October 6+ Ratings

[TheBigA]

New York

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings New York City (Market #1) Population: 16,299,100 Black: 2,670,400 - Hispanic: 4,273,100 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons

radioinsight.com

Two stations missing: WEPN-FM (with TJ) and WHSQ (listed as N/A). Obviously neither of them are subscribing.

The station that may have lost the most is Z-100, perhaps because of TJ.

WINS hasn't gained anything from the loss of WCBS-AM.

WQXR has it's best numbers in a while.

 

[Always interested]

New York

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings New York City (Market #1) Population: 16,299,100 Black: 2,670,400 - Hispanic: 4,273,100 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons

radioinsight.com

Two stations missing: WEPN-FM (with TJ) and WHSQ (listed as N/A). Obviously neither of them are subscribing.

The station that may have lost the most is Z-100, perhaps because of TJ.

WINS hasn't gained anything from the loss of WCBS-AM.

WQXR has its best numbers in a while.

WABC 5.0 I guess because of the Election 🗳️. WFAN is up bc of the Yankees. New 102.7 doing well. KTU dropped out of the top 10

 

[K.M. Richards]

Research Director's analysis of the PPM ratings in the key demos, in the top five Nielsen markets:

RADIO RATINGS ROUNDUP, October 2024, Part I | Research Director, Inc.

Ahhh, OCTOBER. The foliage, the taint of pumpkin spice on, well, everything, and the MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL post-season. The time when the biggest que

researchdirectorinc.com

 

[Gregg.]

Several things stand out. First is Lite-FM's incredible dominance, two ratings points ahead of the #2 station. I wonder why nobody has ever taken the station head-on or tried to go just a bit softer. In the early 2000s, WPLJ and WNEW-FM battled for the Hot AC audience, while Lite had the AC crowd to itself. And not since 93.1 WPAT-FM was Soft AC in the 1990s has anyone in NYC tried to challenge WLTW. Of course, WPAT-FM had little success and was sold in 1996, flipping to Latin AC.

My second observation is WABC's finish at #6. I think that's the best ratings since its Top 40 days. The ratings distance between 770 and 710 is surprising. WOR finished tied at #18. WABC has more than three times the listeners.

In the demographic ratings, iHeart rules. WLTW, WHTZ and WAXQ are all represented. But again, we have the oddity of iHeart's oldest skewing station, Lite-FM, as #1 in the 18-34 demo. And its youngest skewing station, Z100, is #1 in the 25-54 demo.

 

[mets18]

New York

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings New York City (Market #1) Population: 16,299,100 Black: 2,670,400 - Hispanic: 4,273,100 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons

radioinsight.com

Two stations missing: WEPN-FM (with TJ) and WHSQ (listed as N/A). Obviously neither of them are subscribing.

The station that may have lost the most is Z-100, perhaps because of TJ.

WINS hasn't gained anything from the loss of WCBS-AM.

WQXR has it's best numbers in a while.

WFAN stream right on the heels of WXBK

 

[TheBigA]

The ratings distance between 770 and 710 is surprising. WOR finished tied at #18. WABC has more than three times the listeners.

One might wonder why that is, and my theory is that WABC is more local than WOR.

It wasn't always that way. At one time, WOR was filled with local talk, and back then, they were top rated.

 

[CTListener]

New York

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings New York City (Market #1) Population: 16,299,100 Black: 2,670,400 - Hispanic: 4,273,100 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons

radioinsight.com

Two stations missing: WEPN-FM (with TJ) and WHSQ (listed as N/A). Obviously neither of them are subscribing.

The station that may have lost the most is Z-100, perhaps because of TJ.

WINS hasn't gained anything from the loss of WCBS-AM.

WQXR has it's best numbers in a while.

Look who's commenting on meaningless 6+ numbers!

 

[TheBigA]

Look who's commenting on meaningless 6+ numbers!

That's why I specifically titled this thread the "6+ ratings."

There are a lot of things that can't be seen when you look at the demos. Research Director cherry picks the stations they report.

My comments were about things not covered in the demo breakdowns.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Look who's commenting on meaningless 6+ numbers!

Perhaps because too many of those here refuse to accept anything else as a valid basis for discussion?

 

[K.M. Richards]

There are a lot of things that can't be seen when you look at the demos. Research Director cherry picks the stations they report.

True, but one would think (well, I do, anyway) that knowing the top five or six stations in the key demos should suffice. Honestly, what value is there is discussing the difference of the stations tied for #20 in any demographic?

 

[TheBigA]

True, but one would think (well, I do, anyway) that knowing the top five or six stations in the key demos should suffice.

I like them both for different reasons. The main reason I posted the 6+ numbers was because there has been a lot of discussion about the TJ show on 98.7 and the move of ESPN NY to 880. Neither station subscribes, and that can be clearly seen in the 6+ numbers.

 

[100IBU+]

The election probably fuels WABC, but it has made me turn to WQXR. I’m guessing I’m not the only one.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

WABC 5.0 I guess because of the Election

I wonder if WABC got some of WCBS's exiled listeners. WINS hardly gained anything from the loss of WCBS.

