• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 12, 2009

In a surprise move, Arbitron this morning said long-time CEO Stephen Morris has stepped down and has been replaced by Michael Skarzynski, an executive who seems to have no experience in either media research of radio. Skarzynski most recently served as CEO of Iptivia, a privately held performance management software company based in New York City, where he was responsible for the restructuring and global expansion of the business.

Arbitron said Morris would continue as chairman of the radio audience measurement giant, and would serve as an advisor to Skarzynski.

The change comes amid a tumultuous period for Arbitron, which has been battling to gain acceptance of its new portable people meter ratings system, and which has failed to diversify in any meaningful way beyond its core radio audience measurement business, even as Nielsen Co. is once again competing in the U.S. radio audience ratings business.

Arbitron recently settled suits with the New York and New Jersey state attorney generals, which followed complaints from civil rights groups that Arbitron's new PPM system does not accurately represent key minority groups. As part of those settlements, Arbitron agreed to take actions to make the system more representative.

And nearly two years after Arbitron began rolling out the PPM system as the currency of radio advertising buys in major U.S. markets, the system remains unaccredited by industry watchdog the Media Rating Council, in all but one market. On Friday, Arbitron and the MRC announced that the PPM's radio quarter hour ratings have been accredited for the Riverside-San Bernardino market. Arbitron executives downplayed the size of the market, and emphasized the fact that the PPM methodology - and especially its "Radio First" method, which uses a telephone-based sample frame and telephone recruitment - has been sanctioned by the MRC.

The selection of an industry outsider like Skarzynski is an interesting choice to run Arbitron during a volatile period for the company and the overall media economy. In a statement, Arbitron Director and Chairman of its nominating and corporate governance committee Phil Guarascio, said he is, "the perfect leader to build on Arbitron's strong foundation and to leverage the latest technology to respond to the rapidly changing needs of our current clients and future customers around the world."

Previously, Skarzynski was an executive with Lucent and AT&T Network Systems where he held a number of sales, marketing, business development and general manager positions, including vice president and CFO of the Emerging Service Provider Business, a multi-billion dollar business unit. He also served as CEO for one public company, Performance Technologies and three privately held technology firms - Iptivia, Xebeo and Predictive Networks.