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BusRadio
gains industry ratings, criticism for pushing ads on
kids
Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald
July 8, 2008
A Needham startup
with dreams of building a radio empire, one school bus
at a time, has achieved a ratings breakthrough of sorts.
Arbitron, the radio industry’s ratings authority, has
given a green light to the methodology BusRadio Inc.
uses to calculate the size of its audience, which the
media company now pegs at roughly 1.5 million
schoolchildren in more than 14,000 buses across the
country.
But Arbitron’s decision does not sit well with
BusRadio’s chief critic, the Campaign for a Commercial
Free Childhood.
To the activist group, the agreement verifies its own
criticism that BusRadio is all about pushing ads onto
children.
BusRadio execs admit the Arbitron ruling could help the
company charge higher rates for its commercial ads,
which now account for four minutes of every hour of
programming.
In fact, the Arbitron decision comes as BusRadio is
ramping up its efforts to woo advertisers. The company
recently hired Les Hollander, a former top CBS Radio ad
executive.
“This is really the beginning,” Hollander said. “It
gives us measurability, accountability.”
School districts get a small cut of ad revenue, but most
are opting to join the BusRadio network for
non-financial reasons, from enhancing bus safety to
providing an alternative to raunchy fare on commercial
radio, argued Michael Yanoff, co-founder and chief
executive of BusRadio.
“When you are collecting data on how many kids are
listening, it makes it pretty clear it’s all about the
ad revenue,” said Josh Golin, a spokesman for Campaign
for a Commercial Free Childhood. |
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