SYRACUSE -- Even though automation systems in place at virtually every radio station in the region allow for easy and accurate documentation of every single song and advertisement that hits the air, many stations are now being watched by at least one "external" observer around the clock. Mediaguide is now monitoring several stations in the Syracuse Metropolitan Service Area (MSA) effective today. Updated 6/22 with slight corrections.
According to a press release issued by Mediaguide, the service had "many requests for competitive insight by radio stations and advertisers who consider this a vibrant market." Mediaguide uses "proprietary digital fingerprinting and watermarking technology" to log every single song, commercial or PSA aired on more than 2,500 stations in about 150 markets across the United States.
The press release says Mediaguide is monitoring the following stations: WBBS, WSEN, WXTL, WUMX, WMCR, WTKW, WFRG, WZUN, WAER, WYYY, WNTQ, WAQX, WPHR, WWHT, WVOA and WSKO.
The company didn't detail how the stations were chosen, but we wish they had -- after we spotted some notable absences. For example, among the Syracuse market's sports-talk stations, Citadel's WSKO is being monitored, but Mediaguide isn't watching Clear Channel's WHEN or Galaxy's WTLA/WSGO simulcast.
When it comes to country, Mediaguide's logging the action on Clear Channel's WBBS and Townsquare's WFRG (from the Utica market). The service isn't monitoring Foxfur's country format on WOLF, but it is monitoring Craig Fox's WVOA.
It's not quite clear why WFRG and one other Utica-Rome signal -- WUMX -- are being monitored. Mediaguide's press release said it was adding the "Syracuse MSA" to its monitoring portfolio, but according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Oneida County is outside of the Syracuse MSA. (Even if you go by Nielsen TV market boundaries, WUMX, licensed to Rome, makes the cut for Syracuse, but WFRG still does not.)
Interestingly, Mediaguide lists WUMX for both the Syracuse and Utica-Rome markets (scroll to the very bottom of both of those links to see the actual lists), but WMCR-FM is only listed for Utica-Rome -- even though the City of Oneida (in Madison County) is part of the Syracuse market according to Arbitron, Nielsen and the Census Bureau. Mediaguide, if you're reading -- here's a link to the Arbitron Market Map in PDF format.
Thanks to the anonymous CNYRadio.com reader who helped us correct our previous recollections of the boundaries of the Syracuse MSA. We had initially reported that the Census Bureau's MSA boundaries matched up with the Nielsen TV ratings boundaries, but that is incorrect. (Maybe they used to and we were still thinking of the old way? Or maybe we were just misinformed from the beginning. Either way, the article has been updated.)
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