Calculating ratings for radio stations has always been a difficult endeavor. In the very early days of broadcasting, the popularity of a station or a program was roughly determined by the amount of fan mail it received. Later came telephone calls to random homes asking for listenership the day befor e. C. E. Hooper pioneered the idea of calling various numbers in a city and asking what was being listened to “now,” which was followed by Arbitron and the diary system where people wrote down in a book what they were listening to or what they remembered listening to. All of these have their own problems. Either they rely on memory, or the samples don’t capture all types of listening, or worse. They also don’t capture listeners who change stations a lot. Would you remember every station you tuned in to during the day, if you were tuning around the dial? So Arbitron — later folded into the Nielsen Ratings company —  developed the Personal People Meter, a little electronic device worn by people chosen to represent the various demographics of a city. The PPM picks up a silent encoded signal sent along with the audio program and “hears” in real time what station is tuned in, and is used in major markets across the country. Last January, Nielsen made a major change in the way it calculates listenership. Prior to the change, it would give one quarter-hour of credit — 15 minutes of listening — to a station if the PPM “heard” a signal for just five, and those five don’t have to be continuous. While that sounds like cheating, there is some basis for it … the PPM isn’t perfect, and doesn’t always hear things clearly … such as when windows are open in a car, the sound level is low, interference hurts reception, and more. Of course, there are also obvious problems … you may not be listening as you walk through a store, but the station played is picked up by the meter. You get the idea. As of January, the required time for the quarter-hour was reduced to just three. Various reasons were given for the change, but most observers didn’t expect much of a change in the overall ratings, just an “artificial” boost in overall listening. That lack of change has been the case, for the most part, with some exceptions. According to Jerry Del Colliano at InsideMusicMedia.com, weekends have shown an increase in listenership, and there has been an increase in the percentage of younger listeners. One explanation says it may be due to short errands in the car or trips to youth sporting events. I also wonder if short attention spans may be at work here as well — think about button pushing when your favorite song ends. One side effect I thought of: With the three-minute threshold, theoretically five different stations could get credit for the same quarter-hour of listening by one meter holder, and if someone does indeed listen to one station for a full 15 minutes, that station is no better than if they listened for three. Obviously, the system is still not perfect. I also wonder if the three-minute threshold will allow stations — those that try to game the system — to break away from the long commercial breaks that happen at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour. With the five-minute requirement during each quarter-hour, stations were afraid to put commercials elsewhere because they didn’t want to lose credit if a person tuned in for a short time just before the breaks … even if they stayed until the end of the break. This unintended consequence would be a good thing, by allowing more flexibility for stop-sets and a smoother programming hour. Memories “I remember walking down the hallway of my school as an 8th grader in 1962. At some point, kids would walk past me and sing, ‘Norman, Ooh Ooh  Ooh  Ooh  Ooh.’ I had no idea why they were doing that. I asked someone and they replied, ‘Haven’t you heard the song “Norman” (by Sue Thompson)?’ “I hadn’t because I didn’t listen to the radio for music. My dad had bought me, and built, a Heathkit crystal radio set. He set it up on my desk near a bedroom window. He ran two wires outside from the radio, one to a ground connection and the other he ran along the eave as an antenna. You had to use a headphone as there was no speaker. “I had only used the radio to listen to the Dodger broadcasts with Vin Scully. Because of the school ‘incident,’ I started using the radio’s tuner to locate a station that played rock and roll songs. I found a couple: KFWB (980 AM) and KRLA (now KWVE, 1110 AM). “I didn’t get a transistor radio until a few years later.” — Norm Hovsepian, Temecula Crystal radios were my first kit, though the Realtone transistor radio I mentioned last week came first. My crystal sets and home-made radios from shop class never worked well, though. I found out why years later – our house electrical system was not grounded, so tying the crystal set’s ground wire to the center screw of an outlet did nothing. Now I feel cheated … And while you didn’t ask, here’s an update – I am now able to get stations on my project Realtone radio. The volume is very low, though. I am told it may be bad capacitors in the output stage, so I’m looking for a schematic. Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com Related Articles Enjoying some real oldies radio with these transistor treasures Why there’s no need to throw out that old AM radio Radio listeners are noticing that KLOS (95.5) sounds different these days Go Country 105.1 FM has a new morning host you’ll remember from KOST The spirit of legendary Top 40 station KHJ lives on in American Samoa ...read more read less