

Ask HN: How do radio stations quantify their listenership? - iamshs

Measuring  number of visitors on a website is easy due to  visitor pinging the server. Measuring TV viewership is explained here: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;electronics.howstuffworks.com&#x2F;question433.htm. But how does a radio station track how many users are listening in, or which show is most popular?
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ada1981
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_measurement](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_measurement)

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iamshs
But it does not say about radio. The concentration is more on viewership.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_People_Meter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_People_Meter)

Edit: This is the link inside that article, which leads to
[http://www.colemaninsights.com/sites/colemaninsights.com/fil...](http://www.colemaninsights.com/sites/colemaninsights.com/files/reports/The%20Impact%20of%20Commercials%20on%20the%20Radio%20Audience%20-%20September%202006.pdf)

So I think they select random people to carry their device, which listens to
radio stations tuned in by the user. Radio stations are identified by the
embedded sub-audible codes. The device then phones home conveying the
metadata. Interesting. Thanks.

