Anybody Notice The 'Merge Wilmington With Philly' Thread?

[bierkenstock]

Seems like non of the regulars have picked up on this thread currently active on the Philly Board.

Is Philly Really The Number Five Market?

Arbitron counts Wilmington as another market. The government counts Wilmington as part of the Philadelphia Metro Area. Arbitron almost uses government metros as radio markets, except for Wilmington. Click the link for more details.

What would happen if Wilmington got merged into the Philly market?

Good news for JBR and STW? They'd become Philly stations and make more money. They'd have to make a push for Philly listeners and do more promotion in PA and NJ. JBR might change format to avoid going head-to-head with B101.

The AM stations would become suburban stations like WCOJ, WBCB, etc. Good for local-live WDEL which already does a good business with local advertisers. Might be a problem with syndicated shows if the Philly affiliate has exclusivity in the market.

The Kent and Cecil county rim-shots would become even more irrelevant. They would be hurting.

Philly stations would pay more attention to Delaware, like they do New Jersey.

 

[wheatstone]

For the most part, metros are determined by the subscribers. Wilmington is an adjacent metro to Philly. Other metros are actually embeded within larger metros. The Fredericksburg, VA metro is inside the Washington DC metro for example. This was done because some suburban stations wanted to pull their market / trading area out of a larger metro and show how well they served that area. Arbitron is only too willing to take their money.

For WSTW and WJBR, merging into Philly would be stupid. Would you rather be #1 or #2 in market 75 or 23rd or something in market 7. They already out bill some of the smaller players in Philly. And who would want to have to market a station in Philadlephia? TV, billboards, direct mail etc. costs would go through the roof if they really wanted to compete in a market ten times the size of Wilmington.

And for the Philadelphia stations, the added population would only push it back up to #5. That would hardly unlock additional ad dollars. And to top it off, the larger population would actually LOWER their quarter hour RATINGS making it harder to deliver cost per point. They are already reeling from PPM AQH hits. This wouldn't help.

 

[bk1808]

Having read the thread I gather the one bennie to the Wilmington area was that the Philly stations would talk more about them. Perhaps we should ask the people of Niagara Falls, Schenectady and Troy, NY how much attention they get as part of a 'merged' market before we say that that would ever happen. As far as counting toward the Philly book, both the Lancaster and Reading surveys add their data to the Philly book. Wilmington could (or might, since I don't know) do the same and still be market 75 on their own.

 

[number one fan]

Lancaster and Reading are in the Philadelphia TSA book. So are Wilmington and Dover.
None of them are in the Metro book everybody talks about.

 

[bk1808]

The point remains that this would be a wholly one-sided deal, benefitting Philadelphia's stations a little (BTW; maybe if the residents weren't all shooting one an other they'd be market #5 without having to annex Wilmington) and hurting Wilmington's a lot. I reiterate my analogy to Niagara Falls (where I once worked) and Schenectady. They became part of a twinned market and have completely lost any local broadcast coverage. So the argument about how much listenership the Wilmington stations is misplaced because that number will decrease to next to nothing if that happens. In addition to that, to the suggestion that Wilmington is just a part of Philadelphia that happens to be in another state, then why didn't ING open all those offices in Philly? It's NOT the same city.

 

[Al Johnson]

BK, I spoke to the points you raised in the thread on the Philly board. Because of the cross-posting rule, I won't repeat them here but I invite you take a look at them in the other thread.

I will observe you seem to be making your case based on what's good for Wilmington radio. My original point in the other thread was the Office of Management and Budget has drawn a map of metro areas based on real world statistics to describe people's commuting, shopping, marketing and (yes) use of media. It looks like Wilmington has already voted on this with their radio dials (most of which are set on Philly stations). Advertisers voted, too, a Wilmington grossly under-performs in ad revenue.

Philly is not the same city. Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington are part of the same Metro area. State lines don't matter to radio signals, or listeners.

The government drew their Metro areas based on real world behavior and Arbitron almost always follows. You ask why should Wilmington be included in the Philadelphia radio market? I ask why was it excluded in the first place (based on factual descriptions of where people live, work, shop and what they listen to on the radio)?

