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Greenville Spartanburg ratings quirk?

I wouldn't call it actually a "quirk," but I find it interesting that "The Block", which is on two translators in the market, is pulling a 2.0! That's in Nielson's Winter of 2017 book. Is that some type of record for a translator? (It's absolutely hurting Jamz.) Also, it looks like Chuck is toast, too.

Here's what you find when you search https://tlr.nielsen.com/tlr/public/market.do?method=loadAllMarket

WJMZ-FM Urban Contemporary 9.6 10.1 10.0 8.7
WFBC-FM Pop Contemporary Hit Radio 4.8 4.8 5.0 6.1
WSSL-FM New Country 8.0 6.2 6.3 5.8
WESC-FM Country 6.4 5.6 5.0 5.6
WROQ-FM Classic Rock 6.2 5.2 6.0 5.6
WYRD-FM News Talk Information 4.2 5.2 6.0 5.0
WSPA-FM Adult Contemporary 3.6 2.8 5.3 4.4
WHZT-FM Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio 4.7 4.3 3.8 4.3
WMYI-FM Hot Adult Contemporary 2.9 3.8 3.4 3.9
WTPT-FM Active Rock 3.9 3.7 3.7 3.6
WRTH-FM Classic Hits 4.7 3.5 3.5 2.8
WFBC-FM HD2 Urban Contemporary 1.0 1.4 1.5 2.0
WGTK-FM News Talk Information 1.2 2.5 1.8 2.0
WJMZ-FM HD2 Alternative 0.7 0.8 1.2 1.4
WJMZ-FM HD3 Adult Hits 0.9 1.1 1.2 0.9
WORD-AM All Sports 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.7
WROO-FM Active Rock 1.3 0.9 1.1 0.7
 
Why is 104.9 doing so poorly with almost full market coverage outside of Anderson? That's flat out pathetic.

The Block needs to go to 93.3. The Planet has floundered on that signal for years and it's stale. That morning show is awful. With that signal, I think they could EASILY knock Jamz out of the top 3 and supplement B. A signal move for them in the next year wouldn't surprise me. The Block IMO is what forced Hot 98.1 to transition over to a albeit messy CHR format.

I don't know what Summit could do with 99.5.
 
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I don't know what Summit could do with 99.5.

Give it to X98.5. I personally don't care for the direction the station has gone with very little in the way of "new" alternative and quite a bit of tired grunge. But it's been getting the station better numbers ... even better than Chuck, which has the better signal.

I think with 99.5, X could possibly move towards the 2.0 range. The atmospheric effects on 98.5, especially in the morning, will continue to hamper any further growth for it.
 
Agree, THE BLOCK on a full market signal is a no brainer. The Upstate was always underserved when it came to an Urban Contemporary format. I'm shocked iHeart didn't launch an Urban in the upsate a long time ago.
 
There is an alternative rock station in Raleigh-Durham NC, the only station in the format if you don't count college radio, which sometimes gets even better numbers than that, and yet it too is only on HD with a translator. The secret, I guess, is that the translator is 250 watts at over 1600 feet.
 
99.3 the Box in Charleston routinely gets about a 1.5-2 share, sometimes even higher. And that's with a 250 watt signal from one of the AM station towers. If it was on a regular signal, it'd probably get a 3-4 share.
 
Agree, THE BLOCK on a full market signal is a no brainer. The Upstate was always underserved when it came to an Urban Contemporary format. I'm shocked iHeart didn't launch an Urban in the upsate a long time ago.

Isn't 107.3 Jamz urban? And #1 in the market? Not sure that would mean the market is "underserved."
 
X98.5 is on a 200W translator but that doesn't even begin to explain the challenges it has. There's strong tropical interference in the morning -- especially in the Spring and Summer but throughout the year. On some days, it can be almost unlistenable even as close as Woodruff Road in Greenville.

Some days are better than others but I have little doubt that some people would change the dial on days when it is bad.

Places like Raleigh-Durham and Charleston have larger college markets that would boost an alternative station too. X doesn't even come close to Clemson.

So it getting a 1.4 with all those factors is pretty impressive IMO.

I do think even if it moves or the 250W signal on 99.5 it could probably do more in the 2.0 or maybe even 2.5 range based on its upward trend. It also doesn't have the atmospheric difficulties that 98.5 has.
 
Lite 96.9 is the best translator signal in the market followed by 99.5 Chuck FM. 3rd place is interchangeable because in the morning hours 96.3 The Block seems to have the 3rd best signal but after things clear up later in the morning I would give that title to 98.5.

Totally different owners, but 104.9 is mainstream rock and comes in fine around Clemson. Had that format not been on 98.5 maybe they would have gone in that direction.

Most listeners don't put up with what radio enthusiasts put up with to listen to certain stations so it's no doubt they're probably getting crushed in the morning if they can't make it clearly southeast of 291.

107.3 Jamz is adult oriented but has been a bit of a mess for years due to the fact that they seem to have tried to cram all of the elements/subgenres of urban music in to one station. Adult R&B, old school, hip hop....pretty messy.

