Ratings Jan 22 2019

[Lotologist492]

Ratings for the Holiday book were posted last week. While Christmas music manages to skew the numbers, I was still surprised at the Fish 8.6 rating - with second place being WSB/95.5 at 6.5. I did notice the Fish playlist leaned to much more mainstream holiday tunes and not so much religious-leaning as in prior years.

Other takeaways: WYAY continues to marinate in low numbers. (Raise a paw if you were surprised. I did not think so.) Alt105.7 got a bump - albeit a modest one. And the new format Z105.3 does not seem to be doing the station any favors.

Now we wait and see what the first 'normal' book of 2019 brings.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

A few years ago, B98.5 was going all Christmas. Although December ratings soared, many regular listeners were leaving when the Christmas music started and not coming back in January. As a result, B98.5 decided to do a partial Christmas format, and it had been working for them. The January numbers rebounded strongly.

A big reason B98.5 was getting away with a partial Christmas format was no other station except The Fish was doing all Christmas music, and The Fish was doing it with a religious-oriented playlist. Listeners wanting pop Christmas tunes had no place to go except B98.5.

This past Christmas, however, The Fish went all Christmas with a more mainstream playlist and got spectacular ratings even with its move-in signal, while B98.5 showed no significant ratings bump. I wonder whether B98.5 is rethinking their strategy for next Christmas.

 

[secondchoice]

I am surprised someone didn't use the all Christmas format as a "break" to flip a station but this is Atlanta where even marginal operations make money.

 

[acheron1982]

Got to wonder if Alt 1057 numbers bumped due to the morning show? I’m surprised it’s not taken off more. It’s more edgy and “just wrong” kind of funny. Haven’t had that since early 99X days and maybe briefly Project 961 before the station was killed off.

Wonder when/if iheart will put The Lake variety hits currently on 94.9 HD2 on one of the translator signals. Actually pretty good.

Q99.7 vs Power: Spoke to a huge Top 40 radio friend and he prefers Q. When I asked him why, he said two reasons: 1- More variety of music (which I believe). 2- More local sounding. Is Q local more than power? He said Power just sound so like Z100 (New York station which is where he is from) with a different name.

 

[RadioDoogie]

Got to wonder if Alt 1057 numbers bumped due to the morning show? I’m surprised it’s not taken off more. It’s more edgy and “just wrong” kind of funny. Haven’t had that since early 99X days and maybe briefly Project 961 before the station was killed off.

Wonder when/if iheart will put The Lake variety hits currently on 94.9 HD2 on one of the translator signals. Actually pretty good.

Q99.7 vs Power: Spoke to a huge Top 40 radio friend and he prefers Q. When I asked him why, he said two reasons: 1- More variety of music (which I believe). 2- More local sounding. Is Q local more than power? He said Power just sound so like Z100 (New York station which is where he is from) with a different name.

I travel a lot and most of the iHeartRadio CHRs around the country all sound the same with just a different name. Almost all play Seacrest in the afternoon or morning after the morning show ends. They all play AT40 unless another iHeart Hot AC station plays AT40 in the same market (i.e. Dallas market). They all play the iHeart Radio countdown sometime during the weekend. Most play On the Move with Enrique Santos on the weekend. Same commercials are played on each station. Elvis Duran on a lot of the stations in the morning. And most of them insert an older song at the end of every hour right before the station ID is played at the top of the hour. But most of the Cumulus CHRs sound the same too with Carson Daly and the Hollywood 5 on the weekend. Zach Sang show on most stations at night. Bert Show syndicated on a lot of the stations.

 

[davideduardo]

I travel a lot and most of the iHeartRadio CHRs around the country all sound the same with just a different name. Almost all play Seacrest in the afternoon or morning after the morning show ends. They all play AT40 unless another iHeart Hot AC station plays AT40 in the same market (i.e. Dallas market). They all play the iHeart Radio countdown sometime during the weekend. Most play On the Move with Enrique Santos on the weekend. Same commercials are played on each station. Elvis Duran on a lot of the stations in the morning. And most of them insert an older song at the end of every hour right before the station ID is played at the top of the hour. But most of the Cumulus CHRs sound the same too with Carson Daly and the Hollywood 5 on the weekend. Zach Sang show on most stations at night. Bert Show syndicated on a lot of the stations.

The use of big talent is a product of "now we can". If we could have shared Dan Ingram or Robert W. or Dr. Don or Dale Dorman, we would have. There is technology today that makes that possible and makes it sound good and seamless.

Otherwise, Top 40 stations across the station sounded a lot alike, whether in the 60's or the 80's or in the new Millelnnium, with most of the music being 90% or better the same.

A good example was the broad change in Top 40 after Drake did KHJ, KFRC, CKLW and WRKO in huge markets. Within a couple of years, Top 40s stations from Grand Rapids to Great Falls and from Portland, ME, to Quito, Ecuador all had many if not most of the formatic elements that Drake introduced.

