Votes in from Kansas

The first book from the new Salina-Manhattan, Kansas Arbitron metro came in exactly as Manhattan Broadcasting Company told the FCC they would – and the company is still demanding that the Commission order the metro abolished.

“In prior Arbitron surveys, done on a county-by-county basis, none of the Salina stations had any meaningful listening in Manhattan, and none of the Manhattan stations had any meaningful listening in Salina. Yet, by the magic of Arbitron, the advertising industry is being told that stations which do not place a receivable signal into Manhattan, the largest city in the Salina-Manhattan ‘market,’ dominate market listening. This is illogical, incredible, and contrary to fact. It is the pure result of defining a market to include every possible listener of the stations in Salina, and to exclude as many listeners as possible of the stations in Manhattan,” Manhattan Broadcasting Company told the FCC in its latest filing. Morris Communications’ Country KYEZ-FM Salina was #1 in the Fall book, while Manhattan Broadcasting’s top performing station was News/Talk KMAN-AM Manhattan, at #4 (12+ AQH, Mon.-Sun. 6 am-midnight).

Still to be decided is whether the FCC even has jurisdiction over how Arbitron defines radio markets. Manhattan Broadcasting says it does. Morris Communications and Arbitron say it doesn’t.

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