 

[bk1808]

Because this is more than a "what's good for Philadelphia's radio stations" issue. If the Wilmington market is dissolved it will not be long before someone, not you obviously, will be on this board complaining that there is no coverage of Wilmington/Delaware news and events. Then they will blame the station owners for not having enough newspeople or jocks, but they are just trying to pay what staff they can without ANY ad revenue (You say they are 'underperforming' now, but if they are that just proves that it will get worse without a separate market.) because it will all go to the Philly stations. Then they will be sold to be repeaters for Philly stations and you'll be able to hear Smerconish (who doesn't event address Philly that much anymore) more easilly on 'PHT's DE 'repeater' frequency or BENfm on 95.7 and 94.7. (See Wiles Barre/Scranton for example, just about everyone there has to be on two sticks to reach the whole market.)

 

[Al Johnson]

BK, it's a safe bet that whatever anyone does in radio, somebody will be on this board complaining about it. LOL

I say the whole market under performs. Advertisers know they don't have to buy Wilmington because they reach Wilmington by buying Philadelphia. As noted in the other thread, eight out of ten listeners are tuned to out of market stations. If you add in the rim-shots, you still have about seven out of ten listeners listening to out of state stations.

As various people pointed out in the other thread thread, Wilmington would likely be included in the Philadelphia Metro as an embedded market (like San Jose or Long Island). Wilmington would still be reported separately as Market 75 and it's numbers included in the Philadelphia Metro numbers. The bad news, as also pointed out, Wilmington would get PPMs. I have a hunch people in Wilmington may have been over-reporting their listening to local stations (at least the two AM news/talk stations).

Wilmington still has two stations doing local news. Two is unusual for a market this size and one is likely to become syndicated and automated whether Wilmington remains its own market or not. Given the signal these stations have, they are still likely to focus on their home counties even if Wilmington is rated as part of Metro Philly, just as stations in Chester and Montgomery Counties do (WNPV in Montgomery County has a very good local news operate and runs local news blocks in morning and afternoon drive).

I also asked in the other thread if the Wilmington audience really has that much interest in local news. The combined ratings for the two local news/stations are much less than you see on the leading local news stations in most markets (either with an all news format or a news/talk format). The Lehigh Valley (a market about the size of Wilmington) supports a very active TV news operation but Wilmington has not. And Wilmington does not support a public radio station of its own (despite having two government-owned stations that could be used for that purpose). I pointed out that Wilmington has more in common with North of the state line than with South of the canal and most people's orientation and interest is to the Greater Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Metro area rather than to downstate (except on those weekends when people drive down to the Delaware/Maryland shore).

I don't know how Arbitron came to exclude Wilmington from the rest of the "Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington" MSA. Maybe when these markets were set up in the days of AM radio, folks in Wilmington did not listen to Philly stations that much. Maybe the AM signals from Philly were not much better then, even with far less interference. Three of the four "golden age" radio networks had affiliates in Wilmington and Philadelphia (the exception was CBS, which did not have a Wilmington affiliate and you had to listen to 1210 for Godfrey and after 1948, Jack Benny and Amos n' Andy).

I'm not sure I follow your point about repeaters. The Philadelphia FM signals cover Wilmington well (no repeaters needed). STW and JBR are music stations and don't have that much local identity; they could be any where and sound pretty much the same as other stations around the country playing the same formats. Truth is it's hard for me to tell the difference between B-101, JBR and the Allentown station at 100.7 I pick up sometimes. If Wilmington were an embedded market, both Wilmington FMs would target the entire Metro more. Now that Beasley owns JBR, that may happen anyway. I'm not sure what The River (a move-in from Dover) and the Havre de Grace "Country Station" would do, but both are out of market any way you look at it with poor signals over much of the Wilmington area.

Political boundaries don't reflect how people live, work, shop and socialize, or listen to the radio. Maybe Wilmington as a separate market once reflected how real people behave; I doubt it does any more. I also doubt if people outside this board would notice or care much.

 

[bk1808]

A) I think you underestimate the Wilmington resident's intrest in their communities. You're not alone, it's what has made a homogeonous waste of most corporately-owned radio clusters.

B) The last rating that I saw had 3 out of the top 5 stations from DE, the two AM talkers combining for a 5.3 which would have placed 4th, KYW nowhere to be seen and wherever there was a local station vs. a Philly one, the DE station won. (WDEL way ahead of KYW and WPHT, WXCY ahead of WXTU, WSTW way ahead of WIOQ and WJBR with 4x the share of WBEB. So where, exactly, is this overwhelming disinterest in the local stations?

