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WYRD and WVOC stumble

G

genius

WYRD stumbled enough to lost its top spot in Greenville-Spartanburg with the March numbers. Word has it the Charlie James Show just isn’t setting the world on fire at all combined with the loss of the Rush.

The biggest loser has got to be WVOC. The March 2021 book of a 2.6 is a record low in the station’s history.
 
For WYRD to go from #1 to 2 isn't that dramatic, replaced by a Country station in South Carolina. OK. But WVOC's tumble is note worthy, going from the 4's to the 3's to the 2's over the last two months.

Is it warmer weather, with people switching to music stations as the temperature goes up and the pandemic eases? Or is it the loss of Rush Limbaugh?
 
Gregg. said:
For WYRD to go from #1 to 2 isn't that dramatic, replaced by a Country station in South Carolina. OK. But WVOC's tumble is note worthy, going from the 4's to the 3's to the 2's over the last two months.

Is it warmer weather, with people switching to music stations as the temperature goes up and the pandemic eases? Or is it the loss of Rush Limbaugh?
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The #1 station WJMZ is an Urban station not a country station.


As for WVOC I see three reasons:

-The lack of local content and the fact that except from women’s basketball the Gamecocks have been lackluster in sports overall lately. The last local sports show WVOC flopped a couple years ago for that reason so they moved Levin back up to 6PM.

- The morning hosts are dullsome. Seriously Gary David and Christopher Thompson have been in place for so long their morning show has become very very stale and barely do any local news anymore just straight up opinion. It would be interesting to see how Keven Cohen’s station does if Cohen was a subscriber to the Neilsens just to compare the two. Jonathan & Kelly are also rubbish as conservative commentators.

-Of course the loss of Rush. Outside of that the rest of the station is mediocre at best with a bland local morning show and aging syndicated shows.
 
We may not have read the WVOC ratings properly. I see WVOC is tied for #10. But then WXBT-HD2 is tied for #15. That feeds WVOC's translator.

So if you add WVOC's ratings and WXBT-HD2, WVOC is really the #7 station in Columbia. Not quite as bad at second glance.
 
Gregg. said:
We may not have read the WVOC ratings properly. I see WVOC is tied for #10. But then WXBT-HD2 is tied for #15. That feeds WVOC's translator.

So if you add WVOC's ratings and WXBT-HD2, WVOC is really the #7 station in Columbia. Not quite as bad at second glance.
Click to expand...

Incorrect. WXBT-HD2 does not feed WVOC’s translator it is a an entire separate station.
 
How did Vince Coakley perform in the ratings? And does Entercom own his program, because it originates from WBT in Charlotte which was sold by Entercom to Urban One. As for Rush, they have been running reruns and guest hosts. I guess they are looking for a new host. Maybe Sean Hannity, but he may be a different syndicator.
 
Hannity has his own show so not likely to replace Rush. (I believe Hannity is 3-6pm et live, right after Rush. He's also distributed by Premiere, like Rush.)

It could be that people are getting a bit tired of politics these days; "yeah Trump, boo Biden" only goes so far after the election and what happened on Jan 6. Plus, summer, nice weather, pandemic easing gets people out and enjoying life more. Music 🎵 not talk.

Also, slipping to #2 isn't that big of a deal. Jamz is almost always #1, so it's not surprising. The fact that WYRD-FM made it to #1 once was the bigger surprise, especially with 106.3's more limited signal in the Upstate.
 
Several observations:

The Block, with its 3 transmitter signals covering the cores of the market’s 3 main cities, cracked a 3 share. Also, it has now passed sister station 93.3’s full market signal in ratings. How much longer until The Block finally gets its well deserved full market signal?

CHR is struggling nationally, as seen on both 93.7 and 98.1. I feel that it The Block were to go to a full power signal, it would force 98.1 to go mainstream CHR or flip entirely and wound WJMZ.

New country is in the doldrums as shown by WSSL’s ratings.

Earth FM even with the 95.9 signal has slowly declined over the last year. I attribute this to 102.5 The Lake, which, while not doing great, does around the same as the Hot AC format with much lower overhead. Earth FM is now even playing 2000s music like “How To Save a Life” by The Fray....I feel they are going too recent compared to how other classic hits stations are evolving.

