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Boston Radio Ratings July 2021

Did WRKO appeal to more listeners in the "money demo" back then, or was it the same 55+ crowd listening but ad agencies didn't care as much? Seems the attitude that it's not worth spending on 55+ has become carved-in-stone gospel with advertising types in recent years. Exactly,h ow long has that been the case?
It is my opinion that all this demographic discrimination came on/about the time listenership evaluation converted from diaries to PPM.
 
I will leave RKO on to see what the K Man is outraged about now.

Today its outrage over Biden pulling troops out of Afghanistan, after bitching for, oh, the past decade+ about how we shouldn't be in the business of nation building and how (Bush/Obama/Trump) should pull the troops out of Afghanistan.

Yesterday it was how "we" are going to have "the mother of all rallies" over something (damned if I can remember what it was, there's so many 'mother of all rallies' planned I've lost track of them all). Maybe it was HIPPA, his (either) level of ignorance or just plain misleading people on how HIPPA works is pretty high. The day before it was how Biden should be impeached because Congress passed the infrastructure bill. Apparently the interviewers who gave K000nah his civics exam when he became a naturalized citizen didn't ask if he listened to to the "I'm a bill, yes I'm only a bill, and I'm living here up on capitol hill"
jingle saturday mornings as a child.

I know radio is about entertainment, and throwing red meat for your listeners to lap up is needed to get ratings, etc., but some of the callers were really sad, clearly emotionally upset over whatever the outrage-of-the-day was. Sort of pitiful to encourage and foster people's misery.
 
I can listen to Crazy Kuhner for about 20 minutes. I like the Gordon Deal news program RKO runs from 5a to 6a so I will leave RKO on to see what the K Man is outraged about now. Kuhner is so far removed from reality it isn't funny anymore. On Monday, he called John Kerry Mr. Anti Climate Change. During a live read for Mr. Pillows towels he called them the most non absorbent towels he has ever used. He loves them so much he bought a set for Dr. Grace, a set for his son who is about 10 and his daughter who is about 8.. Such a high standard of living. Everyone has their own set of towels. Later he said the members of the NY Assembly up in Albany were happy to see Cuomo go. Well at least he doesn't say in Cape Cod or on Chestnut Hill as often as he used to.
I haven't listened to him for years. When he first came to RKO he was on for an hour and he was absolutely riveting. No drama, no stupid voices, no hysterical laughing, no insulting callers and he actually did show prep. It seems once RKO gave him more hours he became a moron. The more time he got, the more of a clown he became. He was such a drama queen years ago, it was ridiculous. I guess some hosts will do anything so they can say "the ratings are through the roof and we're going national baaaaybeeee!" According to some of the posts, it seems like nothing has changed over the years, he's still a clown and his grammar is atrocious! Democrats-is, parents-is, SMH. And does everyone in his family have the sheets and the pillows and the slippers, bathrobe, etc etc etc???? I think every talkshow host in the country gets a free sample of whatever product Lindell is advertising and I'm guessing they get a substantial discount for any products they do purchase. Howie probably gets EVERYTHING free, he's a "cheap bastard", but, I digress!
 
9.1 for WROR, when was the last time a station had that high of a share?

6.1 for WKLB, is this the highest share (on paper anyway) that they ever had?
WROR: never in the history of 105.7/Framingham has that signal had a share that high
WKLB got up to an 8.1 in 2013.
 
Again, that all depends on whether younger people were listening back then or whether "conventional wisdom" in the advertising community about older listeners hadn't metastasized and calcified yet into what it has become today.
Well, let's just say that 30 years
WROR: never in the history of 105.7/Framingham has that signal had a share that high
WKLB got up to an 8.1 in 2013.
You misundertood my question. I asked "when was the last time ANY station had that high of a share? Was it WHDH, WCOZ?
 
Well, let's just say that 30 years

You misundertood my question. I asked "when was the last time ANY station had that high of a share? Was it WHDH, WCOZ?
Excluding Christmas music December and Holiday books for WMJX, the last time any station in Boston had over a 9 share was July 2012, when Kiss had a 10.0.
 
Nope. The reason beautiful music disappeared as a format was because the audience became too old to sell. Before PPM.
Wait - who mentioned "beautiful music"? I agree, that format sailed away beginning in the mid-70s, replaced, in some instances by "smooth jazz", which, BTW, I happen to like. I have to stream it via the iHeart app if I want it now.
 
I know radio is about entertainment, and throwing red meat for your listeners to lap up is needed to get ratings, etc., but some of the callers were really sad, clearly emotionally upset over whatever the outrage-of-the-day was. Sort of pitiful to encourage and foster people's misery.
Well said!
 
