Buffalo & Rochester Oct. '22 trends

[ckg279]

As usual: Due credit to AllAccess.com and **************** . 12+ only. Only the top 5 stations in each market are mentioned.

Comments on any station, on the list or not, are welcomed.

First...

BUFFALO

1. WBLK/93.7 10.5(up .1)
2. WGRF/96.9 8.8(no change)
3. WYRK/106.5 7.6(down .2)
4. WHTT/104.1 6.7(down .1)
5. WBEN/930 6.3(up .1)

ROCHESTER

1. WDKX/103.9 8.5(up 1.0)
2. WHAM/1180 7.2(down .5)
3. WBEE/92.5 7.1(down .4)
4. WCMF/96.5 6.2(up .3)
5. WPXY/97.9 3.7(down .1)

 

[SirRoxalot]

Radio Online has a more complete listing:

https://ratings.****************/content/arb037

The top 5 in Buffalo remain the same with virtually no movement. WGR-AM gets the Bills benefit, jumping from a 3.9 to a 5.6. Kiss jumps back up to a 4.9, so it looks like the last book was an anomaly. WEDG continues an upward trend to a 3.4. WECK and WMSX continue a mild downward trend. That's it for statistically significant movement.

 

[Buddy Shula]

I am getting really sick of this piece of shit Neisen. Everything I read in the diaries ****ed up and makes no sense. People are calling us 104.1 WECK.

How the hell is anyone suppose to believe one piece of info on this outdated piece of shit. ?

It’s wrong info. Simple as that. I’m looking at the diaries !!!

I am NOT renewing this worthless piece of garbage.

Who the hell gave Neilen all this ****ing authority to control the god damn industry. ?

Same thing the credit report people do. They have total control of peoples lives. How???? Who gave them the authority ?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Who the hell gave Neilen all this ****ing authority to control the god damn industry. ?

Advertisers.

Same thing the credit report people do. They have total control of peoples lives. How???? Who gave them the authority ?

Banks.

He who has the money has the power.

 

[tbolt909]

I am getting really sick of this piece of crap Neisen. Everything I read in the diaries ****ed up and makes no sense. People are calling us 104.1 WECK.

How the hell is anyone suppose to believe one piece of info on this outdated piece of crap. ?

It’s wrong info. Simple as that. I’m looking at the diaries !!!

I am NOT renewing this worthless piece of garbage.

Who the hell gave Neilen all this ****ing authority to control the god damn industry. ?

Same thing the credit report people do. They have total control of peoples lives. How???? Who gave them the authority ?

Buddy is melting down like Chernobyl. WECK heads South in the ratings and it's a conspiracy. If you pay your bills on time, your credit report will be favourable.

As for Nielsen, you are free to unsubscribe. The money you would save should improve the bottom line without losing advertisers (Especially since your audience is not in those coveted younger demos). Nielsen has been cast in the role of Ratings Scrooge --- "It's not fair picking a man's pocket every 25th of December"...

 

[davideduardo]

I am getting really sick of this piece of crap Neisen. Everything I read in the diaries ****ed up and makes no sense. People are calling us 104.1 WECK.

Isn't "104.1" your most important translator? Dial position is the dominant / predominant way of registering listening in the diary. Has been for over 3 decades.

How the hell is anyone suppose to believe one piece of info on this outdated piece of crap. ?

Why is it "outdated"? The diary is a very acceptable measurement device worldwide in nations where literacy is near 100%. Most of us in radio never wanted the PPM, in fact.

It’s wrong info. Simple as that. I’m looking at the diaries !!!

Why is it wrong?

Who the hell gave Neilen all this ****ing authority to control the god damn industry. ?

Ad buyers did, by eliminating Pulse and Hooper in the 70's and never accepting Birch and other alternative survey methods and companies.

Same thing the credit report people do. They have total control of peoples lives. How???? Who gave them the authority

Banks and lenders, who needed a metric for the ability to pay back loans and credit cards.

 

[davideduardo]

Buddy is melting down like Chernobyl. WECK heads South in the ratings and it's a conspiracy. If you pay your bills on time, your credit report will be favourable.

For a delightful change, we agree! Free margaritas all afternoon here in La Quinta. 🍹

I'll repeat again what Owen Charlebois, then CEO of Arbitron, told me nearly 20 years ago:

"There are three kinds of subscribers. Those who went up, who believe they are geniuses. Those who stay the same, who don't say anything. And those who went down, who blame Arbitron."

(I should record that as a macro so I can use it even more often).

Ding! Ding! Ding! Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

(Pardon me, I am having a snark attack.)

 

[xkxrx]

As for Nielsen, you are free to unsubscribe. The money you would save should improve the bottom line without losing advertisers

I'm curious. Just how much money would he save?

