Jan 2021 Nielsen

[secondchoice]

Here are the non-revenue numbers for Jan:


Nielsen Audio Ratings


Was Power’s drop the reason for or a result of iHeart’s restaffing of 96.1.

 

[fortt3]

Any predictions for WSB post-Rush?

 

[jabba17]

Any predictions for WSB post-Rush?

It probably depends on what the EIB Network does. At this point all I have heard is speculation.

Somebody was on AllAccess and suggested that Premiere create a 24/7 Rush format of old shows. No class A or B AM would carry it, but a class C or D might. Or maybe an HD2 or an FM translator.

I'm sure a lot of shows are already considering moving their live slot to noon-3 Eastern.

Premiere already syndicates old Casey Kasem American Top 40 shows. They also have an all-Casey channel on iHeartRadio.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm sure a lot of shows are already considering moving their live slot to noon-3 Eastern.

How would you like to be put in that slot. No pressure, right?

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Here are the non-revenue numbers for Jan:


Nielsen Audio Ratings


Was Power’s drop the reason for or a result of iHeart’s restaffing of 96.1.

It could be a fluke. Or it could be that they thought they could glide by without a morning show for 3 months...and they couldn't.

CHR is in a slump around the country.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

How would you like to be put in that slot. No pressure, right?

Agreed. That's going to be very difficult for the ultimate replacement...and I believe for Talk radio.

Rush's real acceleration to stardom and wealth was during the Clinton administration. And the thinking was always that Rush and other talkers of his ilk did best when a Democrat held the White House. Then came the Trump era, and Talk radio and FOX News climbed to their highest ratings and revenue ever. Sean Hannity and others reinvented themselves. I have a feeling that unlike during the Clinton and Obama administrations, and sans Rush, Biden in the White House is going to attract much less emotion from Talk listeners. (Just my opinion!) And I wonder whether the combination of lower ratings and older demographics is going to catch up with the format.

 

[BoboKnight]

I can’t help but wonder if WSB would go local 12-3. I know Erick Erickson several years ago said he wanted an earlier time slot so he could take his kids to their after school activities in the afternoon.

I figure he would be willing to ditch his 9-12 regional show and move to 12-3 on WSB, without all the extended news and traffic cut-ins his current show has.

 

[BarryATL]

At the bottom of the list WABE and WAKL have N/A for the current period. Are the two stations no longer subscribing to Neilson?

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

Station	Format	Owner	Nov 20	Dec 20	Hol 20	Jan 21
WSB-AM	News/Talk	Cox Radio	11.5	9.7	9.0	11.8
WSRV-FM	Classic Hits	Cox Radio	7.2	6.6	5.9	6.3
WALR-FM	Urban AC	Cox Radio	6.7	7.5	6.4	5.1
WVEE-FM	Urban	Entercom	5.3	5.1	5.5	4.8
WPZE-FM	Inspirational	New Mableton Broadcasting	4.0	3.6	4.1	4.5
WSB-FM	AC	Cox Radio	4.3	4.7	4.4	4.5
WAMJ-FM	Urban AC	Radio One	5.4	4.6	4.4	4.1
WFSH-FM	Chrisitan AC	Salem Media Group	4.2	4.5	5.6	3.8
WZGC-FM	All Sports	Entercom	3.6	4.0	4.1	3.8
WUBL-FM	Country	iHeartMedia	3.7	3.8	3.7	3.3
WWWQ-FM	CHR	Cumulus Media	3.0	2.6	2.8	3.1
WSTR-FM	Hot AC	Entercom	2.1	2.2	2.5	2.9
WNNX-FM	Classic Rock	Cumulus Media	2.2	2.0	2.4	2.6
WHTA-FM	Urban	Radio One	2.7	3.2	3.1	2.4
WKHX-FM	Country	Cumulus Media	2.7	2.9	2.6	2.3
WVFJ-FM	Christian CHR	Radio Training Network	2.4	1.9	2.9	2.0
WWPW-FM	CHR	iHeartMedia	2.8	3.0	2.9	1.8
WCNN-AM	All Sports	Dickey Broadcasting Company	2.3	1.8	1.6	1.6
WCLK-FM	Jazz	Clark Atlanta University	1.1	1.5	1.4	1.5
WAMJ-FM-HD2	Urban Oldies	Radio One	1.4	1.1	1.3	1.4
WWSZ-AM	Urban	JDJ Communications	1.4	1.3	1.7	1.3
WWWQ-FM-HD3	Rhythmic CHR	Cumulus Media	1.0	1.1	1.3	1.0
WGKA-AM	News/Talk	Salem Media Group	1.0	0.9	0.8	0.9
WSRV-FM-STR	Classic Hits	Cox Radio	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.9
WBZY-FM	Spanish	iHeartMedia	1.1	1.4	1.1	0.7
WALR-FM-STR	Urban AC	Cox Radio	0.5	0.8	0.5	0.6
WLKQ-FM	Regional Mexican	Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.6
WRDG-FM	Hp Hop	iHeartMedia	0.9	0.9	0.7	0.6
WSB-FM-STR	AC	Cox Radio	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.6
WRAS-FM	News/Talk	Georgia State University	0.4	0.6	0.4	0.4
WAOK-AM	News/Talk	Entercom	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.3
WCHK-AM	Hot AC	Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
WJZA-AM	Jazz	Davis Broadcasting of Atlanta	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2
WNIV-AM	Religious	Salem Media Group	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2
WTBS-FM	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.3	0.3	0.2
WBIN-AM	News	iHeartMedia	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1
WUBL-FM-HD2	Classic Hits	iHeartMedia	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
WABE-FM	News/Talk	Board of Education City of Atlanta	2.5	3.3	3.1	N/A
WABE-FM-HD2	Classical	Board of Education City of Atlanta	0.1	0.1	0.1	N/A
WAKL-FM	Christian CHR	Educational Media Foundation	1.7	1.8	2.0	N/A
WTBS-LP	Regional Mexican	Prism Broadcasting Network	0.2	0.3	0.3	N/A

 

[LegalTender]

EMF has their own "ratings." Why subscribe to Nielsen, when all that matters is listener$?