Jack FM is actually one of my favorite stations in the market. I like it more than 103.3 or 102.5 musically. I feel that with so many options for 70s/80s/90s music in the market, given their signal, they’ve just been sort of forgotten.

TLDR; The Block is surpassing its full power sister station using only translators and deserves a better stick. Earth FM is on a bad downward trend. Country and CHR are struggling nationally as shown in the most recent trends.
 
101tm said:
Several observations:

The Block, with its 3 transmitter signals covering the cores of the market’s 3 main cities, cracked a 3 share. Also, it has now passed sister station 93.3’s full market signal in ratings. How much longer until The Block finally gets its well deserved full market signal?

CHR is struggling nationally, as seen on both 93.7 and 98.1. I feel that it The Block were to go to a full power signal, it would force 98.1 to go mainstream CHR or flip entirely and wound WJMZ.

New country is in the doldrums as shown by WSSL’s ratings.

Earth FM even with the 95.9 signal has slowly declined over the last year. I attribute this to 102.5 The Lake, which, while not doing great, does around the same as the Hot AC format with much lower overhead. Earth FM is now even playing 2000s music like “How To Save a Life” by The Fray....I feel they are going too recent compared to how other classic hits stations are evolving.

Jack FM is actually one of my favorite stations in the market. I like it more than 103.3 or 102.5 musically. I feel that with so many options for 70s/80s/90s music in the market, given their signal, they’ve just been sort of forgotten.

TLDR; The Block is surpassing its full power sister station using only translators and deserves a better stick. Earth FM is on a bad downward trend. Country and CHR are struggling nationally as shown in the most recent trends.
Click to expand...
WESC is still doing well with mostly classics. New country, on the other hand, SHOULD be in the doldrums.

Classic hits shouldn't just be playing old music but music that doesn't sound like new music.

Yes, Greenville absolutely does need a full-power hip-hop station.
 
101tm said:
Several observations:

The Block, with its 3 transmitter signals covering the cores of the market’s 3 main cities, cracked a 3 share. Also, it has now passed sister station 93.3’s full market signal in ratings. How much longer until The Block finally gets its well deserved full market signal?

CHR is struggling nationally, as seen on both 93.7 and 98.1. I feel that it The Block were to go to a full power signal, it would force 98.1 to go mainstream CHR or flip entirely and wound WJMZ.

New country is in the doldrums as shown by WSSL’s ratings.

Earth FM even with the 95.9 signal has slowly declined over the last year. I attribute this to 102.5 The Lake, which, while not doing great, does around the same as the Hot AC format with much lower overhead. Earth FM is now even playing 2000s music like “How To Save a Life” by The Fray....I feel they are going too recent compared to how other classic hits stations are evolving.

Jack FM is actually one of my favorite stations in the market. I like it more than 103.3 or 102.5 musically. I feel that with so many options for 70s/80s/90s music in the market, given their signal, they’ve just been sort of forgotten.

TLDR; The Block is surpassing its full power sister station using only translators and deserves a better stick. Earth FM is on a bad downward trend. Country and CHR are struggling nationally as shown in the most recent trends.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with any of your assessment and opinions. But I don't believe that The Block will ever get on 93.3. Sales on the Rock station are likely much better than an urban hip hop station. And it's always about $$. I'm sure they sell it in combo with Classic Rock 101.1, ESPN Upstate and WORD. If any station needs to be on a blowtorch signal, it's WYRD-FM. Big ratings even though they don't have the greatest coverage area. (I think they are on two translators, too.)

I find The Lake exceptionally boring. No live people. Nothing that tells me they are in (or care about) the Upstate. The liners start to wear on me.

I kinda thought Salem might put Earth on 94.5 and move the low rated talk to the 103.3/95.9 simulcast, but that didn't happen when Earth was going really strong.
 
dorm82 said:
The bigger question is why hasn't Iheart flipped the failing station at 104.9? Seems to me they would flip to Hip Hop to take on the Block.
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Their HD-2 on WROO is iHeart's Classic Soul format. Other than when the audio is messed up, (and it is quite a bit,) I listen to that station a lot.
 
AMRocks said:
I don't disagree with any of your assessment and opinions. But I don't believe that The Block will ever get on 93.3. Sales on the Rock station are likely much better than an urban hip hop station. And it's always about $$. I'm sure they sell it in combo with Classic Rock 101.1, ESPN Upstate and WORD. If any station needs to be on a blowtorch signal, it's WYRD-FM. Big ratings even though they don't have the greatest coverage area. (I think they are on two translators, too.)