C) As for differences between stations. Musically there may not be obvious ones, but in my mind it's where the station goes and what it promotes that differentiates Philly stations from Wilmington ones. Would Q102 be doing a remote at the St. Anthony's Festival? (Or, better yet, the Greek festival just before it?) Is Smerconish going to go live from the Wilmington flower market? No.

Joe Thomas

 

[Al Johnson]

A) I think you underestimate the Wilmington resident's intrest in their communities. You're not alone, it's what has made a homogeonous waste of most corporately-owned radio clusters.

B) The last rating that I saw had 3 out of the top 5 stations from DE, the two AM talkers combining for a 5.3 which would have placed 4th, KYW nowhere to be seen and wherever there was a local station vs. a Philly one, the DE station won. (WDEL way ahead of KYW and WPHT, WXCY ahead of WXTU, WSTW way ahead of WIOQ and WJBR with 4x the share of WBEB. So where, exactly, is this overwhelming disinterest in the local stations?

C) As for differences between stations. Musically there may not be obvious ones, but in my mind it's where the station goes and what it promotes that differentiates Philly stations from Wilmington ones. Would Q102 be doing a remote at the St. Anthony's Festival? (Or, better yet, the Greek festival just before it?) Is Smerconish going to go live from the Wilmington flower market? No.

Joe Thomas

Joe, obviously you know, better than most, that a station can be in the Philadelphia Metro and still serve a smaller community of interest.

My comparison was local news ratings in Wilmington compared local news ratings in other cities (local news stations get a bigger share in Philly than do local news stations in Wilmington). Granted, local news is only one factor in generating an audience but in many other markets the stations who base their appeal (at least in part) on local news get higher total share numbers than do the two Wilmington stations.

I have to wonder how much these remotes (in Wilmington or West Chester) matter in the great scheme of things as far as getting and keeping an audience. Event promoters may think they are getting free publicity but they don't pay taxes. They can afford to buy spots. I suspect Wilmington and West Chester stations do remotes because they've always done remotes. Little old ladies (images from "The Producers" are now flashing through my mind) come tell you they love your show; whether they actually listen much is debatable. Philly stations don't do that many remotes even in Philly.

DEL should put you on full time. Maybe when they see the PM drive numbers in the next book. In the meantime, console yourself with how bad the COJ Morning Show sounds these days.

 

[wheatstone]

A. I say the whole market under performs. Advertisers know they don't have to buy Wilmington because they reach Wilmington by buying Philadelphia.

B. I also asked in the other thread if the Wilmington audience really has that much interest in local news.

C. I don't know how Arbitron came to exclude Wilmington from the rest of the "Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington" MSA. Maybe when these markets were set up in the days of AM radio, folks in Wilmington did not listen to Philly stations that much. Maybe the AM signals from Philly were not much better then, even with far less interference.

A. What about all the advertisers in Wilmington who don't want to reach Philadelphia (or pay Philly rates) to promote their businesses? Would Happy Harry's, Nucar and Concord Pet be better off spending their ad dollars on B101 and WMMR or WSTW and WJBR? The latter would have to charge a lot more than they do now if they were to become Philadelphia metro stations. I'm not sure who would be served by such a move. Maybe the poor Philadelphia stations that you seem so eager to protect and promote. Do you own a lot of Clear Channel stock or something? Maybe you're friends with the last few remaining air personalities in Philly.

B. Using this logic Gannett should fold its tent and just reprint the Philadelphia Inquirer for distribution in Delaware. Since no one is interested in local news or sports down there... And WDEL and WILM, just turn them off too. Since no one cares, no one will notice. 1060 is all you need.

C. Of course the markets were set up when AM was king and there were less than half the stations on the air as we have today. Weren't most markets defined in the 60's and 70's? Also, don't forget that Chester County used to be part of the Wilmington Metro.

 

[Al Johnson]

A. What about all the advertisers in Wilmington who don't want to reach Philadelphia (or pay Philly rates) to promote their businesses? Would Happy Harry's, Nucar and Concord Pet be better off spending their ad dollars on B101 and WMMR or WSTW and WJBR? The latter would have to charge a lot more than they do now if they were to become Philadelphia metro stations. I'm not sure who would be served by such a move. Maybe the poor Philadelphia stations that you seem so eager to protect and promote. Do you own a lot of Clear Channel stock or something? Maybe you're friends with the last few remaining air personalities in Philly.

