Arbitron radio market map

[golden eagle]

Since we have a topic of the television markets, I have a map of all the Arbitron-rated radio markets as of 2011.

http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/Arb_US_Metro_Map_11.pdf

Rated markets may or may not follow the same boundaries as a metro area, so don't be surprised if you see places not part of a rated market, though it's part of that city's metro area.

[huskeroadgeek]

Interesting-I don't think I've ever seen a map of radio markets before. When I travel, I usually make a list of radio stations in the area I will be traveling through that play the kind of format I like by looking up stations by media market. It's harder to keep track of radio markets because there are more of them than TV markets.

[golden eagle]

One thing about radio markets is that they don't necessarily follow TV market boundaries. One such case is Mobile and Pensacola. They're both in the same TV market, but have separate radio markets, despite the fact that the more powerful signals reach clearly in both cities. That's due to the fact that a lot of the stations' transmitters being in Baldwin County, the county between Mobile and Pensacola.

[6a]

Love this kind of stuff...check out Salt Lake City's TV market - half of Nevada and southern Idaho 

[bing101]

How about counties split in half by a radio market. I know on the TV side that Solano County is split as Solano-E for Sacramento DMA and Solano-W for San Francisco.

Kern-E is for Los Angeles and Kern-W is for Bakersfield.

http://seventhpoint.com/images/pdfs/2012-2013%20Large%20DMA%20Map.pdf

[cl94]

I would have expected Genesee and Orleans counties in New York to at least be split in half. Can't even pick up some Rochester stations in the western parts of those counties while the Buffalo stations come in just fine until near the eastern border.

[SidS1045]

Arbitron is gone.  They were bought out by A.C. Nielsen a few years ago.

The current map is here:  https://answers.nielsen.com/portal/workspace/US+Nielsen+Audio/Maps/RadioMetroMap2014_v4.pdf

[cl94]

Arbitron is gone.  They were bought out by A.C. Nielsen a few years ago.

The current map is here:  https://answers.nielsen.com/portal/workspace/US+Nielsen+Audio/Maps/RadioMetroMap2014_v4.pdf

Behind a paywall

[bandit957]

I've always been interested in trying to assign every county in the U.S. to one and only one radio market. The TV industry already has this, but radio does not.

[SidS1045]

Arbitron is gone.  They were bought out by A.C. Nielsen a few years ago.

The current map is here:  https://answers.nielsen.com/portal/workspace/US+Nielsen+Audio/Maps/RadioMetroMap2014_v4.pdf

Behind a paywall

Sorry about that.  My company is a subscriber to Nielsen Audio data, so it's easy enough for me to log in and forget that not everyone else can.

Best I can do is a tabulation of the radio and TV markets served by Nielsen:  http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/docs/nielsen-audio/market_populations_and_rankings_2015.pdf

[Scott5114]

You could take a screenshot of the map and upload it to Imgur or something.

[Rothman]

I've always been interested in trying to assign every county in the U.S. to one and only one radio market. The TV industry already has this, but radio does not.

What would be the advantage?

[Scott5114]

Probably none, practically, but as a geography geek it's appealing to have each county assigned to one city's media sphere of influence.

[Rothman]

I'm just not that knowledgeable about how the definition of media markets affects consumers.  Would have thought that more than one market would have meant more media options for consumers in a county that is overlapped.

[SidS1045]

You could take a screenshot of the map and upload it to Imgur or something.

Yes I could.

I could also get fired from my job and sued.  Nielsen and the former Arbitron zealously guard their proprietary information and sue anyone who breaches the subscriber's confidentiality agreement at the drop of a hat.  That info apparently extends to any information posted behind their pay-wall.  The list I posted is on a non-secured site, so no problem there.

[SidS1045]

I'm just not that knowledgeable about how the definition of media markets affects consumers.  Would have thought that more than one market would have meant more media options for consumers in a county that is overlapped.

It really doesn't affect consumers at all.  What Nielsen provides is an audience measurement service, and that service is provided only to subscribers.  It is fully copyrighted and subject to limitations in its methodology, results, and usage, and the general public is excluded from viewing any measurement results other than the overall (age 6+) ratings, which in the media landscape actually mean very little.  Subscribers include radio and TV stations and networks and a large variety of marketing and advertising companies.  At the rates Nielsen charges, the general public couldn't afford it, and even if they could, the contractual restrictions on usage of the data would make it impractical to simply buy the service for the purpose of posting the results in public.

