October 8, 2025
SEPTEMBER. A time of renewal. When our lives return to the routine. When the air is crisp with the aromas of autumn. There’s apple cider, football, and way too much pumpkin spice. (True story: A local storage facility is advertising pumpkin spice storage units. This is getting out of hand, people.)
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with algorithmic alchemists from XTRENDS – are back with another round of ratings hijinks. The SEPTEMBER book ran from AUGUST 21st through SEPTEMBER 17th. Along with the usual life stuff that listeners were dealing with, there was a three-day weekend wedged in there somewhere. Let’s proceed with the data dump…
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October 7, 2025
Though this series of roundups are focused on the NIELSEN version of SEPTEMBER, the reality is that this survey traversed two distinct worlds. It ran from AUGUST 21st through SEPTEMBER 17th. As such the first half of the book was all about last minute vacations and the beginning of the school year. Then came a three-day federally mandated weekend. This was followed by a return to whatever normal schedules are and, of course, football.
The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with our running mates from XTRENDS – are here for all of it. Settle in as we regale you with stories of ratings and rankings. We do this because of our love of the game…
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October 6, 2025
It seems every week there is an article in the trades about the power of AM/FM radio vs. the online listening environment. Our percentages are great. People spend more time with radio than any ad supported digital platform.
Yay for us.
There is one small problem here. Buried in Edison’s Q2 2025 Share of Ear report was this nugget.
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September 25, 2025
As The Ratings Experts, we see a lot of ratings data from multiple markets. Over time we have noticed that in PPM markets, Average Weekly Time Exposed (AWTE) – or TSL – has been steadily eroding. Yes, the implementation of the three-minute qualifier has stemmed that ebbing tide, but every radio station in a market is fighting for a slice of a smaller pie. As with candy bars, we are seeing TSL shrinkflation.
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September 22, 2025
While the industry focus on the three-minute reporting rule has drifted to the back burner, it is still worth looking at how the change affected listening levels. Once again, The Ratings Experts from Research Director, Inc. collaborated with the number’s crunchers from XTRENDS to compare Q2 of 2025 with Q2 of 2024. The data set features 48 of the 49 PPM markets.
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