B. Using this logic Gannett should fold its tent and just reprint the Philadelphia Inquirer for distribution in Delaware. Since no one is interested in local news or sports down there... And WDEL and WILM, just turn them off too. Since no one cares, no one will notice. 1060 is all you need.

C. Of course the markets were set up when AM was king and there were less than half the stations on the air as we have today. Weren't most markets defined in the 60's and 70's? Also, don't forget that Chester County used to be part of the Wilmington Metro.

I'm sorry, Wheat. I was about to type that what you wrote was the most irrational argument I've ever seen. On second thought, it resembles the kind of emotional and unreasoned arguments people used against:
1. The Equal Rights Amendment (Everybody would have to use the same bathroom).
2. Smoke Free Laws (Would kill the restaurant business)
3. Bring back the Fairness Doctrine (Would destroy talk radio and free speech)

The more I see some of the responses to the idea of letting radio markets reflect reality, the more convinced I become that the blogger who first noticed the discrepancy between Arbitron markets and official MSA definitions might be on to something.

Let me respond to the points you raised:

A. Wilmington advertisers would still have three currently active AM stations to target a smaller and more specific geographic area. However, Concord and Happy Harry do have stores in Pennsylvania and car dealers typically market to a fairly large geographic area. The signal of Wilmington's two FMs is a regional signal and right now most of their signal coverage is being wasted (and potential revenue is curtailed).

The Wilmington market as Arbitron now defines it also includes Salem and Cecil Counties. How Cecil got in there I have no idea because people there are oriented to Baltimore and the strongest AM signal comes from York. In any case, neither county gets any attention from the Wilmington stations. Wilmington's rim-shot FM stations might actually have to go back to serving Kent and Harford, their home counties, too (instead of trying to "move in" to Wilmington and trying to con advertisers into believing their signals actually provide decent coverage of Wilmington).

Again, when somebody says something you don't want to hear, you attack their (supposed) motives.

B. New Castle County has a population comparable to Delaware and Chester Counties and much smaller than Bucks and Montgomery Counties. Those counties have daily newspapers and AM stations covering local news and local events and targeting their home counties for advertisers (i.e., WCOJ, WNPV, WBCB).

If the Inquirer began producing a targeted edition for New Castle County, including an NCC local news section, this would in my view be a benefit and not a problem for New Castle County. The News-Journal is a disgrace. Even though the Inquirer is not the paper it was in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, it remains far superior to Gannett's McPaper. If you don't like Clear Channel, how can you support it's equivalent in the newspaper world?

And finally, there's the point (which someone else made originally) that if Arbitron redrew their markets to correspond to the official definitions, Wilmington would still probably be reported on it's own and as part of the Philly Metro as an embedded market. Places like Long Island, San Jose and Frederick are embedded markets and radio is still alive and well in those areas. Just like, Delaware's smoke-free restaurants are doing just fine, filled with people who can taste their dinners and don't go home with smoke-smell on their clothes.

 

[number one fan]

Y'all talk like if this happens you'd lose your job.
If this happens you can put on your resume you worked in the number five market.

 

[wheatstone]

I agree this is being over thought. You cannot apply logic to Arbitron. All the reasoning in the world to fold Wilmington into Philly doesn't matter. The Wilmington Metro was created by and exists for the Delaware radio stations who subscribe to the data there. If they stop funding the market, it will cease to exist - in the Arbitron world that is. It happened to the Springfield, IL market. Arbitron lost two of its three subscribers there and the market went away. If that happened to Wilmington, I'm sure Arbitron would pitch Philly radio to pay the extra expense to make New Castle and Salem metro counties. Cecil would be a stretch.

Expect this argument to resurface when Philadelphia is on the verge of dropping out of the top ten markets. I suspect they (Philly stations) will worry about a loss of revenue when they are faced with being 11th.

 

[bk1808]

Y'all talk like if this happens you'd lose your job.
If this happens you can put on your resume you worked in the number five market.

Ask all the people who used to work at WCOJ, or WRCN on Long Island, or WALL in Middletown, NY (I qualify for all of those) about that. There was a day when they could support a real air/news staff with real advertising revenue. (Sometimes inferior programming is the RESULT of poor revenue/'thrifty' ownership).

PS; Believe it or not, most PD's don't care about what size market someone used to work in. It's not as valuable to them if have been the coffee gofer on John DiBella's show than it is that you were #1 with your own show somewhere,

PPS; Al, your platitudes will get you everywhere. Peace.

