Forget About Thursday. Here Comes Friday: In the People Meter world, the era of doing your biggest contest on Thursday is about to end. As reported by in R&R Today, you'll see how startling things will be changing once (or if) you become a People Meter Market:

According to the June 2007 PPM radio ratings in Houston, Friday had the largest weekday average quarter hour radio audience among persons age 6 and older from 6 a.m.-midnight.

The Houston tally looked like this: Monday - 477,300 persons; Tuesday - 489,300; Wednesday - 494,100; Thursday - 497,500; and Friday 518,800.

In releasing this week’s Arbitron “Fun Fact,” senior VP of press and investor relations Thom Mocarsky noted that in the PPM system, “There is no ‘first day’ of a survey week. Once in the panel, the PPM respondent is asked to carry the meter with them throughout the day, every day for as long as they are in the panel, which can be as long as two years.” He also noted that the bigger "lift" in Friday Houston listening in June started at 3 p.m. and peaked in the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. hour.

As interesting as this little tidbit is, Mocarsky cautions, “This is only one month of data from one market. It's much too soon to draw any general conclusions about what day is the biggest listening day for all of radio. However, it does highlight the power of the PPM to give us a detailed look at how people listen to radio.”

Mike Boyle, R&R

We can work the respective methodologies best we can, but whether it's PPM or Diary, I maintain that compelling content making for destination listening is what will ultimatley drive ratings. What do you think?