It ranks around 20th with just over a 1 share, almost all in over-55 adults.
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Are there any big AM music stations anymore?
- Thread starter radiogal
- Start date
Who would actually want it?
I remember a couple decades ago the owner wanted to make it a sports format, but changed their mind after people got word and there was outcry.
Following is from Wikipedia about WSM: In 2001, management had sought to capitalize on the success of sister station WWTN's sports trappings by converting WSM to an all-sports format. Word was leaked to other media resulting in protests, including longtime Opry personalities and country music singers, outside the station's studios. Management eventually made the decision to keep the station's classic country format.
We should note that WABC 770 New York devotes its weekend evenings to music, Oldies on Saturday, Adult Standards on Sundays.
WABC often makes the top 10 in the ratings. I would imagine that airing music hosted by Cousin Brucie, Tony Orlando, Joe Piscopo and Dean Martin's daughter, Deana, probably helps WABC's ratings, while rival talk station WOR is in the middle of a nearly-all infomercial weekend. (WOR doesn't even run Coast to Coast AM on Saturday nights, so it can play more infomercials.)
WABC often makes the top 10 in the ratings. I would imagine that airing music hosted by Cousin Brucie, Tony Orlando, Joe Piscopo and Dean Martin's daughter, Deana, probably helps WABC's ratings, while rival talk station WOR is in the middle of a nearly-all infomercial weekend. (WOR doesn't even run Coast to Coast AM on Saturday nights, so it can play more infomercials.)
But in the age groups advertisers want, they are way outside the top 10.
WABC is way, way down in 25-54 and the subsets of 25-54 that agencies buy. There is not a lot of advertising in the NYC market that is not agency placed, and there is only a tiny amount of agency buying in the 55 and over demographics.
On the contrary, I think the music programming is something Mr. Catsimidatis does because it pleases him.
If you tune to WOR on a Saturday night hoping to hear the best of Hannity, but instead hear an infomercial for fish oil supplements, are you likely to settle for 60s music on WABC?
Lots of talk stations played oldies music on weekends 30 years ago. That ended largely because the music programs earned very ratings.
When I was in Wilkes-Barre Scranton, PA about a year and a half ago, I remember stumbling across "The Mothership", an AM station, WICK, playing oldies 50s to early 70s. Their ratings are abysmal but at least they playing music. Here's the list of stations they're on:
and their website if you want to listen online or check them out. The Mothership | Bold Gold Media WBS
- 1400 AM-WICK - Lackawanna & Luzerne Counties
- 93.5 FM - Scranton and Northern Lackawanna County
- 1440 AM-WCDL - Lackawanna & Wayne County
- 106.7 FM - Pocono Lake Region of Wayne & Pike Counties
- 107.9 FM - Lackawanna County
and their website if you want to listen online or check them out. The Mothership | Bold Gold Media WBS
And it is almost all over 50. Hispanic buys are almost all 18-49 or some subset of that.
I do not think this feed is from an AM radio. It could be from the output of the AM modulation monitor. The quality is really good. If it is the AM feed, they are not compressing everything too badly.
The two AM stations I was familiar with in the 1970-80s both fed the studio with the output of the AM modulation monitor at the transmitter. One station the transmitter was in the basement of the studios so it was easy. In the other station they used a 15 kc equalized phone line to feed from the AM modulation monitor audio output back to the studio. Anyway, this stream sounds like that kind of quality.
I've listened to them before. I refered to the station is "ancient oldies" as I heard a decent amount of pre-1963 oldies. With such an old demographic, I have no idea how the station survives. Ad time must be sold as part of a package deal.
Not trailing too far behind, at least in ratings would be La Poderosa XEMO Tijuana/Sam Diego which plays Regional Mexican hits from the 80's and 90's. The last PPM has them at 1.1 in 6+. They are also the Spanish-Language flagship for the San Diego Padres, so they might do even better in the coming months.
