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50,000 Watts, .1 Rating

B

Barry

The PPM's are out for August 2010. Though nothing new, I was struck by the abysmal ratings for Radio Disney on WQEW. Despite a 50,000 watt signal both day and night, they get a .1 rating month after month. In August, they had a cume of just 93,700.
Is it likely that since a large portion of their listeners are young children, their audience is much larger than reflected in the PPM ratings? Perhaps their 50,000 watt signal pulls in somewhat more listeners when other states that it reaches are counted?
 
Barry said:
The PPM's are out for August 2010. Though nothing new, I was struck by the abysmal ratings for Radio Disney on WQEW. Despite a 50,000 watt signal both day and night, they get a .1 rating month after month. In August, they had a cume of just 93,700.
Is it likely that since a large portion of their listeners are young children, their audience is much larger than reflected in the PPM ratings? Perhaps their 50,000 watt signal pulls in somewhat more listeners when other states that it reaches are counted?
Click to expand...

PPM rates persons 6+, so that includes the target for this one...
 
I wonder whether children as young as 6 years old can be relied on to carry around PPM meters on a daily basis. Does mom say, "dear, don't forget to take your PPM device."
 
The problem with Radio-Disney on AM is that kids over six are more likely to stream Radio-Disney over their computers at home or over their smart phones at home. I would say .1 is pretty decent for that kind of a low overhead format aimed at kids who have never pressed the AM/FM button.
 
Barry said:
I wonder whether children as young as 6 years old can be relied on to carry around PPM meters on a daily basis. Does mom say, "dear, don't forget to take your PPM device."
Click to expand...

6-12's are subject to the same standards as the rest of the household except that they do not need to carry it as many hours to "qualify" (be in tab and get incentives). If a 6-11 in a household does not comply over time, the entire household is dumped from the panel.
 
If Radio Disney wasn't the personal pet project of Disney/ABC, I would totally advocate swapping format and calls with WEPN. While FM seems to be the eventual destination for ESPN Radio in New York, having it on 1560 as well can't hurt. But it will never ever happen. Disney is more than willing to write off the obvious losses for 1560.

Most kids are 1000% less likely to locate the AM dial, let alone operate a radio. And I say this as one of my first transistor radios was a Radio Shack model in the likeness of Mickey Mouse (the left ear was the dial, the right ears was the on-off switch, and IIRC, the AM-FM switch was his nose).
 
Radio Disney is pretty much unknown to kids, you'll see many of the youngsters listening to CHR. In this case, most likely the kids are listening to Z100 or probably 92.3 NOW (though I doubt mom's would find Chunky and Buster's humor to be appropriate :p).
 
musicman3355 said:
Radio Disney is pretty much unknown to kids, you'll see many of the youngsters listening to CHR. In this case, most likely the kids are listening to Z100 or probably 92.3 NOW (though I doubt mom's would find Chunky and Buster's humor to be appropriate :p).
Click to expand...

If not loading up mp3 players/iPods with hundreds of tunes. ;)

In any event, Radio Disney may have the half-life of a Twinkie, long after the rest of terrestrial radio's decline. If not because it is effectively being subsidized by a multi-billion dollar company that's M.O. is family fare. In fact, Radio Disney's mere existence probably has probably helped keep much of their also-ran affiliates around the country still on the air in the first place.
 
brettbutlerisok said:
The problem with Radio-Disney on AM is that kids over six are more likely to stream Radio-Disney over their computers at home or over their smart phones at home...
Click to expand...

Show me a six-year-old with his/her own cell phone. Would it be from the Sony "My First Cell Phone" line?
 
Mendoza Line said:
I don't see that format working in the long term (or short term for that matter)
Click to expand...

Again, the Reason Radio Disney has lasted so long (15 years, as a matter of fact) is that The Walt Disney Co. pretty much subsidizes it. Disney's a big enough company to eat the costs and obvious massive losses that Radio Disney incurs, which would be horrifying to Citadel or Emmis, but to Disney... it's a drop in the bucket. Radio Disney simply exists to promote the Disney brand - a pet project to make them look good. Plus the turnkey format is appealing to also-ran or forgotten AM stations that have been overshadowed for decades by the FM dial, and it requires little to no effort.

So I don't see Radio Disney going away for a long, long time.
 
Radio Disney is the equivalent of audio cobwebs.

Ambient sounds and sound effects would be more interesting than RD or ESPN.
 
This is AM radio. AM radio is not in kids' perceptual set; FM barely is. Some of them don't get radio: I was driving a bunch of elementary-age kids last year. We had the radio on (a CHR FM station). One of the kids asked me to play a song over and didn't understand why I couldn't.

50kw doesn't mean as much at the high end of the band. WMCA covers somewhat more ground with 5kw.

Computer audio streams have PPM encoding.

If a kid is listening to Radio Disney (or anything) wearing ear pods, does PPM pick that up?
 
MattParker said:
One of the kids asked me to play a song over and didn't understand why I couldn't.
Click to expand...
...and why does it only show the time and some goofy numbers ???
 
MattParker said:
Some of them don't get radio: I was driving a bunch of elementary-age kids last year. We had the radio on (a CHR FM station). One of the kids asked me to play a song over and didn't understand why I couldn't.
Click to expand...

Kind of sad, isn't it? It must not be the 70's or 80's anymore. Radio was always fun growing up then.
 
Thats the problem,the corporate suits have taken the fun out of radio.
Theres no happy go lucky DJ .
He doesnt announce the songs anymore.
He doesnt pick the songs anymore.
Theres no variety.
NOTHING breaks format.
So how would you ever hear anything different?
BORING!
Back to my Sirius and Ipod.
 
magicjellybeans said:
He doesnt pick the songs anymore.
Theres no variety.
NOTHING breaks format.
So how would you ever hear anything different?
BORING!
Click to expand...

You've got that right!...except for a select few.
 
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