Radio Stations Fault Rating Firm on Hispanic Issue : Listener: Executives call Arbitron’s measurements ‘a joke.’ Millions of dollars in advertising revenue are at stake.

SAN DIEGO —  Local radio executive Peter Moore didn’t hesitate when asked about the new survey of Hispanic listeners offered by Arbitron, the latest attempt by the ratings company to accurately quantify the Hispanic audience.

“That’s a joke,” Moore quickly replied.

As the general manager of two Spanish-language stations, XLTN-FM (104.5) and XHKY-FM (95.7), as well as a third, XHTZ-FM (Z90), that targets segments of the Hispanic community with a dance music format, Moore has more than a passing interest in the Arbitron reports and, specifically, their ability to gauge the Hispanic audience.

“Ten years ago Arbitron was abysmal” at reporting on Hispanics, Moore said. “Today they are two steps above abysmal, but they have a long way to go.”

For Moore and other programmers attempting to target the Hispanic community, there are millions of dollars at stake. In addition to serving as a barometer of a station’s success, the Arbitron numbers are used to determine advertising rates and programming strategies.

The latest U.S. Census lists Hispanics as more than 20% of the total population of San Diego County, but that doesn’t mean much to radio station executives if they can’t get a strong Arbitron rating. Critics charge that there is a large gap between reality and the Arbitron reports on the size of the Hispanic listenership.

The problem of accurately surveying the Hispanic community plagues many businesses, in part because of language and cultural differences, but it is more pronounced in radio, since stations usually target specific niches of the community.

“If you have a Spanish station targeting a wide range of people, the overall sample is so small that, when it is divided into age-sex cells it’s ludicrous,” said Janet Therrien, vice president and director of research and marketing for the Hispanic radio division of New York-based Katz Radio Communications, which represents stations placing advertising.

Surveying the Hispanic community “has always been a challenge,” said Arbitron’s director of research Jim Peacock. Last year, in the face of complaints and competition from other research groups, Arbitron, which survives by selling its reports to stations and advertisers, began offering ethnic breakdowns in its quarterly reports, in addition to issuing a separate Hispanic survey--the one Moore called a “joke”--for 11 different markets, including San Diego.

But the Hispanic survey for San Diego is only released twice a year because there are not enough respondents to accurately produce a quarterly report, according to Arbitron spokeswoman Nan Myers. Critics say the survey is still too small to be accurate or useful.

In the most recent Arbitron report, for the fall quarter of 1990, 1,920 “diaries”--written reports filled in by listeners--were used by Arbitron to determine the ratings. Of those, only 352 identified themselves as Hispanics in Arbitron surveys that covered the city of San Diego, the South County and some outlying areas. In North County, where Arbitron issues a separate ratings book, 721 diaries were used, of which only 81 were completed by Hispanics.

The total of 433 diaries represent a Hispanic population estimated at more than half a million in San Diego County according to the latest census. In addition, for the purposes of the survey, the Hispanic respondents are spread over 16 demographic groups or “cells,” such as women 12-24 and men 55 and older.

“The question becomes, are 352 diaries enough to reflect the population when they are divided into the cells?” Therrien asked.

According to Arbitron, the highest rated Hispanic station is KKLQ (Q106), the English-language station with an urban, teen-oriented dance format. But even Q106 general manager Bob Bolinger termed the numbers “deceptive,” since Arbitron uses such “a limited sample.”

With so few Hispanics in the survey, one or two Hispanic households in high-density Spanish areas can exert incredible influence, Bolinger pointed out.

“If you’re a 22-year-old Hispanic male living in the South County, your diary is worth five times the normal diary,” he said.

In addition, most of the respondents who call themselves Hispanic are English-speaking, Moore says. With two Spanish-language stations, he and his advertisers are more interested in reports on the size of the Spanish-language audience, which is different than the general Hispanic population.

“The assimilated Hispanic has a very similar (lifestyle) pattern to the general population,” Moore said.

The Spanish-language listeners are the most difficult to reach, since radio research of Hispanics often doesn’t take into account cultural differences, Therrien said.

Hispanics contacted about participating in a study “are nervous,” she said. “They want to know, why are you asking me these questions? They are tight-knit families and you have to get their trust to get correct answers.”

Roger Sennott, general manager of Market Development, a local firm specializing in researching the Hispanic community, argues that most surveys of Hispanic communities will be biased toward English-speaking unless extreme measures are taken, such as door-to-door surveys.

“The question is, is the diary user-friendly?” Sennott said. “For very large surveys, the cooperation rate for Hispanics is higher over the telephone. Diaries can be developed, but it takes a lot of adaptation to the experience and education level of the audience.”

Peacock said Arbitron specifically doesn’t ask questions about a respondent’s primary language. “It is our belief that the question of language preference would be a sensitive one,” he said.

For example, it would be difficult to ask a question that differentiates between people who speak Spanish only at home and those who only speak Spanish, he said.

In order to compensate for the problems, Arbitron prepares special bilingual diaries and generally pays Hispanic respondents more than Anglo participants in its surveys.

“If we had only one generic methodology (the Hispanic community) would not be represented properly,” Peacock said.

Arbitron also employs Spanish-speaking people to call areas designated as high-density Hispanic when they are recruiting Hispanics to fill out diaries. But calls to areas not designated as high-density Hispanic are made by representatives who often are not bilingual, although Peacock said “those that are not fluent are taught to get off the line gracefully, to speak enough Spanish so they can say, ‘Sorry, we don’t speak Spanish, but I will have someone call you back.’ ”

In addition to complaints from subscribers, increased competition has put pressure on Arbitron to improve its reporting of Hispanic communities. Birch Scarborough Research, a competitor that uses a different methodology--phone surveys instead of diaries--has found limited success with a special quarterly Hispanic report it began offering in 1987.

Birch puts extra emphasis on the Hispanic market, using special Spanish-language interviewers and training all its representatives to be prepared for cultural differences. It also asks specific language questions and “weights” its studies to increase the influence of Spanish-language respondents.

But critics charge that the Birch survey, like Arbitron, is too small to accurately reflect the community. And Arbitron is still the primary ratings service.

“Statistically, there is no single answer to (how many respondents) is enough,” Peacock said.

It would cost Arbitron more money to survey more people. With relatively few stations specifically focusing on Hispanic communities, Arbitron doesn’t have an “economic motivation” for devoting much effort to upgrading its Hispanic research in San Diego, says Moore.

“The Los Angeles marketplace is so clearly Hispanic, if they didn’t do a good job in L.A. they wouldn’t be highly regarded,” Moore said. “They had to be responsive in L.A. San Diego is still a few years behind, so they feel they could skate.”

New technology may provide the answer, such as electronic devices that automatically record what a radio is receiving, similar to the television “people meters” now employed in some areas by the A.C. Nielsen Co.. But electronic devices will only be feasible if they can be produced in a cost-effective manner, Peacock said.