B98.5 #1 Rated station

[jal41]

http://arbitron.com/downloads/atlanta_ppm_update_11_08.pdf

WSB-FM B98.5 has beaten V103 and sister WSB-AM for the number 1 positon it terms of cume.

B98.5 can now claim they are voted #1 for listening at work...and for the first time it will be true.

An AC competior has to be coming sooner or later.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

It's interesting that in daily cume, WSB-AM is way ahead of WSB-FM. But in weekly cume, WSB-FM wins.

Rumor has it that the top 5 in AQH Persons 6+ are WSB-AM, V-103, Kiss 104.1, Kicks and B98.5.

 

[rho01]

Here are the top 30 stations AQH, 12-plus in Atlanta covering September 18 through October 15, 2008

1- WSB-AM, 2- V-103, 3- Kiss 104.1, 4-Kicks 101.5 5- (tie) B98.5 5- Praise 7-River 8-Q100 9-95.5/The Beat 10- Hot 107.9

11- Star 94 12- El Patron 13- Grown Folks 14- Project 15- WABE-FM (yes, now we can have noncommercial stations numbers, too) 15-(tie) Viva 17- 104.7/The Fish 18- Smooth Jazz 107.5 19-Dave 92.9 20- True Oldies 106.7

21- 94.9/The Bull 21 (tie) -680/The Fan 23- WGST-AM 24- Rock 100.5 25- 790/The Zone 26- Legends 96.7 27- La Raza 102.3 28- J93.3 28 (tie) 920/WGKA-AM 30- WAOK-AM

 

[radiochic05]

http://arbitron.com/downloads/atlanta_ppm_update_11_08.pdf

WSB-FM B98.5 has beaten V103 and sister WSB-AM for the number 1 positon it terms of cume.

B98.5 can now claim they are voted #1 for listening at work...and for the first time it will be true.

An AC competior has to be coming sooner or later.

Who is most ready for an AC switch? Clear Channel's Bull? Star? Someone has got to look at these numbers and want a piece of that pie. Should they prepare for a competitor? I'd suggest the numbers say, "yes."

 

[story@11]

Morning Rankings:

AMD (12+) SB-A, ARL, VEE, KHX, Q

AMD (24-54) ALR, SB-A, VEE, KHX, Q (M: SB-A, ALR, VEE... W: V, ALR, SB-A)

AMD (18-34) VEE, Q, KHX, BZY (M: KHX, BZY, KLS... W: V, Q, KHX)

AMD (34-64) SB-A, ALR, VEE, KHX, SB-F

3 Atlanta stations now have cume over 1 million

 

[taylorengineer]

Not that it makes a huge difference but WRAS, WREK and WRFG, all non comms, are not encoding yet.
I think WRAS/WREK are having contractual issues with Arbitron - the state is peculiar about contract language. I'm not sure why WRFG isn't encoding.....maybe they really don't care about ratings.

 

[thefirstgenesis]

http://arbitron.com/downloads/atlanta_ppm_update_11_08.pdf

WSB-FM B98.5 has beaten V103 and sister WSB-AM for the number 1 positon it terms of cume.

B98.5 can now claim they are voted #1 for listening at work...and for the first time it will be true.

An AC competior has to be coming sooner or later.

Not too surprising being the ONLY AC station in Atlanta. Of course, if you own a monopoly in a specific genre, chances are that you will receive high ratings, hence the #1 rating in the cume PPM. If 94.9 Lite was still around, B98.5 wouldn't have the top spot although B98.5 would still beat them by a substantial margin. Obviously, B98.5 is doing something right. Clear Channel, it's time for you to step up your game and redeem yourself, if you can. I'll suggest switching 94.9 to AC as a start.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Who is most ready for an AC switch? Clear Channel's Bull? Star? Someone has got to look at these numbers and want a piece of that pie. Should they prepare for a competitor? I'd suggest the numbers say, "yes."

Atlanta will probably get another AC at some point. But keep in mind B98.5 is #1 in cume but tied for #5 in average quarter hour. Media buyers rarely look at cume. They focus on AQH for the most part.

