Panicking much? The assumption is that team sports will return at some point. Since WEEI depends on one sport, baseball, for much of its revenue, a complete wipeout of MLB for however long it takes to get a vaccine developed, approved and distributed would indeed be disastrous. But all format-flip talk is ridiculous at this point, since ad revenue continues to plunge and most likely hasn't reached the bottom yet. I'd look for WEEI to stay the course, using layoffs, syndicated programming and maybe even infomercials to reduce the impact of the advertising depression. Again, despite the fervent hopes and dreams of fans hanging on to the dry, rattling husk of rock and roll, alt isn't the answer, nor is soft AC, pop-oriented classic hits, or any other non-rhythmic or non-country music format, and Boston has no other format holes that would do any better than game-less sports gab will.
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Boston Radio Ratings March 2020.
- Thread starter freqlost
- Start date
Panicking much? The assumption is that team sports will return at some point. Since WEEI depends on one sport, baseball, for much of its revenue, a complete wipeout of MLB for however long it takes to get a vaccine developed, approved and distributed would indeed be disastrous. But all format-flip talk is ridiculous at this point, since ad revenue continues to plunge and most likely hasn't reached the bottom yet. I'd look for WEEI to stay the course, using layoffs, syndicated programming and maybe even infomercials to reduce the impact of the advertising depression. Again, despite the fervent hopes and dreams of fans hanging on to the dry, rattling husk of rock and roll, alt isn't the answer, nor is soft AC, pop-oriented classic hits, or any other non-rhythmic or non-country music format, and Boston has no other format holes that would do any better than game-less sports gab will.
The ratings only cover listening 6AM-Midnight, so how would overnight programming affect the ratings?
https://ratings.****************/content/arb013
I used to listen to both. Back in the early 2000s I listened to hip-hop in my market - 990 AM and Classical in my market - 1290 AM. I sometimes still listen to both and from time to time will listen to Classical 95.9 from Block Island on my phone
What about 107.5 on Cape Cod? What about Classical 95.9 on Block Island?
Right, I'm not saying they'd drop the sports format entirely; I said local sports talk.
Overnights are rated, just not included in the 6+ numbers.
MassMusicMan
Banned
New to Boston? Local sports talk *is* sports talk. Note the failure of ESPN 890.
WODS should have kept the oldies format instead of moving to Top-40 a number of years ago. Entercom could look to move back to the Oldies, what do they have to lose? Some of the music on 103.3 could be transitioned to WWBX.
Whatever advertisers they still have.
You really can't put toothpaste back into the tube. In point of fact, if the station flipped to something, it would be classic hits, which is mainly 80s-90s music. Most of those songs are already being played on WROR. The "oldies" audience is somewhere north of 60 years old, and they'll have Ed Perry's stations to listen to.
MassMusicMan
Banned
Why would you play oldies? WROR goes old enough as it is and has the format on lock. I understand the idea of flipping a middling station to something that might grab a slice from a big pie, but what gold titles would you play on a station that anyone in the ad community would want to buy?
You might have been able to make an argument pre-Sports Hub for Magic trade, but now, why would you flip a CHR with AC and Hot AC clustermates? "Some of the music could be transitioned?" That's not the point.
The point is to create a big package to sell. Amp is part of that package, and it's a good plan to have CHR in place while you wait for Matty to finally retire. Of course, laying off the morning show you have shows that you don't have a serious heir apparent. How cash poor is Entercom? Selling off AAF and handing Nancy Quill a gold watch wasn't enough?
WHat do they have to lose?
Any/all salable demographics...trading them for UN-salable demos?
Any opportunity to reinvigorate a station positioned for the future (post Matty.)...trading that position for a station with nursing home demographics?
In addition to all the sensible responses from others above as to reasons for not doing that, look at the original reason then-owner CBS flipped 103.3 to CHR. I’m sure they knew that it would never come close to the ratings of heritage CHR competitor “Kiss”, but they chose to trade larger numbers in an aging, less desirable demo for smaller numbers in a prime, young, desirable demo.
That reason is even more valid now with the “oldies” audience having aged even further, and WROR having vaulted to a lock on #1 in the “classic hits” format since then.
Many in my age group don’t acknowledge, or are in denial of, the fact that we are no longer considered a desirable demo. I’m 63 and a big fan of “oldies” and the older end of “classic rock”, but I fully admit that I’m considered “over the hill” by the corporates.
I’m looking forward to Ed Perry’s WMEX coming on the air, and I even enjoy Bob Bittner’s speciality nostalgia station WJIB.
I think what sticks in a lot of over-the-hills' craws is that classic hits stations are still playing mid-'70s warhorses like "Hotel California" and "More Than a Feeling," but just about all the pure pop and all the disco and r&b have been drained from the format. Some of us boomers still enjoy hearing both, and both were played on the same CHRs back in the day, but for some reason, rock-based '70s and '80s music has aged well -- and even appeals to listeners who were too young to have heard it when it was current -- and the other varieties of classic hits have not, or at least that's what the testing and research consistently tell the professionals.
Which is why you have two classic rock stations in the Top 10. My take on it is the rock songs represented the feelings and emotions of an age group, while oldies represented a generation. So while the boomer generation has aged out of the demo, there is a new generation in the same age group who feel that same angst and emotion that their parents felt at that age. Which is why that music still appeals, while the pop music doesn't. So you hear stories of parents with their kids at Stones or Who concerts. BTW the same thing is happening in country music. Millennials love 80s-90s country.
The interesting thing about it is Beasley was able to fix WBOS without cannibalizing WROR.
They did it with two district formats though covering the same era in decades. WBOS airs much harder-edged rock than WROR with little crossover between the two stations.
Before WBOS flipped to this classic hard rock format, there was a similar format on WROR HD2 called “The Bone” for a few years. It was removed around the time of the WBOS flip, and replaced with the “Men from Maine” channel, rebroadcasting those old Loren & Wally bits in a loop.
That’s now gone, WROR’s HD2 has been off the air for at least a few weeks.
You want to look at mediocre ratings: How about WUMB. They took a 50% hit this book, from a .2 to a .1. Can't go much lower than that.
Of course, when you get down to the shares below a 1.0, the margin of error is enormous.
A 0.0 is a 0.4 is a 0.2.
WUMB is non-commercial listener supported. As long as the donations still come in at fundraising pledge time, and they are from what I hear, they're all set.
Though having widened their format from strictly acoustic folk music years ago to currently a "rootsy" version of AAA (including Americana, alt-country, folk-rock, blues, new singer-songwriters, etc...) it's still a niche format with a small but dedicated audience on a mediocre signal, despite a handful of repeater stations in eastern/central MA and southern NH.
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