Nevertheless, WYRK has gone down in the last 2 books. Maybe they bounce back or maybe a portion of their audience has moved on to something else.
It's interesting that Cumulus only buys the Fall and Spring reports, while WECK buys them all...
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Winter 2019 Ratings
- Thread starter tbolt909
- Start date
Nevertheless, WYRK has gone down in the last 2 books. Maybe they bounce back or maybe a portion of their audience has moved on to something else.
It's interesting that Cumulus only buys the Fall and Spring reports, while WECK buys them all...
It appears to me that Townsquare has "tightened, lightened, and brightened" WYRK out of first place. They've lost some long-time talent. It's also possible that country has lost some steam as a format due to the current music mix. A lot of vapid content out there in the pop-country genre.
So you're suggesting country should get more intellectual? Really?
The music is not a problem for people in Rochester and Syracuse.
The projections are that minorities, including Asians, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans, will become a majority in 2060.
Keep in mind that on the "race" question, most Hispanics identify as "white" but an Hispanic can be of any race.
Pretty good article: https://www.usnews.com/news/article...the-us-is-becoming-a-minority-majority-nation
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Buddy Shula
Guest
I totally agree with Rox. You keep mentioning Rochester and Syracuse Big A....do you know their music lists? Do you know how they compare to the previous books? I worked at YRK for 10 years. During the age of George Strait, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Clint Black......there were at least 20 different area nightclubs devoted to county music. We were doing huge jamborees every weekend. The dynamic has changed. YRK has shifted to this "new country" mentality pointed toward younger listeners who can get that music anywhere. I am not sure what they are going for in Rochester and Syracuse, but you may want to check the music they play. Programming and outside promotion have a lot to do with the success of any station. But like I said, YRK is the top biller in the market, because advertisers perceive it as a "must buy".
It is not the YRK of before. I do not think you will see it have foothold on #1 again. Listeners are disenfranchised by the music, and the changes of personalities. Country fans are very loyal, and when their favorite personalities go, they don't like it. They created a bond with them, and with country, it's all about bonds.
I do. I subscribe to Mediabase, and all their playlists are posted. I did a comparative analysis among the three stations, and the music on WYRK is older than the other two. WYRK has a bigger Gold library, and it's much deeper, going back to the 70s, with Willie, Dolly, and Jones. The other two stations are more current. WBEE's Gold only goes back to the 90s, and BBS is all from the 2000s. You say it's not like the YRK of old, but they're playing old music. Country is SUPPOSED to be a young format, focusing on the currents. Of the three stations, WBBS is the youngest. They've been #1 for years! Hats off to Rich Lauber, who has been programming WBBS for over 20 years. He knows what he's doing. My friend Bob Barnett has been programming the Bee in Rochester for years, and he's doing a great job.
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Buddy Shula
Guest
I know Bob well. He’s a very good PD. one of my mentors Ken Johnson helped Bob at one time. YRK does not play the music you mentioned unless it is a weekend specialty show. It’s my opinion that country around the country is losing its appeal. My ratings reps told me that. We shall see. I don’t think YRK will be number one again. My opinion. Especially when I get the FM ��
And yet it's the #1 format in radio:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/252230/top-radio-formats-in-the-us-by-number-of-stations/
Some of Buddy's posts are incoherent and contradictory. He talks about acquiring some mysterious FM signal. In one post, he said he will not launch a Country Format. In his last post, he said WYRK will not return to #1 because of his new FM. Huh?
WYRK may not return to #1, but it will likely stay in the Top 3 without a direct format competitor. The recent census data shows that Buffalo has no growth. The people that are still using Radio aren't likely to change their habits. The people who don't use Radio aren't likely to come back...
WYRK may not return to #1, but it will likely stay in the Top 3 without a direct format competitor. The recent census data shows that Buffalo has no growth. The people that are still using Radio aren't likely to change their habits. The people who don't use Radio aren't likely to come back...
While the Buffalo metro's population has generally stabilized - meaning that it's stopped losing people - demographics have changed significantly in the last decade. The number of millennials as part of the population has grown over 10%. That does mean a shift in listening habits. People who don't use radio when they're young and have time to program their own music do use radio more when they have kids, jobs, and a lot more responsibilities that soak up their time.
Maybe WYRK's problem is that it has gotten old. I'm not a listener, and I'm not in their target demo anyway. Maybe they need to be more Bro Country. Rochester is a different market with iHeart instead of Cumulus as Entercom's competitor. Syracuse is iHeart-dominant with no Entercom presence, a limited Cumulus cluster, and some strong local competition (although not in country). It's very difficult to compare those three markets if you're actually familiar with them and listen to them. They're quite different.
Maybe WYRK's problem is that it has gotten old. I'm not a listener, and I'm not in their target demo anyway. Maybe they need to be more Bro Country. Rochester is a different market with iHeart instead of Cumulus as Entercom's competitor. Syracuse is iHeart-dominant with no Entercom presence, a limited Cumulus cluster, and some strong local competition (although not in country). It's very difficult to compare those three markets if you're actually familiar with them and listen to them. They're quite different.
