The March SBE Chapter 37 meeting was held at Arbitron HQ in Columbia, MD.  It was a joint meeting with Chapter 46 (Baltimore). Over 50 engineers attended.

The topic was the new Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) system. Sam Brown of Arbitron gave a very informative presentation about the hardware and the rollout in the Washington/Baltimore market. The new equipment was demonstrated, using WPOC as a test station. Arbitron also supplied a press kit to take to programming and upper management.

The PPM system is already operational in Philadelphia and Houston, and being tested in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Los Angeles. These new devices will have a big impact on the accurate reporting of radio listening.

Many thanks to our hosts at Arbitron who supplied us with an excellent lunch, and stayed after the meeting to field questions from the attendees.

There is no meeting scheduled in April. Check the website, www.sbe37.org , in a few weeks for details of the May Meeting.