WBEN #1 News/Talk

[TheBigA]

That's what Inside Radio reports. They say in markets 51-100, WBEN is tied with WHP Harrisburg PA for the largest share 12+.

News/Talk, By The Numbers, Part 2: Buffalo's WBEN-AM, Harrisburg's WHP, Ann Arbor's WUOM Rule In Markets 51-100 and 101+.

The highest-rated news/talk stations pass in review for a second day in Inside Radio's “By The Numbers.” The rankings, exclusive to Inside Radio from Nielsen Audio, are based on average

www.insideradio.com

To be clear, that's not the most listeners, just largest share of their particular market. Interesting to see the number of AMs on that list.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

There must be a lot of angry white men in Buffalo, WBEN's lineup appears to be extreme right. I wonder what the age breakdown is for that station.

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder what the age breakdown is for that station.

For the purposes of this study, they all have to be older than 12. But typically, the median age for this format, done this way, is 60. With more than half of the audience over the age of 50, and only 2% between 12 and 24. That's for an average news/talk. It may be slightly older for an AM-only. As far as white men, it's about 60% male, and 87% white.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Also, Buffalo is a diary market which we know produces different results than PPM. In fact, I suspect fans of this type of political talk inflate the time spent listening when they write it in, much more than with music stations, because they want to support the hosts and validate and amplify their opinions.

I personally know people who filled out TV rating diaries years ago who did exactly that. They reported watching their favorite shows every day whether they really did or not because they wanted to support those shows and not see them get canceled. They knew exactly what they were doing.

 

[davideduardo]

Also, Buffalo is a diary market which we know produces different results than PPM. In fact, I suspect fans of this type of political talk inflate the time spent listening when they write it in, much more than with music stations, because they want to support the hosts and validate and amplify their opinions.

There is no evidence or proof that talk listeners "exaggerated" time spent listening any more than any other format. In the diary, people skipped writing those periods where they were away from the radio, making the time spent listening about two to three times longer than found in the PPM.

I personally know people who filled out TV rating diaries years ago who did exactly that. They reported watching their favorite shows every day whether they really did or not because they wanted to support those shows and not see them get canceled. They knew exactly what they were doing.

Again, I never saw atypical diary entries for talk stations, and at one point I programmed talk in Puerto Rico, Miami, NY, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, LA and even San Antonio and McAllen.

 

[davideduardo]

There must be a lot of angry white men in Buffalo, WBEN's lineup appears to be extreme right. I wonder what the age breakdown is for that station.

70% of AQH audience is over 55. 7% is 18-34, the rest is 35-54.

"Angry" is not a Nielsen stratification variable.

 

[TheBigA]

70% of AQH audience is over 55. 7% is 18-34, the rest is 35-54.

BTW WBEN's weighting is about the same as WECK's, given the median age of the two formats.

 

[davideduardo]

BTW WBEN's weighting is about the same as WECK's, given the median age of the two formats.

There is no statistic on the weighting done on each individual age cell, gender, ethnicity and so on. That is because in the new monthly "books" that cover 12 weekly samples, the weighting will be at least slightly different.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

There is no evidence or proof that talk listeners "exaggerated" time spent listening any more than any other format.

This is the type of political talk that gets listeners fired up though. All we have to to is look at social media -- Facebook and twitter -- to see how motivated people are to amplify and boost political opinions they agree with. While there may be no "evidence or proof" that it happens in radio ratings diaries, it's hard to believe participants aren't similarly doing whatever they can to amplify and boost the influence of the hosts they agree with. The proof, perhaps, is that it has "proven" to be human nature to do so.

BTW WBEN's weighting is about the same as WECK's, given the median age of the two formats.

And that's interesting because both stations vastly overperform compared to similar stations elsewhere.

 

[davideduardo]

This is the type of political talk that gets listeners fired up though. All we have to to is look at social media -- Facebook and twitter -- to see how motivated people are to amplify and boost political opinions they agree with. While there may be no "evidence or proof" that it happens in radio ratings diaries, it's hard to believe participants aren't similarly doing whatever they can to amplify and boost the influence of the hosts they agree with. The proof, perhaps, is that it has "proven" to be human nature to do so.

Having looked at, literally, millions of diaries over a 40 year period and having seen the TSL of talk vs music formats there is no evidence of blatant exaggeration. In fact, the TSL of many music formats matches or beats that of talk formats... and there are many reasons for that.

While an occasional diary may seem to be "voting", there are not enough to influence the outcome in a full book.

And that's interesting because both stations vastly overperform compared to similar stations elsewhere.

And both are better stations than available in comparable markets. And Buffalo, with only 27commercial and 8 non-coms in the MSA, has fewer stations than the average market of its size, meaning less fragmentation.

To make a performance evaluation, you'd really need the full report with demos, dayparts and the like.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

And Buffalo, with only 27commercial and 8 non-coms in the MSA, has fewer stations than the average market of its size, meaning less fragmentation.

If you were to factor in all the additional stations from Canada heard in the market it's probably among the most fragmented radio landscapes anywhere, but Nielsen doesn't make it look that way.

 

[davideduardo]

If you were to factor in all the additional stations from Canada heard in the market it's probably among the most fragmented radio landscapes anywhere, but Nielsen doesn't make it look that way.

That is because Buffalo has one of the absolute highest "local commercial shares" ranging between 78% and 82% over the last t years and 8 books. There is very little out-of-market listening. The remaining roughly 20 shares are mostly non-commercial local stations

Rochester has between 67 and 72 local commercial shares. Erie averages under 70%. Pittsburgh averages around 74%.

Nielsen tabulates out of market diary entries, whether Canadian, Mexican or American.

 

[tbolt909]

There must be a lot of angry white men in Buffalo, WBEN's lineup appears to be extreme right. I wonder what the age breakdown is for that station.

For the purposes of this study, they all have to be older than 12. But typically, the median age for this format, done this way, is 60. With more than half of the audience over the age of 50, and only 2% between 12 and 24. That's for an average news/talk. It may be slightly older for an AM-only. As far as white men, it's about 60% male, and 87% white.

It's logical to assume that WBEN skews even older and whiter. Old White Men are responsible for the stations ratings. WBEN also benefits from the diary system. Pretty sure that WBEN dropped out of the top 5 in 25-54 long ago...