From Radio Ink Magazine
March 6, 2009

NEW YORK — March 6, 2009: Nielsen reports from its pilot study of its new radio ratings service in the Lexington, KY market, saying that more than 20 percent of people 12 and older in the market use only cellphones, and those no-landline homes listen to much more radio than the sample overall.

The cellphone-only homes logged 23 hours of radio each week, compared to 19 hours for the total sample, and they listened to 3.5 stations a week, compared to less than three for the sample. Not surprisingly, the cellphone-only homes also skewed younger, primarily 18-34.

The Lexington pilot was conducted in the first week of December 2008, with 558 people in 336 households. Nielsen’s first full eight-week survey of 51 small and medium markets began yesterday.

Looking at the Lexington numbers, Nielsen said radio reaches 93 percent of the 12+ population, 90 percent of the population that doesn’t read newspapers, 96 percent of light or non-viewers of broadcast TV, and 96 percent of those who go to the movies.

Nielsen is using addressed-based recruiting, a method it says “delivers a more representative sample than other recruitment systems, delivering 30 percent more of the potential radio universe than anything else available today.” And it also said the pilot showed that its “sticker diary,” which supplies diarykeepers with pre-printed labels, “works as well in the U.S. as it does in international markets.”

“This study underscores the value of radio in reaching a local audience, particularly those increasingly elusive, mobile young adults,” said Nielsen Managing Director/Global Radio Audience Measurement Lorraine Hadfield. “The methods employed here benefit from Nielsen’s experience in measuring both local television in the United States and radio globally and ensure improved representation. The Lexington pilot also proved that the ’sticker diary’ was easy to use and created no discernible bias.”

Cumulus and Clear Channel were the first to sign on for the Nielsen service, and Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said, “The results of this study show clearly that radio has a vital role to play and that a new approach to measuring radio’s audience was required to fully represent the medium’s value. The findings from the Nielsen pilot underscore the urgent need to include cellphone-only homes in radio ratings.”

Clear Channel Radio President/CEO John Hogan said, “Finally! An accurate picture of radio listening. It’s no surprise to us that the most highly coveted demographic listens to 23 hours of radio per week — that’s a far cry from what we’ve been told for years by inaccurate ratings. The fact that more than 20 percent of radio listeners in the test market are cellphone-only households underscores the value that Nielsen brings to us and every other radio broadcaster right out of the gate. We applaud Nielsen’s commitment to delivering accurate information immediately. Now we can get to the business of discussing radio’s true value with advertisers.”

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