No ratings for Monmouth/Ocean

[AMRocks]

This was in Tom Taylor's NOW newsletter this morning:
Why no Monmouth-Ocean numbers? Nielsen explains that it has pulled back this hybrid market, part of which is embedded in the New York City market, from continuous measurement. That means it shrinks from four books a year (48 weeks of diary surveys) to just Spring and Fall books. Not only that, Nielsen says there aren’t any current subscribers for whatever Winter numbers Nielsen did process, so they won’t be released. That could mean there was at least one subscriber when it put the Winter-book field work into the two-county metro – but now there’s none for that book, including in-market station operators such as Townsquare, Greater Media and Press Communications.

I think that the reason why there are no subscribers is that ratings don't really matter in a market like this. National buys are just that. Townsquare, Greater Media and Press get a national buy and spread it across all their stations. They get them based on coverage, population and price. It's probably cheaper to buy a group of stations like NJ 101.5, WOBM, WCHR and WJLK than just one NYC station. And local advertisers don't pay attention to ratings.

 

[atthestars]

It seemed that Press was the only one subscribing anyway.

But that's surprising that a market of that size is going unrated

 

[njtom]

Speaking of Press I think it fair to say that Thunder 106 is well programmed and has been fairly successful. What is the deal with Fun107 ? Horrible playlist and DJs that sound like its their first job on the radio, no other way to put it. Just a few years ago The Breeze sounded good and did well in the ratings but i guess too expensive to operate and reaching the wrong demos.

 

[MP23]

Explain what's wrong with the playlist

 

[njtom]

Too repetitive, not enough recurrents, I'll will give them credit for playing a few cuts you don't hear on the other hot/ac stations. I forgot to mention that their audio still has some distortion.

 

[atthestars]

Explain what's wrong with the playlist

It's not HORRIBLE, but not great for Hot AC. Press is definitely not the only group to house a CHR and Hot AC in the same building, but it's not working. B98.5 doesn't lean insanely rhythmic, so Fun 107.1 is TOO tight with B. Fun's top song now is at 80 spins a week. B's around 95. Fun doesn't touch anything pre 2000, or anything really like... pre 2010 at this point. Fun basically sounds like a very slightly more adult leaning B.

Don't be afraid to mix in some high testing late 90s or early 2000s songs in... and cut down on some of the recurrent repetition. (3-4 spins a day for recurrents is beating them to death.)

Both Fun and B can have some of the same songs in power at the same time, but do something to differentiate the stations outside of that.

At least they've updated the imaging a bit

 

[SoulCrusher]

Explain what's wrong with the playlist

The others pretty much covered it. Too much repetition, not enough variety, and a lack of personality. Other similar stations will have daily or weekly features: an all-request retro lunch, Throwback Thursday, or something else to break up the monotony. Not Fun 107.1. A tame playlist combined with DJs who are not truly engaging - and no, going fangirl over somebody that you're playing doesn't count. The main issue is that the playlists between Fun and B are just way too similar. B is a mainstream CHR: no rhythmic lean, no rock lean, but straight ahead. And Fun 107.1 is a very safe example of a very safe radio format. Therein lies the problem: in spite of its name, it couldn't be less fun to listen to. Judging by the ratings, I'm far from the only one who feels the same way.

 

[MP23]

Ok let's start with playing pre 2000s...not 1 90's song is in the top 100 golds in the Hot AC format. There are 7 in the top 150 the most spun being Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. What Hot AC station is playing these tracks in a real rotation? Everyone goes to these 90s songs when talking bout about Hot AC...where are all these 90s stations? Should be the #1 format. 90s songs don't test well anywhere and have been taken out of many playlists over the past year.

One post says not enough recurrents and the next says Fun beats its recurrents to death.
Let's compare to WJLK.
CURRENTS
FUN - 47 titles 50%
WJLK - 44 titles 49%

RECURRENTS
FUN - 72 titles 35%
WJLK - 66 titles 34%

GOLD
FUN - 117 titles 15%
WJLK - 165 titles 17% (subtract the throw back hour looks pretty close)

Tame playlist? Can we pull up add dates on new music and compare them? Or is not playing Iris take now? Curious what tame means.

Both Fun and B have some of the same songs in power? This is a serious statement? Name a station that plays ANY current music that didnt have Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and Ed Sheeran in its top 5 most played artists when they had songs in power? Do you understand the value of a power? Power can be anywhere from 15-25% of your playlist! You aren't going to spin the best songs in the format?

Ratings? Fun rebranded in a diary market in July so let's be realistic. The first 3 months this year they are ahead of WJLK in NY PPMs. Also were quite a few months before holiday music if I recall.

 

[njtom]

Very interesting breakdown. Typically what defines a recurrent? I admit I'm not an expert, maybe my concept of a recurrent is not correct. Also in reference to power cuts what is the average spins per day for hot a/c vs a chr like Z100?

 

[davideduardo]

Very interesting breakdown. Typically what defines a recurrent? I admit I'm not an expert, maybe my concept of a recurrent is not correct. Also in reference to power cuts what is the average spins per day for hot a/c vs a chr like Z100?

Recurrents differ from station to station and format to format.

Generally, a recurrent is a recent song that is no longer played in a hotter current rotation and is dropped to a slower turnover until such time as it becomes a library cut.

In a very current format, recurrents might be, in some cases, around 6 months old to maybe 18 to 24 months old. In a more traditional AC format, recurrents might be 9 to 12 months old to as much as 3 or 4 years old.

Power currents in a CHR can be in the 80-100 spins a week range. In Hot AC, perhaps 50 to 60 spins and a regular AC perhaps 30 to 40 or so per week. This is very approximate, but should give you a range... remember, there will be exceptions based on each station's competition, market dominance and demo targets.

 

[atthestars]

Ratings? Fun rebranded in a diary market in July so let's be realistic. The first 3 months this year they are ahead of WJLK in NY PPMs. Also were quite a few months before holiday music if I recall.

NY PPMs don't matter at all. Neither WJLK or WWZY sell NY Numbers.

And Press has HORRIBLY transitioned the 107.1/99.7 sticks. No one knows what to expect on those frequencies. They started out as The Breeze as Gold AC. Then became Mainstream AC. Then Gold AC again, then Mainstream AC again. Then they pushed towards Hot AC under the Breeze name. Then they just kind of dropped the Breeze name and went with 107.1FM. Same imaging voice. No real indication other than firing the airstaff what was going on. The music morphed more Modern AC, and people realized that "107.1" was sort of the station's new name. Then when THAT didn't have any traction, they kept tinkering with the playlist, eventually pushing their powers to 80 spins a week, going commercial free for various chunks of the day, and then, eventually renaming themselves "Fun 107.1" again with the SAME voice guy.

Want to get people to pay attention to a re-image? Do more than just a name and a logo. Blow up the production too. Get a new voice. Barter out some jingles or something. Saying Fun rebranded last July in a Diary Market means nothing. Press has been rebranding those signals for 3 years now, and still has no clue what to do with them. There is no room for another bland Hot AC, with a weaker playlist, and far weaker air talent. Depending on where you are in the market, Fun could share an audience with The Point, WPLJ, Fresh, Z100, Amp, Lite FM, WOBM, and B98.5.

They've been Hot AC for 2 years. It hasn't taken, and no rebranding is going to help, and a 1.6 as Hot AC can not be billing better than The Breeze got pulling a 6.0 as AC.