Today, if you could have Seacrest and could tailor his content to your local format clocks, you'd do it to if you were looking for the best bang for the buck. Same with the syndicated weekend shows.

As to commercials, national buys that use CHR are all likely to buy those stations, particularly if they are packaged at a convenient price that fits the buy's CPP goal.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Got to wonder if Alt 1057 numbers bumped due to the morning show? I’m surprised it’s not taken off more. It’s more edgy and “just wrong” kind of funny. Haven’t had that since early 99X days and maybe briefly Project 961 before the station was killed off.

Wonder when/if iheart will put The Lake variety hits currently on 94.9 HD2 on one of the translator signals. Actually pretty good.

Q99.7 vs Power: Spoke to a huge Top 40 radio friend and he prefers Q. When I asked him why, he said two reasons: 1- More variety of music (which I believe). 2- More local sounding. Is Q local more than power? He said Power just sound so like Z100 (New York station which is where he is from) with a different name.

In terms of programming, I like Q99-7, but I dislike their processing.

 

[TheBigA]

I travel a lot and most of the iHeartRadio CHRs around the country all sound the same with just a different name.

Had you been alive in the 1930s and traveled around, it would have been possible to say the same thing. And people at the time thought it was a great thing. That was the magic of network radio. In the 60s, if you worked at one of those big signal AMs, it was possible for your show to be heard in multiple states. The FCC killed that when they licensed a bunch of daytimers. But radio has always sought to have its content heard by a wider audience. Plus keep in mind the music these stations play is the same, regardless of the on-air staff. So you may hear local announcers, but they're playing the same music. So what's the difference?

You need to look at this from the perspective of some of these DJs. Like most talented people, they seek a larger audience. They could move to New York to do that, but it would disrupt their family life. So thanks to technology, they can stay in whatever market they choose, and have their talent heard by millions of people. Plus they make more money than they would had they been a local show. Where's the down side? Look at Rush Limbaugh. He's been doing this for 30 years and makes millions of dollars. He is a model for lots of local hosts who'd all love to do the same thing.

 

[TheBigA]

The use of big talent is a product of "now we can". If we could have shared Dan Ingram or Robert W. or Dr. Don or Dale Dorman, we would have. There is technology today that makes that possible and makes it sound good and seamless.

Sharing Dan Ingram with stations around the country? Isn't that what Rick Sklar proposed in the 80s with SuperRadio? Ultimately wasn't Dan shared with stations around the country when he started his weekly syndicated countdown show with CBS? Back in the 60s, could you not hear the Chickenman series in hundreds of places outside of Chicago? This is not a recent thing, and it has nothing to do with ownership. Had the 96 Act not allowed iHeart to own these stations, they could have achieved the same thing with syndication.

 

[CTListener]

Had you been alive in the 1930s and traveled around, it would have been possible to say the same thing. And people at the time thought it was a great thing. That was the magic of network radio. In the 60s, if you worked at one of those big signal AMs, it was possible for your show to be heard in multiple states. The FCC killed that when they licensed a bunch of daytimers. But radio has always sought to have its content heard by a wider audience. Plus keep in mind the music these stations play is the same, regardless of the on-air staff. So you may hear local announcers, but they're playing the same music. So what's the difference?

You need to look at this from the perspective of some of these DJs. Like most talented people, they seek a larger audience. They could move to New York to do that, but it would disrupt their family life. So thanks to technology, they can stay in whatever market they choose, and have their talent heard by millions of people. Plus they make more money than they would had they been a local show. Where's the down side? Look at Rush Limbaugh. He's been doing this for 30 years and makes millions of dollars. He is a model for lots of local hosts who'd all love to do the same thing.

The use of big talent is a product of "now we can". If we could have shared Dan Ingram or Robert W. or Dr. Don or Dale Dorman, we would have. There is technology today that makes that possible and makes it sound good and seamless.

Otherwise, Top 40 stations across the station sounded a lot alike, whether in the 60's or the 80's or in the new Millelnnium, with most of the music being 90% or better the same.

A good example was the broad change in Top 40 after Drake did KHJ, KFRC, CKLW and WRKO in huge markets. Within a couple of years, Top 40s stations from Grand Rapids to Great Falls and from Portland, ME, to Quito, Ecuador all had many if not most of the formatic elements that Drake introduced.

And only a few of the DJs employed by those stations were distinctive enough to be memorable. In fact, WRKO's competitor in Boston, WMEX, was rather infamous for using names like "Dan Donovan" and "Fenway" for several different jocks who were doing fill-in or weekend shifts. No complaints from the listeners because then, as now, CHR was all about the music.

 

[TheBigA]

No complaints from the listeners because then, as now, CHR was all about the music.

Exactly. I never hear normal listeners complain about Elvis Duran being from NY or Ryan Seacrest being on hundreds of stations.

