Games are more fun when you keep score—and the way you’re keeping score is going to be important in 2010. RETHINKING MEASUREMENT is an important undertaking for the media industry, and there’s already plenty of shifting in progress—from PPM to Streaming Measurement.

Two of radio’s largest “metrics vendors,” Arbitron and Ando Media, have both earned headlines this year for their maneuvers in measurement. While they’ve drawn some heat from customers and buyers—and various debates rightfully continue about each of their practices—they both deserve some applause.

First, they are both reacting to a business trend much bigger than the radio industry. There is a global movement towards accountability and transparency. It’s not just a business trend—it’s a consumer trend. Case in point: New York’s new online tracker for city agency performance. Check it out at www.nyc.gov/cpr. Mayor Bloomberg has made the city’s performance and their use of the $5 billion in federal stimulus money visible.

One of this year’s most popular iPhone Apps: RunKeeper. Download it, and it will use your phone to track your running speed, map your route, and chart your performance over time.

Twitter—follow and track anyone’s activity and stream-of-consciousness 24/7. One of our European clients at McVay New Media uses Twitter to track TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS in their market—asking their listeners to tweet traffic problems (safely, of course).

Second, both of these vendors are forcing us to have a conversation about metrics as an industry. While there are probably ways that each company’s approach could have been refined this year, and many hours of fine-tuning methodologies are still ahead, both companies deserve some credit for thinking towards the future. We’ll all benefit from progress in measuring media more effectively.

Today, there are many different ways to measure our audience and their behavior/interaction with our brands. Different “measuring sticks” are used for different reasons. However, whether you are in programming or sales, there are some numbers you should know. The following is a checklist of the three most important metrics for you to know about your audience on each of your key platforms.

ON-AIR:

• Cume / Reach (How many people do you reach on a weekly basis?)

• AQH Rating (What percentage of the market is listening to your station in an average quarter-hour?)

• Time Spent Listening (What is the average amount of time people spend with your station?)

ONLINE:

• Unique Visitors (How many people visited your site over the last week and over the last month?)

• Page Views (How many times was a page sent from your server to any viewer over the last week and over the last month?)

• Most Popular Content (What are the three most popular content sections on your site? Knowing that information can help you to explain why people visit your site.)

STREAMING:

• Session Starts (How many streams have started and lasted for more than one minute within a time period)

• Average Active Sessions (How many people are listening in a specific time frame for one minute or more)

• Average Time Spent Listening (How many hours has each session lasted on average)

Daniel Anstandig is President of McVay New Media Consultants, advising broadcasters on growth strategies in digital media, and Listener Driven Radio, a new program that turns “broadcasters into crowdcasters.”