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Joylovepulse967
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Two station carrying same format. Alt 92.3 is number 1 in men rating
Why WFUV is low rating? I’m curious
Why WFUV is low rating? I’m curious
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College station, smaller signal could be two reasons.
WFUV also has a broader definition of alternative -- much of what it plays is more folk or Americana than rock -- and a much larger playlist. Alternative rock is a niche format as it is and fuzzier focus and huge playlist aren't going to get it more listeners than a tightly formatted commercial station, regardless of power.
Alt 92.3 is not "number one in men". It is narrowly #1 in 18-34 men. In Men 18+ it is 13th. In Men 25-54, which is the major sales demo, it is also 13th. So the bulk of the listening is in 18-24, which is not an easy selling proposition.
I checked some additional demos, and we see WBMP at #5 in 25-34 men, and down to 23rd in men 35+. The #6 they have in 18-49 is respectable, and in that demo they come in behind WLTW, WQHT, WHTZ, WSKQ and WAXQ. The problem is that buyers looking at 25-54 men are not going to be very impressed.
But it is still early in the development of the station, so it likely has some additional growth ahead.
And in 25-54 men, WBMP has 14 times the audience of WFUV.
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True but it's a very difficult demo to get. So for the rare advertiser who only wants young men, this is pretty much the only station in town.
It gives Entercom something on air to combine with their online services. That's how I'd sell it.
Plus because it's New York, they have a cume of about 1.8 million, which isn't bad. If you have to target a niche, this is a good one, and NY is a good place.
It puzzles me why WFUV's ratings are so low. It generally ranges from 0.5 - 0.7 and does have a good signal. I was riding in a colleague's and could pick it up as far east as Stony Brook University. Much of the music they play is alternative rock, but they are very eclectic. Sometimes they will even play an oldie.
That's about what similar college operations in Boston -- WERS and WUMB -- do for ratings. The eclecticism is the problem. Stations like these attract passionate followings, but not large ones. Average listeners don't like to be fed so much new, unfamiliar music at one time, and the playlists of these stations are so big that new tunes don't get played often enough to become favorites. SiriusXM recently demoted its eclectic rock-and-everything-else channel, The Loft, from satellite to online only because not enough people were listening to it and bandwidth was needed for programming with more star power and mass appeal.
The signal seems to favor the east towards Long Island, and misses most of NJ. However there are a couple of NJ college stations that basically do the same thing with the same result.
Once again, it's a college station. It's not there to attract a large audience.
Exactly, and WUMB tends to attract an older demographic. WERS is student run.
While the example is about two rock stations that only played a small number of currents, the size of the playlist is interesting.
Market: same size as NYC.
Station #1. Under 500 songs in regular rotation. 22 share.
Station #2. Over 1800 songs in rotation, including all those of Station #1 and 1300 additional cuts. 1.8 share.
Much of the difference between WFUV and Alt is in playlist depth and the amount of eclectic or less familiar music they play. It would appear that WFUV cherishes that difference and wants to be the "in depth" station.
Exactly, and because it's owned by a college, and supported financially by listener donations, it has no pressure from advertisers or stockholders to change.
As long as they receive enough money from their listeners, they will continue.
Really that's ALMOST surprising about SiriusXM. Almost. I bought a new car in November which came equipped with a free 4 month subscription to the service. What I did was ..... nothing. Seeing this post I am happy with my decision. No need when I have HD alternate channels available but more importantly I listen to my cell phone's Tune In Radio feed through my car's Bluetooth and also spend the majority of time listening to my favorite non-comm station (over the air and very similar to WFUV's playlist) which never bores me.
I support my favorite station that way :>)
It has been awhile since I checked out WFUV so I am not sure if my anecdotal experience still applies that might drive people away but here it goes. All too often I would tune in and it was not Alternative Rock, it was some other genre or some Classic Rock thrown in breaking the flow, sports event or talk show. The music was really all over the place. After awhile I got sick of checking and stopped going back.
A few years back I remember a time they did get it right and I was listening daily. Then one day it stopped like it was another station so my listening was less and less after that. Stuck to 107.1 The Peak and Pandora after that.
The one thing about 92.3 is my Pandora listening went to 0 for the first time since RXP, with 107.1 second. Maybe will check out WFUV again to but prior history stopped me from listening to them as a habit.
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