Boston January PPMs

[Laurence Glavin]

Ok, the new January PPMs are out for Boston, and a few items stand out: WBUR (apparently including WBUR-AM on the Cape of Cod) achieved its highest rating and cume for the most recent period. WGBH-FM 89.7 showed little growth in its cume and rating. I think this period was PRE-Emily Rooney and PRE-Callie Crossley, or coincided with their first few days. WCRB all-classical 995 experienced a slight decline in its cume, but stayed steady-as-she-goes ratingwise. WBZ-FM 98.5 wound up a point behind WEEI-AM 850, but with a higher cume. Time spent listening?

 

[rapking]

Patriots doing nothing in the playoff hurt The Sports Hub. LAME Kiss 108 number one in this AWFUL radio market .

 

[Signpost]

Stunning that 90 kilowatt WGBH, with translator in Boston, almost ties WERS.

 

[musicman3355]

LAME Kiss 108 number one in this AWFUL radio market .

I only listen to Kiss 108 for Matty in the Morning, Club Kiss, and the Weekend Blowout. Other than that, the station bores me. I'll start listening once they get local jocks.

Boston is an okay market IMO, but there is kind of a lot of the same format, plus there should be another top 40 and urban station in the market. It could've been worse... look at Denver radio!

 

[rapking]

LAME Kiss 108 number one in this AWFUL radio market .

I only listen to Kiss 108 for Matty in the Morning, Club Kiss, and the Weekend Blowout. Other than that, the station bores me. I'll start listening once they get local jocks.

Boston is an okay market IMO, but there is kind of a lot of the same format, plus there should be another top 40 and urban station in the market. It could've been worse... look at Denver radio!

Yeah, Denver is Bad and so is Pittsburgh . Thank god Boston has GREAT Pirate Radio stations.

 

[aaronread]

Stunning that 90 kilowatt WGBH, with translator in Boston, almost ties WERS.

The PPM is still measuring WGBH's old format (so to speak) because even if you can measure an audience change in just one week...it takes a lot more than a week to build up that audience. That mixed news/talk/classical/jazz just didn't get terribly good ratings overall. In certain demos, it did better, but it was never great...no doubt a major reason why WGBH chose to pursue the path they did.

And WGBH's 98kW ERP is misleading; Blue Hill isn't all that great a transmitter site. It's about the same height as downtown (and thus a good 400ft shorter than the Needham/Newton towers) but lacks the downtown location needed to provide an extra-strong signal that can punch through all the blanketing interference from the Pru and through the concrete canyons of the skyscrapers. WGBH does get a killer reach way out into the hinterlands of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, the Cape, etc thanks to that grandfathered 98,000 watts. But in terms of core market, WERS and WGBH are actually on comparable footing signal-wise.

 

[Don Juan]

The PPM is still measuring WGBH's old format (so to speak) because even if you can measure an audience change in just one week...it takes a lot more than a week to build up that audience.

Didn't they change the begining of December?

 

[aaronread]

Didn't they change the begining of December?

Yeah, something like that. My point exactly: it'll take at least six months...probably more like 2 years...for WGBH to really build up their own audience on the new format. You can change your format quickly, but you can't change listeners' preferences nearly as fast.