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Buffalo Spring Ratings

P

Philip_Airtime

The spring Arbitron numbers are out on your favorite radio industry website. I check www.allaccess.com.

WYRK is still a strong number one 12+. WBEN's number fell, tying WBLK for second place. Add in WLKK's numbers, and WBEN still falls short of its winter rating. But the combined WBEN and WLKK numbers are virtually equal to last year's WBEN rating in the spring, which is a more valid comparison. Arbitron is continuing to list WBEN and WLKK separately. In fact, it still list WLKK's format as classic rock, even though at least two months of the spring ratings period covered the new simulcast. Also of interest, 97 Rock, WHTT and WJYE, which all tumbled in the winter, rebounded nicely this spring. WEDG continued to struggle and remains out of the top ten. WGR, because of the Sabres playoffs, landed in the number 10 position.

Because WECK has dominated the boards here, I will note that once again, the station ended up with a .5 share. So, Brad's manifesto did not appear to have had any impact on improving the numbers, which some will argue justifies Dick Greene's decision to launch a music format on WECK.

I know, these are 12+ numbers. But it's what we have publicly. So, let the discussion begin!!!
 
Star's continued its steady climb from last Spring. Everything else looks like a "market correction". The Spring book makes the Winter book look flukey.
 
Philip_Airtime said:
Because WECK has dominated the boards here, I will note that once again, the station ended up with a .5 share. So, Brad's manifesto did not appear to have had any impact on improving the numbers, which some will argue justifies Dick Greene's decision to launch a music format on WECK.
Click to expand...

I eally don't understand why anybody thought WECK had ANY chance to improve, not just given that short time frame (5 months) but especially because there shouldn't have been ANY expectation that anyone would have any idea what they were doing.

Seriously, WHO is scanning the AM dial to see what everybody's up to? I know this is hard to comprehend for many radio types, but most people aren't in that mode. The idea that an audience would've just found WECK is kind of absurd, especially in this day and age.
 
It's no surprise to me that 97 Rock and WHTT rebounded, as I suspected the Winter '11 book was a fluke when I wrote this post a few months back. But a few questions come to mind after looking at the Spring '11 Persons 12+ ratings.

That WYRK leads the pack is no surprise to this poster and P2 WYRK listener. It's demos are probably equally good.

WBLK powers up again.

WBEN began simulcasting on 107.7 on April 5th and the AM side slipped from a recent high of 9.9 Winter '11 to 7.8 in this survey. But add the 1.2 FM share from WLKK to the AM share of 7.8 and you have a 9, which is still off, but not as drastic a drop as indicated by the WBEN AM-only line. Still, it's likely 'WBEN on FM' drew listeners away from the AM rather than expanding the base, as some posters at the time suggested would be the case, making it a wash. Still, this process is still unfolding.

You'd have thought WGR would do much better, even though the Sabres went out in the first round. The Sabres were top of mind at the time. Casual listeners and sports fans were talking about trades, upgrades and "what went wrong." BTW, Taylor On Radio today (7-20-11) asks if a sports PD who recently resigned is on his way to Cleveland, where the rumor has CBS flipping one of its music FMs to Sports.

The Edge at 3.6? C'mon. Really? (But at least R-I now has the correct ownership listed for WEDG, just in time.)

Was I the only person expecting WHLD to step closer to a 2 share?

WJYE could be getting some traction with 'Joy' and Star has an uptick too in the Hot AC cat fight. And how about AM 1400 WWWS popping to a 1.7 with Rhythmic Oldies. Not quite the 2.1 WWWS had in Spring '10, but an uptick.

Again, it's only Persons 12+, relatively meaningless to insiders, but fodder for radio geeks n freaks who post here. The real story is told Persons 18-34, 18-49, 25-49, 25-54 and 35-64. Place Top 5 in those demos, you could be eating steak. If not, it's a PB&J samich.
 
I guess that the real question for Entercom is whether WBEN is better off with a 9 split between two stations in a simulcast, or a 9 on AM and a 2 on FM in a completely different format.

The Lake was never the thorn in the side of 97-Rock that it was intended to be. I blame that on programming. It probably attracted some disenfranchised listeners that 97-Rock wouldn't have had anyway, or got added as the alternative to a tune-out song on 97-Rock or even WHTT. The Lake had enough tune-outs of its own that it didn't seem to keep people for very long anyway.

Unless the programming on WBEN/WLKK shifts, I don't see them attracting a younger audience anyway. They may maintain their audience better being on FM simply because so many new devices are coming out with FM only, if they have any radio capability at all.
 
What? You don't think playing the same hackneyed repub refrain from the B&B boys and Rush appeals to "younger" listeners who don't listen to AM? I'm shocked! ... And on the other side of the coin, you could put KB on FM and it wouldn't do any better. Why? Because the style of commercial talk radio on the air today is so yesterday's news.
 