Wait - who mentioned "beautiful music"? I agree, that format sailed away beginning in the mid-70s, replaced, in some instances by "smooth jazz", which, BTW, I happen to like. I have to stream it via the iHeart app if I want it now.
You are off by a decade. Beautiful Music faded out in the second half of the 80's. Smooth Jazz (which was not called that until the term started to be used later in Chicago) under Frank Cody and Owen Leach, debuted on KTWV in LA in 1987. KTWV, of course, replaced an Album Rock format,
 
Nope. The reason beautiful music disappeared as a format was because the audience became too old to sell. Before PPM.
... complicated by the fact that record companies, even in Europe and Japan, had almost entirely ceased to produce new instrumental product by the mid-80's. Only a few independent labels like Dauphine in France (Clayderman, Borelli, Goya, etc.) continued to serve an increasingly niche market.
 
It is my opinion that all this demographic discrimination came on/about the time listenership evaluation converted from diaries to PPM.
Ad buys began to be targeted to specific ages when Arbitron introduced simultaneous measurement in most of the top markets in the very early 70's. As The Pulse and Hooper died, that trend became even more specific. By the mid-70's when your national rep would send out weekly sheets about the upcoming buys, nearly every one specified the exact age, gender and even ethnic targets.

That's when the teen stations stopped getting buys, and Top 40 became an 18-34 or 18-44 female format. We are talking about more than 40 years ago. The PPM started rolling out officially only about 12 years back.
 
Did WRKO appeal to more listeners in the "money demo" back then, or was it the same 55+ crowd listening but ad agencies didn't care as much? Seems the attitude that it's not worth spending on 55+ has become carved-in-stone gospel with advertising types in recent years. Exactly,h ow long has that been the case?
Today's 55 and over talk listners were in their 30's in 1990. That's why a station like KABC could be on every LA buy in the 70's and well into the 90's. The format has aged with the listeners as few under-50's like that form of talk radio.
 
Maybe in the demo but I don’t think I’ve seen higher then 9.1 in 6 plus.
Remember when the Boston audience was not large enough to sustain 2 Country stations? Do you remember the blood war between "Country 96.9" WBCS, and "105.7, The Country Club" WKLB back then also?
 
Remember when the Boston audience was not large enough to sustain 2 Country stations? Do you remember the blood war between "Country 96.9" WBCS, and "105.7, The Country Club" WKLB back then also?
From fringe players on 1330 (WDLW) and 1510 (WKKU) to two full-signal Boston FMs in about a decade! One cannot overstate the importance of Garth Brooks and the many diverse voices and styles that came to country radio pretty much all at once in the late '80s and early '90s. Country music was transformed from largely old/rural/white male to a genre with appeal to younger listeners of both genders in places it had never had any success before, and though it's had its creative ups and downs in the three decades that have followed, it still does well in many of those "new" markets -- and in some, it is now doing better than ever. Reaching African American and Hispanic ears, though, is a challenge, as it's always been.

WKLB, as you may recall, was the second call to be used by that station's ownership after going country. The first, WCLB, was changed when WCRB moaned about diary-keeper confusion possibly resulting in shares that should have been WCRB's going to WCLB instead. Why WBCN didn't have a hissy fit of its own about almost-but-not-quite WBCS is a question I've yet to see answered.
 
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From fringe players on 1330 (WDLW) and 1510 (WKKU) to two full-signal Boston FMs in about a decade! One cannot overstate the importance of Garth Brooks and the many diverse voices and styles that came to country radio pretty much all at once in the late '80s and early '90s. Country music was transformed from largely old/rural/white male to a genre with appeal to younger listeners of both genders in places it had never had any success before, and though it's had its creative ups and downs in the three decades that have followed, it still does well in many of those "new" markets -- and in some, it is now doing better than ever. Reaching African American and Hispanic ears, though, is a challenge, as it's always been.

WKLB, as you may recall, was the second call to be used by that station's ownership after going country. The first, WCLB, was changed when WCRB moaned about diary-keeper confusion possibly resulting in shares that should have been WCRB's going to WCLB instead. Why WBCN didn't have a hissy fit of its own about almost-but-not-quite WBCS is a question I've yet to see answered.
Yeah, I kind of all, bur forgotten that it was WCRB, who was taking an issue with WCLB's call letters. And yes, I too was also wondering why WBCN never uttered a word about them either. Perhaps, because WBCN's brand name was so manifested, that maybe they even laughed at the notion of their listeners cinfusing them with the country station instead.
 
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