It started one day when my girlfriend at the time received a phone call from Arbitron. They asked her if she wanted to do a phone survey and they told her they would send her $5. She wasn’t in the business so she did not know what exactly what Arbitron was. A few days later we were in the process of moving in together and I saw a letter that read ARBITRON on it. I asked her why she had a letter from Arbitron and she explained the situation to me. I then explained to her what exactly Arbitron was.
A few days had passed and I fell victim of December corporate layoffs. I was out of the job.
Ironically, that same day Arbitron called my girlfriend again. She was about to send the call to voicemail when I had told her to answer it. Comes to find out, they had called to ask if her household would be interested in joining the PPM panel. She did not understand what that was but I knew exactly what that had meant. I told her to say yes and they signed her up.
A few days later the UPS man delivered a medium sized box to our home address from Arbitron. I thought wow, what are the odds that I would get to see the other side of PPM? I opened it and there were to listening devices, they looked like very ugly pagers. They were bulky and square. Also included were chargers to the listening devices and even some carrying cases.
Normally, it would be a huge no-no for anyone in the business to partake on the PPM panel. However at the time I wasn’t in the business, so I did not see harm in it.
I continued to look for another gig in both in and out of the market with no success. At first, I did not mind the listening device but after a while it got annoying. But I had figured, I did not have a job and it was some sort of income coming my way.
The first check from Arbitron was the largest. If I remember right it was somewhere around $145 each. After that, the checks that came in the mail each month were between $30 - $50 each. One thing that annoyed me besides how bulky it was, Arbitron will call and harass you if the device does not detect motion. The phone call is basically them telling you to put it on.
A few months had passed and I scored an interview with a local station. I knew if I landed the job that I was going to have to give up the listening device, and that was something that I was more than happy to do. I wound up getting hired and I contacted Arbitron that I wanted to opt out of the program. I had sent them their equipment before I started at my new job.
Out of all the people in this city, I thought it was a really cool overall experience that I got to see the other side of PPM.
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