November Ratings

[SirRoxalot]

The 12+ ratings are in for Sept-Oct-Nov in both Buffalo and Rochester. Here are the Top 5.

Buffalo:
Sep Oct Nov
WBLK-FM Urban Contemporary Townsquare Media 9.4 9.0 9.0
WGRF-FM Classic Rock Cumulus Media, Inc. 8.2 8.1 8.2
WYRK-FM Country Townsquare Media 7.2 7.8 7.5
WHTT-FM Classic Hits Cumulus Media, Inc 7.8 6.7 7.3
WBEN-AM News/Talk Audacy 7.2 6.5 5.9

Rochester:
WDKX-FM Urban Contemporary Monroe 8.8 8.7 9.6
WBEE-FM Country Audacy 8.2 8.4 9.6
WHAM-AM News/Talk iHeartMedia, Inc. 5.3 6.3 6.7
WCMF-FM Classic Rock Audacy 7.8 7.1 6.1
WPXY-FM CHR Audacy 3.9 3.9 5.2

Get all the ratings at Radio Online:

Buffalo: https://ratings.****************/content/arb037
Rochester: Radio Industry News, Radio Show Prep, Radio Promotions, Radio Station Data, Podcast News

 

[tbolt909]

WLKK The Wolf posts a 1.1 share. The Cow Chip format continues to repel Radio listeners, yet Audacy Buffalo won't bury it on Boot Hill. The company obviously has much bigger issues, but this format has failed...

 

[Tall Thin One]

Looking at the Top 5, the top 3 stations are looking pretty stable. Classic Hits/WHTT is up slightly and News/Talk/WBEN is down a bit.

Elsewhere, CHR/KISS is flat in the high 5s, AC/96.1/WSTR is flat in the 4s and Sports/WGR is up a touch.

Another "up" for Buddy's Oldies/BIG WECK! JP is looking like a hero over on Genesee Street. (Must be the added "frosting" that I wrote about several months ago!). It's "Show Biz", right, JP?

And near the bottom of the heap,WEBR has a pulse and shows a hint of life, doubling after several months at .2, now up to a .4

 

[Rusty Bridges]

One of the things that intrigues me about these broad-based Persons 12+ numbers is WYRK. After years in the rarefied air of double digits, WYRK has slipped but maintained a steady baseline in the mid to upper seven range, sometimes tapping an 8 share. Not shabby, to be sure, but no longer double digits. Why? Is it the music coming our of Nashville? Is Country, as a format, losing its heat? Are WHTT and WECK nibbling at the edges? Is the Wolf nibbling at the edges? Has one part of the broad demographic appeal found an alternative? WYRK hasn't changed radically over the years. The staff is reasonably stable, the only real change being afternoon drive. The morning show is a legacy. The latest Wolf number is embarrassingly weak, but it may be just enough to be a stone in one of WYRK's very large boots.

And then there's WBEN. This poster thought the November election, particularly for Erie County Executive, would have provided more interest in the conservative leaning talk format, but it's slipped from a 7.7 in August to 5.9.

 

[Mark1981]

And then there's WBEN. This poster thought the November election, particularly for Erie County Executive, would have provided more interest in the conservative leaning talk format, but it's slipped from a 7.7 in August to 5.9.

A well-deserved slip, IMHO. With my beloved WBFO failing so much in the past year, I started listening more than I had in years to WBEN. As has been written on this board and elsewhere, WBEN excelled with its response to the paralyzing blizzard last Christmas. Through the rest of winter, spring, summer and early fall, I listened to WBEN at least once a day. The morning show interviews were always of interest and enlightening. Plus, Tom Puckett’s hourly newscasts and his 6pm show were informative. Then came the day before Thanksgiving. I was out-of-town when word broke of an explosion on the Rainbow Bridge. I went to the Audacy app on my iPhone and listened to WBEN’s coverage that afternoon. It was an utter disaster with what turned out to be outlandish misinformation. I wrote about it on my Substack, and the Buffalo News’ Alan Pergament followed up with a devastating critique of Tom Bauerle and David Bellevia. I was somewhat surprised that WBEN’s failings that afternoon were not acknowledged on this board. But your posting, Rusty, prompted me to respond here. WBEN lost all credibility with me after that. I haven’t listened to WBEN since. I’m now actually listening a couple of times each day to all-news WCBS on Alexa. At the very least, Audacy hasn’t screwed up that station yet.

