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Boston Radio Ratings December 2020
- Thread starter freqlost
- Start date
It's remarkable how low WEEI's rating are now.
The Patriots are lousy and Sox season still far away and what the Sox will be like is unknown.
At least WBZ FM has Celtics and Bruins coming online soon.
None of that has much to do with how 98.5 is tripling them in the dailies.
I agree. The main draw of those stations are their talk hosts. If they can't attract an audience without the benefit of live events, then it's time to reassess.
It will dominate the January book. Remember, the "December" book is NOT the holiday book.
Not much buzz around either team, although both should make the playoffs. Both look to be a few notches below the best in their conferences. Besides, Celtics or Bruins talk has never been the driving force of conversation on Boston sports radio. Good, bad or average, the Red Sox and Patriots attract the most discussion.
The January book starts after New Year's Day. It does not include the four week period between the end of the December book and the start of January, called the "holiday" book which is pretty much all the rest of December. So "January" will not include any of the holiday period.
Remember, PPM has 13 books of 4 weeks each. The diary markets with CM have 12 books of 4 weeks and a hiatus period.
In the Phoenix board Huff has posted the November book dates, showing what will be the start of the 4 weeks of Holiday
Here we go again. I have learned what weeks are covered in which book, but the OP was referring to the book that came out in mid-December as "December 2020" in the subject line. Yes, that book is mostly November. And the "January book" you speak of will be mostly December. Either we standardize how we refer to the books or every darn thread on this topic will spark knee-jerk pedantry.
No, the "January" book is all in the month of January. The "Holiday" book is the 4 weeks between the "December" book and the "January" book. There are 13 books a year, 4 weeks each. "Holiday" comes in between December and January book periods.
That is Nielsen's terminology. It has been that way since the first PPM tests in Philly in 2002. This is not "pedantic" as it is the industry standard PPM terminology used for nearly two decades.
Each year starts with the January book being pretty much all in January. Then, as the 28 day books continue to churn out, each one "advances" on the calendar by 2 or 3 days (except February) until by the end of the year the December book is pretty much all in November.
Here are the specific ratings periods:
November 2020 October 8 - November 4
December 2020 November 5 - December 2
Holiday 2020 December 3 - January 6
January 2021 January 7 – February 3
So this book primarily covers November, which may explain why many stations start their Christmas music before Thanksgiving. If they want to get credit, it helps to do it before the Holiday book begins.
BTW the music charts typically take the next two weeks off as well. There will be charts, but they won't be published. This allows currents based stations to replace their current songs with Christmas songs, and not affect their percentage of currents.
CHR stations depend heavily on promotions/contests such as concerts and movies. None of it has been happening for the past 9 months. I'm actually surprised Kiss is hanging in nicely with the 18-34 demo(2nd after the SportsHub). Shows you how strong their brand loyalty is in this market.
It is amazing that WRKO is the sixth most listened to radio station in Boston! Who would have bet it beat out Kiss 108! I know these are overall numbers but it is still amazing. Moving Jeff back to mornings was a great move and Howie in the afternoon makes for a solid station base. With WBZ AM beating out the FM, there is life in AM radio after all. We know Howie is an institution but any factual thoughts as to why Jeff is doing so well?
Outside of WMJX, what can Entercom do to improve its position in the ratings? Could they revamp their formats, possibly moving existing personalities to different time slots or with new personalities all together? Would the addition of personalities at WBGB improve its numbers or would a WODS work again in this market? What can be done at WEEI? Could a new format be in the works at Entercom in 2021?
Again, this is a market with no saleable format holes. As for WEEI, a competitive Red Sox team playing a full regular season in front of fans (ASAP) at Fenway Park would help immensely. The off-season is off to a slow start, but plenty can still be done between now and late March. I would expect WBZ-FM's numbers to start fading soon, with the Patriots looking as though they are heading for a multi-year rebuild and the Celtics and Bruins not having the special something that will get casual fans (or most Boston sports talk hosts) talking about them.
You mind like they did at WAAF? How did that work out?
Nielsen Audio's Survey Schedule Periods: http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/Survey_Schedule.pdf
Scroll down to Page 2 to see PPM Survey Schedule which applies to the Boston market.
Note that the "Holiday 2020" survey period contains 5 weeks, 1 more than the usual 4-week survey period.
This is done so that there is at least one day of "December" in the following year's "December" survey period.
Yes I know. That's where I got the dates in my post. Did you see a difference?
No, this is done because 13 4-week periods "loses" one day a year. So every 7 years, Nielsen has to add a week to Holiday to normalize things again. In 2021, the survey periods will come closer to matching the calendar months.
What they do not want is days from a prior year being carried into the next year. It causes some significant internal issues.
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