They do no local programming.

 

[TheBigA]

Why subscribe to Nielsen, when all that matters is listener$?

There's a lot of interesting demographic data in the full book provided to subscribers.

They seem to move their subscription around from market to market, since its the same national format.

 

[davideduardo]

There's a lot of interesting demographic data in the full book provided to subscribers.

They seem to move their subscription around from market to market, since its the same national format.

Yes, the appear to always have at least one large market and one smaller market ratings subscription in all the identifiable regions of the US... NE, South, Midwest, Plains, Texas, SW, NW that they use to get specific demos and usage data.

 

[jabba17]

I can’t help but wonder if WSB would go local 12-3. I know Erick Erickson several years ago said he wanted an earlier time slot so he could take his kids to their after school activities in the afternoon.

I figure he would be willing to ditch his 9-12 regional show and move to 12-3 on WSB, without all the extended news and traffic cut-ins his current show has.

WSB tried to put Boortz up against Rush when Rush was on WGST. Rush beat Boortz 12-3, but not too badly. So it can be done, if Premiere botches up the replacement. And WSB has a good bench with Erickson and Wynter.

 

[MarkW]

Some of y'all need to look at what's happened to CHR/Pop stations across the country (alternative, too) since the start of the pandemic and also need to look at what's happened to streaming music service subscriptions.

Adults under the age of 35 are spending less time with FM radio than ever before. No reason to listen at home - working remotely - when you can easily stream (no corporate I.T. firewalls to worry about).

The trade publications - many of which are little more than press release regurgitators - refuse to talk about it.

So, I think the initial decline in Power 96.1's numbers is due to much broader issues affecting many stations in the format. (Look at Wild 94.9 in San Francisco - sub 2 share! Hot 99.5 in D.C. - sub 3 share!) The exacerbation of the decline is due to airstaff changes.

The fact iHM won't even spend money on a local morning show on a flamethrower CHR signal in a top 10 market says all we need to know regarding the current state of the CHR/Pop format.

 

[TheBigA]

The trade publications - many of which are little more than press release regurgitators - refuse to talk about it.

It depends what you read. Several research companies have been analyzing changes in listening behavior due to the pandemic, and the currents-based formats are suffering because of this. CHR/pop is down nationally, but so is Hot AC. News is up, and a lot of non-commercial stations are experiencing record high ratings. And of course classic hits and classic rock stations have remained consistent. A format that depends on new music and all of the related promotion, concert activity, and related excitement around that new music is obviously going to suffer.

 

[MarkW]

A format that depends on new music and all of the related promotion, concert activity, and related excitement around that new music is obviously going to suffer.

Excellent point.

I would also argue a lot of the new music product at the moment simply isn't very good, and I'd say that statement applies to a number of genres.

 

[TheBigA]

I would also argue a lot of the new music product at the moment simply isn't very good, and I'd say that statement applies to a number of genres.

The artists who know they have good stuff are sitting on it until they can tour around it. That may be in the fall.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

At the bottom of the list WABE and WAKL have N/A for the current period. Are the two stations no longer subscribing to Neilson?

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

Apparently they no longer subscribe to Nielsen. WABE has always subscribed in the past, and I'm sure this was a cost-cutting move. But I'm surprised; they have aggressive sales reps who used to be in commercial radio.

As far as WAKL, EMF seems to rotate the markets in which they subscribe.

 

[secondchoice]

The artists who know they have good stuff are sitting on it until they can tour around it. That may be in the fall.

IMHO If the “established” artists are setting on the stuff, and if you are a “new” or “unknown” artist now would be the perfect time to release when there are less automatic listens to the establish artists.


The Governor of Texas has ended all Covid restrictions next week. The CDC believes anybody who wants a shot should able to have one by the end of May. If the Covid sceptics are correct it will not matter. If the scientists are correct everybody will be exposed and those who will be sick or die from Covid will do it by the end of this summer. Either way the venues that remain most likely will be back in business late this summer.



IMHO If I were and established artist I would be recording and releasing just to keep my name in the fans mind, while I can’t tour.



Hopefully everybody who gets to (or is forced to) go back to work is back in a couple of months.

 

[TheBigA]

IMHO If I were and established artist I would be recording and releasing just to keep my name in the fans mind, while I can’t tour.

The one thing that has been missing for the past year is a timetable. Now one seems to be developing. What I'm seeing on the music front is all the music that's been recorded over the past year is about to be released in the spring, and we're seeing some tour dates scheduled for July and into the fall. So yes, things are starting to move, and it should have a delayed effect on radio ratings in the second half of the year.

At the same time, we're seeing an increase in commuting, at more than 90% pre-covid levels. So it's all good.

 

[BoboKnight]

I can’t help but wonder if WSB would go local 12-3. I know Erick Erickson several years ago said he wanted an earlier time slot so he could take his kids to their after school activities in the afternoon.

I figure he would be willing to ditch his 9-12 regional show and move to 12-3 on WSB, without all the extended news and traffic cut-ins his current show has.

Called it.

Erick is replacing Rush, at least for the short term on WSB.