"December"

[SirRoxalot]

Since ratings have become the topic of discussion in the WBFO thread, why not just go there with a ratings thread?

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]Please note that the "December" book ended December 4th. Numbers quoted are the 12+ "Beauty Pageant" numbers that don't really offer much insight about performance in target demos.

The "December" book is skewed somewhat by both the Bills playoff run and Christmas music. For anyone who thought that the Bills and Sabres don't matter in the Buffalo market, WGR jumped from a 3.9 in the September book to a 7.1 in the November and December books. Star obviously won the Christmas format battle, jumping 1.7 in the "December" book. "The Breeze" got bupkis.

Townsquare should be concerned with the continuing decline of WYRK. They're still #2, down from a 12.8 in August to an 8.5 in December. That's the lowest number I can remember for them, and the decline has been steady. It's mirrored by the increase at WGR, so I think we know where that audience might be going. "The Breeze" is blowing cold, and Jack looks like it may be impacted by WHTT's adding more '80s music to its playlist. ​

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]WBEN is still top 5, hovering around a 7 share as they have for months. They got kissed in the October release. The fell back to earth in the December book. My guess is that a few news-talk listeners may have switched over to sports-talk, or gone to WBFO for the wall-to-wall coverage of the impeachment hearings.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]WECK declined a bit, but still ties WMSX and beats Jack. Perhaps some of their listeners have a fondness for Christmas music, even if it is Mariah Carey for the 403rd time.[/FONT]
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The Cumulus stations show up this time around, and have been pretty steady across the board. They've got three stations in the Top 10, and likely their male numbers are strong. [/FONT]
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WBFO is up a bit. It looks like they've attracted the "impeachment audience" with their wall to wall coverage of the hearings.

Please fill in the usual artificially tempo-increased disclaimers...
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[TheBigA]

Townsquare should be concerned with the continuing decline of WYRK. They're still #2, down from a 12.8 in August to an 8.5 in December. That's the lowest number I can remember for them, and the decline has been steady.

I think it was exactly one year ago, someone said the same thing. This is a typical decline for country during the holidays. This is not restricted to or unique to WYRK. The ratings pattern for country is to decline during the holidays and increase during the summer. That's what happened last year. I expect that's what will happen this year.

https://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb037

It should be noted that even with the decline, the station is still #2 in Buffalo, right behind WBLK, which was the exact same situation one year ago.

 

[Rusty Bridges]

Persons 12+. Who knows what the 25-54 or 35-64 or 50+ ratings look like? Yeah Roxalot summed it up. P 12+ Christmas was a big win for Star. Maybe there's room for only one Christmas music format in this town. Only after the book was over did WHTT get deeper into Christmas music. It was the most reasonable plan on the radio for people who didn't want their ears choked by Burl Ives. The Bills always drive up the rating so WGR shouldn't surprise anybody. Tip of the lid to 97 Rock for doing very without the Bills. 97 Rock is ready-steady-go. Probably top three with Men. Maybe #1 even. You'd think Cumulus could sell those ratings at premium. The Breeze will likely get warmer come spring, but Townsquare might have to figure out what to do with Jack if it doesn't rebound. What format hole? Tip of the lid to WBFO, too. It's encouraging to know that there are listeners who want to hear news and sane reality-based talk shows on the radio.

 

[TheBigA]

Tip of the lid to WBFO, too. It's encouraging to know that there are listeners who want to hear news and sane reality-based talk shows on the radio.

Interesting that the negative reaction after the sale and format change hasn't had long term effects on the station.

I'm sure the fans of jazz & blues are still upset, but they've been replaced by fans of news & talk.

 

[four4rock]

What is (and who developed) the logic behind the ratings segments? What's 'magic' about 12 years of age that it's deemed appropriate to start measuring... and has 12 always been the demarcation? I suppose the same could be said/asked for the age of 34, no? I'm not saying the bands are right or wrong/good or bad... just wondering about their root(s).

 

[TheBigA]

What's 'magic' about 12 years of age that it's deemed appropriate to start measuring... and has 12 always been the demarcation?

I think the 12+ basis is only for diary, while PPM cities use 6+. I'm sure part of it is legal and part of it is statistical.

 

[tbolt909]

Interesting that the negative reaction after the sale and format change hasn't had long term effects on the station.

I'm sure the fans of jazz & blues are still upset, but they've been replaced by fans of news & talk.

A lot of time has passed since the ownership change. WBFO still offers Blues on weekends. Jazz is on HD (for the six people who own HD Radios).
Moving the NPR daytime programming to the FM signal was the smart move...

 

[ckg279]

A lot of time has passed since the ownership change. WBFO still offers Blues on weekends. Jazz is on HD (for the six people who own HD Radios).
Moving the NPR daytime programming to the FM signal was the smart move...

True, but....do we REALLY need 5 hours of Morning Edition? Two airings of Fresh Air daily? Seems to me WBFO can borrow some tips from Cleveland's WCPN, which airs a mid-morning talk show titled The Sound of Ideas(which focuses on issues in Northeast Ohio). Or WXXI-AM, which has a 2 hour talk show(1370 Connection)starting at noon on weekdays.

