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BOSTON ARBITRON RATINGS: MARCH 2011

WXKS-AM keeps sinking like a stone. It is now one tenth of a percentage point ahead of sister station WKOX. Time for Clear Channel to pull the plug? (The life-support plug). Clear Channel could put a decent Urban station on 1200 to compliment WXKS-FM and WJMN.
 
i dont understand how this works still!! wbz fm has more cume but there ratings is less then weei, but weei has less cume explain this to me!!!
 
I am impressed with the WBOS numbers. What does it cost to run that station. Is this the best 92.9 has done since its brief run a the top of the ratings when it played disco pre Kiss 108?
 
vmorrison said:
I am impressed with the WBOS numbers.
Click to expand...
Yes WBOS is very strong in that book.
Meanwhile WFNX can't even make it to whole number territory.

WTKK has opened up a big lead on WRKO.
Does the firing of Jimmy Severino hurt them in the Next book ?
 
freqlost said:
vmorrison said:
I am impressed with the WBOS numbers.
Click to expand...
Yes WBOS is very strong in that book.
Meanwhile WFNX can't even make it to whole number territory.
Click to expand...

Playing the hits will do that, that's what WBOS does. The stuff WFNX plays isn't hits, it's for their niche audience. PD Paul Driscoll is keeping that station sounding quite nice nowadays.
 
Wbzfm2010 said:
i dont understand how this works still!! wbz fm has more cume but there ratings is less then weei, but weei has less cume explain this to me!!!
Click to expand...


(not 100% sure, but pretty close here...) having more cume but a lower rating means people aren't listening as long as they are to WEEI. Thus, lower AQH (Average Quarter Hour) further, I believe PPM's are weighted, like diaries are-- so WEEI may have had more minority listeners.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Yeah I think that's pretty much it.

Cume is the total # of persons that listened in a given diary period.

Rating is the % of the market that listened to that station on average in a given diary period.

So 100 people could listen to both stations in a month, giving them both a cume of 100, but if the 100 that listened to station A twice as long then station B then their rating should be about twice as high.

What the WEEI/WBZ numbers tell me is more people are checking out WBZ (FM) than WEEI, but maybe only staying for a short period (one bruins game perhaps) whereas while less total persons may listen to WEEI in a month, they ones who do stay tuned in longer.
 
the most important thing to note in all this, is it's very unscientific

less than 1/10th of 1% of the boston market is wearing PPMs in a given month

so the ratings are extrapolated from that

so if Kiss 108 has a 10 share, that means 10% of the 1000 or so people with a PPM device are listening to Kiss 108, not that 10% of the whole market is listening to Kiss 108 for sure.

so yeah, entire radio stations are overhauled, PDs are fired, ads are bought, etc all based on a terrible sample size.
 
WBIMDJ said:
freqlost said:
vmorrison said:
I am impressed with the WBOS numbers.
Click to expand...
Yes WBOS is very strong in that book.
Meanwhile WFNX can't even make it to whole number territory.
Click to expand...
The stuff WFNX plays isn't hits, it's for their niche audience. PD Paul Driscoll is keeping that station sounding quite nice nowadays.
Click to expand...

And I am sure all 5 of his listeners appreciate it.
 
Turned on 98.5 this morning and T&R were talking about D&C crowing about their ratings being #1 despite the 'fact' that D&C got destroyed in certain demos (18-49 was referenced).
Flipped over to 'EEI and right before the 7am break Dennis went on this rant about "liars" who were referencing some poll on CBS's website and how for anyone that's counting, they were #1 for the 21st ratings book in a row per Boston Arbitron.

This whole thing is frustrating since it appears anyone can essentially just make things up since the actual numbers aren't made public. ie 'we are top dog in the 74-87 crowd, thus we are the number one show in Boston!'.

I wish Chad Finn at the Globe, or Jessica Helm at the Herald would do another write up, which included the actual demos.

edit:

This is from Rich's facebook, interesting.

Rich Shertenlieb
THANKS for making Toucher & Rich #1 in ALL male demos in March. For the months of Jan Feb & March- We had 35% more Men 18-49 listeners & a whopping EIGHT TIMES more Men 18-34 listeners than WEEI. Time & time again, our listeners continue to show that they are hands down the most diehard and loyal in radio. Never seen anything like it. Thanks from all of us...even Wallach for letting us do what we do.
 
