BOSTON ARBITRON PPM RATINGS RELEASED: JUNE 2010

[pjc1961]

For the period Thu. 5/27/10 - Wed. 6/23/10, the publicly released PPM data for persons overall age 6+ can be found on the Radio-Info.com Boston Ratings Grid.

The next ratings period is July 2010 (Thu. 6/24/10 - Wed. 7/24/10), with the publicly released PPM data for persons overall age 6+ available on Wed. 8/11/10.

Note: as of this posting, the ratings grid has the June 2010 data in the center column rather than the right column where they would usually be. To view the share rankings for June 2010, click twice on "Est %" under "June 2010". Similarly, to view the weekly cume for June 2010, click twice on "Cume" under "June 2010". Hopefully Radio-Info.com will clear this up shortly.

 

[pjc1961]

Oops :-[ I posted this 1 day early for Boston - the June 2010 data will be available on Friday 7/16/10 at 5pm ET at the link above. Sorry 'bout that...

 

[pjc1961]

June 2010 ratings available now at link above - have at it!

 

[Laurence Glavin]

June 2010 ratings available now at link above - have at it!

WXKS-AM experienced a downtick, both the rating and the cume, the latter under 100,000. No mention of WWZN-AM; it had been speculated that they might be sending out a PPM signal. If nothing else, maybe the Red Sox games en espagnol might have registered. Now that the Red Sox have been mathematically eliminated, perhaps interest has waned in two languages.

 

[pjc1961]

Additions to the Boston ratings grid:

Station Est % Cume Format Owner

WCIB-FM 0.3 62,900 Classic Hits Qantum Communications
WCOD-FM 0.1 52,600 Hot AC Qantum Communications
WFHN-FM 0.1 28,300 CHR Citadel
WEVO-FM 0.1 24,200 News/Talk New Hampshire Public Radio
WXRG-FM 0.1 22,300 Adult Alternative Northeast Broadcasting

 

[musicman3355]

Rush Radio 1200 was actually going up in its first month (I believe it was a 1.3 in April), whats happening to this station? Its falling each month.

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

Anyone care to share what counties make up the Boston market, quite frankly-- I haven't a clue.

Thanks!

 

[JustinT]

Additions to the Boston ratings grid:

Station Est % Cume Format Owner

WCIB-FM 0.3 62,900 Classic Hits Qantum Communications
WCOD-FM 0.1 52,600 Hot AC Qantum Communications
WFHN-FM 0.1 28,300 CHR Citadel
WEVO-FM 0.1 24,200 News/Talk New Hampshire Public Radio
WXRG-FM 0.1 22,300 Adult Alternative Northeast Broadcasting

Looks like some Arbitron participants taking their PPMs with them on weekend trips to the Cape and mountains.

WXKS-FM blows away the other stations as usual... and sounding really good lately too. Although the station has historically been really heavy on recurrents, it sounds like they've been cut big time. You have to wonder if anyone's thinking about going after that 9 share.

 

[wpxt]

From what I can piece together by looking up the counties for stations that are on the Boston ratings page the counties in the Boston market are Barnstable, Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk and Worcester for Massachusetts, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham and Strafford for New Hampshire, Providence for Rhode Island and the southern part (Kittery, Eliot, South Berwick, Berwick) of York county in Maine.

Now my question is that on the ratings page it mentions stations that seem hard to believe come in in the Boston area. They are WSHK, WOKQ, WLNH, WJYY, WZID and WFEX. If those do come in then WHOM must come in pretty good right?

 

[pjc1961]

As encarta95 mentioned, the smaller/out-of-town stations show up in the Boston ratings when PPM carriers who live within the Boston market are either on the outer fringes of the market and/or travel to areas where those stations are more easily picked up by a PPM. The credit always goes towards the market in which the PPM carrier resides.

An "over-dramatic" example: say a Boston area PPM-carrying resident travels to Los Angeles for a few weeks and for the sake of argument those weeks coincide perfectly within an Arbitron PPM 4-week ratings period, so as not to be distributed over a two-report period & thus being possibly diluted. The traveler wears their PPM while listening regularly to let's say, KFI-AM L.A. (News/Talk: John & Ken-afternoons) & KIIS-FM L.A. (CHR: Ryan Seacrest-mornings). Theoretically, if that person listens enough to those stations and continues to properly dock/recharge their PPM daily (or at the very least once every couple of days) which will transmit the info to Arbitron, those L.A. stations will show up in the Boston market ratings.

There's already been a case of a way-out-of-town station showing up on another market's ratings report, I believe around Thanksgiving/Holiday season 1 or 2 years ago; something like a New York City station showing in the Atlanta or some other southern market's ratings report, or vice-versa.

 

[CTListener]

I'm in the Hartford market and got an Arbitron diary in the mail this past February. I was in the Boston area for four of the seven days and logged all my listening. So would my WUMB and WBOQ listening have shown up in the Hartford ratings if enough other out-of-staters were doing the same thing, or did I just contribute my little bit toward those stations' Boston ratings?

