April PPM Monthly

[RoddyFreeman]

If there was ever any doubt that the pandemic would affect the ratings, the April numbers dispel it.

I have never seen anything so crazy looking. A lot of the numbers can be rationalized, but I'm having a hard time understanding a couple of the figures.

Keep in mind the numbers are shares of the audience, which always add up to 100% no matter how many people are listening to radio. I'm sure the total listening levels (PUR) are way down.

 

[HerbTarlek]

People want Jesus and news.

 

[MarkW]

They also want Urban AC and Classic Rock.

Great book for 97.1 The River.

TERRIBLE book for Rock 100.5; perhaps the worst or second worst in the history of that pathetic station. Congrats, Cumulus! In less than two years' time, you've managed to sabotage your own station by reducing its share of listenership by 70%! Nicely done!!!

Axel Lowe is such a hack. He had horrible ratings the last time he was in town. Now, they bring him back and give him PD stripes. Why?!?! He took a 2.4 or 2.5 share station and turned it into a 1.0 share radio station. Unbelievable.

In many markets, rock or classic rock stations saw considerable AQH share growth. Not Rock 100.5!!!

 

[TheBigA]

In less than two years' time, you've managed to sabotage your own station by reducing its share of listenership by 70%!

Could you explain what this means?

 

[davideduardo]

In many markets, rock or classic rock stations saw considerable AQH share growth. Not Rock 100.5!!!

In ALL markets nobody looks good.

Even the all news and news/talk stations that increased share have fewer listeners than before.

Nielsen sent out a client-only memo this morning before it released round one of the April ratings.It pretty much said that this data is not typical and buyers should not use it.

The only reason that they even continue to do the PPM survey is to maintain the panel structure and discipline until things get back closer to the old (and probably never returning) normal.

Making evaluations on share using April data is a meaningless activity.

Any evaluation at all needs to use rating and cume and AQH persons, not share.

 

[jabba17]

Compared to their direct competition, Kicks and Star don't look good, either.

But WGKA is up to a 1.2!

 

[BarryATL]

https://ratings.****************/content/arb047

Station	Format	Owner	Jan 20	Feb 20	Mar 20	Apr 20
WSB-AM	News/Talk	Cox Radio	10.0	11.4	12.9	13.9
WALR-FM	Urban AC	Cox Radio	5.8	5.5	5.9	9.3
WSRV-FM	Classic Hits	Cox Radio	5.9	5.8	6.4	7.4
WVEE-FM	Urban	Entercom	6.0	6.2	6.4	6.0
WAMJ-FM	Urban AC	Radio One	5.5	5.4	4.8	4.8
WFSH-FM	AC	Salem Media Group	4.5	4.3	3.8	4.1
WPZE-FM	Inspirational	New Mableton Broadcasting	3.2	3.2	3.8	4.0
WSB-FM	AC	Cox Radio	4.9	5.4	5.1	3.3
WUBL-FM	Country	iHeartMedia	3.6	3.5	3.5	3.3
WZGC-FM	All Sports	Entercom	4.6	3.9	3.4	3.3
WAKL-FM	Christian CHR	Educational Media Foundation	1.0	N/A	1.9	3.1
WHTA-FM	Urban	Radio One	3.7	3.6	3.6	3.1
WWPW-FM	CHR	iHeartMedia	4.0	4.2	3.7	3.1
WKHX-FM	Country	Cumulus Media	2.8	2.6	2.5	2.3
WWWQ-FM	CHR	Cumulus Media	4.2	4.3	3.4	2.3
WABE-FM	News/Talk	Board of Education City of Atlanta	2.9	3.3	3.3	2.2
WCLK-FM	Jazz	Clark Atlanta University	1.5	1.6	1.7	1.8
WSTR-FM	Hot AC	Entercom	2.6	2.3	2.1	1.6
WVFJ-FM	Christian CHR	Radio Training Network	2.3	2.4	1.7	1.4
WAMJ-FM-HD2	Urban Oldies	Radio One	1.1	1.3	1.3	1.2
WGKA-AM	News/Talk	Salem Media Group	0.8	0.6	0.6	1.2
WWWQ-FM-HD3	Rhythmic CHR	Cumulus Media	1.3	1.4	1.4	1.2
WCNN-AM	All Sports	Dickey Broadcasting Company	1.2	1.0	1.0	1.0
WNNX-FM	Classic Rock	Cumulus Media	1.7	1.5	1.6	1.0
WRDA-FM	Alternative	iHeartMedia	0.9	0.9	0.9	1.0
WBZY-FM	Spanish	iHeartMedia	1.2	1.1	0.9	0.8
WAOK-AM	News/Talk	Entercom	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.6
WLKQ-FM	Regional Mexican	Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta	0.7	0.6	0.8	0.6
WRAS-FM	News/Talk	Georgia State University	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.5
WRDG-FM	Urban	iHeartMedia	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.3
WALR-FM-STR	Urban AC	Cox Radio	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.2
WGST-AM	News/Talk	iHeartMedia	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
WABE-FM-HD2	Classical	Board of Education City of Atlanta	0.1	0.1	N/A	0.1
WCHK-AM	Hot AC	Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
WJZA-AM	Jazz	Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.1
WLVG-FM	Christian CHR	Educational Media Foundation	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.1
WSB-FM-STR	AC	Cox Radio	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1
WSRV-FM-STR	Classic Hits	Cox Radio	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.1

 

[TheBigA]

Interesting that 106.7 has experienced its highest ratings for that frequency in a very long time. They've gained a point every month. One more jump like this and they could be tie with Fish.