 

[TheBigA]

It was an utter disaster with what turned out to be outlandish misinformation. I wrote about it on my Substack, and the Buffalo News’ Alan Pergament followed up with a devastating critique of Tom Bauerle and David Bellevia.

Here's a link to the article.

Alan Pergament: WBEN's Bauerle and Bellavia drive irresponsible Rainbow Bridge coverage

"In my 40-year career covering the local media, I’m not sure there has been a more disastrous day of radio coverage," Pergament writes.

buffalonews.com

This is why I often say that DJs or talk hosts shouldn't be trusted during disasters. It's exactly the kind of thing that local emergency officials fear. As my mom once said, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt.

 

[TheBigA]

WYRK has slipped but maintained a steady baseline in the mid to upper seven range, sometimes tapping an 8 share. Not shabby, to be sure, but no longer double digits. Why? Is it the music coming our of Nashville? Is Country, as a format, losing its heat?

Not nationally. In fact, the format has been very strong.

November Format Counts: Country Leads, Religion Gains, News/Talk Sheds.

It's situation normal with Inside Radio/PrecisionTrak's format counts for November: country still has a 100+-station lead over steadily-growing religion, while news/talk's station total remains on the decline. Country has lost

www.insideradio.com

My view is give WGRF & WHTT credit for delivering great product, and siphoning off some men from WYRK.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Here's a link to the article.

Alan Pergament: WBEN's Bauerle and Bellavia drive irresponsible Rainbow Bridge coverage

"In my 40-year career covering the local media, I’m not sure there has been a more disastrous day of radio coverage," Pergament writes.

buffalonews.com

This is why I often say that DJs or talk hosts shouldn't be trusted during disasters. It's exactly the kind of thing that local emergency officials fear. As my mom once said, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt.

I watched national television network news report early on that the vehicle had crossed the Rainbow Bridge from Canada, been stopped at customs, and directed to secondary inspection when it sped up, crashed, and exploded. This came from multiple sources including at least two of the major networks. It was hours later that we heard from an eyewitness that the vehicle came from the American side at a high rate of speed, swerved to miss a stationary vehicle, and went airborne when it hit a barrier before crashing into a building on the American side. It was much later that it was reported that it didn't appear to be a terrorist attack.

Baurle and Bellavia got the story wrong mostly because WBEN no longer has enough news staff to report on-scene incidents and they relied on national reports. Like Fox News, they spun those incorrect early reports into a terrorism attack. It seems pretty obvious that authorities on both sides of the border had the same initial reaction which is why they closed all border crossings for several hours.

Were Bauerle and Bellavia over the top with their hyperbole? Likely. I didn't hear their reporting mainly because I no longer consider WBEN to be a reliable source of news due to staff cuts and political bent. They were far from the only news outlet, either local or national, to report the incident as likely terrorism for several hours.

 

[TheBigA]

Baurle and Bellavia got the story wrong mostly because WBEN no longer has enough news staff to report on-scene incidents and they relied on national reports.

They got the story wrong because they're entertainers, not news people. They were the wrong people to be on the air, and the sad truth is most commercial news/talk stations only have people like that in the building outside of morning drive. They think they know everything, and they don't. Rule #1: Don't trust entertainers with a news story. They will say the wrong thing. It's better to ignore the story than to give misinformation.

 

[pepsiru1es92]

In their defense, they were on the story way before 2/4/7/Spec News. Early reports will be unreliable. And these same "entertainers" led the blizzard coverage last year, doing what I'd call an excellent job. Bauerle, Bellavia, and Beamer lived and worked out of Corporate Parkway for a couple days while "public radio" was MIA and the TV stations didn't really do as much as years past, in my opinion. I remember coverage being much more comprehensive on TV during October 2006 and November 2014. Bauerle and Wenger also provided good coverage of the riots/protests/whatever you wanna call it in 2020. They had bad info this go-around and that's unfortunate but these guys are good at breaking news when they need to be.

 

[TheBigA]

In their defense, they were on the story way before 2/4/7/Spec News. Early reports will be unreliable.

Which is why you don't speculate. As bad as their comments were, the real blame goes to Fox News, who had to walk back the story live on the air.

