RADIO MALL CHRISTIAN RADIO STATION DATA BASE DOCUMENTATION
This data base contains over 2800 commercial and non-commercial religious radio stations in the USA and its possessions. Because of simulcasts, there are about 2517 records in this file and about 1740 unique addresses. 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. If you received a file called "REL.TEX," it is an ASCII comma-delimited file. If you received a file called "REL.DBF," it is a dBase file. If you received an Excel file you can skip the next paragraph.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN!!!
We strongly suggest you make a back-up copy on disc before trying to import the file. PLEASE REVIEW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR DATA BASE IF YOU NEED TO IMPORT THIS FILE. For most applications you'll begin by downloading our file to your hard drive. Be sure to note which folder (or directory) you download our file to. Then open your data base 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. You may need to enter the number and type of fields in each record (47.) We've made a notation in brackets [ ] to show you how many characters to allow per field. Depending on your data base, you may need to structure ZIP and ZIP+4 as character fields so the data base doesn't delete any zeros at the beginning of an entry. The field lengths are in brackets [ ].
FIELDS Name Type Length Decimals Description New fields are at the bottom in red. COMPANY Character 23 0 Call Letters Expanded and renamed from "STATION" ADDRESS Character 40 0 CITY Character 21 0 STATE Character 2 0 ZIP Character 10 0 Combines ZIP and PLUS 4 into a single field FORMAT Character 21 0 Station's format i.e. Country, News/Talk, etc. NOTES Character 80 0 Includes info on duplicates. Expanded from 27 SIZE Numeric 6 1 Arbitron markets used for 1-299 MARKET Character 42 0 NEW: The actual name the top 349 markets, i.e. Chicago POWER Numeric 8 0 Highest power output if simulcast FREQ Character 17 0 Frequency Expanded from 11 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 Ratings rank within their market for commercial stations only. CDATE Date 8 0 The date anything other than address was changed CHANGE Character 13 0 Type of change. F=format C=call letters SHARE Numeric 4 1 Percent of audience for commercial stations only. 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 Station Manager's name EMAILGM Character 42 0 NEW: The E-mail address of the Station Manager* PD Character 25 0 Program Director's name EMAILPD Character 42 0 NEW: The E-mail address of the Program Director* SM Character 25 0 Fundraiser or Sales Manager's name EMAILSM Character 42 0 NEW: The E-mail address of the Fundraiser or Sales Manager* CE Character 25 0 Chief Engineer's name EMAILCE Character 42 0 NEW: The E-mail address of the Chief Engineer* ND Character 25 0 News Director's name EMAILND Character 42 0 NEW: The E-mail address of the News Director* MD Character 25 0 NEW: The name of the Music Director* EMAILMD Character 42 0 NEW: The E-mail address of the Music Director* OWNER Character 42 0 The company or college that owns the station. WEBSITE Character 42 0 COUNTY Character 42 0 NEW: The county the station's address is in LONGITUDE Numeric 6 2 NEW: Degrees/Minutes for the mailing address LATITUDE Numeric 7 2 NEW: Degrees/Minutes for the mailing address DISTRICT Character 2 0 NEW: Congressional District TIME Numeric 2 0 NEW: Time Zone in hours behind Greenwich time OPS Character 25 0 Operations Director's name* EMAILOPS Character 42 0 NEW: The Email address of the Operations Director* PRD Character 25 0 NEW: Production Director's name* EMAILPRD Character 42 0 NEW: The Email address of the Production Director* PRM Character 25 0 NEW: The name of the Promotion Director* EMAILPRM Character 42 0 NEW: The Email address of the Promotion Director* HD Character 1 0 NEW: An "X" in this field means the station is broadcasting in HD.* Fields marked with an asterisk are still in development.
Commentary: Format definition is not an exact science. For example, Radio & Records, a very competent publication, no longer uses the classification of MOR. They classify WCCO in Minneapolis as an adult contemporary station. We strongly disagree with this classification. When WCCO does play music, it is almost never contemporary. We will continue to use the MOR designation for stations of this type. Also, be aware that many program director's perceptions of their own format is open to debate.
RANK and SHARE
Because Arbitron doesn't include non-commercial stations in its regular ratings, the "RANK" and "SHARE" fields are blank for non-commercial stations. All non-commercial stations have a semi-colon (;) in the notes category. All college stations have a pound sign (#) in the notes category.
MARKET SIZE INFO
For the first 300 markets, Arbitron MSA (Metro Survey Area) rankings are used. Census data rankings are used for markets 301-387. The market size of a small percent of stations are marked 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" means the market has between 25,000-50,000 people in it. "555" means that the market is known to contain less than 25,000 people. 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 several stations 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 AM) as a "DUPE" and the third station as
"DUPE3," etc. This is entered in the notes category. However, because
this file contains only religious stations, you should
ignore the "dupe" designation.
Some Christian stations are part of a chain of stations that may include secular
formats. Because those formats have been removed from this list a station marked
"dupe" on this list may or may not be the only one at that
address. In
some cases, there are a large number of dupes at lone address. For example, in
the zip code 38803 there are 90 dupes owned by American Family. You do not want
to mail them 90 envelopes! In zip code 95765 there are over 200 stations owned
by Educational Media Foundation.
We also keep various notes here, including info on format and call letter changes. 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.
UPDATES
Here at RADIO MALL headquarters, this data base 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, you should get fewer than 1% returns. If you mail to this same list (without updating it) 12 months from now, you'll probably be looking at 7% returns. The format accuracy will be even less and many of the call letters 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 an "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 Class and bulk mailings. For example, if you mail by bulk mail without this endorsement, and the address is wrong, they will throw your piece in the garbage. We mail over 50,000 pieces every year using our own lists. We spend hundreds 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!
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 hundreds of 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) on all e-mail! If you're not sure what this means, please 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 be honest. If it's and ad, please make that clear in the subject line.
3. Your physical mailing address must appear in the e-mail.
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 be removed from our e-mail list, simply reply to this e-mail with the word "REMOVE" in the subject line.
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). Currently the secondary and and tertiary stations are running without
live DJs or commercials. Many of these new channels are available on the
internet, but few people are listening to these stations. Hopefully the new HD
home and car receivers will catch on and this will greatly benefit our industry.
WE'RE CASS CERTIFIED!!!
This list is now CASS CERTIFIED! If you need the CASS certification sheet, send us your FAX number and we'll get it to you. 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 at 22 cents postage if you jump through these hoops. We reluctantly recommend "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. 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.
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. It may NOT be used to mail or FAX another company's materials or fliers. 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 or posted to a web site or ftp site.. This data is "seeded" with the addresses of Radio Mall agents to ensure that the list is not being illegally reproduced. If you have any questions about these restrictions, please write us at: 2412 Unity Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN 55422.
Arbitron information
(when available) 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.
COMMERCIAL U.S. 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.
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