In the same way no one complained about Casey Kasem being on hundreds of stations. The music is the same from coast to coast. That's all that matters.

The fact is that Atlanta is now been elevated to the status of NY and LA by virtue of the Bert Show and other Atlanta based media.

So Bert can keep his family in Atlanta and still have his show heard around the country. What's wrong with that?

 

[RadioDoogie]

Exactly. I never hear normal listeners complain about Elvis Duran being from NY or Ryan Seacrest being on hundreds of stations.

In the same way no one complained about Casey Kasem being on hundreds of stations. The music is the same from coast to coast. That's all that matters.

The fact is that Atlanta is now been elevated to the status of NY and LA by virtue of the Bert Show and other Atlanta based media.

So Bert can keep his family in Atlanta and still have his show heard around the country. What's wrong with that?

I’m definitely not saying it’s a bad thing to have these stations all sound the same. It’s just something I noticed. I’m a huge fan of AT40 and Ryan Seacrest and I’m glad I can receive it in other cities where the radio stations are owned by iHeartRadio. I do believe overall that there is less local talent on radio than there was many years ago. And I do agree that Q has much more local talent than Power. Am I correct that Power only has Maddox and PK in the morning as their only local DJs? Isn’t everyone else on the station voice tracked?

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I’m definitely not saying it’s a bad thing to have these stations all sound the same. It’s just something I noticed. I’m a huge fan of AT40 and Ryan Seacrest and I’m glad I can receive it in other cities where the radio stations are owned by iHeartRadio. I do believe overall that there is less local talent on radio than there was many years ago. And I do agree that Q has much more local talent than Power. Am I correct that Power only has Maddox and PK in the morning as their only local DJs? Isn’t everyone else on the station voice tracked?

I thought Terry J was on between PK and Seacreast, but I haven't listened at that time recently.

 

[RadioDoogie]

I thought Terry J was on between PK and Seacreast, but I haven't listened at that time recently.

Yes you’re right there is Terry J.

 

[deejaywestbrook]

I thought Terry J was on between PK and Seacreast, but I haven't listened at that time recently.

Terry J is now a part of the Power Morning Show. 6-10am, then Seacrest from 10am-3pm, Maddox is local from 3-7pm, Mack, Nick & Nina nights from 7pm-midnight (VT'd via WHYI/Fort Lauderdale). Most interesting to me is that Power goes live/local with Moran from Midnight-3am (very strange). Then, automated music/sweepers from 3-6am.

Weekends are pretty much completely voice tracked. Friday night Power Mix is actually mixed live by in studio club dj Babey Drew. Then rest of the weekend includes Lizbethany, Toby Knapp, both from WIHT/Washington and Buster from WFLZ/Tampa. Maddox is also heard on Saturday afternoons but I believe he voice tracks at that time. Maddox heard on Club961 is sort of voice tracked with Tampa native Andy Kovacs spinning all EDM. Then, of course the usual national syndicated, 'On The Move w/Erique Santos (which that show has music inserted locally), AT40, Remix Top30, iHeartCountdown, etc.

I will ALWAYS be more of a Power fan tho because I spent 10 years in NYC and was a huge fan of Z100 before Clear Channel was even heard of. Plus, Q99.7 is still a dayparted and sounds too much like Star 94.1 during the day. And whether that's better for ratings or not, I like my CHR to play rap or hip hop both day and night without dayparting! Plus, I love the fact that Power plays at least 10 to 15 hours of club mixes every weekend. 😁

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Terry J is now a part of the Power Morning Show. 6-10am, then Seacrest from 10am-3pm, Maddox is local from 3-7pm, Mack, Nick & Nina nights from 7pm-midnight (VT'd via WHYI/Fort Lauderdale). Most interesting to me is that Power goes live/local with Moran from Midnight-3am (very strange). Then, automated music/sweepers from 3-6am.

Weekends are pretty much completely voice tracked. Friday night Power Mix is actually mixed live by in studio club dj Babey Drew. Then rest of the weekend includes Lizbethany, Toby Knapp, both from WIHT/Washington and Buster from WFLZ/Tampa. Maddox is also heard on Saturday afternoons but I believe he voice tracks at that time. Maddox heard on Club961 is sort of voice tracked with Tampa native Andy Kovacs spinning all EDM. Then, of course the usual national syndicated, 'On The Move w/Erique Santos (which that show has music inserted locally), AT40, Remix Top30, iHeartCountdown, etc.

I will ALWAYS be more of a Power fan tho because I spent 10 years in NYC and was a huge fan of Z100 before Clear Channel was even heard of. Plus, Q99.7 is still a dayparted and sounds too much like Star 94.1 during the day. And whether that's better for ratings or not, I like my CHR to play rap or hip hop both day and night without dayparting! Plus, I love the fact that Power plays at least 10 to 15 hours of club mixes every weekend. ��

Toby Knapp moved from WIHT to mornings on WASH-FM.