Arbitron has a new version of the PPM device – the portable device that listeners carry with them that “hears” and logs what radio stations you heard (inaudible watermarks are encoded in the audio that tells the PPM device what station you are hearing)
The current version gathers data and relies on the listener to dump the data once a day using a phone line. The new version will use wireless cellular networks – meaning the data can be gathered in real time.
Not new, my family has been wearing them over a year.
Thanks – I made it clearer that this is a new model of the device. People who follow radio all know what the PPM is – I overexplained it for the benefit of those who haven’t heard of it.
According to the story, the new version will be phased in – so you may not be getting a new one just yet.