Triv and Akron

It was the first time we'd listened to WTAM afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno in a while. This evening, bouncing off the announcement of an upcoming event with Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James at Akron's Tangier, Triv spent much of the 6 PM hour concerned that he wasn't getting proper credit for his listeners in Akron.

Huh?

Triv lined up phone call after phone call from listeners who said they were in Akron, and barked out that those listeners should "call Arbitron", presumably to overcome the lack of measurement. He said "I could be number one-and-one-AND-one" if the Akron listeners were properly counted.

Again, we say - huh?

Unless the radio ratings business has changed dramatically since we last saw a ratings report close up, we're quite sure Arbitron "properly counts" listeners to WTAM in the Akron market. The station is usually somewhere in the top 10 in Akron (12-plus), and occasionally in the top 5.

What Triv may ranting about is this - Akron listeners do not count in the CLEVELAND Arbitron ratings.

Presumably, Triv's performance bonuses and whatnot trigger off of only the Cleveland book, and not other nearby markets. That's something the talker should bring up with his WTAM bosses, not Arbitron.

There are situations where smaller, nearby markets are included in the larger market's book. San Jose CA is one of those - it is a separate market "embedded" in, and included in, the San Francisco book. Long Island NY is another such market with nearby New York City. But it's highly unlikely Arbitron or any other ratings service will do the same with Akron and Cleveland, despite the fact that the two cities (and Canton) share the same TV market.

It's kind of a waste of Triv's breath to complain about this, frankly...