HOW DO THE RESULTS WORK
The Publicly available results on the main page are very general. They indicate the stations who had the highest proportional listener uptake in their overall sub and main markets across each state. Markets are determined by AIRR mainly on geographic factors and sometimes on the type of radio services involved. A main market is generally the geographic area, the sub-market usually involves a minor geographic area or smaller part of the main market geographic area. These results do not reflect population as in some result areas millions of people may reside and in others only hundreds. A position in these results indicates that the relevant station had the highest average proportion of their available population listening to them over all day-parts throughout the 7 day period.

The Statistics available to industry members are more precise and cover all of the available AIRR radio markets in Australia. You can select a market or sub-market, either by using the drop down menu and finding the code or market name; or by searching for the market you require using your station callsign, location or frequency. This will provide you with a graph of the relvant market or sub-market. Each station assigned to that market will be represented as a percentage of 100% (with a +-5% buffer). This figure is a percentage of the "Averaged Audience" presented at the bottom of the graph. These results are available for every day of the previous week and and every day part. If you click the "raw data" link next to each station's callsign you will be presented with a grid of the data used to arrive at the graphs conclusions. So requesting a graph of a market on all days in every day part means that every figure is totalled for each station then compared to arrive at a percentage of total of available audience. For single days and day parts the relevant data from each station in that market is compared similarly. Put mathematically:-

Total of Individual raw station data for your selection

Divided By

The addition of all the totals of similar raw data of all stations in market

= stations %.

The raw data is an averaged percentage of 100% of the focus group. A figure of 15 means 15% of the relevant focus group reported listening during this time, .15 means .15 of a percent of the focus group. Naturally you can't have .15% of a person! Listening is assessed on a 15min. basis, but reported on an hourly basis. Thus figures below 1% in raw data indicate transitional listening, that is reported as listening less than the whole hour OR averaged figures where no raw data existed, extrapolated from trends in previous data or subsequant hours available data.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

As you might appreciate assessing radio listening habits every week is a massive task and we encourage you to work with us to keep the results as accurate as possible. At anytime, where applicable, you can use our online "Report an Error" form to let us know if you feel there might be a current inaccuracy in our database, in the collation of the raw data or in the reporting process.

STATIONS THAT CEASE BROADCASTING
Surveys are not based solely upon any specific radio markets, all known active radio services throughout Australia can be reported upon and appear in our database. From time to time radio services may remain in ratings surveys, even despite them ceasing operation until they are reported as inactive and removed from our database. This is a product of statistical averaging (in the absence of new data in some cases old data is averaged to provide weekly continuity) and it is important that if you notice such a situation you let us know. This will increase the available market share and may ultimately increase your own stations ratings in that AIRR market.

STATIONS THAT START BROADCASTING
If a radio station is not part of a AIRR market, but has recently commenced broadcasting it will not appear in our ratings results until it is added to our database. Any raw data we receive upon it is simply rejected by our software as erroneous until its details are added. It is important that you notify us if your station is not appearing in the AIRR ratings, we monitor changes in circumstances for radio stations starting and ending business, but again it is a massive task!

STATION REPORTED LOCATIONS
For the most part the reported location (particularly in so far as the ABC is concerned as it is very hard to pin down as it is everywhere) is the transmitter site - the surveyed area is its reach (eg. where it is heard) but the location you see is often where the actual mast stands. The most important thing is that your station is contained in the correct AIRR Market as this is the basis upon which it is surveyed...not the site location.

Where the ABC is concerned the Diary data of the name of the station (say 5JJJ) reported during listening is matched to the nearest appropriate ABC station callsign and location listing in the database.

RESULTS THAT APPEAR WIDELY OUT OF PLACE
AIRR data is collected as raw anonymous statistics and as such we do not individually check every figure that comes through, other than to subject it to several verifying algorithmns to remove obvious inflations or deflations. Should you see a result that you feel is widely inappropriate for any reason please report it with the online form and we will verify the raw data manually to assess its accuracy. Whilst we can not audit every single weekly result, we will investigate any major rises or drops that seem out of place.