"the style of commercial talk radio on the air today is so yesterday's news."

True on a couple of levels.

First, the kind of talk being performed by so many hosts is not only more shout radio or preach radio than talk radio, it's purveying 20 year old ideas and fighting 20 year old grievances. They're still fighting out, for all intents and purposes, battles of the Clinton era even as both the real issues and the personalities have changed. It's the same old scores people are trying to settle. It'd be great to get a format that marries energy and wit with thoughtful discussion of what's going on, in a way that engages the listener and encourages them to get on the phone or get online and talk it out. As things stand now, ZZZZZ...

Second, the issues that NEED to be discussed today, like who controls government and who's able to buy influence on both policy and media coverage, may be things the talkers don't dare discuss because their front offices won't let them. I think you can do the math on that.

Someone's going to break the mold, take chances and do something different. Don't know who, when or where, but just like the rise of iconoclastic second-generation jocks got together with the British Invasion followed by the rise of FM and broke the mold of 1960 era bubble-gum AM top 40, it will happen.
 
Rob Dobson has been working summer vacation fill-in. He's entertaining because he's unpredictable and takes all factions to task. This week he's in for Tom Bauerle.
 
John Mainelli, one of the best programmers of the first wave of talk radio in the 80s and 90s, may have said it best when he said on retirement from ABC (and I'm paraphrasing from memory here), something to the effect of, "Be careful of getting your station and your lineup too married to one political party or the other. People's political tastes change over time just like their musical tastes, and if you can't be flexible enough to respond, your station and your hosts could end up voted out just like a losing politician."

He built WABC up from the doldrums in its immediate post-top 40 days to a top-5 position in market #1 in the mid-90s before he retired. It's now fallen almost in half to the 2s in 6+ share, has anemic numbers especially after Don Imus wraps it up at 10 AM, and could use a real transfusion of new blood. Could the same thing be happening to a lot of the other talkers around the country? This will bear watching....
 
Persons 25-54, Mon-Sun, 6A-12M: WYRK; WBLK; WGRF; WJYE; WKSE. For me and every other critic who thought WJYE's robo-backsells and music rotations sucked: Wrong. Looks like Joy is working. 97 Rock bounced back. #1 WYRK has a three share lead over second place cluster buddy WBLK and Town Square owns three of the top five stations in the demo. (Cha-ching!) How long will it take Cumulus to ask "Why is WYRK unchallenged?"
 
Element9 said:
How long will it take Cumulus to ask "Why is WYRK unchallenged?"
Click to expand...

Even with my limited knowledge of the market, I can't see Cumulus doing anything more taking a bite at 'YRK's heels. Try to knock them down in rank a couple notches to help their own stations.

Mounting a full-on challenge - even with the likes of Mike McVay on board - is going to be long and costly, I don't see Cumulus willing...if indeed they are able...to make the investment. Also I find it hard to imagine them hiring a live, local airstaff at any of their stations in market #53. Heck, one of my Cumulus friends in Dallas VT's weekends in Atlanta.

I know someone who was once PD of a CC Top 40 that toppled a Cumulus competitor, a heritage Top 40s with a long track record of success. Later, this co-worker was interviewing with Cumulus for the PD gig at that former giant...and when it became obvious that Cumulus had no interest in changing anything to try to regain their #1 ranking, the interview ended. If this is typical of how they operate, the only thing I see them doing in Buffalo is making life easier for Townsquare, Entercom, etc.
 
Perhaps the rebound of 97 Rock will quiet down those rumors of Norton retiring and Shredd & Ragan going back to mornings with a simulcast morning show on 96.9 and 103.3 ?
 
GeorgeKramer said:
Perhaps the rebound of 97 Rock will quiet down those rumors of Norton retiring and Shredd & Ragan going back to mornings with a simulcast morning show on 96.9 and 103.3 ?
Click to expand...

Anybody who's floating that rumor is smoking crack. What would be the point of a simulcast on 96.9 and 103.3? If Norton pulls the plug, and Shredd & Ragan go to 97-Rock, there's no way that they'll simulcast. A canned morning show & Bull in the Afternoon would be more likely if they kept a rock format on 103.3.
 
Top five Men 25-54 Mon-Sun 6 AM-Mid: WYRK & WGRF (tie), WGR, WBUF, WEDG. WGR #1 in AM drive, 3 shares higher than WGRF.
 
Corporate decided that Opie & Anthony syndicated would be cheaper in AM drive. Fortunately, Kevin Legrett managed to keep them on staff and moved them to PM drive. A few others got jettisoned in the process.
 
Sounds like S&R really enjoy working the 3-7 pm timeslot.

Going back to a daily grind of waking up at 3 am would be tough.

Their show works because they engage listeners, it's an easy sell for account executives and they have successfully established a brand that has listeners as young as teens all the way up to 50-somethings like myself.
 
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