One thing Arbitron said it heard repeatedly from customers as it was developing a reporting policy for digital radio was the need to identify uniquely and unambiguously so that both stations and advertisers can easily identify and trend performance of a broadcaster’s analog broadcast station, its analog Internet stream, and its HD-R and multicast signals.

Arbitron has developed new labels to identify the different types of stations in its systems and reports based on PPM data.

For example, in addition to “AM” and “FM” for analog designations after a station’s calls, digital designations are “HA” for an AM digital station and “HF” for an FM digital station. When digital stations meet the minimum reporting requirements, they’ll be listed as unique stations, but for now, they’d be listed along with all a station’s other channels in the station information profile in the market report or e-book.

So an FM HD-R main FM would be “WBBB-HF” in the PPM report. Internet stations are “IA” for AM and “IF” for FM.

HD-R multicast stations are now “F2” or “F3” and so on. The Internet stream of an HD Radio multicast station is designated by a “G2” or “G3” and so on after the calls, such as WAAA-G2.

And I thought identifying multicast stations to make an intuitive faceplate display for HD Radios was daunting.

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