28 March 2001 - Wednesday
I received a small, beat-up box in the mail a couple of days ago. It was mildly ugly:
I'd forgotten it was coming, but wasn't surprised to see it: One lazy evening a week or so earlier I received a phone call from some strange voice asking me if anyone over the age of 12 in our household would be interested in taking part in the radio ratings for our area. After figuring out the voice wasn't trying to sell me something, I was told each participant would be sent a small radio diary , plus a small monetary payment for his or her troubles. "It won't be much, but enough for a soda, coffee or muffin," the strange voice quipped cheerfully. I asked Heather if she wanted to be involved and she agreed. And so I signed both of us up for participation in the Arbitrons.
Anyway, the contents of the box were pretty straight-forward. Other than the currency, everything looked like it was designed in the late 80s, a look furthered by an example displaying the ratings period of May 11-17, 1989. (For the record, the crisp dollar bills Heather and I both got wouldn't be enough for me to buy a cup of coffee nor a muffin from the Caribou Coffee housed in my place of employment. I'd be able to buy a medium soda in the cafeteria and still have 20 cents left over, though.)
Do I have ulterior motives? Um, I guess so. I'm not in a culture-jamming mood or anything, and I am going to follow the instructions and answer honestly, but I'm sort of interested in how this entire process works. I've listened to people bitch about the Arbitrons quite a bit (stuff like "the 'A' stands for 'arbitrary'"), and it seems that what we've gotten as a result of ratings-driven radio isn't that great. At its best it's watered-down. At its worst it's a tired rehashing of music that wasn't that great in the first place.
Suffice it to say I'm a rather unhappy radio listener. All Arbitron Ratings will probably learn from me other is I'm just another member of a small but growing group of people abandoning corporate radio in the Twin Cities. Now that the occasionally listenable zone105 has taken a dirt-nap, my local radio habits have become decidedly non-commercial: I listen to Radio K and MPR during work and commutes and have a tendency to tune to KFAI Friday and Saturday evenings. Sunday afternoons are often spent with MPR.
Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. Good for-profit radio is possible. Nationwide, there are wonderful exceptions to the crap we're continuously fed in Minnesota. I only wish they existed here as well. (Making the situation even more painful is the fact we used to have a truly groundbreaking radio station.) But I digress. As I have no life, over the next few days I'm going to share my listening habits with you. If you find them interesting, please feel free to send me as many dollar bills as you'd like.
Notes added, 1 May 2002: Since I put these pages together my view of Arbitron as a company has gotten considerably better. I'm still concerned about the negative effects their rating systems may have commercial radio, but most definitely have to tip my hat in respect for the work they're doing to protect Internet radio. Good for them.