-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Boston Radio Ratings August 2020
- Thread starter freqlost
- Start date
My takeaways..
Big is a BIG surprise, it will be interesting to see where they settle.
Sports may finally be returning to normal.
Agreed..iHeart severely botched 977, it was surprisingly solid before the switch on that signal..Guess the move was to do whatever and this is the outcome..IMHO, WJMN needed the former 977 for multiple reasons...
What's up with WBQT?
No other clear surprises..still pandemic mode I suppose.
Ps, before I hear the sales and only 6+ data talk..Going by what's there for everyone plain to see.
Big is a BIG surprise, it will be interesting to see where they settle.
Sports may finally be returning to normal.
Agreed..iHeart severely botched 977, it was surprisingly solid before the switch on that signal..Guess the move was to do whatever and this is the outcome..IMHO, WJMN needed the former 977 for multiple reasons...
What's up with WBQT?
No other clear surprises..still pandemic mode I suppose.
Ps, before I hear the sales and only 6+ data talk..Going by what's there for everyone plain to see.
That's a pretty drastic tumble for 92.9. I guess all those listeners moved to Big 103, Which actually does play more of the alternative sounding songs that the station used to play before it switched to classic rock. I wonder if this will promt them to turn back to Alternative.
97.7 does not look promising at all, especially when it was once touted to be a Boston favorite.
97.7 does not look promising at all, especially when it was once touted to be a Boston favorite.
Not sure if 97.7 wants to stay as is or try something else.Alternative, if done well? An FM home for WRKO (though they're doing OK as is at 680, and generally an older demo)...other format holes? A spot for Black Info Network or a "Breeze" (which 94.5 HD2 had for awhile)? Go after the "Mix" audience without hurting Kiss? Or, again, keep as is...
It's not a programming decision. It's a sales decision. If they can make more money with something else, programming will execute. Otherwise, they stay as is. BIN isn't a local sales format, so no to BIN.
Which is why I stated the former 977 and WJMN needed each other. Packaged together they were almost as strong as Kiss in cume
First, cume is not a generally used sales tool as few agencies even use "reach & frequency" any more. Buys are based on rating at the time of each spot.
Second, cume is not additive. Cumes, particularly in come (edit to be "some") formats, are highly duplicative. The average listener in PPM markets cumes 6 stations in a 7 day period, and often more in a longer period.
Last edited:
I'm almost afraid to ask, but what, pray tell, is a "come format"? One that has "Love Won't Let Me Wait," "Love to Love You Baby" and "Pillow Talk" in power rotation? And that French tune by Serge Gainsbourg and friend?
Uuups. Should be "some" formats. Meaning formats that tend to have a lot of cross-partisan sharing.
Jane Birkin. "Je t'amie.... moi non plus" was my #1 song of the year in 1968 at my Top 40 station in Quito. It caused absolutely no negative reaction or protest, either.
Last edited:
Respectfully, I disagree.. Cume (avg persons) is a big part of the cost per point formula. It's why digital metrics are so attractive (effectiveness is another story). If I own two stations that share some DNA, ideally I create a story and can claim more of the market buy. It's why you could couple an RnB and Hip Hop duo or AC/HotAC, etc.. Audience duplication plays right back to reach/frequency anyway.
CPP is based entirely on the instantaneous delivery of the average spot in the time period being bought. Cume does not enter into CPP or CPM at all.
"Cume" is not "average persons". It is "total persons... at some time in the week".
Cume is the number of different people who qualify for at least one quarter hour of listening in a week. They may have cumed the station because they spent 10 minutes in a convenience store where the radio was on... but they did not listen at any other time. "Cume" is an abbreviation for "cumulative" and means the sum of all listeners, all hours, all days, for a tiny minimum amount of time.
Audience duplication means that if you buy a pair of highly duplicated stations, you get high frequency for some listeners and not high enough on others. That is why buys often do not duplicate a specific format unless the buy is going very deep.
