Station Information Profile Instructions

Update Procedures

The online Station Information Profile shows the information Arbitron currently has on file for the specified survey.

If you would like to make changes to your station's information, please fax or mail an update letter to:

Arbitron Radio Station Relations
9705 Patuxent Woods Drive
Columbia, MD 21046-1572
Phone: (410) 312-8062
Fax: (410) 312-8619

The update should be on your station's letterhead. Although we accept updates after the start of the survey, diary edit information is not retroactive. Updates will be effective for the diaries that have not yet been reviewed when the update is received.

City Identifiers

If one city is listed, it should be your FCC-licensed city. If two cities are listed, the first must be your FCC-licensed city; the second may be any city with which you normally ID, provided the two cities are combined in a City Identifier at least once an hour during the Monday-Sunday 6AM-Midnight daypart throughout the entire survey.

Note: Requests for changes of home status must be made via a separate letter to Arbitron Radio Station Relations.

Station Name Criteria

1. A Station Name may contain up to 25 characters (including spaces), but should not contain abbreviations, slashes, multiple spellings or redundant elements.

2. A Station Name should be listed only if it is used as a station identifier clearly, audibly and repeatedly during the broadcast hour.
   
   Note: Submitted Station Names are subject to deletion if used fewer than four times per hour Monday-Friday 6AM-Midnight. (During programming in which stations ID infrequently, they will still be eligible for credit for submitted Station Names used on more than 50% of the occasions on which the station uses an ID during the broadcast hour.)

3. If your station has chosen to round or truncate its exact frequency and uses this whole number as a Station Name, you must submit the whole number as an identifier to be eligible for credit for the whole number. (Example: an FM exact frequency 95.5 rounded to either "95" or "96"; or an AM exact frequency 1190 rounded to either "11" or "12.")

4. The identifiers listed below should not be included in the 25-character Station Name because the information should already be listed with Arbitron:
   • Call letters
   • Sports
   • Nonpersonalized exact frequencies (e.g., "630" or "1230" for AM stations or "98.5" or "107.3" for FM stations)
   • Nonpersonalized generic descriptors (not credited) (e.g., "AM Radio")

Simulcast Total Line Reporting

Stations that simulcast 100% throughout the survey period, and that meet Minimum Reporting Standards, are eligible for Total Line Reporting. Audience estimates for stations that receive Total Line Reporting are reported as a total line that combines the estimated audience of all stations in the combo. The total line is listed with the call letters of one station in the combo (the “primary” station), designated in advance by the combo.

Estimates for individual stations in combos that receive Total Line Reporting are not included in the lineup in any of Arbitron’s reporting services. View additional information regarding prior survey trends and multi-book averages for stations that have requested Total Line Reporting.

Last updated: 5.12.09