I find The Lake exceptionally boring. No live people. Nothing that tells me they are in (or care about) the Upstate. The liners start to wear on me.

I kinda thought Salem might put Earth on 94.5 and move the low rated talk to the 103.3/95.9 simulcast, but that didn't happen when Earth was going really strong.
Click to expand...
True. I could see WYRD-FM being put on a stronger signal, but with the 106.3 signal covering most of Greenville/Spartanburg and the Anderson area with the translator, I really wonder how much a bigger stick would help them. It would get them in to WNC, but that is a different ratings/ad market so I doubt that would really be much of a gain financially speaking. With 106.3 and the translator(s?), I feel it adequately covers the market, or the parts of the market Audacy/Entercom cares about $$$ wise. 93.3 The Planet just seems so dated. The morning show is stale, the music is stale, the name is straight out of the 90s.

106.3 will be interesting to watch with Limbaugh's likely impending departure. I'm curious to see if they go local in the 12-3 slot or syndicated. I do expect them to settle lower as the year progresses. I feel like there could be real competition with 94.5 vs. WORD's heavily local schedule (sans Limbaugh and nights) if 94.5 added more local or higher profile syndicated programming and invested in more local programming, but it's Salem who is generally content clearing their own syndicated programming which generally doesn't do very well. The most unfortunate thing is it's on such a great stick which is rare for Salem programming.

The Lake is interesting. Its Charlotte counterpart on 102.9 seems to be much more successful despite being almost identical. I chalk it not doing as well in Greenville up to the fact that there is massive overlap with 101.1 and 103.3/95.9, and even to an extent 99.5 which shaves a little off. Earth FM has gotten stale in terms of presentation. They really don't have any creative imaging like most Audacy/iHeart/Cumulus etc classic hits stations have. I do credit their slide to The Lake doing well enough to take some listeners. The former Hot AC My 102.5 listeners probably scattered between 98.9, 93.7, and 100.5, with The Lake getting audience from 103.3/95.9, 99.5, 101.1, and 98.9. 99.5 has gone down quite a bit since Earth FM came on the air, they used to get around a 2 share as Chuck FM.

Re: 104.9 - similar to its clone on 105.7 in the Triad, iHeart is likely content to use the C3 as a flanker and a package sell with the country stations and Lake. I doubt they would ever change to an urban format just because it would be a completely different sell for the cluster although an urban format would likely knock WJMZ out of the top spot so one of the country stations could be #1. 104.9 and 102.5 are full on jukeboxes that are cheap to run, and 92.5 is almost there. 100.5 has the most bodies, and that's not saying a lot.
 
After looking at today's release of ratings for April in Greenville, it looks as if the lead of WORD is over. They've slipped to a 6.1 from a high of 8.6 in January (when politics was much hotter) in 12+. Don't kid yourself, they're still a money machine for Audacy. Could be a combination of political burn, repeats of Rush and the new host that replaced Bobby Mac who had been on the station for years. Similar demos likely moved to music stations as WESC is back up. WGTK, also political talk is down, too. Again, likely people getting tired of politics.

Also, Hot trounced B n the pop wars. I don't listen to either much, but B sounds kinda tired. Bored jocks? Maybe.

When do you think iHeart will blow up WROO? Seems like a total waste of signal. It's not a lot, but they could kill The Block easily......IF iHeart put some effort into the station. iHeart isn't known for putting effort into much. Just listen to The Lake. 😴
 
AMRocks said:
After looking at today's release of ratings for April in Greenville, it looks as if the lead of WORD is over. They've slipped to a 6.1 from a high of 8.6 in January (when politics was much hotter) in 12+. Don't kid yourself, they're still a money machine for Audacy. Could be a combination of political burn, repeats of Rush and the new host that replaced Bobby Mac who had been on the station for years. Similar demos likely moved to music stations as WESC is back up. WGTK, also political talk is down, too. Again, likely people getting tired of politics.

Also, Hot trounced B n the pop wars. I don't listen to either much, but B sounds kinda tired. Bored jocks? Maybe.

When do you think iHeart will blow up WROO? Seems like a total waste of signal. It's not a lot, but they could kill The Block easily......IF iHeart put some effort into the station. iHeart isn't known for putting effort into much. Just listen to The Lake. 😴
Click to expand...

