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Buffalo April '26 book

C

ckg279

Disclaimers: Per Radio-Insight.com . 12+ only. Cumulus stations not included.

1. WYRK/106.5 10.1(up .8)
2. WBLK/93/7 8.6(down ,9)
3. WBEN/930 7.4(up .9)
4. WKSE/98.5 6.3(up .7)
5. WGR/550 5.9(down 1.1)

*WGR-FM's 107.7 pulled a .7(down .2).
*WBWA(89.9) showed up with a .2 .

For whatever reason, WBFO and WNED-FM didn't appear in the book.
 
WBFO and WNED-FM show up in the full 12+ report available here:

radioinsight.com

Buffalo/Niagara Falls

Nielsen Audio Monthly Ratings Buffalo/Niagara Falls (Market #59) Population: 1,011,800 Hispanic Population: 57,100 - Black Population: 133,100 Average Quarter Hour
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

Without Cumulus numbers, there's not a lot to discern here.
 
It's always amazing to me how well Country does in Upstate New York. It's #1 in Buffalo, #1 in Syracuse, #1 in Binghamton, #1 in Watertown, #2 in Rochester, #2 in Utica and #4 in Albany. In Rochester, Audacy-owned WBEE-FM was often #1 until iHeart set up a second Country station, WDVI. That's right, Rochester has two full power Country stations.

Yet, as we know, in New York State's largest city, there is no Country station.
 
Gregg. said:
It's always amazing to me how well Country does in Upstate New York. It's #1 in Buffalo, #1 in Syracuse, #1 in Binghamton, #1 in Watertown, #2 in Rochester, #2 in Utica, #4 in Albany.
Click to expand...
Much of Western New York is very much the rust belt, and is more economically similar to Cleveland or Pittsburgh than to NYC or Boston.

The state line that the King of England drew 300 years ago doesn't make much difference.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Much of Western New York is very much the rust belt, and is more economically similar to Cleveland or Pittsburgh than to NYC or Boston.

The state line that the King of England drew 300 years ago doesn't make much difference.
Click to expand...

Agreed. In addition, much of northern New York outside of NYC and the Hudson Valley is both rural and politically conservative.
 
The biggest reason that country does so well is that it's a popular format that has virtually no competition to split that audience. There's really only one station for mainstream country in the market. If there was only one rock station, it would likely be #1. Without the Cumulus stations and others that don't buy the book listed, there's no view of the "missing" numbers from the survey. If you add up the shares listed, you're only seeing 53.5% of the market!
 
I would like to address this, as it matters. I already have an email in to Nielsen.

There were only about 2100 total diaries that went out for April, out of 1,000,000 people. That is 12+. Last year in April, 2800 diaries went out

For 50 +, a pathetic 99 diaries went out. 99 !

That, and the deletion of many stations, do not make for a very reliable result.
 
Didn't they dump paper diaries in favor of online reporting? That had to cut Nielsen's costs considerably. Did they offer a reduction in price to subscribers? Or increase the number of samples?

As more and more listening goes to apps and online, Nielsen becomes less and less relevant. Other sources have data that may not be as granular, but certainly better reflects actual listening, not reported listening.
 
SirRoxalot said:
Didn't they dump paper diaries in favor of online reporting? That had to cut Nielsen's costs considerably. Did they offer a reduction in price to subscribers? Or increase the number of samples?

As more and more listening goes to apps and online, Nielsen becomes less and less relevant. Other sources have data that may not be as granular, but certainly better reflects actual listening, not reported listening.
Click to expand...
Hi Rox. No they did not cut the diaries out, they are simply adding an online answering version, but those online invites are sill factored into the overall diary count each month.

Like I mentioned, in April, for the entire DMA, 99 diaries were sent out to people 50+. Last year, it was nearly 200. Each month since, the diaries have decreased each month. This is why TV has switched to Comscore. Comscore does not do a diary system in TV, which Nielsen does, and even TV knows Neilsen is inaccurate.

WECK/WUSW will be subscribing to Nielsen again starting Aug. Why? Good question. Dumb mistake on my part.

I have a request in to my Nielsen rep. He’s a good guy, and assured me yesterday that he is going to look into why so few diaries are going out.

I will report back the findings to this board so everyone has the info.

Back in the day, Birch, owned by Tom Birch , was a very nice ratings alternative, and today, Eastland is in some markets as a Neilsen alternative

Unfortunately, they have not come to Buffalo, yet

I’ll keep you in the loop..
 
Buddy Shula said:
Like I mentioned, in April, for the entire DMA, 99 diaries were sent out to people 50+. Last year, it was nearly 200.
Click to expand...

This has been discussed before. The diaries are weighted. So those 99 diaries are weighted by the number of people over 55. That is an accepted statistical method. Nielsen isn't intended to be a one-to-one system that accurately presents which stations individuals listen to. It's a representative system. Those 99 people represent the larger population. By subscribing, you will get more information about those 99 people.
 
TheBigA said:
This has been discussed before. The diaries are weighted. So those 99 diaries are weighted by the number of people over 55. That is an accepted statistical method. Nielsen isn't intended to be a one-to-one system that accurately presents which stations individuals listen to. It's a representative system. Those 99 people represent the larger population. By subscribing, you will get more information about those 99 people.
Click to expand...

I do subscribe. My agency. Media One subscribes. You keep debating this. Why? I know what Nielsen is about.

I am waiting back from them to tell me why the overall diaries in the entire 12+ market have been cut 50% from a year ago.
 
99 diaries seems low to me based on what I remembered from my statistics classes so I looked it up…. A sample size of 99 for a 1m population would yield a 9.8% margin of error at 95% confidence. Even if I take off 25% that are 12 and under it still sounds pretty inaccurate to me.

————————-

If your target population is 1,000,000 people, the sample size needed depends much more on your desired margin of error and confidence level than on the population size itself.

For a standard survey at 95% confidence:

Margin of ErrorSample Size Needed
±5%~385 people
±4%~600 people
±3%~1,067 people
±2%~2,401 people
±1%~9,604 people

For radio ratings, a common benchmark is around ±3%, which would require roughly 1,000–1,100 respondents if the sample is truly random and representative.

However, radio audience measurement is more complex because:
  • You’re estimating listening behavior, not just a yes/no survey response.
  • Audience is often broken down by age, gender, and daypart.
  • Small stations may have very small audience shares, requiring larger samples for reliable estimates.
  • Systems such as Nielsen use continuous panels and weighting rather than a simple one-time random survey.
As an example, if 34% of Buffalo-Niagara’s population is 55+, a 1,000-person sample would contain about 340 people age 55+. The margin of error for that subgroup would be about ±5.3% at 95% confidence, which is substantially larger than for the full sample.
 
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