• by Erik Sass , January 13, 2010

Some members of Congress are not reacting well to the revelation that former Arbitron president and CEO Michael Skarzynski gave "erroneous" testimony to a committee of the national legislature last month.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) weighed in Wednesday with a renewed call for a "thorough investigation" of the methodology behind Arbitron's Portable People Meter, a passive electronic measurement device.

Skarzynski resigned abruptly on Monday at the request of Arbitron's board, which determined that he had made a false statement to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during testimony on December 2.

The committee has been holding hearings into PPM at the request of minority broadcasters. They claim that Arbitron's sampling methodology fails to fully represent minority audiences, leading to large apparent drops in their ratings when Arbitron PPM ratings go live.

On Tuesday, the company disclosed that Skarzynski claimed to be present at an outreach and training session regarding PPM in November. In fact, he was not. Skarzynski made the claim in an apparent effort to demonstrate his personal commitment to addressing questions and complaints about PPM.

The Arbitron board notified committee chairman Ed Towns (D-NY) about the misleading statement, in the hope that volunteering the information would demonstrate its good faith. Saying the false testimony was "deeply troubling," Menendez said Congress is obliged to review and investigate statements made during testimony to ensure that the committee "was not intentionally misinformed."

The Senator's statement added: "I have long been concerned about the propensity for the PPM methodology to misrepresent the listenership of minority-owned and minority-focused stations. These stations are vital sources of information and culture for minority communities, but they cannot withstand the drastic reductions in revenue stemming from flawed PPM ratings."

Also this week, Arbitron revealed that the Media Rating Council had refused to grant accreditation to PPM in all but one of the 22 new (and old) markets where such ratings serve as currency for media buying. PPM received MRC accreditation in Minneapolis-St. Paul, raising the number of markets where it has been accredited to three -- including Houston and Riverside, Calif.

MRC accreditation has long been a bone of contention between Arbitron and radio broadcasters, which have cited the industry body's opinions as proof that PPM was not ready for large-scale commercialization.

However, Arbitron has proceeded with its rollout schedule, replacing paper diaries with PPM service in a number of top markets. The company has vowed to eventually obtain MRC accreditation in every market where PPM is used -- just not necessarily before it goes live as media currency.