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Boston Radio Ratings April 2020.
- Thread starter freqlost
- Start date
Interesting that WRKO, and not WBZ, WGBH or WBUR, got the COVID-19 boost. You'd think the all-news station and the two NPRs would be the places people in the Boston market would turn for information AND analysis/opinion on a polarizing issue like this. New York's WNYC saw a nice upturn in April. Isn't Boston considered just as, if not more, liberal a market?
In an other board I read that the total audience is down like 40% across the board with less people driving. I wonder if the RKO audience is just more loyal to listen from home and they have maintained more of their normal listeners than others causing their share to rise?
If more people are in fact tuning in it is good for RKO in that they may stick around even as things move back toward normal.
If more people are in fact tuning in it is good for RKO in that they may stick around even as things move back toward normal.
The only reason ‘GIR is as high as it is in the market is because the Boston market extends *very* far to the north. If Hillsborough County wasn’t part of the Boston market, ‘GIR would rank much lower in Boston (and would still be #2 in its home market, Manchester). Rock is by no means “back” in Greater Boston, but rather, it’s continuing to stay strong in southern NH.
That county is less than 10% of the 6+ population of the Boston MSA. The station obviously has considerable impact in other parts of the market as well. Radio signals are still allowed to cross state lines.
That said, WGIR only averages 1% of radio listening which means less than 0.01% of the population on average.
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Such talk stations are where those who identify with hearing conspiracy theories go at times like these. Notice that, though still very low, all-syndicated conservative talk station 1200 WXKS nearly doubled from the previous month.
MassMusicMan
Banned
To what? How many times does it need to be explained that being CHR is the point because their sisters are AC and Hot AC, and you make more money selling ads by reaching a significant share of a single demographic?
- They already played the sell a stick to Jesus card. I assure you that the number of tax-exempt entities with $8 million to throw around to play radio is finite.
- There's two country stations. Both specialize in poppy currents already.
- There's three rhythmic stations. One is programmed by the best rhythmic programmer in the history of commercial radio, and curates songs from the mainstream golden age of hip hop alongside a select number of currents with surgical precision. The other two don't get ratings.
- The strongest cluster in the market couldn't make Alternative work, and have absolutely soared as a classic rocker since ditching the format. What chance would Entercom have of executing it better than Beasley did? Heck, what chance do they have of executing it better than WERS does? Zero commercials is a pretty damn good head start.
The viable format change options are exhausted, so if you want to keep venturing down this flipping 103.3 road, you have to look in-house.
- 104.1, 106.7 and 93.7 cover the market quite well, so you don't need to use 103.3 as a simulcast.
The only signal you have which isn't FM is your AM, which doesn't even rate a 1 share most books. The only time I (36 YO guy) would even think to listen to that would be on a Sunday night in the fall, when baseball conflicts with football, and Sports Hub isn't carrying either primetime game because they're doing a Pats postgame show. I have no interest in college sports, and the drama of the Patriots (and now Bucs) keeps me engaged, leaving me with little to no time for talk about the other 30 teams.
Maybe you stick 850's programming on 103.3 as well so that you don't lose it in a tunnel. But then you end up with the same ratings, and only two stations on which you sell W 25-54 instead of three. And it's not as if Entercom didn't try to sell the WEEI's and WAAF as a package too.
MassMusicMan
Banned
Good idea! You curate the programming, since I'm the whitest person ever, and I'll get to work increasing the Latino populations of communities in the market to the levels where you would even feasibly have the foundation for a viable commercial enterprise.
Our border security will probably stop me from hiding a bunch of Central Americans in a van, so I'll mount a giant speaker to the roof of my Corolla and blast Barry White through the streets of Lawrence, putting them in the mood for love and for subsequent population growth.
"Latino" is a socio-cultural group. It is not a race or nationality. There are as many formats (or more) that can be done in Spanish as there are in English.
And, although there are only a few formats that work among communities in the US, no format reaches all people due to different tastes by age and national origin.
So, no matter what you do, such a station likely has far less potential than Amp. And keep in mind that both Black and Hispanic stations are severely affected by the Coronavirus situation due to the disease's impact on the larger blue-collar populations in those communities.
I can't think of a worse moment to start an Hispanic targeted station.
Plus: Entercom has very little experience with Spanish language stations, and appears not to be terribly interested in that segment.
They inherited a few stations from CBS, and they do fairly well. But the format requires a specialized sales team, so that makes it a bit more expensive.
Exactly. I can't think of a significant Spanish language startup that Entercom has begun.
And Boston's Hispanic community is so small compared to markets with successful Spanish-language FMs that putting a Latin CHR, tropical, or any other kind of Spanish-language programming on a big stick like WODS's would never be justified by listenership or advertising revenue generated. No format holes in any profitable format in Boston, so it's stay the course on this CHR for the foreseeable future.
Your second paragraph made this part of your first paragraph unnecessary, as it made your ethnicity obvious to all.
You mentioned "Latino" as a "Socio Cultural Group". I remember "Chicano" was used in California back in the 70s. As you said, Spanish encompasses many areas and countries. For a format to be viable, the company would want research first to see what demographics are in the market. "Spanish" could be any number of different formats. Entercom would likely want a mass appeal format in any case(Spanish or English)...
There was even a band called El Chicano, all of whom were Los Angelenos of Mexican descent.
That is what "Chicano" means.
More specifically, Californians of Mexican heritage, although not all Mexican heritage persons in California consider themselves to be Chicanos, so the term refers to a subculture.
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