What about WBEZ's recent ratings increases?

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: Courtesy of Lewis Lazare at the Chicago Sun-Times: : ------------------------------------------------- : : WBEZ in good spot : 6/1/10 : MEDIA | Station cracks top 10, CEO theorizes on the reasons : : If we take the recently released April Arbitron ratings book at face value, public radio station WBEZ-FM (91.5) has morphed into a top 10 radio station in the key 25- to 54-year-old demo. : It's a development that most savvy observers of local radio wouldn't necessarily have predicted last fall, when the station seemed to be stuck at around 20th place in the overall Arbitron rankings in the 25 to 54 demo. : But things have changed for WBEZ in the intervening six months months -- so much so that the station wound up in a four-way tie for seventh place in the April ratings book. : The most cynical of local radio executives believe the boost in WBEZ's ratings fortunes can be explained by something as basic as the composition of the Arbitron portable people meter sample that determines the ratings. As radio execs have learned since the PPM technology was introduced two years ago in Chicago, the addition of just two new PPM users to a sample pool that numbers fewer than 1,000 people in Chicago can cause the ratings to shift -- sometimes dramatically -- depending on their listening habits. About 10 percent of the PPM sample pool changes each month in Chicago, so there are always going to be ratings fluctuations. : Though the WBEZ growth has been somewhat gradual over a period of months, most local radio executives believe it's still too early to suggest WBEZ will remain a top 10 station over the long haul. "We're just going to have to wait and see," said one local radio executive who studies the numbers religiously. : Even Torey Malatia, the thoughtful CEO of WBEZ, doesn't want to boast too loudly -- yet -- about his station's good fortunes in the ratings. "I never like talking too much about ratings, because they can be so volatile," Malatia said. : Still he acknowledges that WBEZ is in a good place right now. As for why that is, Malatia has a couple of thoughts. One is perhaps the most basic reason anything good is successful nowadays: "I think we are getting some good word of mouth, and more people are discovering us," Malatia said. : He also thinks the station has, over the past year or so, become a more visible fixture in Chicago. "We are getting involved in more projects around the city, and we now have four satellite bureaus in the city and in northwest Indiana that help let people know -- in a grassroots sort of way -- that we are here," explained Malatia. : Perhaps an even more interesting possible explanation for WBEZ's strong ratings, according to Malatia, may have to do with the station's attention to basic journalism. : As the entire news-gathering industry has shrunk in recent years, WBEZ is trying to provide listeners with significant chunks of programming based on solid journalism. "I think more people realize journalism is now a rarer commodity, and they have become concerned that it is an endangered species," Malatia said. : And he hopes to put more of WBEZ's major journalistic efforts on display in the months to come. "We're planning a major series on what has happened to the Great Lakes region from an economic perspective," he said. : One thing Malatia is pretty certain hasn't contributed in any big way to WBEZ's rating success is good, old-fashioned advertising. : "I think we've spent a total of about $10,000 on advertising over the past year," said the WBEZ boss.

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