THE RADIO MALL COMMERCIAL RADIO DATABASE DOCUMENTATION
Shortcuts: List of what's in the file (FIELDS.) Radio formats. Limitations of use. About market sizes.
This is the same radio station mailing list that has been used by many of the top companies in the industry! The full commercial radio database contains over 11,550 U.S. radio stations. This documentation is also used to provide information on several custom files that are extracted from this file. We guarantee this list can be run on your system. If you have any difficulties installing it, call us at 763-522-6256 or 800-759-4561. VERY IMPORTANT!!! After downloading the file to your hard drive, open Windows Explorer and double-click on the file name. (For Windows ME, you will have to right-click on the file name and select "Extract All.") If you're using AOL, simply close AOL after your download and the file will unzip automatically.
If you're using MSWorks, ACT, Access, or WinFax Pro, we've included step-by-step instructions for loading the data. If you're using dBase or Excel, just open the file. If you're using any of the above, you can skip the rest of this paragraph. If you're using any other program, the following instructions are generalizations. WE STRONGLY URGE YOU REVIEW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR database IF YOU'VE NEVER IMPORTED A FILE. For most applications you'll begin by downloading our file to your hard drive, then open your database program. If you have a menu, it probably has a choice marked something like: "CREATE A NEW FILE" or "OPEN A NEW FILE," or "RETRIEVE A FILE." If so, select this option. At some point, there may be an option asking for the SOURCE of the new file, or allowing you to IMPORT data. For the ASCII version, you'll usually have to enter the number of fields in each record. If you are using fixed field lengths, we've made a notation in brackets [ ] to show you how many characters to allow per field. Depending on your database, you may need to structure ZIP field as a character field so the database doesn't delete any zeros at the beginning of an entry. The field lengths are in brackets [ ].
There are 47 fields for each record. They are:
Name Type Length Decimals Description
COMPANY Character 23 0 Station' call letters ADDRESS Character 40 0 Street address or PO Box CITY Character 21 0 STATE Character 2 0 ZIP Character 10 0 Includes PLUS 4 code FORMAT Character 21 0 Station's format i.e. Country, News/Talk, etc. Full list is below. NOTES Character 80 0 Includes info on duplicates. Further details below SIZE Numeric 6 1 Arbitron MSA markets used for 1-302. Further details below MARKET Character 42 0 The actual name of the market, i.e. Chicago IL POWER Numeric 8 0 Power output FREQ Character 17 0 Frequency PHONE Character 25 0 New area codes now corrected bi-monthly FAX Character 13 0 N= non-dedicated fax line AUTO Character 17 0 Full-time satellite or automated RANK Numeric 2 0 Rank of station's ratings within its market** CDATE Date 8 0 The date certain changes were made. CHANGE Character 13 0 Type of change. F=format C=call letters SHARE Numeric 4 1 Arbitron MSA, Mon-Sun 6 a.m. to Midnight AQH** NUMBER Numeric 5 0 Never-changing serial number used as a key field DPBC Character 2 0 Delivery Point for bar-coding EMAIL Character 42 0 A general e-mail address GM Character 25 0 General Manager's name EMAILGM Character 42 0 The E-mail address of the General Manager PD Character 25 0 Program Director's name EMAILPD Character 42 0 The E-mail address of the Program Director SM Character 25 0 Sales Manager's name EMAILSM Character 42 0 The E-mail address of the Sales Manager CE Character 25 0 Chief Engineer's name EMAILCE Character 42 0 The E-mail address of the Chief Engineer* ND Character 25 0 News Director's name EMAILND Character 42 0 The E-mail address of the News Director MD Character 25 0 The name of the Music Director EMAILMD Character 42 0 The E-mail address of the Music Director OWNER Character 42 0 The company that owns or controls the station. Includes pending owners. WEBSITE Character 42 0 COUNTY Character 42 0 The county the station's address is in LONGITUDE Numeric 6 2 Degrees/Minutes for the mailing address LATITUDE Numeric 7 2 Degrees/Minutes for the mailing address DISTRICT Character 2 0 Congressional District TIME Numeric 2 0 Time Zone in hours behind Greenwich time OPS Character 25 0 Operations Director's name EMAILOPS Character 42 0 The Email address of the Operations Director PRD Character 25 0 Production Director's name EMAILPRD Character 42 0 The Email address of the Production Director PRM Character 25 0 The name of the Promotion Director EMAILPRM Character 42 0 The Email address of the Promotion Director HD Character 1 0 An "X" in this field means the station is broadcasting in HD. * If the station is using a contract engineer and has no engineer onsite, the field will be blank
**Arbitron withholds certain ratings. For details, click here: There is a possibility that the change date information will not conform to your database's method for managing dates. We welcome your suggestions to help us improve this list. Please tell us about any problems you have with the list and let us know what kinds of information you'd like to see included in the future.
WARNING ABOUT USE OF PERSONNEL NAMES!
For years, we have said we would never include names in our radio
database. The
turnover in the radio industry is too great to provide accurate names without charging
$1000-1500 per customer. In the mean time, we've lost a lot of business to some
competing databases that contain names. We've purchased two different competitors
lists, just to see how good the names were, and have found them to be highly inaccurate.
