Personal recommendation from Dan O'Day:

The Portable People Meter — PPM. Love it, hate it, fear it, don’t have PPM in your market (yet) —
If you program a radio station, we now have a
much clearer picture of how your audience uses your station. A close analysis of PPM data
reveals a number of things you can do right now
to increase your ratings, regardless of the
measurement methodology used in your market.

• Exactly what is the Portable People Meter (PPM) and how
  does it work?
  
  
• Which programming elements cut through
  
  
• The single most effective way to increase your ratings
  
  
• Identifying and eliminating “thorns in the paw”
  
  
• How to reduce clutter and excess DJ chatter. (The answer is
  not “shut up and play the music.”)
  
  
• Things your radio station is doing that you need to stop
  immediately
  
  
• Listener Programming Expectations
  
  
• How the placement of your commercial break can cost you
  listeners
  
  
• Language that drives listeners away
  
  
• How to avoid Programming Dissonance
  
  
• "Mic Flight": What it is, how to avoid it
  
  
• Listener tune-out cues
  
  
• "Do I still need to say the call letters, or is that clutter?"
  
  
• How on-air guests affect your ratings
  
  
• How to program against the iPod
  
  
• The 20-Minute PD Success Test
  
  
• "Pay me now, or pay me later"
  
  
• The most common reason for a station's cume to erode
  
  
• Why P1s are more important than ever
  
  
• Why traditional PDs will be outgunned by fresh new PDs who don't
  have the old baggage
  
  

Gary Marince is VP of Programming Services and development at Arbitron, spearheading the ongoing development of the Portable People Meter (PPM) and
diary-based software applications.

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