 

[4CX1000A]

Traditionally the Boston metro was Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Plymouth counties. A few years ago parts of Worcester County and Hillsborough County (NH) were added.

 

[motormouth]

Additions to the Boston ratings grid:

Station Est % Cume Format Owner

WCIB-FM 0.3 62,900 Classic Hits Qantum Communications
WCOD-FM 0.1 52,600 Hot AC Qantum Communications
WFHN-FM 0.1 28,300 CHR Citadel
WEVO-FM 0.1 24,200 News/Talk New Hampshire Public Radio
WXRG-FM 0.1 22,300 Adult Alternative Northeast Broadcasting

Looks like some Arbitron participants taking their PPMs with them on weekend trips to the Cape and mountains.

WXKS-FM blows away the other stations as usual... and sounding really good lately too. Although the station has historically been really heavy on recurrents, it sounds like they've been cut big time. You have to wonder if anyone's thinking about going after that 9 share.

Or maybe, those people live on south shore, and New Bedford areas, and listen while driving around.

 

[DJbobo]

Additions to the Boston ratings grid:

Station Est % Cume Format Owner

WCIB-FM 0.3 62,900 Classic Hits Qantum Communications
WCOD-FM 0.1 52,600 Hot AC Qantum Communications
WFHN-FM 0.1 28,300 CHR Citadel
WEVO-FM 0.1 24,200 News/Talk New Hampshire Public Radio
WXRG-FM 0.1 22,300 Adult Alternative Northeast Broadcasting

Looks like some Arbitron participants taking their PPMs with them on weekend trips to the Cape and mountains.

WXKS-FM blows away the other stations as usual... and sounding really good lately too. Although the station has historically been really heavy on recurrents, it sounds like they've been cut big time. You have to wonder if anyone's thinking about going after that 9 share.

Or maybe, those people live on south shore, and New Bedford areas, and listen while driving around.

New Bedford is Bristol County. Market #178.

 

[ArtSpooner]

I've never fully understood how these numbers work. In the head-to-head of WEEI vs. 98.5, it appears that 98.5 has lost 121,000 listeners, a drop of 22%(if cume means total listeners) and 'EEI has gained 37,300. Is that correct? However it also appears that both have lost percentage of the audience, even though WEEI's cume went up. Am I on the right track?

If I am, it appears that 98.5 has nosedived somewhat. If that's true, any ideas why?

 

[DJbobo]

I've never fully understood how these numbers work. In the head-to-head of WEEI vs. 98.5, it appears that 98.5 has lost 121,000 listeners, a drop of 22%(if cume means total listeners) and 'EEI has gained 37,300. Is that correct? However it also appears that both have lost percentage of the audience, even though WEEI's cume went up. Am I on the right track?

If I am, it appears that 98.5 has nosedived somewhat. If that's true, any ideas why?

It has. Add WEEI-FM's numbers and it's not even close.

 

[Schuyler]

Additions to the Boston ratings grid:

Station Est % Cume Format Owner
WXRG-FM 0.1 22,300 Adult Alternative Northeast Broadcasting

Looks like some Arbitron participants taking their PPMs with them on weekend trips to the Cape and mountains.

That's a reasonable theory. No way can anyone east of Fitchburg pick up WXRG 99.9 Athol (simulcasts the River WXRV).

 

[fmradio1]

It's not a surprise that 98.5's numbers are down right now and WEEI's are up. It's the Sox. The Sports Hub will peak again during the Pats season, and WEEI will decline a bit. It all depends if the Sox are still in the race for the playoffs once football season starts. If they're out of it by then, 98.5 will have a huge advantage.

At this point each station seems to have their audiences for the talk shows. The P-B-P on each station will skew the ratings a bit, depending on which teams are doing well. This is going to be a long battle between the two sports stations, and they're just getting started.

 

[ArtSpooner]

It's not a surprise that 98.5's numbers are down right now and WEEI's are up. It's the Sox. The Sports Hub will peak again during the Pats season, and WEEI will decline a bit. It all depends if the Sox are still in the race for the playoffs once football season starts. If they're out of it by then, 98.5 will have a huge advantage.

At this point each station seems to have their audiences for the talk shows. The P-B-P on each station will skew the ratings a bit, depending on which teams are doing well. This is going to be a long battle between the two sports stations, and they're just getting started.

The Sox were on in April and May. I assume that the Celts and Bruins offset each other to some extent. During those months 98.5 gained ground. I'm just wondering if Felger's contrarian act has worn thin, again. Also, as bad as Tanguay was, I don't think Gresh is much of an upgrade.

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

If the market includes Hillsborough (Nashua and Manchester) and Merrimack (Concord) counties in NH-- then WZID, WJYY, etc showing up are nothing to be surprised at. Especially WZID... they have a good size signal.