 

[BIGSTICK]

WSM-FM fell..Not surprised, too many playlist changes, they barely play any 80s at all. If it ain't broke don't fix it, we have a lot of BROKEN stations in this town.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

WSM-FM fell..Not surprised, too many playlist changes, they barely play any 80s at all. If it ain't broke don't fix it, we have a lot of BROKEN stations in this town.

I don't think that's the reason. B98.5's numbers show the absence of at-work listening during the pandemic.

 

[DoctorRadio997]

WSM-FM fell..Not surprised, too many playlist changes, they barely play any 80s at all. If it ain't broke don't fix it, we have a lot of BROKEN stations in this town.

I doubt WSB-FM fell because of not playing enough 80s. I'd assume they fell because they're an at-work focused AC station, and people aren't going to work. It's the same in every market.

 

[wavo]

I'm surprised at the drop for both NPR affiliates in Atlanta. WABE and WRAS have a combined 2.7 6+ which is almost half of typical.

Is NPR a "listen at work" thingy?

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I'm surprised at the drop for both NPR affiliates in Atlanta. WABE and WRAS have a combined 2.7 6+ which is almost half of typical.

Is NPR a "listen at work" thingy?

That's something that surprised me, also. In other markets I looked at, the main NPR station gained share along with the News/Talk stations. The only thing I can think of is perhaps WSB has such credibility for news that people turn to them in a crisis.

 

[TheBigA]

That's something that surprised me, also. In other markets I looked at, the main NPR station gained share along with the News/Talk stations. The only thing I can think of is perhaps WSB has such credibility for news that people turn to them in a crisis.

Plus how much local promotion does WABE do? It would be different if it was owned by a local community group rather than the Board of Ed.

 

[wavo]

Plus how much local promotion does WABE do? It would be different if it was owned by a local community group rather than the Board of Ed.

I would have thought the core NPR audience wouldn't be going anywhere. It may be another of the infamous, Nielsen "wobbles." NPR folk don't trade the Prius in for a Kia...

 

[wavo]

That's something that surprised me, also. In other markets I looked at, the main NPR station gained share along with the News/Talk stations. The only thing I can think of is perhaps WSB has such credibility for news that people turn to them in a crisis.

WSB is a shadow of the operation it used to be back in the day. I grew up in Atlanta and remember the days when it was the ONLY radio station you could count on for news and information

Today, 90% of Atlanta radio listeners either have never heard of WSB or have listened and dislike the banal talk programming.

Today, I don't think it has the same reputation for news like its sister station, WSB-TV. Weather, when Mellish is forecasting, is the best on the radio. Nothing else useful.

 

[davideduardo]

I would have thought the core NPR audience wouldn't be going anywhere. It may be another of the infamous, Nielsen "wobbles." NPR folk don't trade the Prius in for a Kia...

The issue is that NPR stations in other markets have attracted more listening by more people. Most of the growth, though, is in greater TSL, not cume.

In Atlanta, the NPR operation has not increased cume and has not increased TSL. For some reason, they are not thought of as a go-to station for that type of information or service.

Significant stations don't wobble that much. This is simply a case of a station that has a defective, tarnished or limited image as a first choice for information.

I agree with The BigA that an issue may be the BoE ownership of the station; that is a classic case of government management of something that is best done in the private sector... including private community groups.

 

[TheBigA]

I agree with The BigA that an issue may be the BoE ownership of the station; that is a classic case of government management of something that is best done in the private sector... including private community groups.

I see a similar situation with WLRN in Miami. It underperforms its potential.

 

[MarkW]

Originally Posted by MarkW:

In less than two years' time, you've managed to sabotage your own station by reducing its share of listenership by 70%!

Could you explain what this means?

I didn't mean "sabotage" in the literal sense.

I am referring to the fact that a station that once had great in-demo numbers and respectable 6+ AQH share numbers in the mid 3's has fallen all the way down into the mid 1's (pre COVID-19) and now sits at a 1.0 share. I completely understand that COVID-19 has thrown ratings out of whack, but in most cases, rock stations and classic rock stations shed far fewer listeners than AC / CHR / Hot AC stations, and thus, held steady or moved up in AQH share this survey.

Rock 100.5's ratings have been a terrible streak for a long time, and Axel Lowe has only served to accelerate the downfall. He has stuck to the same failed game plan since roughly Labor Day last year. Does he magically think the ratings are going to spring to life? Time to hit the reset button (yet again) on Rock 100.5.

Mr. Eduardo is 100% right that the current survey has been disrupted by a lack of commuters and in the office listeners. But what if the current results hold next survey? And the one after that? And the one after that?

 

[TheBigA]

I see a similar situation with WLRN in Miami. It underperforms its potential.

Except now I see WLRN jumped from .6 to a 3.6! Wow!