May '21 ratings

[ckg279]

In short:

-WBLK(Power 93.7)regains the #1 12+ ranking, jumping up to a 9.9 from the last book
-WBEN drops .6 to 9.2, good for second
-WYRK is dropping, losing .7 to finish at 8.2 for this book
-WGRF(97 Rock)is in 4th, gaining .7 to finish at 7.0 . Looks like they've handled the mess from earlier this year quite well.
-WKSE(Kiss 98.5)rounds out the top 5, gaining .2 for a 6.1

Other notes:

-WBFO continues to be a steady presence(4.6, down .2)
-WBUF CONTINUES to blow out its audience; they're at a 1.4, down .1 .
-WECK does a 3.0 12+(and yes, I'm aware that they do well in the older demos)

Feel free to add your own observations.

 

[tbolt909]

WYRK continues to decline. As someone noted in another thread, they just fired a Morning Show staffer. WYRK must be having some issues.

Townsquare also has the laughingstock known as WBUF. The format is so bad that the idiots who listen are probably writing 97 Rock in the Nielsen diary. Both stations suck, but "heritage" will win in a pig pile. The WGRF morning show gaffe hasn't hurt them too much. I guess the people who said they would never listen again because they fired the morning crew lied.

Meanwhile, Alternative Buffalo continues to exist even without a pulse. WBUF and WLKK both have the national Morning Zoo type shows. When does management take notice that it's listener repellent...

 

[DN14224]

Meanwhile, Alternative Buffalo continues to exist even without a pulse. WBUF and WLKK both have the national Morning Zoo type shows. When does management take notice that it's listener repellent...

When they stop taking marching orders from corporate...

 

[davideduardo]

WYRK continues to decline. As someone noted in another thread, they just fired a Morning Show staffer. WYRK must be having some issues.

Or, quite simply, budget cuts.

Townsquare also has the laughingstock known as WBUF. The format is so bad that the idiots who listen are probably writing 97 Rock in the Nielsen diary. Both stations suck, but "heritage" will win in a pig pile. The WGRF morning show gaffe hasn't hurt them too much. I guess the people who said they would never listen again because they fired the morning crew lied.

How many actually said that? 20 people on social media?

Meanwhile, Alternative Buffalo continues to exist even without a pulse. WBUF and WLKK both have the national Morning Zoo type shows. When does management take notice that it's listener repellent...

perhaps, in the target demo, demo, those shows deliver what they want.

 

[TheBigA]

-WBLK(Power 93.7)regains the #1 12+ ranking, jumping up to a 9.9 from the last book
-WBEN drops .6 to 9.2, good for second
-WYRK is dropping, losing .7 to finish at 8.2 for this book

If you go back a few years, you'll see that Townsquare plays a switcheroo with BLK and YRK a lot. Couple books with one, a couple with the other. The money goes in the same wallet.

Just amazing that the loss of a veteran morning show has actually resulted in a huge ratings increase for 97 Rock.

 

[tbolt909]

Just amazing that the loss of a veteran morning show has actually resulted in a huge ratings increase for 97 Rock.

I wouldn't say a huge increase, just an uptick. Since we cannot see the morning numbers, we don't know. The egos of the terminated morning show must be bruised. They may find that their price has fallen. Many people never noticed the show disappeared...

 

[Rusty Bridges]

I wouldn't say a huge increase, just an uptick. Since we cannot see the morning numbers, we don't know. The egos of the terminated morning show must be bruised. They may find that their price has fallen. Many people never noticed the show disappeared...

Thing is, Persons 12+ doesn’t show where the bodies are buried. No demos, no day parts. No doubt, 97 Rock is a surprise considering the morning show and program director were gassed, but unless the day parts and demos are revealed, the gains could be coming from nights, midday, weekends or afternoon drive… and yes, the morning show.

Some media mavens thought the morning mess at 97 Rock would contribute to the Edge going up, driven by Shredd & Ragan. Shredd had Covid and went very public on social media. But the Edge is flat. WHTT is off. That’s a head scratcher too. The station sounds very consistent and Classic Hits is killing it in other markets similar to Buffalo.

WYRK’s slip is a surprise. Who knows the reason. Could be it’s the Country product. It could be internal issues, could be diary placement. Could be it’s Persons 12+ and the demos actually look decent. Check the Rochester ratings. Country WBEE is in the 7 range.

Equally surprising on the other end of the spectrum is WBUF. It just hasn't taken off. Failure to launch. (Yes ‘Bolt, we know, “the format sucks”) But there’s got to be more to the story. How much time does Townsquare give the new Rock format to gain traction?

WBEN still keeps churning the Big Lie, and its P1 listeners just can’t get enough. Beach is gone, but the numbers remain stable.