Joe Thomas

 

[MikefromDelaware]

If the Inquirer began producing a targeted edition for New Castle County, including an NCC local news section, this would in my view be a benefit and not a problem for New Castle County. The News-Journal is a disgrace. Even though the Inquirer is not the paper it was in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, it remains far superior to Gannett's McPaper. If you don't like Clear Channel, how can you support it's equivalent in the newspaper world?


The Inquirer and the old Bulletin did print "Delaware Versions" of their Sunday paper. Both were a joke, they had two-three pages of Delaware news that was more filler type stories than real news. This worked well for years until the News Journal started printing their own Sunday paper, then the Wilmington sales of both Philly papers dropped like a rock and today there isn't a "Delaware Version" of the Inquirer, only the Philly edition, which is available in Wilmington (obviously the Bulletin is long gone from either the Wilmington or Philly scene). So it is no surprise to me that WDEL/WILM both have higher ratings in Wilmington than KYW, or WJBR/WSTW have higher ratings than B-101, etc.

 

[Al Johnson]

Again, the point is missed.

It's not about local local news stations v out of town local news stations. It's about local local news stations here v local local news stations there.
People in Wilmington listen to WDEL/WILM less than people in Philadelphia listen to KYW.
The audience share of local news stations in Wilmington is less than the shares local news stations get in most other markets.

If you were to take the strictly local news from the News-Journal and put it in a separate section (sort of like network affiliates do local news apart from national news) you'd be lucky to get two or three pages, and a lot of that would be either filler or crime stories. Based on just the News-Journal, not much happens in Wilmington. Not much happens in any smaller city.

The Inquirer has been facing a declining circulation base in Philadelphia. In the more than quarter century, since their earlier "Delaware edition" and the death of the Bulletin (25 years ago), the Inquirer has moved its printing plant to the suburbs, introduced computer technology allowing the paper to distribute targeted editions with unique news coverage, and greatly beefed up its suburban bureaus (some argue at the expense of the staff in the main Center City newsroom). As a result, the Inquirer's circulation exceeds the "local" daily papers in each suburban county (including Gannett's Courier-Post in South Jersey) and the Inquirer's local news coverage in each county is generally superior to the "yokel" papers. People in Wilmington must not care much about good news coverage (or be able to recognize it) if they have been willing to tolerate the News-Journal all these years. First it was a Dupont PR tool; now it's standardized, homogenized Gannett pap.

Local news on the radio is like vegetables. People think it's good for them but nobody wants to eat it themselves. Some people say local news stations in Wilmington are important. People also say McDonald's should have healthy items on the menu but they keep ordering fries.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

No arguement that the News Journal isn't the greatest paper in the nation, but they do many indepth stories and continue to do investigative stories that affect Delaware. As we don't have an alternative the News Journal will have to do. As far as listening to local news, my guess is most of the people listening to KYW in Philly are doing so more for the traffic updates as their traffic is far worse than what we have in Wilmington. Once you've heard the news during that first 22 minutes where they'll give you the world, you only then need to hear the traffic updates. Even so, many people in Wilmington do listen to local news/traffic/weather/and sports each morning on either WDEL or WILM. So what if they don't listen as long as they do in Philly? I frankly don't get your hangup with Wilmington radio. It works for us here. As one poster pointed out where there are both a Wilmington station and a Philly station that does a given format the Wilmington station gets the larger rating. If there is only a Philly station doing a given format, sure they'll get a piece of the Wilmington market. The owners of the stations must be happy or they'd sell. To an out of towner, maybe our news isn't of interest, just as the latest rape, murder, or fire in the Kennsington section of Philly is of no interest to us in Wilmington.

Last weekend Separation Day was celebrated in the city of New Castle. That was the day Delaware seperated from Pennsylvania. You folks in Philly may see us as a suburb, but Delawareans do not. I believe that one poster said it right, when the radio stations here stop buying the Aribtron book (as happened in some other market in Illionis, I believe, then there will no longer be a Wilmington market, but as a number of the stations are buying the book our market will still be represented by Arbitron as a seperate market.

