Arbitron enters the 21st 20th century

Arbitron, the company that most radio stations use to determine ratings and listenership, announced that Houston will be the first market to use the new electronic survey system, the Portable People Meter (which reminds us of Disney World’s old PeopleMover or even Peter the Meter Reader).

For more than 40 years, Arbitron has been sending out paper diaries similar to the one in the picture. The company would randomly flood the market with these diaries, and if you completed the diary and turned it in, you would receive — hold on to your seats — a dollar bill. Houstonist wants to sign up; we need that dollar!

The new electronic meter is the size of a pager and will detect inaudible codes that radio stations embed in the audio portion of their programming to determine what you are listening to. That means no more lying about listening to the new, hip song on The Box — Arbitron will know that you were really listening to Debby Boone.

It’ll be interesting to see if the ratings, and response rate, will change using these devices. We wonder if it will detect satellite radio and MP3 players. Maybe that technology will be available in another 40 years.