Fox Forced to Walk Back ‘Terrorist’ Claim at Rainbow Bridge

The right-wing network went all-in on suggesting the fiery crash may have been part of a jihadist plot by radicalized immigrants, only to quiet down as the situation developed.

www.thedailybeast.com

The Fox reporter IS a journalist who unfortunately works at a place that lies.

Saying nothing is better than saying the wrong thing. Being first with fiction is nothing to be proud of. Imagine if they had taken phone calls from listeners to get their thoughts on the story.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Which is why you don't speculate. As bad as their comments were, the real blame goes to Fox News, who had to walk back the story live on the air.

Fox Forced to Walk Back ‘Terrorist’ Claim at Rainbow Bridge

The right-wing network went all-in on suggesting the fiery crash may have been part of a jihadist plot by radicalized immigrants, only to quiet down as the situation developed.

www.thedailybeast.com

The Fox reporter IS a journalist who unfortunately works at a place that lies.

Saying nothing is better than saying the wrong thing. Being first with fiction is nothing to be proud of. Imagine if they had taken phone calls from listeners to get their thoughts on the story.

The fact is that this is far from a Bauerly/Bellavia problem. Journalism may not be dead these days, but it's on life support. We no longer have reporters, we have "storytellers" who offer "context," formerly known as opinion. Virtually EVERYBODY got the story wrong early on. There's tremendous pressure these days to be the fastest, not the most accurate. The best you can hope for is some hedging from news sources who at least tell you that the information they have hasn't been verified by using phrases like "reportedly" and "according to unconfirmed sources." Most outlets went to "Homeland Security Experts" who immediately speculated on "if this was a terrorist attack." The demonstrations calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and the past history of suicide bombers played into that speculation. Quite frankly, early on that explanation seemed a lot more plausible to most people than a terrible accident, especially when reports said the vehicle had been stopped coming across the bridge into the US from Canada. Pretty much every media outlet I saw speculated on that. Some, like Fox and the B&B boys used it to promote their agenda more than other media, but EVERYBODY got it wrong for the first hour.

 

[flybynight]

A well-deserved slip, IMHO. With my beloved WBFO failing so much in the past year, I started listening more than I had in years to WBEN. As has been written on this board and elsewhere, WBEN excelled with its response to the paralyzing blizzard last Christmas. Through the rest of winter, spring, summer and early fall, I listened to WBEN at least once a day. The morning show interviews were always of interest and enlightening. Plus, Tom Puckett’s hourly newscasts and his 6pm show were informative. Then came the day before Thanksgiving. I was out-of-town when word broke of an explosion on the Rainbow Bridge. I went to the Audacy app on my iPhone and listened to WBEN’s coverage that afternoon. It was an utter disaster with what turned out to be outlandish misinformation. I wrote about it on my Substack, and the Buffalo News’ Alan Pergament followed up with a devastating critique of Tom Bauerle and David Bellevia. I was somewhat surprised that WBEN’s failings that afternoon were not acknowledged on this board. But your posting, Rusty, prompted me to respond here. WBEN lost all credibility with me after that. I haven’t listened to WBEN since. I’m now actually listening a couple of times each day to all-news WCBS on Alexa. At the very least, Audacy hasn’t screwed up that station yet.

You can blame talk programmers for the mess that is today's newstalk radio. I'm not even referring to the fact that so many have dropped a lot in the ratings over the years, I'm talking about the cratering of their credibility and their mighty contribution to the damage that has been done to the nation's political and social discourse. Talk programmers could have insisted their hosts entertain the audience using facts and truth, but instead (and WBEN is a fantastic example of this), programmers allowed their hosts to be extraordinarily irresponsible and dishonest, just to gin up anger.

Lazy, ignroant, conscienceless and dishonest.

 

[flybynight]

In their defense, they were on the story way before 2/4/7/Spec News. Early reports will be unreliable. And these same "entertainers" led the blizzard coverage last year, doing what I'd call an excellent job. Bauerle, Bellavia, and Beamer lived and worked out of Corporate Parkway for a couple days while "public radio" was MIA and the TV stations didn't really do as much as years past, in my opinion. I remember coverage being much more comprehensive on TV during October 2006 and November 2014. Bauerle and Wenger also provided good coverage of the riots/protests/whatever you wanna call it in 2020. They had bad info this go-around and that's unfortunate but these guys are good at breaking news when they need to be.