Frankly, as a former regular WCBS morning listener I find WINS intolerable in the morning. It's OK during the rest of the day but the morning hosts waste so much time hamming it up and there's so much fluff instead of actual news. I guess they must be under orders to be "entertainers", not news anchors. That's bad enough on its own but god help us if much of the WCBS audience went to 770 for "news".

That's why I specifically titled this thread the "6+ ratings."

It would be more helpful to title it NYC Ratings and include the link to the Research Director report so it's a more comprehensive thread. That what myself and others have normally done in the past, it just makes the discussion better instead of pigeonholing the subject to 6+.

There are a lot of things that can't be seen when you look at the demos. Research Director cherry picks the stations they report.

They report numbers for the top 5 stations and notable movers in each demo. They can't publish everything but their reports are much more enlightening than the 6+ reports everyone else prints.

 

[K.M. Richards]

It would be more helpful to title it NYC Ratings and include the link to the Research Director report so it's a more comprehensive thread. That what myself and others have normally done in the past, it just makes the discussion better instead of pigeonholing the subject to 6+.

They report numbers for the top 5 stations and notable movers in each demo. They can't publish everything but their reports are much more enlightening than the 6+ reports everyone else prints.

Thank you for saying that. It mirrors a lot of my reasoning for posting the link.

 

[leethalweapon]

One might wonder why that is, and my theory is that WABC is more local than WOR.

It wasn't always that way. At one time, WOR was filled with local talk, and back then, they were top rated.

It make me wonder, Why didn't iHeart apply the same programming theory in New York, with a local talk line up, as they do in Los Angeles? Surely watch WABC climbing must make iHeart rethink their strategy.

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder if WABC got some of WCBS's exiled listeners.

That was one of the theories people talked about two months ago. Certainly the WABC morning show can't be appealing to anyone who likes real news.

It make me wonder, Why didn't iHeart apply the same programming theory in New York, with a local talk line up, as they do in Los Angeles? Surely watch WABC climbing must make iHeart rethink their strategy.

That's a good observation, but I think the difference is that in LA, iHeart has another AM where it sticks its syndicated talk shows. In NY, they use that second AM for BIN.

 

[TheMusicMan]

Several things stand out. First is Lite-FM's incredible dominance, two ratings points ahead of the #2 station. I wonder why nobody has ever taken the station head-on or tried to go just a bit softer. In the early 2000s, WPLJ and WNEW-FM battled for the Hot AC audience, while Lite had the AC crowd to itself. And not since 93.1 WPAT-FM was Soft AC in the 1990s has anyone in NYC tried to challenge WLTW. Of course, WPAT-FM had little success and was sold in 1996, flipping to Latin AC.

I don't think attacking Lite head-on is realistic in 2024, if it ever was. A clue into Lite's dominance: Lite's monthly cume of 3.5M listeners is a full million listeners -- or +37% -- higher than that of the #2-cuming station, CBS-FM. That is a staggering cume differential that no station in the market will ever make up. Lite's brand is way too entrenched and the station is way too well-suited for NYC listening behaviors for any other outcome.

With that said, CBS/Audacy has had Lite and Z100 in its crosshairs for two decades. Remember that the station we now know as New 102.7 began its life in earnest as "bright" AC Fresh 102.7. A few years in, CBS hired the key programming mind behind Lite, Jim Ryan, who evidently decided they were better off running a squeeze play -- taking 102.7 hotter in recognition of PLJ's weakness and Z100's strength, and programming CBS-FM softer than most of its Classic Hits sisters. Both frequencies have been so successful over the last decade (with 'NEW surging after PLJ's exit) that it's hard to remember what bad shape they were in twenty years ago.

Will the CBS-NEW combination ever fully depose the Lite-Z100 combo (not to mention KTU)? Probably not. But combined with WFAN and WINS, the results are strong enough to position Audacy's cluster about as well as anyone can hope.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

That's a good observation, but I think the difference is that in LA, iHeart has another AM where it sticks its syndicated talk shows. In NY, they use that second AM for BIN.

In both cases in NY they bought those stations specifically for those purposes and implemented those plans immediately

 

[Barry]

WLTW offers a whopping three hours of commercial free programming during the morning hours. I wonder wherther that is a significant factor in driving up their ratings.

 

[davideduardo]

I wonder if WABC got some of WCBS's exiled listeners. WINS hardly gained anything from the loss of WCBS.

The news format tends to have minimal sharing with talk formats. The WCBS listeners likely either went to WINS-FM or to NPR.

Frankly, as a former regular WCBS morning listener I find WINS intolerable in the morning. It's OK during the rest of the day but the morning hosts waste so much time hamming it up and there's so much fluff instead of actual news. I guess they must be under orders to be "entertainers", not news anchors. That's bad enough on its own but god help us if much of the WCBS audience went to 770 for "news".

Yet WINS was up nicely, both in 6+ and 25-54. The FM, of course, added much potential in the under-55 demos.

It would be more helpful to title it NYC Ratings and include the link to the Research Director report so it's a more comprehensive thread. That what myself and others have normally done in the past, it just makes the discussion better instead of pigeonholing the subject to 6+.

The Research Director is not part of Lance Venta's services. Why would you expect him (and me) to promote it?

They report numbers for the top 5 stations and notable movers in each demo. They can't publish everything but their reports are much more enlightening than the 6+ reports everyone else prints.

Then bookmark it and go there when the ratings analysis is offered. Simple.