Derrick Gray and Radio's New Way to Count

In October 2020, I released an episode of The Sound Off Podcast called Death of the Diary.

At the time, I argued that radio had waited far too long to develop a credible replacement for diary-based audience measurement. Asking people to remember what they listened to—and then record it accurately—already felt outdated. The pandemic only made the weaknesses of that system harder to ignore.

Six years later, the diary’s replacement has arrived.

Numeris is preparing to introduce Radio Local Plus in 22 Canadian markets. The new system combines streaming information with online and telephone surveys to estimate both digital and over-the-air radio listening.

That makes this more than a new ratings product. It represents a fundamental change in how Canadian radio understands its audience.

How Radio Local Plus Works

My guest for this episode is Derrick Gray, Chief Research and Operations Officer at Numeris. I asked him to explain Radio Local Plus without assuming everyone listening has a degree in data science.

Numeris will use online and telephone surveys to establish demographic profiles, co-listening and the relationship between streaming and over-the-air consumption. That information is then applied to the streaming data through a statistical model to estimate a station’s total audience.

Streaming currently represents only about 10 percent of total radio listening, although that number varies considerably by station, demographic and time of day. As streaming grows, the model should become more precise.

There is a part of the conversation where Derrick indicated that radio may be reaching more people than we thought. It came during the testing phase. Reach went up—dramatically.

The reason makes sense once you hear it. People tend to remember the stations they love and listen to regularly. They are much more likely to forget the station they heard briefly in a store, during a short drive or while someone else controlled the radio.

Passive streaming data captures some of those forgotten listening occasions.

The initial testing produced a few surprises and exposed problems Numeris had to correct, including audiences being counted across multiple stations. Derrick is refreshingly candid about what the testing uncovered, how deduplication was added and why Radio Local Plus will continue to evolve after launch.

Radio Ratings Will Now Get 4 Releases Annually

For programmers, one of the biggest improvements may be the frequency and recency of the data.The old online radio diary used a 48-week rolling average and produced two releases each year. Radio Local Plus will use a 13-week rolling average with four annual releases aligned with the existing PPM schedule.

That should give programmers a much better opportunity to see the effects of talent changes, marketing campaigns, format adjustments and seasonal listening habits.

Twice-a-year ratings never really told the continuing story of a radio station. They provided two snapshots from a moving vehicle.

There's a whole lot more covered in the show including, what counts as listening, and keeping the methodology flexible in order to grow trust with advertisers and broadcasters.

What I am excited about is that this could eventually make radio easier to compare with podcasts, streaming audio and other digital media. It also raises important questions about what advertisers are actually buying when every platform defines an impression differently.

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