And 107.7 is just sad and lonely. Classic Country on that frequency seems a natural, but David Field still believes in a format that has 39 listeners and at one time generated reasonable NTR still has a chance in Buffalo. Square hole meets round peg.

 

[TheBigA]

WYRK’s slip is a surprise. Who knows the reason. Could be it’s the Country product.

Nationally country is up these last two books. So no. It's a local thing.

 

[ckg279]

To Rusty's point about classic hits killing it in other markets: Yes, I know it's Toronto. But Boom 97.3(CHBM-FM)is #3 in the market overall with an 8.8 in the spring book(up .4 from the winter book)and it's #1 in men 25-54 with a 12.6 share(per BroadcastDialogue.com). As I've said before, the entire presentation of the station(mostly live and local staff, great imaging and an overall sense of fun)is the reason why. You don't get that with WHTT. JMO.

 

[TheBigA]

And 107.7 is just sad and lonely. Classic Country on that frequency seems a natural

They already have that demo covered at WBEN.

 

[tbolt909]

They already have that demo covered at WBEN.

Is that the Sad & Lonely demo or Old & Deranged? Perhaps both.

David Field is content to ride the Alternative Train To Nowhere. The 107.7 signal in the Buffalo Cluster is very low priority. The signal is valueless now...

 

[ckg279]

The weird thing is...if you look at the Rochester May ratings, WDKX/103.9 isn't even listed.

 

[four4rock]

... The WGRF morning show gaffe hasn't hurt them too much. I guess the people who said they would never listen again because they fired the morning crew lied. ...

Seems as though that may suggest that people - particularly, their audience - really didn't care what was said, or not said... or what action was taken, or not taken. It was a non-event turned into an event by others.

Relative to ratings, I suppose one could infer that the stations audience is rock solid (pun?, yeah, maybe). Doesn't that - loyalty - mean a lot to (potential) advertisers?

 

[SirRoxalot]

The weird thing is...if you look at the Rochester May ratings, WDKX/103.9 isn't even listed.

If you don't pay, you don't get listed.

 

[Buddy Shula]

This diary system is really outdated, and yes, that’s it, it’s all about who gets these diaries. Just as an example, based on raw quarter hours, WECK had a 3.4 and HTT had a 4.9 12 plus. But because of “ weighting” WECK had a 3.0. In quarter hours, WECK beat EDG, BUF, NED, LKK, and came about a half share from Star in quarter hours in May, 12 plus.

WKSE has a cume of 177,000. Does anyone really believe that? I don’t know a young person who even listens to the radio , yet Kiss was the top cume station. Seriously? Not only have young people abandoned radio, but they certainly would not take time to fill out a silly booklet and send it back within a week.

I will also tell you this, the folks at Nielson do not even know how to explain this outdated diary methodology. I ask them all the time. They have no detailed answers.

And now the latest. If a station does not pay for Nielson, they are nowhere in the book. Almost as they don’t exist. Not even for agencies. They simply do not exist to Neilson. In Rochester I speak with Andre Langston, the owner of DKX, quite a bit. I am bewildered to why they did not appear.

How is that a correct representation of the market? However, liberals get their way again….if a radio station is woman owned, or minority owned, and they DO NOT pay for Nielson, those stations get in the book. Without paying. How the hell is that fair to someone like me, or other independent owners who are simply white men? I’m actually thinking about suing Neilson for discrimination against me.

‘My entire payroll is easily 100k per month for my entire staff. I pay about $6,000 a month on top of that in payroll taxes. We promote ourselves, try to do everything right, pay the FCC yearly fees for 4 frequencies, pay our corporate taxes, and actually doing well as a whole for radio in Buffalo, yet because I am the owner, if I don’t pay Neilson for their extortion, WECK would disappear from the ratings, even to Ad Agencies. Yet if I were female or minority owned, it would appear. That’s messed up.

I truly believe that is discrimination against me. And I am going to talk to some attorneys about this new practice Neilson has implemented recently. Wait until you see June ratings, you will see a few stations not appear. WECK won’t be one of them, but other stations are out beginning June.

 

[tbolt909]

Seems as though that may suggest that people - particularly, their audience - really didn't care what was said, or not said... or what action was taken, or not taken. It was a non-event turned into an event by others.

Relative to ratings, I suppose one could infer that the stations audience is rock solid (pun?, yeah, maybe). Doesn't that - loyalty - mean a lot to (potential) advertisers?

The bit that lead to the morning show termination was offensive. The scumbags that defended the hosts and the remarks on social media obviously didn't mind it. To them it was a "Non Event". The audience that listens to this station might like jokes about lynching Black people. That does not make it acceptable...

 

[davideduardo]

The bit that lead to the morning show termination was offensive. The scumbags that defended the hosts and the remarks on social media obviously didn't mind it. To them it was a "Non Event". The audience that listens to this station might like jokes about lynching Black people. That does not make it acceptable...

