The power of today's radio spot monitoring tools becomes newly apparent in the latest information from Media Monitors.

That company has been tracking money spent by BP on radio and other media since late April, releasing these results as an example of the power of its own verification system and data offerings; Media Monitors regularly issues such reports.

But the BP results of course are particularly notable in the wake of the oil disaster in the Gulf. It's a case study in how radio data experts now can graphically present very recent information about corporate marketing and advertising; not long ago, such a graphic — based on actual aired content, and issued almost immediately after the fact — would not have been possible.

"It appears that things are slowing down with the BP ads," Media Monitors reports now. "Radio dropped from 2,529 to 2,173 ads, while TV also decreased from 2,284 for the week down to 1,733 commercials. Cable slipped to 1,960 spots from 3,316 the week before."

According to the Media Monitors AdRev program, the total spent by BP since April 20 on radio has been about $1.04 million. By market, during the most recent week BP ran its most spots in Tampa/St. Pete, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Ft. Myers-Naples.

Media Monitors uses a "broadcast content recognition process" of audio fingerprinting.