 

[tbolt909]

I'm curious. Just how much money would he save?

That's a question you should ask Buddy.

My point is that WECK is an AM Oldies station (with some low power FM translators). The advertisers on the station likely know what audience they are getting even without a Nielsen report. Any competent advertiser isn't expecting to reach 20-50 year olds there. WECK is still outperforming some other stations that have superior signals...

 

[davideduardo]

That's a question you should ask Buddy.

My point is that WECK is an AM Oldies station (with some low power FM translators). The advertisers on the station likely know what audience they are getting even without a Nielsen report. Any competent advertiser isn't expecting to reach 20-50 year olds there. WECK is still outperforming some other stations that have superior signals...

And, we assume, the spots are sold at a rate commensurate with the size and buying power of the audience.

 

[Mark1981]

I wrote about WBEN’s decline in a previous ratings post. At the time, I attributed WBEN’s decline to summer listening habits. For so many years, WBEN and WYRK were each topping 10 shares, competing for number one 12+. No more! 97 Rock and now WHTT have surpassed WBEN, dropping it to number 5 in the market. Make no mistake, an AM station earning a 6+ share is nothing to sneeze at. But WBEN is trending downward. And this happened in the midst of a compelling mid-term election season. Perhaps the death of Rush Limbaugh and the retirement of Sandy Beach — both occurring in 2021 — have finally caught up with WBEN. It doesn’t appear WBFO has benefited from WBEN’s decline. WBFO has plateaued in the mid 3 share range for much of the year. At this rate, WGR will likely surpass its sister station as the Bills season approaches the playoffs.

 

[TheBigA]

1. WBLK/93.7 10.5(up .1)
2. WGRF/96.9 8.8(no change)
3. WYRK/106.5 7.6(down .2)

Time for the annual WYRK/WBLK doe-see-doe. The stations switch places for a few months. Then in the spring, the reverse will happen.

 

[tbolt909]

I wrote about WBEN’s decline in a previous ratings post. At the time, I attributed WBEN’s decline to summer listening habits. For so many years, WBEN and WYRK were each topping 10 shares, competing for number one 12+. No more! 97 Rock and now WHTT have surpassed WBEN, dropping it to number 5 in the market. Make no mistake, an AM station earning a 6+ share is nothing to sneeze at. But WBEN is trending downward. And this happened in the midst of a compelling mid-term election season. Perhaps the death of Rush Limbaugh and the retirement of Sandy Beach — both occurring in 2021 — have finally caught up with WBEN. It doesn’t appear WBFO has benefited from WBEN’s decline. WBFO has plateaued in the mid 3 share range for much of the year. At this rate, WGR will likely surpass its sister station as the Bills season approaches the playoffs.

The decline of WBEN shouldn't surprise you. They dropped out of the Top 5 25--54 over a decade ago. Entercom tried the desperate move of an FM simulcast on 107.7 and the ratings still eroded. That cluster has continued its downward spiral ever since. And now Audacy stock is 30 CENTS a share...

 

[SirRoxalot]

Isn't "104.1" your most important translator? Dial position is the dominant / predominant way of registering listening in the diary. Has been for over 3 decades.

Um, David, 104.1 is WHTT - hardly Buddy's most important "translator." Early on, Buddy patterned much of his station after the former "Oldies 104.1" which moved on from oldies and is now the leading Classic Hits station in the market.

 

[four4rock]

With the comparison of this "rating" document to consumer credit reporting (and even commercial credit), I wonder... does the rating environment provide for a subject to attach a statement/comment to their ratings if they so desire? If so, does it happen with any frequency? If not, why is that not accepted?

 

[davideduardo]

Um, David, 104.1 is WHTT - hardly Buddy's most important "translator." Early on, Buddy patterned much of his station after the former "Oldies 104.1" which moved on from oldies and is now the leading Classic Hits station in the market.

Ah, I get it. Buddy is complaining that there is/are split diary entries where they, for example, give his slogan/station name and someone else's frequency. He did not explain that, and I'm still working on memorizing the calls and frequencies of all the new translators...

In that case, Nielsen has a long-standing (over 50 years) practice in allocating "mixed credit" entries. Things like call letters of one station and slogan or talent of another. Or "107 FM" when the market has both a 107.1 and a 107.7 that are local.

In that case, they do not throw out the entry, as that would reduce the PUR for the market, which is bad for the industry.

In the case of an entry like Buddy mentions, they take the trailing average share of WHTT and the the trailing average share of WECK, and establish a proportion. Let's say WHTT has a 5 share and WECK has a 2.5 share, then they give 2/3 of the credit to WHTT and 1/3 to WECK. This prevents the confused diary entry from changing the results, but allows it for market Persons Using Radio.

It is a bit more complicated, as the formula for attribution varies according to the age, gender, ethnicity and daypart for the confused entry, but my explanation shows the overall treatment.

