» Things Are Quiet ... Maybe Too Quiet: Unusually, none of the parties involved in the battle over implementation of Arbitron's PPM released any statements today. So things pretty much stand as they did yesterday, with Arbitron moving ahead with its PPM plans and NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo telling stations and advertisers, "Don't use those numbers!" Meanwhile, stations that went up in the September ratings expressed happiness and confidence in PPM, while stations that went down complained about holes in the methodology Gee, isn't that pretty much the same way most radio stations reacted under the diary system? Yesterday we solicited your thoughts on the situation and NTS Aircheck Today readers were anything but shy about expressing their opinions: • "All one has to do is look at the strong performance of the various Black and Hispanic stations in the top-ranked PPM markets to see how they can be successful if they strive for it. It's not about the cume -- which most of these stations saw increases in over diary reports -- it's the Time Spent Listening. Those who 'get' that are doing well now, which should end the conversation." -- Bob Michaels, MediaSense,LLC • "It seems to me that if Radio One and Univision were concerned I would question the methodology that Arbitron is using. The fact remains that Arbitron is at, or above, the MRC guidelines and this is yet another example of those who think they know more than we do trying to influence our industry." -- Joe Leavitt, The Dave Ramsey Show • "If we, as a broadcast community, cave to race-baiters and their willing accomplices in government, we are sunk. Popular stations of all formats will thrive in the PPM era. Stations of all formats who have long-benefited from absurd diary exaggerations will face an appropriate wake-up call. Activists constantly whine about fairness. PPM ratings are the embodiment of the first fair audience measurement in radio history." -- Mark Davis, WBAP/Dallas • "I find it rather depressing that our government, while the financial market is collapsing around us, has decided to use my taxes to attempt to thwart a new technology. Sure, it has to be a good and fair way to measure audiences, but for the Attorney General of our [New York] state to be wasting his time on this witch hunt, when people are getting ripped off right and left with internet scams and crimes that kill people, I am ashamed." Dwight Douglas, RCS

» "Welcome To The Real World!" That's the advice that KLIF/Dallas PD Steve Nicholl has for broadcasters seeking to stall implementation of PPM audience measurement. Nicholl cites a quote from veteran consultant George Burns who wrote way back in 1979, "Average Quarter Hour is a highly debatable concept. The idea of AQH has, at its base, the belief that a person who is present in the vicinity of a radio is actually listening and responding to what is being said, or played. Anyone who has ever listened to the radio knows this is nonsense. Still, Average Quarter Hour is the thread by which is suspended the sword over our heads." Nicholl says that sword has loomed over some heads, but not others, for most of radio's past two decades. "Now that reality measurement has arrived, I can understand why some broadcasters might be uncomfortable," says Nicholl. "They've had artificial protection against the sword, others have not. Now, it swings without regard for creed, format, color, or memory. Welcome to the real world!"

» Hedgecock Heads To Radio America: The DC-based network will air longtime KOGO/San Diego afternoon host Roger Hedgecock from 6-9pm (ET), Monday-Friday, beginning next January. That's the timeslot currently occupied by Mike Reagan who will exit Radio America after a five-year run at the network. As a result of Hedgecock's new daily network show, his current Syndicated Solutions weekend program will cease production in November. Hedgecock, who once served as Mayor of America's Finest City, has been a fixture on San Diego radio for more than 20 years, with a long stint at then News/Talker KSDO before moving to KOGO. He's also guest-hosted frequently for Rush Limbaugh and is the founder of the yearly "Hold Their Feet To The Fire" event, an annual gathering of Talk radio hosts in DC.

» Got Google Goggles? The new service from the ubiquitous Google is designed to help you avoid "EUI" -- e-mailing under the influence. Let's say you've had a few adult beverages and decide it's time to send your colleague a critique of their work, or suggest to your boss that he do something to himself that's anatomically impossible. If you're signed up for Google's "Mail Goggles," the system will automatically ask you to answer five not-so-easy math questions before it allows you to send an email. The idea is if you can add, subtract, divide and multiply successfully, then you're probably sober enough to send an email. The service -- a play on the term "beer goggles" -- is free to Google's G-Mail users and is automatically activated from 10pm-4am on weekends, said to be the hours you are most likely to fire off an electronic faux pas. Subscribers who need more protection from themself can expand the hours per day that Mail Goggles is activated. You can activate/set up and account at gmail.com.

» Obama Outspending McCain On Media: The latest installment of Media Monitors weekly tracking of campaign ad spending by both presidential candidates shows Democrat Barack Obama far outspending his Republican rival John McCain on radio, broadcast television and cable TV. For the week of September 29-October 5, the Obama campaign aired 16,820 ads on radio -- up 945 over the previous week. Meanwhile, the McCain camp increased their radio ad count by 550 over the previous week but still ran only 3,056 spots on the medium. Obama's ad spending on broadcast TV for the same period was about a third more than McCain's and he also outspent the Republican on cable TV by a margin of nearly 3-1. Read the full report HERE.