Bravo for their professional behavior during a once-in-a-half-century blizzard.

Now how about being a responsible, honest and factual pro for the other 99.9% of the time?

 

[tbolt909]

The fact is that this is far from a Bauerly/Bellavia problem. Journalism may not be dead these days, but it's on life support. We no longer have reporters, we have "storytellers" who offer "context," formerly known as opinion. Virtually EVERYBODY got the story wrong early on. There's tremendous pressure these days to be the fastest, not the most accurate. The best you can hope for is some hedging from news sources who at least tell you that the information they have hasn't been verified by using phrases like "reportedly" and "according to unconfirmed sources." Most outlets went to "Homeland Security Experts" who immediately speculated on "if this was a terrorist attack." The demonstrations calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and the past history of suicide bombers played into that speculation. Quite frankly, early on that explanation seemed a lot more plausible to most people than a terrible accident, especially when reports said the vehicle had been stopped coming across the bridge into the US from Canada. Pretty much every media outlet I saw speculated on that. Some, like Fox and the B&B boys used it to promote their agenda more than other media, but EVERYBODY got it wrong for the first hour.

It turned out that eyewitnesses saw the car speeding on the US side. It was never in Canada. Fox News and WBEN never bothered to gather facts. They willingly chose to spread bogus ideas about terrorists to create a false narrative. Because the incident happened so close to a border crossing and was bizarre (Cars don't go airborne into border barriers everyday), people let imagination run wild.

Social Media distorts facts and spreads outright lies. Many people no longer believe News Media. WBEN is not a credible news station anymore, so it's no surprise they would exploit this incident into political propaganda. Even when the truth is revealed, many folks still won't accept it. Some people were saying the Governor was covering up what really happened or the FBI was lying. The era of Alternative Facts = (Bulls***) is grim indeed...

 

[SirRoxalot]

It turned out that eyewitnesses saw the car speeding on the US side. It was never in Canada. Fox News and WBEN never bothered to gather facts. They willingly chose to spread bogus ideas about terrorists to create a false narrative. Because the incident happened so close to a border crossing and was bizarre (Cars don't go airborne into border barriers everyday), people let imagination run wild.

Social Media distorts facts and spreads outright lies. Many people no longer believe News Media. WBEN is not a credible news station anymore, so it's no surprise they would exploit this incident into political propaganda. Even when the truth is revealed, many folks still won't accept it. Some people were saying the Governor was covering up what really happened or the FBI was lying. The era of Alternative Facts = (Bulls***) is grim indeed...

Apparently, you missed the part where ALL media, national and local, misreported the incident for at least the first hour. The real difference was the amount of speculation about whether or not it was terrorism and by whom.

 

[tbolt909]

Apparently, you missed the part where ALL media, national and local, misreported the incident for at least the first hour. The real difference was the amount of speculation about whether or not it was terrorism and by whom.

Fox News (And probably WBEN) won't walk back mistakes. That's not their business model. Every story has to be filtered or distorted through a political lens.

Not everyone misreported the incident as you say. They simply did not know exactly what happened. It's OK not to know the facts in the immediate aftermath. Nothing wrong with simply saying "We do not know yet". The FBI was brought in to determine the facts. Of course, some folks say it must be terrorism or the FBI wouldn't be there. Many don't want logic or the truth. They want immediate gratification and things that suit their beliefs...

 

[TheBigA]

EVERYBODY got it wrong for the first hour.

Which is why, once again, you wait until you know. The 24 hour news cycle has killed journalism. Real news takes time.

 

[flybynight]

Which is why, once again, you wait until you know. The 24 hour news cycle has killed journalism. Real news takes time.

In the same way that price ordered airline ticket search results have impacted airlines. It's a race to the bottom where you lose all perks---like facts, accuracy and a decent in-flight meal.

 

[TheBigA]

In the same way that price ordered airline ticket search results have impacted airlines. It's a race to the bottom where you lose all perks---like facts, accuracy and a decent in-flight meal.

We shouldn't act like it's new either. CNN celebrated its 40th anniversary a few years ago. Don Henley sang about it in his song Dirty Laundry in the 80s. So an entire generation has grown up with this type of thing, and they're now old enough to be working in it. This is why we're in a lot of trouble, electing celebrities to government instead of public servants. In that way government has become just another show instead of what it was intended to be.