[Scott5114]

You could take a screenshot of the map and upload it to Imgur or something.

Yes I could.

I could also get fired from my job and sued.  Nielsen and the former Arbitron zealously guard their proprietary information and sue anyone who breaches the subscriber's confidentiality agreement at the drop of a hat.  That info apparently extends to any information posted behind their pay-wall.  The list I posted is on a non-secured site, so no problem there.

Then why would you try to post a link to it in the first place? Besides, the chance of that happening for a map that could be derived from a list that publicly available is vanishingly small.

Here's a link to a 2012 Arbitron map. http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/Arb_US_Metro_Map_12.pdf

[cpzilliacus]

I'm just not that knowledgeable about how the definition of media markets affects consumers.  Would have thought that more than one market would have meant more media options for consumers in a county that is overlapped.

It really doesn't affect consumers at all.  What Nielsen provides is an audience measurement service, and that service is provided only to subscribers.  It is fully copyrighted and subject to limitations in its methodology, results, and usage, and the general public is excluded from viewing any measurement results other than the overall (age 6+) ratings, which in the media landscape actually mean very little.  Subscribers include radio and TV stations and networks and a large variety of marketing and advertising companies.  At the rates Nielsen charges, the general public couldn't afford it, and even if they could, the contractual restrictions on usage of the data would make it impractical to simply buy the service for the purpose of posting the results in public.

I worked for a while in television audience measurement (though not for A.C. Nielsen) and concur with the above. 

[The Nature Boy]

For TV purposes, doesn't it usually determine what local channels you get in your cable package?

[cl94]

For TV purposes, doesn't it usually determine what local channels you get in your cable package?

Not necessarily. Time Warner gives a few towns less than 20 miles east of Buffalo channels out of Rochester. Not that long ago, Alden got Rochester channels and it's in the same county as Buffalo, while Rochester is a good 50 miles away.

[cpzilliacus]

For TV purposes, doesn't it usually determine what local channels you get in your cable package?

Not necessarily. Time Warner gives a few towns less than 20 miles east of Buffalo channels out of Rochester. Not that long ago, Alden got Rochester channels and it's in the same county as Buffalo, while Rochester is a good 50 miles away.

In Maryland, some counties (those traditionally thought of as Baltimore, but also second-tier suburbs of Washington, such as Anne Arundel and Howard) get both Baltimore and Washington broadcast channels on cable.  But those traditionally thought of as Washington do not generally get the Baltimore channels, which annoys me greatly. Especially since my place in Montgomery County is much closer to downtown Baltimore than most of Anne Arundel County.

[jwolfer]

For TV purposes, doesn't it usually determine what local channels you get in your cable package?

Not necessarily. Time Warner gives a few towns less than 20 miles east of Buffalo channels out of Rochester. Not that long ago, Alden got Rochester channels and it's in the same county as Buffalo, while Rochester is a good 50 miles away.

In Maryland, some counties (those traditionally thought of as Baltimore, but also second-tier suburbs of Washington, such as Anne Arundel and Howard) get both Baltimore and Washington broadcast channels on cable.  But those traditionally thought of as Washington do not generally get the Baltimore channels, which annoys me greatly. Especially since my place in Montgomery County is much closer to downtown Baltimore than most of Anne Arundel County.

Ocean County NJ cable systems carry both New York and Philadelphia TV channels. It is part of New York market. DirecTV only has NYC channels, which annoys people who are Eagles fans. It is closer to Philly than NYC in many parts of the county

[cpzilliacus]

Ocean County NJ cable systems carry both New York and Philadelphia TV channels. It is part of New York market. DirecTV only has NYC channels, which annoys people who are Eagles fans. It is closer to Philly than NYC in many parts of the county

Then there are the over-the-air channels (I think there's at least one left in the D.C. media market) that carries infomercials and certain Christian religious programming. Not sure why cable companies should have to carry those.

[GCrites]

Portsmouth OH used to get 3 Columbus channels, 6 Huntington-Charleston channels and one Cincinnati channel on cable. The Cincinnati channel (5 - NBC) got dropped when Fox Sports Ohio got Reds games.