Groups that cover a specific audience segment will sell the AQH in each of the age groups... and example being iHeart's three "wall of women" stations in LA covering CHR, Hot AC and AC. There is overlap, but they can very nicely cover an 18-54 or 18-49 buy perfectly. Or cases where Univision has a regional, Adult CHR and adult hits station in the same market where they cover a spectrum.
In the above examples, we see why AMP in LA or one of the other regional stations or adult hits stations in Spanish don't get bought... the buy is not deep enough, and there is too much duplication.
Remember, much of the buying for ratings-based orders is now automated. Agencies can specify things like "no format duplication" and optimization of the young, middle and older parts of the target. Salespeople can't make the kind of argument you mention because the transaction is done by computer.
Remember, cume counts one slice of listening as short as 5 minutes in a whole week to qualify. Agencies and other transactional buyers don't want to buy that kind of light listener. They use actual "how many people are estimated to hear each spot" for decisions.
For example, I am a "cumer" of Cleveland Indians home games. Yep, I went to one game in 1962 when I got my driving license just to prove I could do it. And that shows the value of "cume" in the buying process.
Last edited:
They could move Jamn up to 97.7 and flip 94.5 to soft AC "the Breeze" to compete with WMJX and WPLM.
Why would iHeart put the market's current hip-hop station on a limited signal and turn the full-coverage signal over to what in many of iHeart's markets is still an HD-2 afterthought format? Flipping 97.7 to soft AC makes some sense, but seeing as how The Breeze hasn't exactly taken the nation (or its ad agencies) by storm, it's more likely to me that iHeart will exercise patience with WKAF on its current frequency, realizing there are no viable formats left to try in the market. All The Breeze on 94.5 would do is hurt WPLM, which isn't even on iHeart's radar as far as serious competition goes. It's not going to hurt a regular AC station; there's just too much difference between soft and regular now and WMJX's large listener base knows what it wants. And that's not sleepytime AC; it's music that moves to fit the uptempo lifestyle.
I mostly stopped listening a few years ago. The novelty of hearing late 90s/early 2000s hip hop got old after awhile. When I listened, they barely touched any new songs unless they were big hits already being played at CHR. It just became a tired and predictable mix of songs. Not sure if it’s still the same or not but that’s why one listener stopped.
Ramiro is a good morning show host but the fake bits with actors like “second date update” don’t appeal to me either. I guess most listeners assume it’s real, but are more people these days getting wise to the fact that stuff like that is fake? Anyone who Googles it can see it’s all done by actors.
Did you think Cheers, Modern Family, Friends or Big Bang Theory was not just a bunch of actors?
Those radio bits are just little comedy capsules. But that is my perspective; I'd really like to know why you find this long accepted TV practice (which goes back to pre-TV radio) is not as good or funny when done today in a morning show.
I get what you are saying. It’s scripted just like lots of other forms of entertainment. It is kind of a grey area though because I am sure that most people who enjoy these bits assume they are real. I don’t think any viewers of Cheers, Modern Family etc., assume those shows are real. In a way, it is lying to your audience. The bits are also completely unrealistic and show just how dumb the radio industry assumes it’s listeners are.
I see this "lying to your audience" excuse a lot and it's just naïve. It's show biz. It's also acting. You're confusing entertainment with real life. I'm not blaming anyone for thinking this way. We have a president who's running the country as though it's a reality TV show. If listeners believe what some radio hosts are saying, especially on the talk side, then perhaps they really are dumb. P.T. Barnum was a master showman who said "No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public."
I agree KP...Those AM bits on Hot were extra cheesy, no one thinks they're "real" per say, but they were just overboard on the tounge and cheek -- a time filler. I've always admired WBQT but throwbacks have a very short shelf life...
PS, Clearly this board is filled with people who work for the stations that are sinking or they're just out to be contrary to everyone else's opinion...
- Status