Groundhog Day

[Element9]

Although off a tick from Winter 2014, WYRK is #1. Again. And probably #1 in all key demos. Again.

WBLK in second, up from Winter 2014. The soon to be public Townsquare Media scores 20% of the 12+ share in the market, having two stations in the top five. Star and WJYE tied. Did the loss of John Lamond in midday at WYRK and Joe Chile and Cheryl Hagen in morning drive at WJYE, which is up a tick, hurt Townsquare? Hard to say not having the dayparts and 25-54. But both stations seems secure.

97 Rock ratcheted up and changed positions with sister WHTT, which dropped a share compared to Winter 2014.

WBEN looks like one of the more stable news-talk AM's, considering that Spring 2014 brought bad news for the format nationwide. Of course, this is 12+, so the station's heavy 55+ could be bolstering the 12+ rating. Although we don't see WBFO's ratings, it's likely the NPR station is no threat to WBEN. Afterall, Buffalo will never be confused with Washington or San Francisco, markets where NPR and public radio compete neck and neck.

Jack? Nothing more than a low budget stone in the shoes of 97 Rock, WHTT and the Edge. And Alt 107.7? Doesn't look too good. Bueller?

Sports talk WGR fell more than a share. Sabres disinterest? 97 Rock and the Edge, which went up, likely benefited in the rankings. Entercom can't wait for Bills training camp to begin.

http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb037

 

[TheBigA]

Interesting that Rochester is basically a carbon copy of Buffalo, with Country, Urban, and News/Talk in 1-2-3.

http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb079

 

[tbolt909]

The Lake was the most successful format ever on 107.7 signal.
It delivered results, passionate listeners and 3.5 shares. Country, Sports
News simulcast and Alternative all failed. It's now a 1 share.
The Lake was a quality niche format on a challenged signal.

Many thinking adults have abandoned Radio because the
content & product is painfully bad...

 

[Mike_Saffran]

The Lake was the most successful format ever on 107.7 signal.
It delivered results, passionate listeners and 3.5 shares. Country, Sports
News simulcast and Alternative all failed. It's now a 1 share.
The Lake was a quality niche format on a challenged signal.

Many thinking adults have abandoned Radio because the
content & product is painfully bad...

During the time The Lake was around, it seemed I was always coming across people in Rochester who liked and regularly listened to it. Going back a bit further … I also liked the station as The Bear (especially when my ol’ college buddy Tracey Spencer was on) … and, of course, who could ever forget WUWU (“Woo-Woo”) — “The Rock of Western New York.”

But The Edge is a decent-sounding station … and it hasn’t yet been very long (so give ’em a chance…).

 

[tbolt909]

The current format on 107.7 is essentially a repetitive Top 40 Rock, not
Alternative format. "Alternative" means nothing now.
The Lake featured a mix of new AAA artists and quality heritage rockers.
A decent amount of 25-54 year olds were hip to it...

 

[SirRoxalot]

Mike, are you confusing "The Edge" - the Cumulus "active rocker" on 103.3 with "Alternative Buffalo" 107.7? The Edge, BTW, crept up a little. I guess that adding Ozzy and AC/DC - while confusing from a format POV - added a few quarter hours.

Elsewhere, "Jack" has been falling steadily.

WGRF and WHTT seem to have literally swapped numbers. The demos for those two will be interesting. It seems that some attention has been focused on 97-Rock over at James E. Casey Drive.

Star and WJYE are tied - which is good news for WJYE over the last year. It will be interesting to see if the rumors of Dave Universal taking it "Mix" are true. BTW, that may be a corporate decision, not a local one. Town Square has several other "Mix" stations in other markets.

As E9 says, these are beauty pageant numbers. The demos will be interesting.

 

[Mike_Saffran]

Mike, are you confusing "The Edge" - the Cumulus "active rocker" on 103.3 with "Alternative Buffalo" 107.7?

Indeed, Rox — I meant to refer to Alternative Buffalo. (Thanks for the catch — I can barely keep up with changing station monikers in Rochester, let alone Buffalo.)

But speaking of 103.3 … I haven’t heard that signal in years (it doesn’t beam into the ROC the way 107.7 does), but I thought it was a great station, as 103PHD, in the middle-to-latter ’80s (when the great John Hager — and Harv Moore, of course — were calling the shots … and during 97 Rock’s little hiatus). Since I was pulling some weekend shifts on sister “14 Rock” around the time, I had the chance to do one shift (and I believe that’s all it was) on ’PHD … and it was a blast! My “14 Rock” stint came just before the plug was pulled on the station (summer of ’86 — with AM listenership declining, they decided to simulcast ’PHD for a time) … but that, too, was a heckuva lot of fun!

I very much enjoyed my Buffalo stints — it was good times during those short few months working in the ‘big city’!

 

[Mike_Saffran]

Interesting that Rochester is basically a carbon copy of Buffalo, with Country, Urban, and News/Talk in 1-2-3.

http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb079

It’s my first glance at the ROC ratings … but the “headliner” (if such a thing exists any longer insofar as radio ratings are concerned) there has to be: Kiss in dead heat with ’PXY. Is it the first time CC’s Kiss has at least tied rival ’PXY?

 

[SirRoxalot]

Mike, 103.3 The Edge is allegedly an "active rock" station, although they've started dipping into some of what would be considered "classic rock" territory with music as far back as the '80s. Shredd & Ragan expanded the audience that's followed them from mornings to afternoon drive and back to mornings again. At some point, Norton will hang up the head phones for good, and they're the likely successors on 97-Rock. It's really too bad that they gave up the 'PhD calls. They were legendary in this market. "The Edge" has been a pretty reliable partner with 97-Rock in male demos. If you wanted men, you needed that combo. OTOH, you've got to think that Cumulus keeps looking at the double-digits that WYRK gets, and thinking "Nash" for one of the Buffalo FMs.

