The longtime proprietor of the one time Birch Ratings service says that "as a small-market radio group owner, I've been frustrated by the dearth of quality research available in non-metro areas" - such as the one in Southside Virginia and the adjoining counties in North Carolina. He's offering a new BirchResearch telephone-based product based on 1,007 people (no more than one from the same household), and says he's got his first customer: Lakes Media of Oxford, NC. Arbitron's "County Coverage" sample is 589 diaries from about 270 households, and Birch says "by the time the data is delivered, half the sample is a year old."