• by Erik Sass , August 13, 2009

The chorus of radio broadcasters criticizing ratings from Arbitron's Portable People Meter now includes Citadel Broadcasting. Michael Luckoff, president and general manager of two Citadel stations in San Francisco, wrote an open letter to Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski characterizing Arbitron's PPM service as "next to worthless if not actually destructive to many radio broadcasters."

Although not formally representing the entire company, the public broadside from one of Citadel's regional bosses presumably had the blessing of the other top executives. The addition is important because Citadel is the first "mainstream" broadcaster to jump into the most recent round of protest. (Until now, complaints have mostly come from broadcasters that target minority audiences with urban formats.)

Luckoff's complaints are especially damning because on the surface, Citadel has nothing to complain about in San Francisco: KGO-AM, which focuses on news and talk, is the top-rated station in that market by PPM measures.

Nonetheless, Luckoff tore into Arbitron for failing to maintain sample sizes equivalent to those used in its old paper diary system: "In the San Francisco metro, for instance, approximately 7,200 diaries were distributed in every quarter. Now, there are but 2,000 meters, 800 households surveyed for what Arbitron hopes to be a two-year period."

The letter argues that the big reduction in sample sizes makes it impossible to conduct statistically valid comparisons of audience size, listening trends, etc. -- all information that advertisers and media buyers rely on when gauging their radio investments. Luckoff added that this deficiency is especially egregious in light of the higher rates charged by Arbitron for its PPM ratings.

While Citadel may be the first mainstream broadcaster to join the most recent round of attacks on Arbitron, in previous years some of the nation's biggest radio groups bitterly opposed plans to introduce PPM as currency for radio transactions.

Complaining about PPM's cost, sampling flaws and other shortcomings, an industry consortium led by Clear Channel Radio considered alternative measurement systems before signing up for PPM ratings under pressure from media buyers and Arbitron itself.

However, the complaints continued, with open letters signed by Clear Channel Radio, Cumulus Media, Cox Radio and Radio One Inc., complaining about Arbitron's missed sample size targets.