Let's agree, then, that humor and entertainment standards of the past were very different than today.

Back in the 30's we had "Amos and Andy" with two white guys in blackface pretending to be persons of color and doing humor that was deprecating and certainly offensive by today's standards. In the 60's we had "My name José Jiménez..." humor and it was acceptable on national TV networks.

People who were the product of those eras or raised by parents who were are now challenged to change their perceptions so that they reject what they... and much of America... then thought to be entertaining and funny.

Part of progress is correcting past transgressions. Some choose to punish the newly revealed transgressors, and some choose to help them onto a "better road" into the future. I prefer helping people, not punishing them for things that were not considered wrong in the past.

 

[tbolt909]

Let's agree, then, that humor and entertainment standards of the past were very different than today.

Back in the 30's we had "Amos and Andy" with two white guys in blackface pretending to be persons of color and doing humor that was deprecating and certainly offensive by today's standards. In the 60's we had "My name José Jiménez..." humor and it was acceptable on national TV networks.

People who were the product of those eras or raised by parents who were are now challenged to change their perceptions so that they reject what they... and much of America... then thought to be entertaining and funny.

Part of progress is correcting past transgressions. Some choose to punish the newly revealed transgressors, and some choose to help them onto a "better road" into the future. I prefer helping people, not punishing them for things that were not considered wrong in the past.

The 97 Rock incident happened in 2021. Not 1961. Shouldn't they have been on your "better road" by now? The humour you mention may have been mainstream or acceptable back then, but it was still wrong.

In this very thread, Buddy Shula is whining about being a "persecuted White Guy". What a bunch of crap. I do not wish to repost his comments, but it's right here above. He's crying because his Oldies format can't get to a 5 share and it's not fair...

 

[ckg279]

This diary system is really outdated, and yes, that’s it, it’s all about who gets these diaries. Just as an example, based on raw quarter hours, WECK had a 3.4 and HTT had a 4.9 12 plus. But because of “ weighting” WECK had a 3.0. In quarter hours, WECK beat EDG, BUF, NED, LKK, and came about a half share from Star in quarter hours in May, 12 plus.

WKSE has a cume of 177,000. Does anyone really believe that? I don’t know a young person who even listens to the radio , yet Kiss was the top cume station. Seriously? Not only have young people abandoned radio, but they certainly would not take time to fill out a silly booklet and send it back within a week.

I will also tell you this, the folks at Nielson do not even know how to explain this outdated diary methodology. I ask them all the time. They have no detailed answers.

And now the latest. If a station does not pay for Nielson, they are nowhere in the book. Almost as they don’t exist. Not even for agencies. They simply do not exist to Neilson. In Rochester I speak with Andre Langston, the owner of DKX, quite a bit. I am bewildered to why they did not appear.

How is that a correct representation of the market? However, liberals get their way again….if a radio station is woman owned, or minority owned, and they DO NOT pay for Nielson, those stations get in the book. Without paying. How the hell is that fair to someone like me, or other independent owners who are simply white men? I’m actually thinking about suing Neilson for discrimination against me.

‘My entire payroll is easily 100k per month for my entire staff. I pay about $6,000 a month on top of that in payroll taxes. We promote ourselves, try to do everything right, pay the FCC yearly fees for 4 frequencies, pay our corporate taxes, and actually doing well as a whole for radio in Buffalo, yet because I am the owner, if I don’t pay Neilson for their extortion, WECK would disappear from the ratings, even to Ad Agencies. Yet if I were female or minority owned, it would appear. That’s messed up.

I truly believe that is discrimination against me. And I am going to talk to some attorneys about this new practice Neilson has implemented recently. Wait until you see June ratings, you will see a few stations not appear. WECK won’t be one of them, but other stations are out beginning June.

To paragraphs 5 and 6 of this take: With all due respect, you just contradicted yourself. WDKX is Black-owned and they don't appear. (I couldn't give you the reason as to why they aren't in the book, or the last 2 books for that matter.) WUFO(1080/96.5)in Buffalo is not only Black-owned, but owned by a female(as well as by a member of the Buffalo Common Council). I can't speak to whether WUFO subscribes to Nielsen or not. That said, 'UFO is virtually a non-starter in Buffalo radio ratings; in the last 4 trends(or books; call it what you wish)it hasn't even pulled a 1.0(it had a .5 in the current book).

Just one more thing: Keep politics out of this, mmmkay? If you want to pin this on Nielsen, that's fine.

 

[Rusty Bridges]

Nielsen is politically agnostic. BTW, does WUFO-AM still radiate from the WECK-AM tower on Genesee Street? Ol' Gordon Brown was quite astute back in the 50s when he applied for the construction permit for the studio-transmitter location, just a few blocks across the Buffalo city line ... although the airport literally "just down the road" mandated the stick's limited height.