DePetro draws scrutiny in ratings imbroglio
Today's Boston Herald offers a sharper edge than the ProJo in describing a flareup in the local talk-radio wars.
Ex-Boston radio gabster John DePetro is in the midst of yet another controversy.
A ratings cheating scandal uncovered in Rhode Island boosted DePetro’s ratings on Providence news talk station WPRO-AM (630), where he hosts a morning-drive show.
The cheating revelations come after the Citadel Broadcasting-owned WPRO jumped to the No. 1 spot among total listeners this spring - its best showing ever.
The ratings for DePetro’s show went through the roof among 25- to 54-year-old listeners - the money-making demographic that advertisers target. ....
Clear Channel Radio Providence - the owner of rival radio stations - took notice and alerted Arbitron.
The ratings research firm launched a probe and found that six survey diaries - which are used to determine ratings - had been returned by a “media affiliated household” in the Providence market.
The average household in that market gets about two diaries. And Arbitron relies on the households to tell them the number of people living at an address.
In a letter to its customers, Arbitron said it plans to release new ratings - that don’t include the six bogus diaries - on Monday. .... More details came out in a letter Clear Channel Vice President Jim Corwin sent to advertisers. Corwin said the six diaries came from a household in East Greenwich.
That’s where DePetro lives.
I've left a message with John and will update this post if he gets back to me. The talk-show host and WPRO officials did not return calls for today's stories in the ProJo and Herald.
(Disclosure: Phoenix contributors, including myself, regularly appear on WPRO's Dan Yorke Show and the Buddy Cianci Show.)