Power! Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Regular readers surely know by now that I’m a radio geek. The Einstein quote at the top of the page that gave this blog its name is a dead giveaway to that (although the name actually has multiple meanings). And as a radio geek, I have to say, this week is one of the best weeks ever. This week is amazing. This week is fun. This week, we’re an Arbitron family.
We got a letter a few weeks ago asking us to keep a diary of our radio listening for a week, that week running from today until next Wednesday. They included a dollar bill as a token of their appreciation. They say every man has his price; now I know mine.
They ask everyone in the household over the age of 18 to diary their radio listening, so both Laura and I receieved these little booklets the other day, along with another dollar bill for each of us. (Hey, I could get rich doing this!) The broadcast "day" runs from 5 am to 5 am the following day. So all the radio I listen to from 5 this morning until 5 am next Thursday goes into this little booklet.
The FAQ on the Arbitron web site says that if you listen to radio on cable or on the Internet, they want to know about that too. They didn’t mention satellite radio, so when they called a couple of days ago to make sure we got the diaries and that we intended to fill them out (hey, we’re honor-bound; they gave us three whole dollars!), I asked about satellite radio. Yes, they assured me, they want to know about that, too. If it’s radio, they want to know about it. That’s good, because I listen to almost no commercial radio on AM or FM, despite being a voracious user of radio. Occasionally I tune in to Air America. But mostly, I listen to NPR, WFMU, XM and Sirius (we have both), podcasts like CBC Radio 3, and shortwave.
If it’s radio, they want to know about it. Shortwave is radio too. So I’m going to have to tell them about that as well. When Radio Tanzania Zanzibar shows up in the next ratings book, or Radio Cultura from São Paulo, Brazil, or bit eXpress, the 100 watt digital shortwave station from Erlangen, Germany, you’ll know who to blame.
I just know when they see my diary they’re going to throw it in the trash....
Posted at 11:23 AM
Heeheehee. That’s so incredibly cool. I hope they do in fact show up in the ratings and not just throw your diary in the trash.
Posted by sis at 1:30 PM, November 24, 2005 [Link]