• Individual Multicast / Digital station detail
• Easily identifiable Primary Station, HD2 or HD3 stations
• Track different contacts at the additional multicast stations
• Detailed Low Power FM information
• Multi-Market selection from the list of Saved Searches
• PPM data for available Arbitron markets (Analyzer only)
• PPM 12 Month history- Exportable, Printable (Analyzer only)
• Detailed Band ID information (Analyzer only)
• Exporting for counties per Market (Analyzer only)
• And much more

For those of you who are current customers, you should have received a personalized letter containing your detailed new version 4.3 account information. In order for the upgrade to be successful you will be required to update using your new version 4.3 credentials. If you have not yet received this email please check your junk mail or spam mail box as sometimes these can accidentally be diverted to those boxes. If you do not have access to the letter please feel free to reach out to me. I would be happy to email your new user id and password to be used once MEDIA Access Pro has been successfully upgraded to version 4.3.

Please preview the video for step by step instructions on upgrading to version 4.3. Remember, if you need my assistance with any of the procedures don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Georgina Santilli, at gsantilli@bia.com

My four year old daughter has changed her mind at least 10 times over the past weeks on what she wants to be this Halloween. At first she wanted to be a ghost, then the wicked which of the west, then a one eyed monster. After weeks of “oh, now I know mommy” she finally decided to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. (On a side note, she is perfect for the role!)

The reason she decided on Dorothy was because she didn’t want to “scare people”. I think that’s pretty admirable. It seems that with Halloween around the corner, the focus is on trying to be scary or make other people afraid. And this got me thinking… Are you all afraid to customize your coverage maps in MAPro?

Well, in an effort to take the fear out of it, I’ve decided this blog post is going to be about coverage map customization. Namely, I want you to learn:

1. How to get more or less detail on your map.
2. How to display those smaller cities
3. How to add highways
4. How to change colors, font, size

So, let’s stop the fear and get to it.

As usual generate your desired map directly from MEDIA Access Pro into the Coverage maps program.

After building your map the first thing you will need to note is the “scale” on the upper left side of the screen just below the menu bar. Think of this number as the miles looking out over your map. The higher the number, the farther out you are looking down. The smaller the number, the closer in you are looking at your map.

There are multiple “layers” that can be displayed on your map. Some of those layers automatically (as a BIA default) show up with most zoom levels. What is a layer you ask? A layer is any piece of information you can see on your map. A county outline, a county name, a city name, a river, a state boundary, these are all layers contained in the mapping module. Below is a picture of my map with some very basic layers looking out about 184 miles from the center point. Nothing fancy, county names, county boundaries, state boundaries and some water ways.

Now let’s jazz this map up just a bit.

To display a list of layers simply right mouse click anywhere on your map. This will pull up a pop up window called “layer control” this window will display (in hierarchy order) all of the layers you can manually modify, change, add or remove.

I’ll start with something simple and very notable, State Highways. Note how each layer (when highlighted) has its own “properties” for my selected layer (state highways) I see that Visible is not checked, therefore the highways are not “visible” on my map. They are Selectable which means if I click on the add label tool you will be able to see that layer on the list of selectable layers

In order to make the state highways visible on my map I need to turn the properties on. Place a check mark next to the desired properties.

Now let’s tell the program how to “display” the highways on our map. Click the Display Button.

Once I click OK to all of my changes and return to the maps. Take a look at what I see:

Pretty amazing, huh!?

Now let’s make some changes to the smaller cities and towns. This time I’m going to changes the Cities Over 10K Population. Make the properties visible, selectable, automatic label.

Display these cities with a dot and within a zoom level of 50-250 miles. Now let’s change the “labels” meaning the font style and color for that layer. Contained within the Styles section, click the “Aa” button to open the Text Style box.

Make the selected font changes you wish to display on your map. For this sample I changed most everything. Font, I chose Times New Roman, 10 points, text color I selected White with a Black background box, I added the bold all caps affect then I click OK, save all of my changes and look what I see now:

The possibilities are endless when it comes to customizing your maps. Take a few minutes and try the samples I gave in this blog. Go ahead and try changing a few other layers. It’s not that hard and after you get the hang of this technique you will be an expert at customizing those scary maps.

If you feel you would like a one on one tutorial via the web, I would be happy to make myself available and walk you through the steps I have outlined above and a few more to give you a better comfort level with the maps. Simply reach out to me and we can set something up.

Now, I cannot be responsible for those little goblins knocking on your door Friday October 31st. I’ll have my own issues with Dorothy and Toto!

This new version of MEDIA Access Pro offers valuable new data and functionality to users:

• Digital station data, including detailed contacts-You will now be able to see and track these child stations on an individual bases. You all requested separate records for each multicast station now you have the flexibility to add your own detailed contact name, phone number and or email address directly from the contacts tab. If you are an analyzer subscriber you will now be able to see the detailed ratings/shares/ppm data for these individual stations.

• PPM 12 month overview- We all keep hearing about it, “Arbitron PPM” is it going or is it staying. We believe it here to stay and we’ll be able to make the data available to you as soon as we receive the additional markets from Arbitron.

• New 64-bit Vista compatibility- So many people are finally becoming a little more comfortable with Windows Vista. We want to assure you that we are 100% compatible across many platforms including Vista.