 

[Dixie Jock]

It would take serious money to come in and take on Cox from any level. Know of any groups that are doing that in any markets?

 

[Kabrich]

Here are the top 30 stations AQH, 12-plus in Atlanta covering September 18 through October 15, 2008

1- WSB-AM, 2- V-103, 3- Kiss 104.1, 4-Kicks 101.5 5- (tie) B98.5 5- Praise 7-River 8-Q100 9-95.5/The Beat 10- Hot 107.9

11- Star 94 12- El Patron 13- Grown Folks 14- Project 15- WABE-FM (yes, now we can have noncommercial stations numbers, too) 15-(tie) Viva 17- 104.7/The Fish 18- Smooth Jazz 107.5 19-Dave 92.9 20- True Oldies 106.7

21- 94.9/The Bull 21 (tie) -680/The Fan 23- WGST-AM 24- Rock 100.5 25- 790/The Zone 26- Legends 96.7 27- La Raza 102.3 28- J93.3 28 (tie) 920/WGKA-AM 30- WAOK-AM

True Oldies and their 5,000 song playlist moves from #12 to #20.

Where is GoodTimeOldies to tell us for the 50th time about how the station is on "fire"!

 

[Mitchell]

Hey Randy...your thoughts...

I just looked at the PPM numbers. Are we seeing a paradigm shift away from the importance of TSL, and more towards Cume? Will radio wake up and see the opportunity to re-focus on The Product, rather than try to play TSL game which only highlights the built-in problem with the diary method? Maybe this is the impetus to re-invent itself?

discuss....

 

[RAME]

Mitchell,

You are exactly right...it is all about Cume!!!

Let me expand the point from an Advertising perspective. When Radio can now reach audiences comparable to Broadcast TV but be less expensive which Medium would you choose? TV is also under siege from enormous Audience erosion mainly due to DVR's and 100's of channels to choose from. You can see the potential of a resurgence in Radio as an Advertising Medium. In these tough economic times Advertisers need to spend their money wisely and now Radio is proven to be a very viable option to Reach a Mass audience.

One more point...now more than ever it is important for Radio stations to FOCUS on their product.

Thanks,

RAME

 

[taylorengineer]

Re: Hey Randy...your thoughts...

I just looked at the PPM numbers. Are we seeing a paradigm shift away from the importance of TSL, and more towards Cume? Will radio wake up and see the opportunity to re-focus on The Product, rather than try to play TSL game which only highlights the built-in problem with the diary method? Maybe this is the impetus to re-invent itself?

discuss....

It seems to me you must pay attention to TSL - does it not matter if you cume a ga-zillion and only have 20 second TSLs.
Anything that builds real, measurable, TSL is good -and PPM will accurately measure TSL.
It all comes down to how many ears hear the commercial......

 

[Mitchell]

Unfortunately so many stations and companies are jammed up financially they can not focus on the product right now. Some have had to cut to the bone, and their full-time airstaffs are made up of a morning show and day-parts populated with voice-tracking and former weekenders working part-time hours, all to save a buck and to keep the headcount down. Hate to be a pessimist but many stations have painted themselves into a corner just when they need to be able to react.

There are always exceptions to the rule, like The River, but they are well-programmed. I know, it's the same 300 titles, but it does fill a niche in this market. You can't argue with their success.

 

[Mitchell]

Re: Hey Randy...your thoughts...

It seems to me you must pay attention to TSL - does it not matter if you cume a ga-zillion and only have 20 second TSLs.
Anything that builds real, measurable, TSL is good -and PPM will accurately measure TSL.



The problem here is PPM DOES accurately measure TSL (or at least better than the diary method) and so many stations have built their sales thrust around that. Those numbers are down.

 

[Uriah]

As a buyer - Results and the stations understanding of the clients target can drive future buys on par with ratings.

Example 1: The River has the numbers but results were not up to par. The format is passive, at least for this specific client.

Example 2: Rock 100. Ratings are questionable but the station generates buzz. Again, this is a client specific example, not a generalization.

Hopefully common sense will prevail with buyers until PPM data can be trended over a year - the stations that delivered under the diary system will deliver results under the PPM system.

