Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Tampa Radio: Beasley 'Blindsided' By New Tampering Allegations

The ratings tampering scandal that Bubba 'The Love Sponge' Clem admitted to -- and apologized for -- last month appears to have reached a tipping point.

The Nielsen ratings company issued the following statement to clients Monday:
Bubba Clem
As a result of Rating Distortion activities in the form of attempted panel tampering by a syndicated personality at WBRN-FM, Nielsen did not report audience estimates for WBRN-FM in the September 2015 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater PPM Radio Market Report. 
Nielsen has further evidence of panel tampering attempts by this syndicated personality. 
As a result, and in accordance with Nielsen’s Rating Distortion guidelines, Nielsen is not reporting audience estimates for WBRN-FM in the October 2015 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater PPM Radio Market Report. 
Since the program of the syndicated personality is carried in eight other markets, those markets will receive a notation about WBRN-FM’s delistment and the additional panel tampering attempts.” 
“The ratings themselves were not affected in any of the markets and for that reason, no data reissue is necessary. Nielsen is committed to maintaining the highest standards of data integrity and will continue to act swiftly to ensure that those standards are upheld, including taking additional measures if circumstances warrant.”
Nielsen didn't say how many, but for the second month in a row, they're throwing out the ratings for his show.

Nielsen measures ratings by giving panelists a portable 'people meter' which tracks listening habits. When the original ratings tampering incdient became know. Beasley suspended Bubba for eight days. But the new allegations could derail his show, at least on Tampa's WBRN 987. FM.

His attorney, Todd Foster, plans to vigorously defend Bubba in court.

"Let's see it.  I'm trained to deal with facts and evidence, I'm not trained to deal with, 'There's more, we think there's more,' innuendo.  Put it on paper put it in front of the court and we'll see what the real facts are," he said.

Beasley also released a statement late Monday saying they were blindsided and disappointed by Nielsen's decision to exclude their radio station WBRN-FM from the October ratings.
Beasley Media Group commented Monday on the announcement by Nielsen Audio that it would delist the Company’s Tampa Bay, Florida station, WBRN-FM 98.7, from its October 2015 Ratings Report. 
WBRN-FM was previously excluded from the September 2015 Ratings Report even though Nielsen announced that the affected PPM Panelist’s listening was not included in that Report. 
Beasley Media Group President Bruce Beasley stated, “Since the initial incident was reported to Beasley Media, we have had a constructive dialog with Nielsen as we were also victimized by Mr. Clem’s actions. We instituted remedial actions against Mr. Clem which had been reviewed in advance by Nielsen. As Nielsen itself acknowledged, we cooperated fully with Nielsen to ensure the accuracy of their past and forthcoming ratings. Therefore, we were blind-sided and disappointed to learn today that Nielsen Audio will exclude WBRN-FM from the October 2015 ratings. Nielsen has not shared with us, its longstanding client, any specific evidence of ratings distortion which could have had any impact on the October 2015 Ratings Report, thus suggesting that this action is related solely to the ongoing litigation between Nielsen and Mr. Clem. 
"The fallout from this dispute may inflict collateral damage on Beasley, which, indisputably, has done nothing wrong.”
Background:   In October, Nielsen filed a lawsuit against Todd Clem (AKA, ‘Bubba The Love Sponge’), who serves as an independent contractor to Beasley Media and other radio broadcasters. Nielsen’s lawsuit is based on Todd Clem’s attempted ratings distortion activity in Tampa involving WBRN-FM 98.7 broadcasts, through his direct contact with a PPM Panelist. 
At the time the incident became known to Beasley Media, the Company publicly condemned the actions of Mr. Clem, who has provided syndicated programming to radio broadcasters for many years and is not a Company employee. Since that time, Beasley Media has instituted several steps to ensure that such conduct does not occur in the future including compliance training for Mr. Clem and his employees and the distribution of guidelines reiterating the importance of avoiding conduct that could cause ratings distortion to all Beasley employees. 
At the time the incident occurred, Nielsen Audio stated that Mr. Clem’s conduct had no impact on the Tampa Bay radio market ratings because the improper activity was discovered in a timely manner and Nielsen moved quickly to remove the PPM Panelist’s results from the survey. 
Nevertheless, due to Mr. Clem’s attempt to influence the listening of a PPM Panelist, it was Beasley that suffered the penalty when Nielsen failed to include its station, WBRN-FM (98.7 MHz), in the September 2015 Ratings Report. The second delisting today may further adversely impact Beasley.

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