Urbans.

Everyone needs to get over their global objections to PPM and work within the system to make it better. PPM is far more ‘correct’ than the diary system has ever been. And once the numbers are right, let’s focus on everyone getting bought at the same power ratio [that's the ratio of ratings to revenue]. At that point, all the noise will disappear from the system.”

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