Wbzfm2010 said:
i dont understand how this works still!! wbz fm has more cume but there ratings is less then weei, but weei has less cume explain this to me!!!
Click to expand...
I've made the same request many times and I still don't get it. My "grassy knoll" theory is that the ratings system is deliberately ambiguous so that anyone can claim to be #1. We have T&R claiming to be first and D&C claiming the same. The fact that the ratings are so close, with 'EEI ahead slightly makes me wonder about the claim of 8 times as many listeners in a given demo by T&R. Mathematically this seems unlikely, but again, the system is very ambiguous. I've never understood why the age parameters for some demos overlap.

I have noticed that the show by show results only seem to be revealed by Chad Finn or Jessica Heslam......both of whom seem to be rooting against WEEI. The last two charts looked like WEEI was leading, but neither wrote about it. They only seem to write when 98.5 is making gains. Quite frankly, I still don't think T&R and D&C are competing for the same audience. T&R isn't a sports show. What were T&R's ratings when it was 'BCN? Have they increased exponentially? D&C do wander off sports frequently, but they are still fundamentally a sports show. The shows I am more curious about are mid-day and the Big Show. I hope someone reveals those ratings(for what they're worth). I think that WEEI screwed up two shows.
 
JohnDennisWEEI John Dennis
That's the truth according to the official Arbitron BOSTON ratings books. It's losers who HAVE to lie to you.
2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
»
John Dennis
JohnDennisWEEI John Dennis
Thanks to ALL of you D&C are again #1 with men age 25-54, 35-44, 35-49, 35-54. That's called a sweep going back 7 rating books & 21 months.
3 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
Click to expand...
 
wel thanks for the help!! i think im better understanding this now, but its a good thing in a non football month how the sports hubs ratings still go up!! hopefully they stick around there cbs biggest ratings among sports stations!!
 
I've made the same request many times and I still don't get it. My "grassy knoll" theory is that the ratings system is deliberately ambiguous so that anyone can claim to be #1.

The rating system is only ambiguous to folks whom they aren't meant to be of use. The demos and ratings and cumes etc (and the raw data which goes into them) are for the use of the folks who shell out the big bucks to pay for them. Ad agencies, and stations compiling pitches, can feed target data into computer programs and spit out the most, theoretically, efficient buys. What the general public usually sees are the broadscope numbers (like 12+ or 18+) which are fed out to the Haslams of the world who put them into interesting but essentially meaningless 'Mine's bigger than your's" columns which are, to borrow a quote, all sound and fury, signifying nothing. I remember that Wrigley's gum was famous in media circles for being the ONLY 12+ advertising buy in the country.

Plus, the number's don't have to be precise (which would be impossible to produce) but the methodology has only to be consistent to make them useful. Nobody is making ad buys based on Haslam's MediaBiz ramblings or some PD's or talent's statement to the press or listening audience on internet board.
The folks who are paid to know who's Number 1 in a key demo KNOW who's Number 1 in that key demo.

Regards,
TSB
 
6+ numbers are meaningless...it is all about the key demo for that station...is hip hop getting to the 18 year old? dance the 25 year old? ac the 35 year old woman? talk the 45 year old man? that's it gang otherwise all of this talk about 6+ numbers is simply a waste of otherwise good bandwidth
 
vmorrison said:
I am impressed with the WBOS numbers. What does it cost to run that station. Is this the best 92.9 has done since its brief run a the top of the ratings when it played disco pre Kiss 108?
Click to expand...

WBOS is the only full city grade signal left playing contemporary rock. They win by default.
I've been digging WFNX lately too, and I don't think playing the hits would increase their ratings - they've tried that and it didn't work. Now that they're more niche, and much more fun to listen to, their ratings have not gone down.

I think the problem is that "Boston" according to Arbitron stretches from Manchester NH to Providence RI and past Worcester.. what few PPM meters are out there are spread out over such a huge geographic expanse that the numbers don't really reflect what people inside 128 listen to. I've been hearing 'FNX in stores and on job sites, close to town they have to be doing better than a 1 share.
 
FNX sounds great lately. I mean I love the RHCP and nirvana but there is only so many times I can hear their main hits. FNX is definately branching out more with the new music and I think a lot of people are lovin' it. As long as their ratings stay the same then no need to change.
 
I think FNX sounds as good as it as sounded in years. I like that they have gone back to playing something besides the hits, both of today and of the 90s. When I first starting listening to them in the late 80s, there was very little cross over to any other station, seems headed that way again. A nice breath of fresh air on a stale radio dial
 
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