 

[Al Johnson]

No arguement that the News Journal isn't the greatest paper in the nation, but they do many indepth stories and continue to do investigative stories that affect Delaware. As we don't have an alternative the News Journal will have to do. As far as listening to local news, my guess is most of the people listening to KYW in Philly are doing so more for the traffic updates as their traffic is far worse than what we have in Wilmington. Once you've heard the news during that first 22 minutes where they'll give you the world, you only then need to hear the traffic updates. Even so, many people in Wilmington do listen to local news/traffic/weather/and sports each morning on either WDEL or WILM. So what if they don't listen as long as they do in Philly? I frankly don't get your hangup with Wilmington radio. It works for us here. As one poster pointed out where there are both a Wilmington station and a Philly station that does a given format the Wilmington station gets the larger rating. If there is only a Philly station doing a given format, sure they'll get a piece of the Wilmington market. The owners of the stations must be happy or they'd sell. To an out of towner, maybe our news isn't of interest, just as the latest rape, murder, or fire in the Kennsington section of Philly is of no interest to us in Wilmington.

Last weekend Separation Day was celebrated in the city of New Castle. That was the day Delaware seperated from Pennsylvania. You folks in Philly may see us as a suburb, but Delawareans do not. I believe that one poster said it right, when the radio stations here stop buying the Aribtron book (as happened in some other market in Illionis, I believe, then there will no longer be a Wilmington market, but as a number of the stations are buying the book our market will still be represented by Arbitron as a seperate market.

This topic has run its course on the Philly board. It's interesting how it has gotten people stirred up here. It's also interesting how some people see only what they want to see.

Again, Wilmington would likely be an embedded market. Wilmington data would be included in Philadelphia Metro reports and published separately. What's the problem with that? Well, the problem might be that Wilmington would people meters and an accurate recording of what people really listen to might hurt some Wilmington stations.

I believe that one poster said it right, when the radio stations here stop buying the Aribtron book (as happened in some other market in Illionis, I believe, then there will no longer be a Wilmington market, but as a number of the stations are buying the book our market will still be represented by Arbitron as a seperate market.

As embedded market, stations could still buy a Wilmington book (although Clear Channel, Beasley and other group owners have package deals with Arbitron and stations don't buy books individually). Even within a large market like Philadelphia, suburban stations can purchase reports for their individual counties.

Wilmington radio "works for us here?" Who is "us?" Apparently not the 80 per cent of the audience listening to out of market radio. A 20 per cent share is not a ringing endorsement. In other peripheral markets (markets within a major TV market but a separate radio market), local radio gets a much bigger share of the audience (about a 2/3 share in Allentown, for example).

Even so, many people in Wilmington do listen to local news/traffic/weather/and sports each morning on either WDEL or WILM. So what if they don't listen as long as they do in Philly?

TSL is a bit longer in Wilmington. But that doesn't make up for the fact that less of the audience listens. While the two stations individual numbers vary (probably a result of diary error; people not remembering or not sure what they really listened to), the total share of the two local news/talk stations consistently hovers right around six per cent. This is low compared to many other markets.

In the embedded Frederick (MD) market, which is double-reported as a separate market and as part of the Washington, DC market, WTOP (with an AM repeater in Frederick as part of the "WTOP Network"), gets an audience share which approximates the total share of both of Wilmington's local news/talk stations. Possibly what keeps KYW's numbers down in Wilmington is not Delaware parochialism but the lack of a good signal in much of the market. Put KYW on a good FM signal (or a good AM repeater; 1380 might be available... cheap!) and as in Frederick, product quality might trump localism (which is the general rule accounting for the success of syndicated talk radio). And before somebody objects "what about Delaware traffic?" Metro Networks (Shadow/Traffax) already covers Delaware traffic for TV and GPS; KYW has access to the information but currently only include major incidents in Delaware. WCBS Newsradio 88 is well rated in all six markets embedded in the New York metro and provides traffic coverage for all of them (yes, traffic reports run longer than on KYW or the Wilmington stations).

Separation Day? How many people showed up? (Dozens?) Unfortunately, that is the kind of thing that is a staple of radio news in Wilmington (and other markets). Maybe a big part of the reason the audience has mostly lost interest in local news on the radio. And to demonstrate its "separation" from Pennsylvania, Wilmington radio stations make big deals of traffic accidents in Milford and house fires in Georgetown (well outside their coverage areas), while ignoring major stories a few miles away.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Separation Day? How many people showed up? (Dozens?)

Hundreds. The city of New Castle is jammed packed every year for this festival.