Who's ever heard of Eastlan Ratings ...

Looks like you should have.  God knows we need an alternative to Arbitron.

From their site:

Years ago, while learning the ropes as a young market manager and reflecting on a year that didn’t go as expected, the CEO of our company shared some profound wisdom. That kind of common-sense logic that makes you scratch your head and wonder why you hadn’t thought that. His sage counsel: “Maybe it wasn’t a bad year-maybe you just made a bad guess.”

How many of us budgeted for the once in a generation revenue drop of 2008-2009? How many of us hit the mark on 2010? Pretty tough stuff to guess, right?

Talk to a dozen people and you’ll get a dozen theories on whether or not the economy has bottomed out, whether will we double dip or whether recovery already happening.

On the other hand, most all would agree that we are in a new reality. It’s time to go back to work building our businesses with full attention to the current situation---we can’t continue to compare to 2006 and 2007. Those are now officially “the good ol’ days”.

So as you build your 2011 budget in a world where dollars are tighter and competition is fiercer, we hope you’ll give serious consideration to the value of audience measurement data. While it is imperative to have the ability to help an advertiser understand the size and impact your station’s audience as compared to other media, you must ask: at what cost?

Everyday more broadcasters are learning that Eastlan can often save them 40-60% when compared to their current ratings vendor. Where else can you reduce your annual overhead by 50-100K-without impacting the quality of your product?

It’s not 2007 anymore. Don’t budget like it is either. Guess smarter. Especially when it comes to hiring your ratings vendor.