Wireless Group chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie yesterday told the Media Guardian he was ready to sue RAJAR - the body who produce the main radio listening figures - over there refusal to consider new methods for measuring listening figures, such as the 'wristwatch' technology used by MacKenzie's own research company. As previously reported MacKenzie reckons the weaknesses in the RAJAR system (where a small sample group of listeners keep written diaries of their listening habits) means the listening figures of his Talk Sport station are unfairly represented - which affects how much he can charge for advertising. MacKenzie is angry that RAJAR have dropped their own trials to find a replacement for the diary system.
The TalkSport boss now hopes to get a judge to force RAJAR to adopt new measures. He told the paper: "A judge will have to decide between]a computer with a microphone in it or a diary which you fill in at the end of the week," he said.
Responding RAJAR MD Jane O'Hara argued the wristwatch and a similar pager measurement technology had already been tested but in their current form were deemed "not suitable for the UK market".
"We are not dismissing electronic measurement at all, it's still top of the agenda. What we have asked them [the company's developing measurement technologies] to do is go away and explain some of the figures to us."