THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406020178
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: John Harper
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: Medium
No, it's not John Grisham's latest or Stephen King's, ``The Stand.''
{REST} The book is the Arbitron Company's 1994 Radio County Coverage Report.
Arbitron, based in Laurel, Md., has polled listeners on listening habits for almost 30 years.
The book helps radio stations set advertising rates. It also tells advertisers and listeners what the most popular stations are.
With fieldwork conducted in l993, the l994 Arbritron shows WVOD is the most listened-to station in Dare County.
Arbitron sent out hundreds of diaries to Dare County residents during l993. Using a formula, Arbitron decides how many usable diaries must be completed to produce a statistically valid report of listening habits. Usable diaries are the ones filled out according to the directions.
In Dare County, with a year-round population of 21,600, Arbitron needs 100 diaries for a representative sample of listeners 12 or older. These representative folks are found through a telephone service that organizes all listed telephone numbers by county and zip code.
Once the listeners are chosen, they are asked to accurately record their listening between 6 a.m. and midnight in a diary over the course of a week. At the end of the week, the diary keepers mail the dairies to Arbitron. Once the diaries are received by Arbitron, editors check for mistakes and call letters or frequency discrepancies.
Not all the radio stations in Dare County buy the survey, therefore exact numbers can not be printed.
The standard method of determining which stations have most listeners is based on average quarter-hour share.
That's how many listeners tune in to a particular station for more than five minutes in any given quarter hour.
Here's the Dare story.
1. WVOD-FM, 99.1
The Manteo station maintained its No. 1 status from last year. Larry Wayne is the program director; Mary Ann Williams is the sales manager and Gem Mayer, Phyllis Theil, Doug Duenow and Steve Sheridan are the talking heads.
Wayne says the key to the station's success is consistency. ``We've done the same thing for five years, fine-tuning it day to day,'' says Wayne. ``The station is very much a part of the community and not just a business.''
2. WRSF-FM, 105.7
The new country kid in town placed second in the '93 survey. With a full year in the format, the station improved dramatically over its former Top-40 direction.
3. Tied: WNHW-FM, 92.5; WOBR-FM, 95.3
WNHW has been consistently in the top three since its debut in l990.
WOBR tied for the county lead in 1992. However, the station's owners let the program director, general manager and sales manager go over the past year. The successful adult rock, no-hype presentation is out, and in its place is a satellite-delivered ``Best Hits of the '70s, '80s and '90s.''
4. WERX-FM, 102.5
The Edenton rock 'n' roll outlet had its best book yet. Station manager Rick Loesch is pleased with the showing.
``It was just a matter of time,'' says Loesch, ``People are discovering what we do.''
One interesting note: In the Monday-Sunday, 6 a.m. to midnight, rankings for peeople 12 and older, figures for Dare and Currituck counties combined, WNHW, WVOD and WRSF are in a virtual tie for first place.
Radio station managers will spend the next couple of weeks gleaning information from the one page report. Some stations will actually view the diaries in the Arbitron offices.
by CNB