As a Programmer - The PPM, however flawed, will pull back the curtain on some old diary manipulation tricks (ex: Monday is the New Thursday) Also aircheck sessions could get real interesting. Open mic reaction is varied based on the format and listener expectation. I’d love to see open mic tune-in/tune-out tracking on Dave in midday.

PPM can provide data for programming and sponsorship features by pointing to possibly undiscovered tune-in or tune out points and feature effectiveness. Two format specific examples presented by Arbitron:

A Nickleback concert ticket giveaway didn't drive additional weekend listenership. Tickets to the Sting reunion did.

Cume spikes for live broadcasts on a sports station can help validate increased listenership for selling sponsorships.

The industry is still contracting - too many talented people are on the street. Keying in on the positive cume and reach data shown by PPM can provide one element toward rebuilding advertiser confidence in radio.

 

[Ssummers]

True Oldies and their 5,000 song playlist moves from #12 to #20.

Where is GoodTimeOldies to tell us for the 50th time about how the station is on "fire"!

C'mon, Randy, you're such a hardass. Ease up on GTAGO. As honorary consultant and as we speak, he's probably honing the playlist down to 4999 songs and thumbing thru a thesaurus to come up with as many synonyms for the word "fire" as he can.

 

[Kabrich]

Re: Hey Randy...your thoughts...

I just looked at the PPM numbers. Are we seeing a paradigm shift away from the importance of TSL, and more towards Cume? Will radio wake up and see the opportunity to re-focus on The Product, rather than try to play TSL game which only highlights the built-in problem with the diary method? Maybe this is the impetus to re-invent itself?

discuss....

It seems to me you must pay attention to TSL - does it not matter if you cume a ga-zillion and only have 20 second TSLs.
Anything that builds real, measurable, TSL is good -and PPM will accurately measure TSL.
It all comes down to how many ears hear the commercial......

in theory you would be correct. however, ppm has reset a number of things. as i stated in another atlanta thread several weeks ago Cume is king in PPM. If you examine the numbers you have not seen, 12+, you would see that all FMs focused on the "other" category according to Arbitron (in other words non-black and non-hispanic), the AWTE was locked between 2:00 and 2:45 with the exception of Kicks. Only 2 stations hit the 2:45 mark, Fish and WYAY.

Thus, its pretty clear you can only get a very limit additional TSL, or AWTE as Arbitron renames everything with PPM. So the question is do you program to Cume or TSL, knowing your TSL seems to be a lock between 2:00 and 2:30? Clearly, a higher Cume plays well to PPM.

However, unlike what Mitchell proposes above, we are not selling ice to eskimos. We don't decide what should be purchased (espcially in this economy). The Customer is always right - and the customer wants Ratings Point, not Cume. (He also states that DVRs have cut into TV viewing, but Nielsen has actually proven that DVRs actually INCREASE television viewing and time is coming from the internet usage, so that is incorrect as well).

The big AMs years ago tried to sell Cume 40 years ago. 50kw WABC, WNBC, WLS etc. Bottom line, the agencies buy ratings point, not cume, and trying to shift that paradigm will not happen from Radio's standpoint.

BTW, WYAY might be the only Oldies Station in America to loose numbers with PPM. Looks like Good Time Oldies might have some explaining to do....

 

[Kabrich]

True Oldies and their 5,000 song playlist moves from #12 to #20.

Where is GoodTimeOldies to tell us for the 50th time about how the station is on "fire"!

C'mon, Randy, you're such a hardass. Ease up on GTAGO. As honorary consultant and as we speak, he's probably honing the playlist down to 4999 songs and thumbing thru a thesaurus to come up with as many synonyms for the word "fire" as he can.

When he said they were on fire, I believe most thought he meant "the whole town was talking about them". How were we to know he meant the building was burning down?

 

[taylorengineer]

AWTE is an acronym for what?? Is it the same as TSL?
Did anyone see the AWTE of the WVEE stream? It was in the multiple hours.....7P-12M 12+ it was something like 9 hours?
What do you think got "cooked" on the V stream numbers - which BTW, had higher share than quite a few FM's!!