One of the hosts of a radio show I listen to here in Oregon occasionally will talk about radio station ratings, but won’t give the numbers because he says it’s illegal for him to do so. If that’s true, why is it illegal?
And yes, I’ve tried Googling before asking here.
Probably he doesn’t mean it’s a criminal offense, but rather that the station bought the ratings information from the survey/ratings firm subject to a non-disclosure agreement – if they broadcast what the survey/ratings company’s stock in trade is selling, the company loses money, so he’s prohibited from giving them over the air. That would be my guess, anyway.
For some reason I thought that station ratings were public knowledge.
I imagine there are more detailed ratings figures that the ratings companies pay for access to (and hence don’t want released). At my last job I regularly saw computers games industry sales figures, compiled by an external company, that circulated with a big “NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION” stamp on them.
But as Polycarp says above this would be civil matter not a criminal one.
I think I see. Thank you both.
GQ answered, but as a comment: the statement from the radio host is an example of a very common and confusing tendency of people to say “it’s illegal” as a shorthand for “compliance is enforceable” or “someone could sue us over it”.
No, they’re usually proprietary research from companies like Arbitron. Arbitron will do the research, but the station has to “buy the book” in order to get the numbers.
Most stations–even the little radio station group I worked for while I was in undergrad–will fork over a lot of money for ratings info so they can advertise that they are “Arbitron rated number 1.” Now, they usually won’t say what they’re number 1 in. There are many ways to be number 1. I think there have three demographics: 12-25, 25-35, 55+, and multiple time slots, so a station has several chances to be number 1, even if it’s in some weird demographic at a weird time.
The general ratings are usually announced by Arbitron and appear in local newspapers. Usually it will be just the major categories – most listeners overall (with stations ranked), most drive-time listeners, etc. But the detailed information is kept proprietary.