We will do the best job we can on the budget we have, but we cannot warrant the accuracy
of these names. We still suggest you title-address all of your mass mailings. We have
sold to over 7200 radio stations using title-addressing, so we know it works. Because
the postal service allows individuals to file personal change-of-address forms, THE USE
OF PERSONNEL NAMES IN A MAILING WILL VOID OUR GUARANTEE OF 99% DELIVERABILITY.
FORMAT CODES
AC -
Adult contemporary stations
AC (HOT) - Adult contemporary with up tempo music
AC (SOFT) - Adult contemporary stations with "Lite" formats
AMERICANA - A mix of folk, bluegrass and some classic country.
AOR - Album-oriented rock or Active Rock
AOR (AA) - Adult alternative...aka Triple A
AOR (AP) (Album Progressive)
AOR (CR) - Classic rock
AOR (NR) - New rock or Modern rock
B/EZ - Beautiful music/Easy listening
BLUEGRASS
BLUES
B/U - Black/Urban or R&B
CHR - Contemporary Hit Radio, formerly known as Top 40
CHR (DANCE) - Rhythmic Hit Radio
CLAS - Classical
CTRY - Country
CTRY (CLSC) - Classic Country
CTRY (HOT) - Up tempo Country
ETH - Ethnic, other than Spanish
GOLD - Oldies
GOSPEL - Often a subcategory of Religious
JAZZ
MISC - Block formatting. Usually three or more formats every day.
MOR - Middle of the road. AKA full service
NA-C - New Age, also known as New Adult Contemporary. The dash insures this
won't be
accidentally retrieved when searching for traditional AC stations.
NOST - Big Band/Nostalgia
NR - New Rock aka Modern Rock. A subcategory of AC or AOR
N/T - News/Talk
N/T (SPORTS) - Predominantly sports
N/T/SPORTS - News/Talk and Sports
PRE-TEEN - Programming for children, and hopefully some of their parents.
R&B - Rhythm and Blues
REL - Religious
REL (CC) - Contemporary Christian Music
SPAN - Spanish Subcategories: NORTENO, RANCHERA, REGIONAL, ROMANTICA,
TEJANO, TROPICAL
Commentary: Format definition is not an exact science. Also, be aware that many program director's perceptions of their own format is open to debate. When searching for formats, your filter should be based on CONTAINS instead of EQUALS. If you searched for all records where format equals "N/T" you would miss all the combinations of News/Talk.
MARKET SIZE
For the first 302 markets, Arbitron rankings are used. If a radio station
located in one city shows up in the rating book of a larger city, its market
size is listed with the larger city. The market size of a small percent of
stations end with ".5." This indicates they are not Arbitron rated
markets. If the size ends in ".1," it means its market size is tied
with another market. Many market sizes are listed as "444" or
"555." "444" are smaller markets that were previously
rated by non-Arbitron companies. "555" means the market was never
rated and usually has less than 50,000 people in it. NOTE: Arbitron market
sizes DO CHANGE. If you've saved a search or filter using specific size numbers,
be sure to confirm that you're getting the same markets when you re-use the
filter.
THE NOTES CATEGORY
If an AM & FM station are at the same address with the same owners, but are not simulcast, we create a separate record for each station and we mark the second station (usually the lower-rated) as a "DUPE." If there are 3 or more stations at the same address, the third is marked DUPE3, the fourth is DUPE4 and so on. This is entered in the notes category. "D-PE" means it is a dupe, but with separate management. We also keep various notes here. Most of the codes and info (other than "DUPE") will be of no use to you, but if you are curious about a specific note, please let us know. We also keep a station's previous call letters here and often list some of their syndicated programming. If you're having trouble finding a certain set of call letters, you might want to direct your search to this category.
FAX AND EMAIL ADDRESSES
Please note that you should remove all duplicate FAX and E-mail addresses prior to using this file for those purposes. There are over 4000 stations that share the same FAX line with their sister stations. In some cases one FAX number is shared by 6 or 7 stations and you do not want to send them 7 copies of the same FAX. If you are unsure how to remove them with your software, call us within 30 days of your purchase and we will create customized files for an extra $25. Unsolicited FAX advertising may be contrary to FCC law and other laws. Press releases are currently legal. Also note that there can be duplicate e-mail addresses within one station. At smaller stations, one person often wears several hats. If the GM is also the SM and PD, that e-mail address will appear 3 times in one record. If it's a cluster of 5 stations, that e-mail address will appear 15 times. We do not recommend sending 15 e-mail messages to the same e-mail address! Be sure to use blind carboning (BCC) when you send e-mail. If you're not sure what this means, call us!
We are
not lawyers, but our understanding of the CAN-SPAM act is that all unsolicited e-mail
ads must comply with the following:
1: You must provide a valid return e-mail address.
2. The subject line of your e-mail must make it clear that the e-mail is an ad.
3. Your mailing address must appear in the email. PO Boxes are acceptable.
4. You must provide an easy way for the person to be removed from your e-mail list. We believe the following statement would suffice:
To 0pt out, please reply to this e-mail to let us know. .