 

[flybynight]

WBEN looks like one of the more stable news-talk AM's, considering that Spring 2014 brought bad news for the format nationwide. Of course, this is 12+, so the station's heavy 55+ could be bolstering the 12+ rating.

Could be? lol

Although we don't see WBFO's ratings, it's likely the NPR station is no threat to WBEN.

The biggest threat to WBEN is the average human lifespan and the PPM.

 

[LowlyBoard-Op]

If the Lake was a 3 share radio station, 97 Rock must have been pretty happy when Entercom pulled the plug. The Edge sounds like more like 97 than ever. Do Shredd and Ragan still rip Norton on the air? And how's the feud between Anita West and Carl Russo? People at other clusters and clients are talking about it, so it must be serious.

 

[tbolt909]

WBEN on FM was an ill conceived idea that ended
in retreat. Corporate knows crazy talk won't attract
People under 55.

Alternative Buffalo is a feeble attempt to get 21-35 year olds
that is also failing.
The Lake gave them solid 25-54 numbers and good revenue on a
17,000 Watt signal.
Look at it now...

 

[TheBigA]

The Lake gave them solid 25-54 numbers and good revenue on a
17,000 Watt signal.

The music they played on the former Lake might be seen as too old to reach those same demos now. And Entercom doesn't want to cannibalize Star.

I give them credit for spending money on a full local staff. Don't know if I'd do that given the signal and format.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

"Whatever happened to the Lake? I loved that station." I frequently hear this lament, asked in the same tone as "Why'd they take 97 Rock off the air?" nearly 30 years ago, before 97 returned to the air. Despite the abuse that was heaped on the Lake here, it had a fairly loyal audience. IMHO, it would have performed a share or two better Persons 12+ and even better in the target demographics had it been better cared for on a day to day basis. And if the Lake had better 25-54 ratings, it might not have been tossed in favor of the WBEN on FM experiment. But this is speculation. At the time AM news-talk stations were going to FM simulcasts at a dizzying rate.

As to the Lake getting in the way of Star? Two entirely different cultures and demographics. The Lake was more Classic Rock than AAA, catering to Men 35-64. Star caters to Women 25-54 and 35-54. The Lake was a flanking competitor to 97 Rock, which which was consulted by Fred Jacobs. He also consulted a number of other stations with the Lake-type format, including Entercom's 'Mountain' in Denver.

97 Rock anticipated the Lake before it signed on and in its early stages. Adjusting accordingly, 97 Rock added listener requested deep-cuts generated through the Listener Feedback Line and buffed its Buffalo deep-cuts image. I produced most of those listener-centered imaging promos/features. Listening to callers' comments was instructive and gave us a good idea of what Buffalo P-1 Classic Rock listeners consider "deep cuts," their favorite bands, revealing their likes and dislikes, although having the benefit of working in the market most of our lives, talking to listeners one-on-one and having the benefit of research, it confirmed much of what we already knew.

 

[tbolt909]

The Lake was not a typical Classic Rock format. It shared some artists
(Stones, Zeppelin, Who, etc.) with that format, but included artists like
Coldplay, Dave Matthews, R.E.M., Bob Marley, etc)
The vibe of the station was more AAA. Most Classic Rock stations cater to
The blue collar crowd with juvenile imaging.

The Lake took a classier approach. Again, the 107.7 signal is not great.
It had a successful 7 year run and could have continued.
The replacement formats haven't exactly thrived...

 

[TheBigA]

The vibe of the station was more AAA...

That's what I thought. Then I read this:

The Lake was more Classic Rock than AAA, catering to Men 35-64.

So which is it?

 

[tbolt909]

Music intensive with more of an NPR delivery.
It played AAA and heritage artists...
Didn't need to be in a "cookie cutter" category.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

107.7 could easily have stayed with being a news/talk repeater.
Respectfully, that would be based strictly on the thinking that 107.7 is not really there to make money, but instead to strictly refrain from being a threat to WKSE no matter what airs on that frequency.
Perhaps the idea is to make more money than what a WBEN repeater brought in, but also to deliberately only climb slightly higher in the revenue scale, while still being a tax write off for Entercom.

When you think about it, at the end of the day, all that really matters is that 107.7 is not competing directly with WKSE.
That's the ONLY reason why Entercom spent top dollar obtaining that frequency.

 

[flybynight]

When you think about it, at the end of the day, all that really matters is that 107.7 is not competing directly with WKSE.
That's the ONLY reason why Entercom spent top dollar obtaining that frequency.

Herein lies one of the key reasons the Telecom Act was such an abomination. Apologists be damned.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Even radio people can't decide what the format on The Lake was. AOR - as in "All Over the Road" - is the closest description. That should tell you something. It was an alternative button on the dashboard for when everybody else was in a commercial set. As noted above, the real reason for the purchase was to prevent competition to Star and Kiss and keep the FM out of the hands of then Citadel (now Cumulus).

The Lake was at its best when it was mostly live, and would have been even better if the PD hadn't so strictly formatted the jocks. Nobody on that station was likely to develop diarrhea of the mouth, but the delivery was often so stilted it may as well have been text-to-voice. It's pretentiousness reflected the PD's view of his self-worth.

So far, "Alternative Buffalo" hasn't excited anybody. Give it a year to move the needle. If it does, it might get some 25-54 males who are currently disenfranchised or listening to on-line music. Or, they'll be a curiosity pick for when everybody else is in commercial sets. If they gain any traction, they'll have to contend with adding commercial load - which will reduce their attraction. And, if they do gain enough traction, one of the more listenable FMs is liable to co-opt the format, as has happened to that frequency in the past.