That is probably a good answer is the combination of factors resulting in WORD’s drop. Thanks goodness as for WGTK it has been smaller in the rankings never understood as to why both Bobby Mac and the harpy Tara would use to rail against “the other station!” so much a few years back, possibly directed towards to the local afternoon host on WGTK at the time? I can’t recall nor do I want to LOL.

WORD and WVOC are not alone in this either, WBT up in Charlotte has plummeted from the 7’s last fall to a lowly 4.4 almost tied with WFAE.

As for WHZT vs WFBC I have to say WHZT is the much livelier station with a better signal. One station that has stagnated is WSPA-FM. Ratings are okay but the station feels really stale. I think they probably played Christmas music one too many times.
 
While I agree WROO is a waste, once again it's a flanker that does well enough along with maybe WMYI to keep WESC/WSSL top 5 and WROQ at bay. Also an easy sweetener for sales deals. It can easily be packaged in with WESC/WSSL/WMYI and has USC sports. Flipping it to urban (which theoretically I agree with) would require additional back end sales experience, marketing, etc staff that the cluster currently doesn't have and I don't believe iHeart would be willing to invest in. For an urban to succeed there needs to be a staff behind it that has community ties and knowledge. Entercom/Audacy was fortunate to have a president that used to be with Cox/Summit and WJMZ/WHZT as well as data from WFBC which has helped them be successful with The Block.

Another option for 104.9? WMYI is down yet again. Move The Lake to 104.9 and do something else with 102.5. I personally wouldn't mind an iHeart CHR with WFBC being so stale and WHZT having such a hip hop lean these days. A CHR could be sold with Lake and Whistle both of which probably get heavy female ad buys, but CHR is struggling. The rock format on 104.9 is actually better than 93.3 or 101.1 but I don't see it getting anywhere. I'm pretty sure iHeart is only concerned with WSSL and WESC considering their position in the market and are concerned with how 102.5/104.9 can help those stations be the most successful.

WFBC blows WHZT out of the water signal wise unless you're in GA. I do feel they're stale overall. I was hoping them being in the same stable as other high profile CHR's like WBBM-FM, KEND, KLUC, WPOW, WQAL, etc after a few years would bring about a fresher, more modern sound but they seem content keeping it as is from the legacy Entercom pre-CBS days which isn't always a good thing. Too bad WHZT won't go back to the sound they had in 2016-2017 where they were mixing in more pop/dance acts with the rhythmic hip hop that made it a better alternative to WFBC. It was still rhythmic, but more pop leaning than most other rhythmic CHR's. They were mixing in Kelly Clarkson, Chainsmokers, Halsey, Adele, Portugal the Man, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, etc in addition to more hip hop that WFBC wouldn't play. It was a really good mix. There are still a lot of non-hip hop songs charting on the Rhythmic chart but Hot seems to have gone back to avoiding them.

WORD/WYRD/whatever has literally everything working against them right now. I look for them to fall back to their old average of around a 5-5.5 12+. They had a beef with WGTK for a while due to Mike Gallagher (a once big friend of the station and the departed Russ Cassell) jumping over to 94.5 when Salem launched the station which was seen by much of the WORD staff as a betrayal which may have contributed to the jabs they were doing.
 
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LOL that was so petty on the half of WORD/WYRD. I mean what did they think was going to happen when BJU sold that station to Salem as one of Salem’s founders was a BJU alumni & subsequent donor. But then again Tara and Bobby Mac at least the last few years are very bitter individuals so it’s no surprise.
 
The entire staff there has always been extremely childish and petty, even for a political talk station. I'm not a fan of any of them, but I feel WVOC, WWNC, WSCC, and even WGAC in Augusta are much more professional and adult acting than what they have going on at 106.3. Local isn't always better. Again, I hoped with all of the heritage CBS news/talk stations being folded in to the legacy Entercom that we would see changes with WORD/WYRD but so far hasn't happened.

I am curious if they'll continue simulcasting Vince Coakley from WBT which started when Entercom owned both stations. Radio One owns WBT now. Also, a replacement was announced for Limbaugh - will WORD/WYRD carry the Buck Sexton and co. replacement, go local (shudder), or pick up Bongino from Cumulus?
 
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