I've seen very strange diary entries over the years. In one diary in Chicago from an "ultra" senior an 87 year-old non-Hispanic put down "WIND" which was our Spanish talk station. But they put down the name of a deceased talent who had been previously on WGN along side of the WIND calls. In that case, 50% was credited to "UUUU" (Unknown) and 50% to WIND although logic said that the old guy with a Polish name was not listening to a Spanish station. In these cases, they do not make decisions based on logic, only on what is listed in the diary: a dead guy (no credit to anyone) and actual call letters (valid).

If you think about it, the system is logical and can handle any strange entry without decreasing the market PUR.

 

[davideduardo]

With the comparison of this "rating" document to consumer credit reporting (and even commercial credit), I wonder... does the rating environment provide for a subject to attach a statement/comment to their ratings if they so desire? If so, does it happen with any frequency? If not, why is that not accepted?

Most ratings data used by agencies is in a data file that is looked at very specifically, such as "Men 25-44 6-10 AM MF". And, by the time a station inspects diaries the book is long past and likely another is about to come out.

In any case, as I detailed a moment ago, Nielsen has a procedure for ambiguous diary entries that has been in use for five decades and has been amply proven to be fair and effective.

On occasion, stations will ask, "why didn't you call the diarykeeper for clarification?" The fact is that ascription is far better since a call, about two weeks later, won't usually resolve the issue satisfactorily since memory has faded and the person may never have been sure of what they heard.

 

[Rusty Bridges]

The WECK air staff is comprised of seasoned professionals, a number of whom are former program directors. More than likely, they would be able to sort out or dissect the issues that are contributing to WECK's wobble.

It seems unfathomable that WECK is being confused by some listeners with Classic Hits 104.1 WHTT, but this mis-ascription is not unusual. It happens in many diary markets and formats. There could a few logical reasons for it in Buffalo, but I believe the primary reason is that WHTT was, for many years, the Oldies station in Western New York when it was known as Oldies 104.

Listeners sometimes project what they believe to be the station they're hearing, rather than the actual station. There's also the possibility that when listeners hear Tom Donahue on WECK, they recall the many years he was on Oldies 104 and write down WHTT or WECK 104.

So it's not hard to fathom that some listeners might ascribe WECK to Oldies 104, or WHTT, or the amalgamated WECK 104. As an extension and flip side to this quirk, it may be that a small portion of WHTT's successful 12+ is attributable in part (split crediting) to listeners (incorrectly) writing down "WECK 104 point one" in their diaries. In this case, both WECK and WHTT would recieve proportionate credit for the listening.

When I've listened to Weck, I've heard "W-E-C-K" and "Buffalo's Oldies Station, The Big Weck" used as the primary station slogans. I may have missed it, but I cannot recall ever hearing the call letters and slogans with dial positions/frequencies, "AM 1230, FM 100 point one ; FM 100 point five and FM 102 point nine."

As David Eduardo noted, station ascription and recall in diaries most often show frequency and dial position, sometimes in combination with the moniker or slogan, such as Oldies 104, Classic Hits 104 point 1; 97 Rock, Power 93-7, 103-3 the Edge ... or back in time, Rock 102.

So perhaps the solution to listeners confusing WECK with WHTT is something as basic as consistently using frequencies and dial positions ("AM 12-30; FM 100.1; 100.5 and 102.9") with the WECK call letters and slogans presently in use. Certainly, the former program directors on the WECK air staff could offer a few suggestions.

 

[TheBigA]

When I've listened to Weck, I've heard "W-E-C-K" and "Buffalo's Oldies Station, The Big Weck" used as the primary station slogans.

This is an important point. In diary markets, it's important to have a single consistent positioning statement.

Pick one and pound it to death.

 

[flybynight]

I wrote about WBEN’s decline in a previous ratings post. At the time, I attributed WBEN’s decline to summer listening habits. For so many years, WBEN and WYRK were each topping 10 shares, competing for number one 12+. No more! 97 Rock and now WHTT have surpassed WBEN, dropping it to number 5 in the market. Make no mistake, an AM station earning a 6+ share is nothing to sneeze at. But WBEN is trending downward. And this happened in the midst of a compelling mid-term election season. Perhaps the death of Rush Limbaugh and the retirement of Sandy Beach — both occurring in 2021 — have finally caught up with WBEN. It doesn’t appear WBFO has benefited from WBEN’s decline. WBFO has plateaued in the mid 3 share range for much of the year. At this rate, WGR will likely surpass its sister station as the Bills season approaches the playoffs.

When WBEN decided to start super-serving the loons, I stopped listening. I'm sure there are many who felt the same way. They literally snuffed out reason throughout most of the broadcast day. The content just got too insultingly stupid.