[grc] Help with finding 3rd party for station reach and audience demographic

[Will Floyd]

Hi George,

In addition to the freely available information in RFree
<https://rfree.prometheusradio.org/>, Prometheus Radio Project provides
affordable coverage maps with demographics for exactly this purpose. You
can learn more here:
https://www.prometheusradio.org/lpfm-radio-impact-maps-and-demographics

Best,
Will


On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 6:06 PM al davis via grc <grc at maillist.peak.org>
wrote:

> On Mon, 8 Mar 2021 22:19:49 +0000
> George Koster via grc <grc at maillist.peak.org> wrote:
> > I'm hoping you can direct me to where I could find a third-party
> > service to help us with developing a report on the reach and
> > demographics of the listeners of our radio station KSFP.
>
> You can get some info about the potential from RFree  ...
>
> https://rfree.prometheusradio.org/
>
> You need to log in to get the info you want, but you can get some
> anonymously.  I used RFree to do the mods and exploring for you, along
> with another web tool from Canada that is no longer available.
>
> If you are looking for your FCC coverage, or the census demographics of
> that coverage area, RFree will do that.
>
> If you are looking for info about your actual listeners, there is no
> reasonable way to get that with any reasonable accuracy.
>
> Arbitron is only useful to the stations with the highest market share.
> The sample size is too small to give meaningful results for any station
> not near the top.  Beside that, the ratings are based on counting those
> who happen to hear the station.  The people-meter does not distinguish
> between serious listeners vs. those who happen to be where it is
> playing.  This might be what potential advertisers for a commercial
> station might care about, but it more often leads astray in community
> radio.
>
> Thinking about the sample size, suppose there are 50 stations in the
> market.  The average share would be 2%.  If you figure there are 10000
> people participating in the sample (ha), each listening about 1% of the
> time, that's really 100 samples.  The data would be at best +/- 1% .
> So, if your share is indicated at 2%, it's really probably between 1%
> and 3%.  That's really all you can know from that data.  So, it does a
> great job at showing the big boy with the 30% share, but for those with
> shares of about 3% or less, it's just noise.
>
> If you are looking for info about your actual listeners, all you can do
> is ask them, and you should, in every way you can.  There is no 3rd
> party that can do this for you.  You need to do it yourself.
>
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>


-- 
Will Floyd
Prometheus Radio Project
will at prometheusradio.org