WGBH changes sting public radio rival - The Boston Globe

WGBH changes sting public radio rival - The Boston Globe

I'm bothered by the horse race aspect of this article.

Here's why:

A weakness of the month to month system employed by Arbitron with PPM is the volatility of the numbers. To be sure, they are more reliable than the diary numbers. Still, there is a certain amount of bounce in the estimates from month to month. 


Using trends is much more reliable. The six month average in The Vital Signs Report available to public radio stations by RRC offers even more reliability.

Trending average audience share figures from Arbitron 6+ PPM Metro Boston show modest gains for WGBH in the past six months. WBUR's trend is flat. The other major player among public radio stations in Boston,WCRB, is trending downward.

The numbers being used are for Boston Metro and do not reflect the audience estimates for WGBH and WBUR outside the Boston Metro Market.

            Nov 10  Dec 10  Hol 10  Jan 10  Feb 10 Mar 10 
 WBUR 3.9%     3.5%     3.1%    4.0%    3.7%    3.6% 
 WCRB 2.4%     2.2%     2.9%    2.4%    1.9%    2.1% 
 WGBH 1.5%    1.4%      1.2%   1.7%     1.6%    1.4%