CC Internal Memo:’We Suspended Negotiations with Arbitron’

In an internal memo, Clear Channel CEO John Hogan informed his staff that “We suspended negotiations with Arbitron regarding licensing the PPM,” Billboard Radio Monitor reports.

Later in the memo, Hogan wrote, “We’ve been nothing but supportive of Arbitron’s attempts to field electronic audience measurement.”

Last week, Clear Channel’s senior VP of research, Jess Hanson, sent an email to radio groups that have signed for Arbitron’s portable people meter service kicking them off the RFP evaluation committee that CC established to examine Arbitron PPM alternatives.

In this most recent memo, Hogan went on to say that until the Media Rating Council (MRC) gives accreditation to the PPM in Houston “there’s no point in continuing discussions,” but he also promises to continue to consider Arbitron in the RFP process “despite their setback with the MRC.”

Billboard Radio Monitor quoted other statements by Hogan from the memo where he outlines CC’s official position:

“Given that they do not have MRC accreditation, there is no need for either side to continue talking until such time as they have MRC accreditation.”

Is Clear Channel out of step with the industry because it hasn’t signed on for PPM? “We’d say that we’re the ones who are in step with more accurately leading the industry. We agree with both the MRC and the 20+member cross-industry evaluation team - and especially Cox and Cumulus and Entercom and Radio One and many, many other radio companies - that PPM is not ready for prime time. The companies who have signed on to PPM represent 252 stations… out of more than 13,000 in the U.S. The scope of the radio companies that continue to stand with the MRC and the Evaluation Team dwarfs those who have decided to exit the consideration of alternatives.”