Congrats To WYRK

[TheBigA]

Just announced that WYRK's Clay & Company was named ACM Broadcast Personality of the Year:

ON-AIR PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR WINNERS:
NATIONAL – The Bobby Bones Show – Bobby Bones, Amy, Lunchbox, Eddie, Morgan, Ray
MAJOR MARKET – The Rob & Holly Show – Rob Stone, Holly Hutton – WYCD-FM – Detroit, MI
LARGE MARKET – The Big Dave Show – Big Dave, Chelsie, Statt, Ashley –WUBE-FM – Cincinnati, OH
MEDIUM MARKET – Clay & Company – WYRK-FM – Buffalo, NY
SMALL MARKET – Steve & Jessica - Steve Waters, Jessica Cash – WFLS-FM – Fredericksburg, VA

 

[Buddy Shula]

This is a huge award. Congrats to the YRK morning team. It is nice to see radio in Buffalo, and it’s personalities being recognized.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Nice recognition, especially considering how their ratings have fared lately.

 

[Buddy Shula]

Ramblin Lou has zero ratings for his entire career and is in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Pretty sure this has nothing to do with ratings. Besides, the diary rating system is laughable. It is totally archaic. I have learned to not give a crap about the high and lows. I’m sure YRK has as well. The diary ratings are simply not accurate, in good times and bad. The morning show has longevity and a very loyal audience. It should be recognized for that. Radio listening as an industry is down, just like TV, the newspaper, etc. That’s why in many markets, top stations have a 2 to 5 share, with only a few heritage higher than that. Radio measures the share of radio listeners, not the entire population. Many people no longer listen to radio. Sorry for the rant, and again, as a huge country music fan myself ( long live Merle Haggard), I congratulate Clay and his morning team, and the station itself. I worked full time on air at YRK for 12 years. Some of the best times of my life.

 

[davideduardo]

Radio listening as an industry is down, just like TV, the newspaper, etc. That’s why in many markets, top stations have a 2 to 5 share, with only a few heritage higher than that. Radio measures the share of radio listeners, not the entire population. Many people no longer listen to radio.

"Share is the percentage of radio listeners. There are always 100 shares, not one more nor one less.

"Rating" is the percentage of all persons who are listening, on average, in a daypart or the whole week.

Today, a 5 share in PPM markets is a 0.4 rating.

Rating and share are the same thing, expressed with different bases: one is the percent of everyone, listening or not, and the other is the percent just of those listening.

Nielsen measure the whole market... in Buffalo's case, those over age 12. They measure non-listeners and listeners alike. Shares decline due to fragmentation among stations, not due to "listening being down".

 

[Buddy Shula]

Dave, ratings are BS. My Neilson rep does not even know how to explain “ weighting”. I know people in the past who receive diaries and they throw them out, or just don’t care and fill out whatever comes to mind. It is ridiculous. Radio listening is down. I could care less what Neilson says. The fragmentation has hurt big time. Just like with TV. Nobody I talk to under 40 give 2 craps about radio. Say what you will. Neilson is in the business of convincing media companies that radio listening has not been hurt. It’s been decimated! Neilson is a business that depends on media clients believing their BS. I am one of those suckers. When my agreement ends, I do not plan on renewing. It’s old methodology. When PPM comes to Buffalo, i will resubscribe. Otherwise, getting clients results and a great listening experience is all I care about. Even though we seem to be doing well in ratings, my clients could care less, and I am caring less and less daily, cause I know it’s bs.

 

[davideduardo]

Neilson(sic) is in the business of convincing media companies that radio listening has not been hurt.

That is not true. We now see, in the PPM markets, that persons using radio is down below 10% on a 6 AM to Midnight, Monday to Sunday basis. In one PPM market I look at the figure is below 7%. That is about 1/3 of the level in the diary in the years before the PPM and smartphones and other easy streaming devices.

Nielsen itself is working on a survey that will cover all audio sources; the greatest resistance comes from the traditional radio industry.

Neilson (sic) is a business that depends on media clients believing their BS. I am one of those suckers. When my agreement ends, I do not plan on renewing. It’s old methodology. When PPM comes to Buffalo, i will resubscribe.

It will cost at least 60% more than the diary, and cause the market Persons Using Radio to decline by over 30%.

 

[davideduardo]

My Neilson rep does not even know how to explain “ weighting”.

Weighting is one of the simplest concepts in survey techniques, so I am surprised that a rep can't explain it.

"Weighting" is the adjustment of a sample to achieve proportionality in each and every area that the sample is supposed to represent.

Let's say a market is half men and half women. But they get 52 men and 48 women in the sample. Each man is weighted down by a tiny bit and each woman is weighted up a bit. The end result is that the weighted sample gives equal total results for men and women.

Researchers tend to complicate the explanation with terms like "stratification variables" and the like. What they should simply say is "every respondent's value may be adjusted up or down so that that group's results are neither under nor over influences on the total results for that group within the total population.

So if your market is 13% 18-34, but the sample is only 8% 18-34, each respondent will be weighted up so that the total weight of persons 18-34 is identical to the population.

"Stratification Variables" that are weighted are many. The main ones are age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, and language preference among Hispanics.

 

[Rusty Bridges]

No crystal ball in my possession, but it's doubtful that Buffalo-Niagara Falls will be a PPM market any time soon. There was a time when Buffalo was on the brink of PPM. A former engineer tells of the then Citadel stations having installed the encoding devices ready to roll somewhere around the mid 2000s, only to have to pull them and send them back to then Arbitron. As to PPM, reading the trades, a few PDs who work in PPM markets have said that PPM has its own idiosyncrasies, as noted previously in this thread. Whereas diary holders account for listening over a one week period, PPM panelists/households maintain their meters for nine months. That might be great if the household loves your station; not so great if and when the PPM household is replaced by another that isn't so fond of your station. As to Nielson, Buddy's take is quite revealing for a number of reasons. It's surprising that his Nielson rep couldn't articulate "weighting," especially because the Nielson rep is a former PD of a very successful Buffalo radio station. Maybe something was lost in the translation. And in keeping with the subject of the thread, congratulations to the WYRK morning show on their award.