Summer '13 GSP Ratings

[awp69]

The Summer book is out for GSP and it's got a few surprises:

http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb191

The HUGE news is that MY's Hot AC strategy may finally be paying off. WMYI whipped Magic 4.7 to 3.3!!! If I'm not mistaken, that may be WSPA's worst book in years.

Not only did MY beat WSPA, it even inched over B93.7.

Are we in an alternate universe??!?!??

Being an X98.5 fan (well, soon to be former X fan), I was a little surprised in it's drop. Not because I wouldn't expect it (the static over the summer month's on that signal was the worst yet and the ratings reflected it), but because the trends had them at .9 and 1.0 but then came out to just .7 in the full book. During the Spring, they posted .9 and .9 in the trends and wound up at 1.2 in the final book. Guess I'll never understand how those trends work. I figured a station rounding upwards would tend to do the same.

Also a BIG jump for 93.3. Perhaps this is in light of the signal issues on X98.5 that people defected back to The Planet. I don't have access to the full numbers, but I'm still hearing though that numbers outside of the Rise Guys morning show are abysmal. And if no one is listening to the station for its music, why not switch it up with a more mainstream, middle of the road New Rock approach (active/alternative hybrid) instead of its extreme Active rock approach? Doubt it would hurt.

So there you go. Biggest news is MY's huge jump and Magic's huge drop. Hot 98.1 posted a good increase as well, while most others held pretty steady.

It'll be interesting to see what they have in store for 98.5. It still could be Urban Gospel, but no matter what it'll more than likely be some form of Urban, keeping Summit's wall of Urban safe and sound. What will be more interesting is whether, without any change to the signal, it can do much better than X. It's very obvious that it's the worst commercially owned signal in the Upstate. Period. Although the Urban format may do better inside Greenville proper than X, which more likely had listeners in the suburban areas where the signal was weakest.

 

[carolinaradio]

I don't think MY sounds that bad these days. It'd be nice if they were a little edgier, but I'd rather listen to it than B who is very stale in their own respects. Magic sounds like it's been left to die, they're painfully slow with following the AC chart and staying up to date. Those numbers for MY aren't that great compared to years ago, but they could represent a trend that looks pretty positive for them.

I can't help but admit that this looks like a rather suspicious book looking at Hot's numbers. It's just funny seeing them do that well and Magic doing that badly suddenly. WSSL in 3rd place is also odd to see, and The Planet did have an exceptionally surprising gain. Doesn't look like it was weighted in any direction, really, but it's just rather erratic for some of these stations.

If this was accurate, and Hot is allegedly being mishandled so badly, it certainly isn't evident here. Magic doesn't sound that great, but I don't think they sound so horrible to do that poorly. This is just eyebrow raising in some aspects.

 

[awp69]

Yeah, I agree. There seemed to be a general feeling that Hot hasn't been doing as well or at least sounding as well lately so it is kind of strange.

I do wonder if something is out of whack as far as weighting based on previous books. Although it's a moot point, what I mentioned about X kind of illustrates that. Why would they be weighted downward from trends in one book and upward from trends in the previous ones?

I don't know a lot about how Arbitron does their weighing, but there were some big swings this time, particularly with MY, Magic, Hot and The Planet.

It's really difficult to believe Magic dropped that dramatically.

 

[freqdev]

summer book tends to lean toward a younger audience. more adult formats suffer from summer vacations and the extended daylight favors younger listeners staying out later. winter listening favors older demos. jmo

 

[awp69]

summer book tends to lean toward a younger audience. more adult formats suffer from summer vacations and the extended daylight favors younger listeners staying out later. winter listening favors older demos. jmo

That may explain some things, but with younger stations like B93.7 down, I'm not sure if that's all there is to it. Drops like Magic's are so big, it's still difficult to swallow.

 

[tylerSC]

Where have B93.7's listeners gone? To Hot 98.1? Or possibly some to Channel 96.1 or Kiss 95.1?

 

[awp69]

Where have B93.7's listeners gone? To Hot 98.1? Or possibly some to Channel 96.1 or Kiss 95.1?

Good question. Hot 98.1's ratings had a huge leap and could, perhaps, be due to B's continued swings between more rhythmic leaning to including more pop/rock in the mix. They've been on the latter side of the spectrum recently (with things like Imagine Dragons, Awolnation, Lorde, etc. -- all of which ARE CHR hits but are songs B doesn't always play when they're swinging the other direction).

I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the audience of Channel 96.1, however. It comes in crystal clear in most parts of the Upstate (at least from Greenville to the north and east). I'd say they're even more adult leaning as far as playing pop-rock and CHR overall has been heading that direction so who knows. KISS is a bit more hit and miss.

I know when I want to listen to CHR, I usually hit 96.1 first, so it's definately a factor in this market IMO.

Actually, I also wouldn't be surprised if some of those listeners are going to MY 102.5. Now that they're, for the most part, fully Hot AC. The upper age group of the CHR crowd could definately be heading there given that they also had a big increase this book.