Arbitrons: Bad News for Delmarva

[fred flintstone]

Good point Fred. So if CC does drop the Neutron Bomb in Wilmington and force Watson into retirement ...

They can't make him retire. Only take him off their station.
It seems an Urban Talk format might do well in Wilmington and Watson might be a logical fit.
A poor AM signal is far less of a problem when your target audience is concentrated in or close to the city.

 

[radiophiler]

A compelling reason for the FCC to allow 99.5 to move across the PA state line?

Let's look at the recent 97.5 Trenton to Burlington to Burlington-with-a-Philly-tower situation.

The FCC seems to approve applications which give a postal address (town/city) its first broadcast station. That was the argument for the 97.5 move to Burlington, which then allowed the tower move to Philly, because the primary contour would still cover the city of license.

So, what town in Delaware or Chester County that doesn't already have an AM or FM radio station deserves one? This may be a little difficult. In Delaware County, Chester and Media both have licensed stations. In Chester County, West Chester and Coatsville have licensed stations.

I guess it's possible Beasley bought JBR to keep it primarily a Wilmington station with a bit more marketing to Chester and Delaware Counties. However, with the recent move-in mania (107.7 to 107.9 Pennsauken and the above-mentioned 97.5), and the fact that Beasley is no where near its allowable number of stations under FCC rules in the Philly market --- you can't help but speculate that sooner or later there will be an application to change the city of license, possibly followed by an application to move the tower into PA.

Question: Could JBR ever gain above the line status in Philly Arbitron WITHOUT moving its COL and tower?

 

[MikefromDelaware]

>>Two more Wilmington FMs:
Would people listen? If no one cares about allocations except radio geeks (as Tux said), would anyone care on what side of a map boundary a station is located (except Delaware geeks)? People listen to programming, not cities of license. FM stations mostly have no local content or local identity. Who whould care where a tower is located? Would there be enough local ad revenue for two more stations? Wilmington may be number 75 for population but it's closer to 200 for ad revenue. Advertisers can buy Philly and get Wilmington, too. Why buy Wilmington? .>>

The point of moving the towers into this market would be that those stations would have as strong of a signal here as WSTW and WJBR which seem to always be the #1 and #2 spot. I contend it's not because they are such great stations, but because in many office buildings, those are the two FM stations people can get with their table radio. So they pick the lesser of the two evils as far as their ears are concerned. So if the Wilmington rimshot stations of WXCY, WJKS, WRDX, WDSD had their towers here they just may do better in the ratings than those Philly stations. So if WTUX-FM, WAMS-FM and WILM-FM existed, I believe that Philly radio would play a much smaller role in Wilmington listening habits. Not because people other than radio geeks care about city of license, but because those stations would come in as clearly as WJBR and WSTW where as the Philly stations do not.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

How many Wilmington spots do you actually hear on Philly stations? Not very many. Why pay more money for all that coverage to people you don't want as customers, because they're not going to drive all that way to Wilmington when there are plenty of whatever type store there in the Philly metro. Same goes for TV, I don't see many Wilmington spots on Philly TV, but yet see a boat load of them on Wilmington Comcast Cable. My guess is as the AM stations skew to the older demo the advertisers spend most of their radio money on WSTW, WJBR, WXCY, and WRDX. My guess is if Wilmington had more FM stations there would be more ad revenue generated.

 

[Keith Thompson]

Lastly, WXCY has no interest in competing in Baltimore. It's 35 miles away from downtown and much further from the southern and western boundaries of the Balto market. XCY pulls about one point in Balto., but it can never be format dominant (WPOC pulls BIG numbers). In the Wilmington market, on the other hand, it usually is format dominant and puts a great signal finto Cecil and the heart of the growing Bear/Glasgow area -- the last growth area in the I-95 corridor between No. Virginia and Connecticut not already saturated with broadcasters.

In Baltimore City, not really, but in the Baltimore Metro...you betcha they do. They don't buy the Baltimore Arbitron, but they certainly have an interest in the Baltimore numbers. Geographically with their studio and tower in Havre de Grace, WXCY is above the line in the Baltimore market since Harford County is a part of the Baltimore metro. Quite a bit of the sales focus is on Harford County and WXCY gets ad agency buys because of being in the Baltimore metro. Also, from a programming standpoint...WXCY covers Baltimore traffic (along with Wilmington), covers Baltimore in their news updates, and will give equal standing to Philly and Baltimore sports teams (if they talk about the Eagles they'll also talk about the Ravens). Also, WXCY's signal in the Baltimore metro is comparable to that of the Wilmington metro. Granted because of WPOC, if DBC really wanted to change their 103.7 signal to focus on Baltimore, they would really want to change the format to something that isn't being served in the Baltimore market. But having said that, WPOC certainly competes with WXCY in Harford County to the extent that they target the Harford County business community and they do their share of promotions in Harford County including hosting concerts at A.P.G. and Ripken Stadium. WPOC has even used their influence with the record labels and artist management to interfere with shows that WXCY wanted to put together. WPOC is certainly concerned with WXCY enough to spend the time and effort to take them on in WXCY's own backyard.

 

[eatspaste]

So, what town in Delaware or Chester County that doesn't already have an AM or FM radio station deserves one? This may be a little difficult. In Delaware County, Chester and Media both have licensed stations. In Chester County, West Chester and Coatsville have licensed stations.

Why does it have to be a Delaware or Chester County city? Gloucester Co., NJ, is part of the Philadelphia market. Woodbury (the county seat) is right across the river from Philadelphia, has no AM or FM station, and can probably be their COL from where they are right now.

Or WJBR/Swedesboro.