WHY ISN'T ANYONE SAYING SOMETHING??

WHY IS BLACK RADIO SO SILENT RIGHT NOW? IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENTION???

Arbitron was grilled by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday over the Portable People Meter (PPM). Chair Rep. Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-NY) seemed certain that new electronic measurement tool could "drive minority broadcasters out of business." Not so, said Radio One President/CEO Alfred Liggins. In his opinion PPM is "neither affecting the diversity of our airwaves nor contributing to the decline of minority radio."

Liggins says that the problems faced by many minority stations were due to "poor choices," such as accruing too much debt and what he labeled as bad competitive decisions.

He also stated that technology changes are inevitable and that "short-term dislocations" and a "learning curve" are the products of these changes. But, he said, "PPM is the new reality," and that he'd rather move forward than creating delays that could "undermine advertisers' confidence."

After hearing testimony from witnesses, including Arbitron, Towns gave Arbitron 30 days to formulate a realistic plan to address the concerns of PPM critics, including sample size, training for PPM panelists and Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation, which Arbitron only has in two of the 33 PPM markets.

"Arbitron seems to take the MRC's code of conduct as a mere suggestion. This approach must change," said Towns. "I'm willing to go to legislation, but I'd like us all to work together."

"The MRC has ongoing concerns," said MRC Executive Director George Ivie, who is also a panelist. In Riverside where PPM is accredited, the MRC has found that performance metrics have declined since it was accredited. "Arbitron needs to demonstrate it can sustain performance. Because it hasn't been sustained in Riverside," added Ivie. (12-02-09)

WHAT?!!?!?

I can't. I just can't. Maybe I'll muster up enough strength to expand on this later. (Maybe)