HD RADIO
Many
stations are now broadcasting high-definition digital content. If a station is
broadcasting in HD, there will be an "X" in the new HD field. If they
are merely simulcasting their existing analog signal, there will still be an
"X" in the HD field to indicate this but their call letters will
appear without the HD designation. If they have a secondary channel with
different programming, that station is listed separately and noted as KQRS FM
HD-2 (for example) or in the case of a third channel, KTLK FM HD-3 (for
example).
UPDATES
Here at RADIO MALL headquarters, this database is a living, breathing thing. Like a small baby, it needs to be changed and fed quite often. We make hundreds of changes every month just in the ADDRESS, CALL LETTER and FORMAT categories. The accuracy of this data deteriorates rapidly over time. If you mail to this list the week you get it AND use title-addressing, you should get less than 1% returns. If you mail to this same list (without updating it) 12 months from now, you'll probably be looking at 10% returns. The format accuracy will be even less and many of the call letters and area codes will be wrong. We've priced our updates so they will usually cost you less than the wasted postage, printing and address correction fees you will pay for using the wrong addresses. And you'll save hours of data entry time, too. We suggest you obtain an update before each large mailing (but never more than one a month.) If you plan on updating the info yourself, be sure every piece you mail contains a "CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED" endorsement. The fine folks at the postal service's mailing requirement's department will be glad to explain the different needs for First and Third Class mailings. For example, if you mail by third class (now called Standard Mail) without this endorsement, and the address is wrong, they will throw your piece in the garbage. We mail over 40,000 pieces every year using our own lists. We spend thousands of dollars on address corrections, and it keeps our lists accurate. In summary, whether you purchase our updates, or do it yourself, it REALLY MUST BE DONE!
LIMITATIONS OF USE
This list is (C) Copyright 2008, The Radio Mall. Your company and its legal subsidiaries may have unlimited in-house use of this list. It is not copy-protected and you may duplicate it for your company's own use. You may not sell, rent, loan, or otherwise furnish it to other entities. The data cannot be posted to a web site or ftp site. It may not be used to promote other companies in any way. In the event of personnel changes, the rights to use this list will be restricted to the individual or company that originally made payment for the list, unless a company provides proof that they reimbursed a former employee for the list. The data may not be reproduced for resale in any form. This data is "seeded" with the addresses of Radio Mall agents to ensure that the list is not being illegally reproduced. You must remove all duplicate e-mail addresses before sending e-mail and use blind carboning (BCC) when you send e-mail. If you're not sure what this means, call us!
Arbitron
information is (C) Copyright 2008, The Arbitron Company. For use by licensed subscribers only. Reprinted with permission. All audience estimates contained
in this publication are copyrighted by and proprietary to The Arbitron Company. Arbitron reserves all rights with respect to its audience estimates. No such estimates
or data may be reproduced, transmitted or otherwise distributed in any form or by any
means including the Internet, without the prior express written consent of Arbitron.
All Arbitron estimates are its opinions and are subject to the qualifications and
limitations stated in Arbitron's reports. Due to these qualifications and limitations,
the accuracy of Arbitron's audience estimates cannot be determined to any precise
mathematical value or definition. If you have any questions about these restrictions,
please write us at 2412 Unity Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN 55422.
GROUP OWNERS, NON-COMMERCIAL RADIO, U.S. TELEVISION AND CANADIAN RADIO LISTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE. TO ORDER BY CREDIT CARD, PHONE OR FAX 763-522-6256 or 800-759-4561..
WE'RE CASS CERTIFIED!!!
This list is now CASS CERTIFIED. If you plan on bar-coding your mail, you'll still need
special software to do so. You or your mailing house will also have to sort the mail according
to the latest postal regulations. The reward is that you can now mail to this list
for 25 cents postage if you jump through these hoops. If you're on a budget, try "My
Professional Mail Manager" (800-325-3508.) It doesn't do everything we'd like it
to, but it's the least expensive solution out there (under $200), and makes the mail easier
to sort. We're using a $2000 a year program (Mailer's+4 800-800-MAIL), which also
updates area codes 6 times a year. Because of our new bar-coding software, there is no
longer a dash at the beginning of the Z_4 (zip plus 4) field. Be sure to insert this in
your mailing label templates.
If you're NOT on our automatic update program:
If at any time in the next TWO MONTHS, you decide you wish to get on a subscription, we'll apply the payment for this copy towards the subscription rate. That means you can get 5 more automatic bi-monthly updates for an additional $299 if you agree to take them via e-mail. If you can't take them via e-mail, please call us. To order, call 800-759-4561. In Minnesota, or outside of the US, call 763-522-6256. This offer applies only to our full commercial radio database.
Help us keep up-to-date!
Please inform our data center of any changes or
errors in the database.
You
can call the data center at: 888-757-2688.
Non-Commercial US Radio, US Television and Canadian and overseas radio lists are also available.
To order by phone, please call 800-759-4561 or 763-522-6256.
You can click here to email us: info@radio-mall.com
Radio Mall, 2412 Unity Ave. N, Minneapolis, MN 55422-3450 USA
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