• Flexibility to export data for all counties within a given market- There has been so many requests to export county information for the Arbitron and Television Markets. We have given you an easy “click the button and export” to excel way of doing this directly from the Market Tab.

Let me offer some more details on each.

• New Multicast Signal category. You now have the option of turning this category on or off if you wish to include or exclude stations that broadcast a multicast signal.

  

• If you opt to keep the Multicast Signals Category “on” you will see multiple stations (different types) on your results tab. In the future we hope to gather additional contact information for each station listed the Parent Station (KABQ) as well as the Child Station (KABQ-HD2) the Multicast station. If each station has a different sales manager, you’ll able to see that directly on the contacts tab for each station.

  

• The much anticipated PPM. Houston and Philadelphia will be included in the first release of version 4.3. As additional PPM Markets are released, they will be made available automatically with every data download. You will be able to see detailed information by quarter and by month. All of this data can be printed or exported in a few easy clicks.

  

  

  

• New Band Id definitions. With the addition of FM internet streaming and HD streaming. We feel that in the very near future (so long as Arbitron is tracking it) you will also want to see the detailed information for all the other type of stations broadcasting. MAPro version 4.3 will allow you to see the detailed (ratings) for each of the categories listed on the station tab.

  

Blank/Empty- Total Market Share displayed on station tab
FM- Analog
IF- Internet Streaming FM Main Signal
And we hope to add more like:
HF- High Definition FM- Main Signal
F2- Over the Air HD2
I2- Internet Streaming of HD2

• Multiple custom reports to go hand in hand with the new PPM data and the Multicast information.
• The flexibility of exporting of all counties that make up and Arbitron or Television Market.
• MAPro Version 4.3 is Windows Vista 64 bit compatible.

Thanks to all who have provided their feedback (both good and bad). MEDIA Access Pro would not be what it is today if it were not for you, the end user. Please keep the suggestions and feedback coming.

I would like to extend an invitation to anyone that would like to BETA test version 4.3 prior to the release. If you would like to be one of my BETA testers kindly reach out to me.

My contact information is:
Georgina M. Santilli
Direct: 607-936-6737
Office: 703-818-2425
gsantilli@bia.com

It was wonderful to see so many familiar and new faces at the NAB Radio show in Austin last week. I always get such pleasure in seeing and meeting so many of you during this event every year.

As most of you know, BIA held its first User Group Meeting this year, and I feel confident calling it a success! Many of you were able to attend, and it was an effective forum for sharing information about Media Access Pro (MAPro) and answering your questions. It was actually quite amazing how much information we all shared.

As a way to capture the discussions from this event, I’m going to write several blogs over the next few weeks about the different topics we covered during the meeting. I will also be writing about the upcoming MAPro 4.3 so everyone is informed about this upcoming, important product release.

So let’s get started. This week, I’d like to start with coverage maps. We spent significant time on this topic and I answered many questions on how to customize, manipulate, and personalize the amount of detail displayed on the maps.

Working with the coverage maps is not an easy task to master. But once you do master the techniques you can work wonders with your maps. Let’s begin with an example of how to display two (2) contours on the same map so you can see where they overlap and what markets they overlap in most. This is actually one of the easiest things to accomplish with the maps:

• Once you have generated your map, make your call letter selections.

Then, choose a pattern and a color for the Market.

These buttons allow you to move the labels on the contours, cities, counties or anything on the map in the location I wish to see them. For this example shown below, I removed the labels off my tower location and I re-labeled the contour labels strategically around my contours
• Presto magic you have successfully created and slightly customized a map!

I hope that you found these details useful…. Next week I will focus on customizing the details on the maps like counties, cities, streets. So, stay tuned!

As always, I welcome your comments or feedback. If there is something you would like to share with me or our readers, please let me know.

Special Note: BIAfn is furiously working on the release of MAPro 4.3, and we thank everybody for their wonderful suggestions and comments. We value and appreciate all of your feedback. I’m extremely excited in the direction we are going in preparation for Station/Markets PPM and the HD stations populating our database. I’m happy to report that we are staying ahead of the curve!

Want to listen and watch? The video about coverage maps from the User Group Meeting is below:

This blog, that blog… I have been hearing that a lot lately at BIA. But what’s all the hype? Why blog?

As someone who is knee-deep in databases all day long and conducting online training sessions, I’ve always considered myself a computer savvy person. So, when my marketing department approached me about posting blog entries about MEDIA Access Pro, I began to wonder just how different blogging really was from what I do day-in and day-out at BIA.

The more I thought about it I realized that blogging is just another fantastic way I get to communicate with my MEDIA Access Pro clients. I can post tips about using the application, tricks and guides for running specific reports, my observations as well as those of other users, and so much more.

In fact, a big part of what I am hoping my blog posts will generate is “conversation” between users through my blog entries. If I can start to write and gather your comments within the blog posts I submit, it will be as if everyone is part of the conversation. You are not just gaining my insight, but your are reading the words of other users who, like you, are trying to get the most out of MEDIA Access Pro.

So, welcome to G’s MEDIA Access Pro Blog!

I look forward to posting more articles in the weeks to come and generate some interesting conversations among all of you MEDIA Access Pro users. I am sure as more and more people see the new release (Version 4.3) there will be a lot of chatter.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to drop me a line to ask me questions. I can be reached via email at: gsantilli@bia.com

Now, I’m off to figure out Facebook and Twitter!!!!!