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All-News Scoreboard for Major Markets: November 2014

G

Gregg.

Once again this month, WTOP is #1 in Washington. And in Chicago, San Francisco and Detroit, WBBM, KCBS and WWJ are in the #2 slot.

Reports say Cumulus is unhappy with the ratings at KGO, which switched a couple of years ago to a mostly All-News format on weekdays. There are reports a local Talk host is being hired for early afternoons. It already has Ronn Owens, held over from the previous Talk format, in late mornings. And syndicated Cumulus Talk host John Batchelor is now being heard at 11pm. This is what Cumulus did when it was ending All-News at WYAY Atlanta. It slowly added a few Talk shows, saying it was still committed to the All-News format. Then eventually the All-News blocks were cancelled outside morning and afternoon drive. Is the same thing happening at KGO?

1. New York...WINS #8 ... WCBS #13 tie
2. Los Angeles...KNX #11
3. Chicago...WBBM/WCFS(FM) #2
4. San Francisco...KCBS/KFRC(FM) #2 ... KGO*^ #17
5. Dallas...KRLD* #15 tie
6. Houston...No All-News station
7. Washington...WTOP(FM) #1 ... WNEW-FM^ #21
8. Philadelphia...KYW #7
9. Atlanta...No All-News station
10. Boston...WBZ* #8
(11. Detroit...WWJ #2)
(13. Seattle...KOMO-AM-FM #13 tie)
(25. Pittsburgh...KQV* does not subscribe)

* part-time All-News station
^ station started All-News in the last couple of years

All stations are owned by CBS except KGO (Cumulus), WTOP (Hubbard), KOMO (Sinclair) and KQV (Calvary). In parenthesis, I include the ratings for the three All-News stations outside the top 10 markets.
 
SF is a tough market, lots of competition and very strong public radio outlets. If Cumulus is worried about the ratings, adding a talk show isn't likely to improve them.
 
umfan said:
SF is a tough market, lots of competition and very strong public radio outlets. If Cumulus is worried about the ratings, adding a talk show isn't likely to improve them.
Click to expand...

How did it do last month?
 
Position the station for the best cash flow possible. My view is that they are getting the best ratings they are going to get with that station and format tweaks, if they don't reduce costs or address a schedule gap probably aren't going to generate a good ROI. Further, that is one market where a local salesforce, working on commission, could target small businesses that cater to the audience for that product. If they don't have that in place, put it in place.
 
umfan said:
Position the station for the best cash flow possible.
Click to expand...

I think they did all that a few years ago. They have very limited options. At the same time, they own the #1 station in town with KNBR-AM. And an even lower-rated AM that does syndicated conservative talk. They're trying to build a unique audience...one that's attracted to things besides straight news, which is already available at KCBS. So their thought is a mix of straight news & talk might attract some interest. The reality is anything they do will take years to pay off.
 
When KGO was perhaps the nation's most successful Talk station for two decades, they still had All-News blocks weekdays 5-9am, Noon-1pm, 4-7pm. KGO was always #1 from the 1980s to the early 2000s. The station scored well in the 25-54 demo, even as FM was dominant among the under-50 crowd. But over time, the Talk shows started to drop in the ratings, even though the news segments were still getting good ratings.

So a few years ago, Cumulus decided to put All-News on during the weekdays, except for Ronn Owens in late mornings, who still had good ratings, as well as a contract that required him to be paid whether he worked or not. It really didn't cost them much more to have the newscasters work a few more hours, since the news staff was already doing three newsblocks each weekday.

Now I suppose Cumulus is looking at the ratings for KNBR and KCBS and saying, AM is NOT dead in San Francisco. Maybe we can bring back Talk shows on KGO, with newsblocks mornings and afternoons, similar to KGO's glory days. The trouble is, KCBS is already All-News 24/7, on both AM and FM. KQED already has tons of listeners interested in long-form news and talk programs, and they're on FM. And sister station 560 KSFO already has the Conservative Talk market covered, with Rush, Hannity, Savage and Beck on the schedule.

Unless KGO can find moderate to liberal hosts with lots of experience and great ratings, I'm not sure it makes much sense to go back to a Talk format.
 
At least this indicates they are putting some effort into the property instead of just ignoring it. I didn't know that about KGO, good information.
 
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