As a side note, Hot 98.1 was advertising "NEW MUSIC" first and played "Attention" by Charlie Puth then went in to "Location" by Khalid. What is the latter doing on the same station as the former?!
 
I was just talking signals in general, I know 104.9 is a C3. But had 98.5 not gone to alternative, maybe iHeart would have tried it there (a much better signal that carries across the entire market) since they wanted to stay with rock, considering they shifted from classic rock to mainstream rock when they moved to 104.9 from 96.7.

iHeart Greenville is in pretty rough shape right now, I don't think I've ever seen it so bad. WSSL has dropped but is still top 2, but 92.5 WESC is on a solid downward trend, My102.5 just sort of flounders around, and 104.9 seems like a waste of electricity given the numbers considering it's a decent signal going to waste outside of USC sports. However, with The Block doing well, I wonder if iHeart is betting on The Block moving to 93.3 (which seems like a real possibility IMO) sooner rather than later and pick up former Planet listeners with 104.9's mainstream rock format? If The Block went to 93.3 it would also give Western NC/Asheville an Urban format which it completely lacks.

I remember back when it was Clear Channel around 2005-2007 they had 3 stations in the top 5 and the bad 96.7 signal was even getting a 2 share on a class A signal. How things have changed...

By the way, Summit Media must be hurting badly. They put the morning and afternoon hosts on 98.1 together for the morning show while still having them on their original shifts, and most of the time I scan by there in the morning they're playing a discussion that they played just a week or so ago. That's about as cheap as you can get.
 
Hot 98.1 continues to slowly evolve. They've dropped Halsey's "Now or Never" in to near power rotation and I heard Imagine Dragons "Believer" earlier. Are we near the point of finally having a CHR war?

Edit: Current powers are "It Ain't Me" by Selena Gomez, "Something Just Like This by Chainsmokers/Coldplay, "Stay" by Alessia Cara, "I'm the One" by Bieber, and rounding that out?

"Mask Off" by Future.

4 standard for a mainstream CHR, 1 standard for an urban station. Ugh. Are they trying to stay on the Rhythmic chart for billing purposes, maybe? These odd random Rhythmic tracks make NO sense.
 
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Are they trying to stay on the Rhythmic chart for billing purposes, maybe?

What does being on the Rhythmic chart have to do with their billing?

Personally, I think the sound quality of the station is awful. The processing is way off.
 
What does being on the Rhythmic chart have to do with their billing?

Personally, I think the sound quality of the station is awful. The processing is way off.

Perhaps if they can market it as a Rhythmic CHR, even if only as far as reporting goes, they can better package it with WJMZ? I hear commercials at times that sound like they were intended for Jamz.

They still have that issue where the sound quality comes and goes. Some days it's awful and sounds like it's coming out of an old MP3 player. 94.1 doesn't have this issue. It's never very good, but half of the time it's unlistenable.
 
I was just talking signals in general, I know 104.9 is a C3. But had 98.5 not gone to alternative, maybe iHeart would have tried it there (a much better signal that carries across the entire market) since they wanted to stay with rock, considering they shifted from classic rock to mainstream rock when they moved to 104.9 from 96.7.

iHeart Greenville is in pretty rough shape right now, I don't think I've ever seen it so bad. WSSL has dropped but is still top 2, but 92.5 WESC is on a solid downward trend, My102.5 just sort of flounders around, and 104.9 seems like a waste of electricity given the numbers considering it's a decent signal going to waste outside of USC sports. However, with The Block doing well, I wonder if iHeart is betting on The Block moving to 93.3 (which seems like a real possibility IMO) sooner rather than later and pick up former Planet listeners with 104.9's mainstream rock format? If The Block went to 93.3 it would also give Western NC/Asheville an Urban format which it completely lacks.
But then Asheville wouldn't have active rock. One possibility would be if WQNS or The Mountain were willing to change if The Planet did. Both those stations are classic rock. The Mountain doesn't even seem to do newer songs anymore like they once did.

I was thinking there was a more detailed discussion of WESC somewhere. I finally remembered, when WPTL switched to "The Trading Post" at 3, that I had intended to try WESC when I couldn't find anything else. I hadn't given that station a chance since they supposedly mixed classic and new country. But I liked the songs I heard before I arrived at my destination. There was one time I got in the car and heard the lyrics "it's all about the country". But those lyrics went along with music that showed "it's all about the rock". Also, I don't care for the hard rock guitar in station IDs, which would be much more suited for WSSL. On the way home, when it became clear WPTL was doing some "new country" show, even if the songs sounded good, I switched over. Most of the songs were good and, while I got out of the car for a while between 1 and 1:30, what I heard as long as I could receive a good signal was mostly good. I like having a station I can listen to east of Asheville that isn't NPR. And once the signal was a problem, I could pick up WMNC in Morganton. WAME in Statesville has the best mix of all.
 
All of this talk about the Block replacing Planet on 93.3 is foolish. The target demos are being served by the Block as is. Plus you forget the tie-in to Clemson football.
 
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