 

[tbolt909]

The Breeze has been on for a year now with predicably tepid results. It's another uninspired bland format choice.

JACK has outlived its usefulness, but it's cheap to run so it stays. ALT Buffalo is a "mass appeal" format that appeals to no one...

 

[Rusty Bridges]

True, but....do we REALLY need 5 hours of Morning Edition? Two airings of Fresh Air daily? Seems to me WBFO can borrow some tips from Cleveland's WCPN, which airs a mid-morning talk show titled The Sound of Ideas(which focuses on issues in Northeast Ohio). Or WXXI-AM, which has a 2 hour talk show(1370 Connection)starting at noon on weekdays.

Good point. WBFO should do a local one to two hour talk show, but it would be money out of Don Boswell's pocket because live local talk requires manpower: A host, at least one full time producer, an engineer/board-op. That might explain Boswell's reluctance despite WBFO having a number of qualified in-house news professionals that could do such a show. It's more efficient to run On Point which is a very good show in it's own right.

 

[TheBigA]

it would be money out of Don Boswell's pocket because live local talk requires manpower:

It would also be money out of the listeners pockets, because they would have to pay for it.

 

[fybush]

True, but....do we REALLY need 5 hours of Morning Edition? Two airings of Fresh Air daily? Seems to me WBFO can borrow some tips from Cleveland's WCPN, which airs a mid-morning talk show titled The Sound of Ideas(which focuses on issues in Northeast Ohio). Or WXXI-AM, which has a 2 hour talk show(1370 Connection)starting at noon on weekdays.

We carry five hours of Morning Edition on WXXI, too. And the talk show hasn't been called "1370 Connection" since Evan Dawson took over from whoever that guy was who was the interim host after Bob Smith died. It's "Connections with Evan Dawson" now, in no small part because it reaches listeners on a lot of platforms beyond ol' 1370 AM.

 

[SirRoxalot]

And the talk show hasn't been called "1370 Connection" since Evan Dawson took over from whoever that guy was who was the interim host after Bob Smith died.

Who was that masked man?

 

[ckg279]

Good point. WBFO should do a local one to two hour talk show, but it would be money out of Don Boswell's pocket because live local talk requires manpower: A host, at least one full time producer, an engineer/board-op. That might explain Boswell's reluctance despite WBFO having a number of qualified in-house news professionals that could do such a show. It's more efficient to run On Point which is a very good show in it's own right.

Yep. Dave Debo would be my choice to host it; he used to host Hardline Sunday mornings on WBEN. And On Point starts at 10am; said show would be a perfect lead-in to it. Don't ask me why no one listens to my ideas.

 

[ckg279]

We carry five hours of Morning Edition on WXXI, too. And the talk show hasn't been called "1370 Connection" since Evan Dawson took over from whoever that guy was who was the interim host after Bob Smith died. It's "Connections with Evan Dawson" now, in no small part because it reaches listeners on a lot of platforms beyond ol' 1370 AM.

Points duly noted. And I'll restate what I did earlier: is there a need to DO five hours of it(with one of them clearly being a repeat of a prior hour)? (Understand, please, that this is not a knock on Scott nor WXXI(or, for that matter, WBFO).)

 

[TheBigA]

is there a need to DO five hours of it(with one of them clearly being a repeat of a prior hour)?

Working people only have an hour or two to listen, but they're not always the same hour. So they rotate the show to reach the most people. They don't expect that one person will listen to all five hours. Music stations program the same way.

 

[fybush]

Points duly noted. And I'll restate what I did earlier: is there a need to DO five hours of it(with one of them clearly being a repeat of a prior hour)? (Understand, please, that this is not a knock on Scott nor WXXI(or, for that matter, WBFO).)

There are actually only two hours of Morning Edition content. The show is live from 5-7 AM ET and then feeds rollovers (essentially rebroadcasts of the first two hours) through noon ET (though I don't think anyone in the east carries anything after 10 AM ET.) There's a small asterisk to that - the first story in the "A" block at 5:07:30 AM is unique to that hour, though later repurposed as a podcast; there's a separate fresh first story in the A block at 7:07:30.

NPR can refresh the show (in individual segments, entire blocks or even an entire hour) anywhere during those rollovers if there's breaking news that requires it. And of course the local content gets updated, too - fresh traffic reports, weather, etc.

But yes, as others have noted, the expectation isn't that any one listener will be tuned in for all five hours; rather, it's designed to be consumed in chunks whenever listeners need it during those hours.

 

[TheBigA]

But yes, as others have noted, the expectation isn't that any one listener will be tuned in for all five hours; rather, it's designed to be consumed in chunks whenever listeners need it during those hours.

The stories are shorter, there are more segments, and more cutaways for localization. In the case of WBFO, rather than doing a long form local show, they do lots of smaller features that run during the national shows. Plus they have local hosts assigned to both Morning Edition and All Things Considered.