'YRK has been getting by over the last two decades on two things: 1) outlasting the competition and 2) managing to continue having good morning teams. Their last PD was little more than a keeper of the flame and the flame started to dim.
Buddy mentioned Ken Johnson - he's the one who sowed the seeds of success the station is still reaping. But it's time to plant some new seeds. BTW - whatever happened to Ken? He left for 'XTU in Philly then I think he went to XM...
Buddy mentioned Ken Johnson - he's the one who sowed the seeds of success the station is still reaping. But it's time to plant some new seeds. BTW - whatever happened to Ken? He left for 'XTU in Philly then I think he went to XM...
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Buddy Shula
Guest
I love confusing T-Bolt. Do you really think I would put my business plan on here?
I just saw Ken Johnson a few months ago when he was in town for the holidays. He lives with his wife in Washington, DC. He is no longer in radio, although he should be. He was the absolute best PD I ever had, and what made him that way is that he cared. YRK was his station. I was working for him when YRK began it's assentation to #1. His founding principles kept it there. YRK has never had any terrestrial competition except for WNUC for a few years. I worked at WNUC also on air. As far as the morning show, it has always been the catalyst for YRK, even going back to when Frank Benny hosted it. It is now becoming fragmented, and the ratings are showing it. Although, I only give so much credence to ratings. For instance, if you believe the ratings then you believe that in March WECK had a 4.5 share with Women 25-54 beating STAR and KISS. That is what the March trends said. As much as I would love that to be the case, I don't believe it. Something is flawed, and that is why I am reconsidering renewing Neilson this year. I simply do not think the diary procedure is accurate. Like I said earlier, I am a P1 country listener, country is all I listen too, and I have not turned on YRK as a listener for years. I listen to the Highway and to Prime Country on Sirius.
Trends are an abomination, but will go away this year with the new continuous rolling average monthly books.
Trends take one piece of one survey period and two pieces of another and combine them in an unweighted sample. In other words, Feb and Mar from Winter with April in Spring is a the first Spring trend. But there is full weighting only in a three-month book (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall). So what you get are pieces of two separate samples which may not be even close to proportional in some demographics.
The new system is to use an extended measurement period and give proper weighting to the sample each month. Those horrible wobbled due to mechanics will go away to a greater extent, although there will always be some variations due to sample size.
Ken was a great PD back at WWOL as well. Great guy, great boss!
Generally, what he said x 1,000. I think WYRK is caught. They wanna be "today's country"... but today's country is not perceived as country (for yesterday, today, or tomorrow). The characteristics of the music can't be controlled by WYRK... so they are stuck. They can't play actual country (i.e. paraphrasing/so-to-speak 'three chords and the truth') 'cuz then the fail on the "today's" part of their slogan. Alas, they are a pop station masquerading as a county station. It is the Buffalo radio equivalent of the buckle bunnies on Nash-vegas' lower Broad tourist strip.
You really haven't listened have you? "Today's country" is loaded with lots of music that could have been played 20-30 years ago. In fact, just a quick look at the Top 30, and there's George Strait! King George doesn't do pop music. Right next to him is another Texas honky tonk singer named Cody Johnson. You've probably never heard of him, but he sings REAL country. There has been a song at the top of the chart for 5 weeks called Beautiful Crazy that is as unplugged and acoustic as "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain." Then there's Grammy winner Chris Stapleton. Your criticism of the music is just plain wrong. Sure they also play some rhythmic-tinged stuff as well. That's what young people want in music today. But the country format is deep and wide, covering the full spectrum of musical styles. That's what makes it so appealing. But as I've said, these exact songs are getting better ratings at lots of other stations. Could it be the execution and presentation at WYRK is just a bit stale? That's my take on it.
Explain how your criticisms apply to this song:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...D75CD5AF4E6B0B8C7B0FD75CD5AF4E6B&&FORM=VRDGAR
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Buddy Shula
Guest
I did not say I did not listen to commercial radio, ******* wannabe. I said I didn’t listen to YRK. You should be banned from this board for contributing zero but ******* remarks. Go back in your cave and dream about success, which for you would be 10 an hour pt time air shift in Salamanca. I hope the board bans me, so I won’t tempted to read your ridiculous remarks again.
Please, Buddy, take it easy. There was nothing in the post that warrants banning.
A legitimate question was raised about buying Nielsen reports when you find them useless. Of course, all of us feel at times that they are "useless" but that is generally when we have a down book. And you did say that you preferred satellite radio... it wasn't too clear that the context was limited to WYRK only.
But heck, yeah, I'm a Shula fan (have not said that since I lived in Miami in the 80's) because you are trying to make local radio work with good programming targeting the "forgotten" demo. You ought to get more props on here for that!
A friend at one of Buffalo's better ad agencies passed along this note, "tell those guys squabbling about WYRK on the Buffalo radio message board that WYRK is #2 Persons 25-54, Monday-Sunday, 6am to midnight, second only to WBLK. And its sales department continues to excel selling WYRK and WBLK. Persons 25-54 WYRK's share is up from Fall 2018 and up from Winter 2018."
So there's that.
So there's that.
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