IIRC, they use a Carver TX-11a tuner, which has a 15 kHz audio bandwidth on AM, the same as FM (if they were allowed to transmit it).
1190 WLIB (Gospel music) used to show up in the NYC ratings, but doesn't anymore. Did they stop subscribing?
I usually hear that referred to as "first decade of rock n roll".
63 Big WAYS outside Charlotte does this. There is an FM translator. I hear commercials, but each hour of music is sponsored by one advertiser. The owner plays what he wants, but he does have a 100kw FM that mostly plays classic rock. It hasn't been shown in the Nielsen numbers in years.
I liked it the first few times I listened online, but they keep playing the same songs over and over.
WERT Van Wert, OH has more variety. I created a fake news story for April Fool's Day that a nonprofit took over WERT for its music collection and put most of it on KTUC, keeping the KTUC songs that weren't already played on WERT. And this song was never played again for me to find out the title and artist before I posted, but I just heard "Rumble" by Link Wray, and that was going to be on my list of examples of what didn't make the new KTUC playlist. Other than that, WERT has been sounding great for the past hour.
I have a question for AM oldies lovers? Why? The music is available from a billion other sources in stereo and without the pops, clicks, noises, and interference you find in all AM signals, even the strongest ones. No one loved old personality AM radio more than I, but to hear a computer play 18 old songs with a few liners, and sometimes an old jingle doesn't appeal to me. Even nostalgia like WABC's Cousin Brucie doesn't cut it. I tune in and hear songs I can hear anywhere, admittedly punctuated with classic old and wonderful PAMS jingles. Then one time fast talking Bruce opens the mic and we hear an old man, talking like an old man, to a star struck caller who tells him how wonderful he is, asks for a request, they carry on a conversation for a few minutes, the nature of which would be ignored if it were overheard in a coffee shop. It simply isn't interesting. Sometimes you really can't go home and I don't understand why we want these tired old AMs to hang on. Some of them make me sad. I know I sound old and bitter. I'm really not, at least I try not to be. Well I am old, but not bitter, yet I honestly don't see the entertainment value in AM stations that play music and I wonder what the fascination is about for those who still love them. I wish it were 1974 sometimes, but it is not and never will be. AM signals are deteriorated and not very listenable, and Dan Ingram is gone. It's time to find new and viable entertainment and a viable band or stream. Maybe if there were fewer radio stations, some of them might make money and invest in actual entertainment.
I'm not interested in doing anything complicated to change what I get in my car. The music, with all its problems, is good or, in the case of some stations, good most of the time.
The process of getting what I want online in the car is beyond what I want to deal with, regardless of what people with newer cars have.
I don't like how new cars look and I'm not sure what I want to buy if I get a new one.
Sirius/XM doesn't have what I want on one station. I would be jumping around constantly.
At home, there are a few good stations online, playing what I want most of the time, or at least something acceptable. After a while, I do want to change from one station to another.
Wow. Nat King Cole was just on WERT a few minutes ago. Now he's back.
The process of getting what I want online in the car is beyond what I want to deal with, regardless of what people with newer cars have.
I don't like how new cars look and I'm not sure what I want to buy if I get a new one.
Sirius/XM doesn't have what I want on one station. I would be jumping around constantly.
At home, there are a few good stations online, playing what I want most of the time, or at least something acceptable. After a while, I do want to change from one station to another.
Wow. Nat King Cole was just on WERT a few minutes ago. Now he's back.
A lot of people's minds get musically stuck at the time when they came of age, and they spend the rest of their lives being nostalgic about those days. There's a ton of research on this. It's why old music dominates radio in formats like Classic Hits and Classic Rock, up to the point where broadcasters cut them off in order to chase the more desirable age demographics.
Those who entered their teens in the 1960s or early 70s heard the favorite music of their lives on AM radio and for those who live in such a nostalgic world, that's how they still want to hear it because it reminds them of their youth.
Not everyone follows the same nostalgic mindset but enough people do that big radio caters to them until they age out of being a useful advertising target.
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