Earlier in the day at the Arbitron session, Michaels unveiled the first-ever data from the PPM’s “Music Tester” by giving the industry its first look at the habits of radio listeners in Philadelphia on a per-song basis. By using the PPM, which captured listening in one-minute increments from September-December 2003, Arbitron determined the tuneout factor for a station when a particular song is played.

OutKast’s huge No. 1 hit “Hey Ya!” was a dud in its first month of airplay at CHR/Pop WIOQ/Philadelphia: Some 27% of the listeners tuned out when the song, still relatively new, aired. But when it caught on and became a hit, there was just 6% tuneout when the song played in the last three weeks of the 15-week survey period. At WPHI, Kelis’ hit “Milkshake” saw early tuneout due to unfamiliarity with the record, followed by a very low tuneout percentage in weeks nine through 12, and then a very high tuneout percentage as people tired of the song.

Even Christmas songs were studied, and different versions of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” saw varying tuneout scores. The Carpenters’ version saw medium tuneout levels, while Gloria Estefan’s version saw high tuneout scores.

Meanwhile, Classic Rock staples such as “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin saw very high tuneout percentages when played on Philadelphia’s WMGK. “It looks more like a stairway to hell than a stairway to heaven,” Michaels quipped. But he stressed that it remains unknown why the tuneout exists and said that it could be because of the song’s length or from burn. “We have a lot more questions than answers,” he said.

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