My Week Of Radio

Let’s face it; I listen to a lot of radio. In fact, I listen to loads and loads of radio. I have the Bose Music System on for a major part of the day. The only time I turn it off is if I am listening to music, watching a TV program where it is necessary to have the sound on or if I have company. Otherwise, the radio is on.

I thought that it might be interesting to see just how much I listen and, perhaps more importantly, what exactly I am listening to.

As a kid living across the street from St. Mary’s church, I remember the family filling out the Nielsen Ratings book. The Nielsen Ratings are an audience measurement system that was developed in an effort to determine the audience size of television programming.

But what about radio?

Believe it or not, there are rating systems for radio, just like TV. One such system is Arbitron, a popular syndicated radio rating service that collects data by selecting random samples using a paper diary two to four times a year.

After the collection is complete, the data is marketed to radio broadcasters, radio networks, cable companies, advertisers, ad agencies and the online radio industry.

Armed with this information, I decided to keep a log of what I listened to this past week. I have dubbed it the Vagitron system.

With this blog I will “market” the data I collected with the Vagitron system to you, the readers. Draw whatever conclusions you may from this information and please feel free to use it however you wish.

Vagitron Results

Sunday – June 5

6:30 – 8:30 The Sunday Papers – Rick Kogan 720 WGN

9:30 – 11:30 Hit and Run – Spiegel and Rozner 670 WSCR

3:45 – 4:45 Brewers Extra Innings – Bill Johnson 540 ESPN

5:00 – 6:00 Cubs Plus/Sports Central – Jim Memelo 720 WGN

6:00 – 7:00 Ostrowski and McKnight 670 WSCR

10:00 – 11:00 Mothership Connection – Dobie Maxwell 1050 WLIP

11:00 – 12:00 Les Grobstein 670 WSCR

Analysis: 9 hours with a heavy emphasis on baseball. I gained a bit of culture from Kogan’s show, a degree of oddity from the Mothership Connection and some awful radio from Ostrowski and McKnight. It was also enjoyable hearing the callers on WGN grousing about their beloved Cubs.

Monday – June 6

5:30 – 8:00 Wake Up Call with Bill Lawrence 1050 WLIP

8:00 – 9:00 Hanley and Rozner 670 WSCR

10:00 – 11:00 Green and Gold Today – Johnson and Wilde 540 ESPN.com

11:00 – 12:30 D-List – Olson and Salmon 540 ESPN

5:00 – 6:00 TRadio – Pete Serzant 1050 WLIP

11:00 – 12:00 Les Grobstein 670 WSCR

Analysis: 8 hours that saw me lose on the iconic WLIP Money Wheel, taking home only a consolation prize in the form of a $10 gift certificate from Something Different, a sports fan fantasyland. Later in the day, TRadio had some pathetic Howard Stern fans attempting to disrupt the venerable radio rummage sale with childish prank calls.

Tuesday – June 7

6:00 – 7:00 Wake Up Call with Bill Lawrence 1050 WLIP

9:00 – 10:00 Lenny Palmer 1050 WLIP

10:00 – 11:00 Green and Gold Today – Johnson and Wilde 540 ESPN.com

11:00 – 12:30 D-List – Olson and Needles 540 ESPN

5:00 – 6:00 TRadio – Pete Serzant 1050 WLIP

10:30 – 12:00 Alan Colmes Show1400 WRJN

Analysis: 7 hours that featured some politics, courtesy of Lenny Palmer and Alan Colmes, mixed in with the usual dose of sports. While I did notice that Palmer tends to get easily aggravated, Colmes should receive hazard pay for dealing with the lunatics that call his show. You can’t say that I’m not diversified.

Wednesday – June 8

6:30 – 8:00 Wake Up Call with Bill Lawrence 1050 WLIP

10:00 – 11:00 Green and Gold Today – Johnson and Wilde 540 ESPN.com

5:00 – 6:00 TRadio – Pete Serzant 1050 WLIP

10:30 – 12:00 Matt Abatacola 670 WSCR

Analysis: 5 hours. I can’t recall why the total was so paltry on Wednesday. I was probably too deeply engrossed playing games in Pogo while talking with my British friend Bev on Skype. She tends to be very competitive. What does it say when 5 hours is a “light” day of radio listening?

Thursday – June 9

6:30 – 7:30 Wake Up Call with Bill Lawrence 1050 WLIP

9:00 – 11:00 Lenny Palmer 1050 WLIP

11:00 – 12:30 D-List – Olson and Needles 540 ESPN

5:00 – 6:00 TRadio – Pete Serzant 1050 WLIP

10:30 – 12:00 Matt Abatacola 670 WSCR

Analysis: 7 hours featuring two solid hours of 100% Radio in the Raw with Lenny Palmer. Fortunately he remained relatively calm. However, I was mildly disappointed when Kenosha’s favorite radio fireman, Pat Ryan didn’t appear on the Wake Up Call. Perhaps there a large fire Thursday morning at 6:50 am.

Friday – June 10

6:30 – 8:00 Wake Up Call with Bill Lawrence 1050 WLIP

8:00 – 9:00 Lenny Palmer 1050 WLIP

10:00 – 11:00 Green and Gold Today – Jason Wilde 540 ESPN.com

11:00 – 1:00 D-List – Olson and Needles 540 ESPN

5:00 – 6:00 TRadio – Pete Serzant 1050 WLIP

10:30 – 12:00 Nick Digilio 720 WGN

12:00 – 1:00 Matt Abatacola 670 WSCR

Analysis: 9 hours that included an amusing 90 minutes of the king of hyperbole, Nick Digilio. Highlighting his show was a ubiquitous tale of when he worked at “the Jewels”. I wish he spent more time sharing his personal experiences and less time doing movie reviews.

Saturday – June 11

7:00 – 8:00 Mr. Fix It – Lou Manfredini 720 WGN

8:00 – 9:00 Plant Chatter – Lesko and Selovich 1050 WLIP

9:00 – 11:00 Fantasy Sports Weekly – Cossentino and Salmon 540 ESPN

11:00 – 12:00 Rosenbloom and Grote 670 WSCR

12:00 – 2:00 TRadio – Jim Selovich 1050 WLIP

2:30 – 3:30 Jason Goff 670 WSCR

9:45 – 10:15 Brewers Extra Innings – Matt Salmon 540 ESPN

10:30 – 11:00 Nick Digilio 720 WGN

Analysis: 9 total hours of eclectic listening that ran the gamut from fix-it and gardening shows to fantasy sports talk and Brewer post-game shows. The highlight of my Saturday radio experience was chatting with longtime friend and radio host, Jim Selovich for nearly ten minutes on his weekend edition of TRadio.

The Vagitron data for the week reveals a whopping 54 total hours of radio listening for yours truly. So, what does this mean? Do I need help? Perhaps an intervention is in order.

I would enjoy hearing your reactions based on this highly scientific research. You can leave your feedback by emailing me, on facebook or in the comments section of this blog.

One last tidbit, during my 54 hours of radio listening this week, I heard an interview with Hall-of-Fame baseball writer, Peter Gammons. In the interview, Gammons said that the Ricketts family has underestimated the cost of renovating Wrigley Field and referred to the 97-year-old ballpark as “a dump”.

Cub fans, I hope you took the time to vote in my poll. Until next time…from the booth.