Chicago Arbitron Ratings: April 2013

[pjc1961]

http://mobile.****************/cgi-bin/rolmobi.exe/arb005

Overall age 6+ publicly released data is for the April 2013 survey period covering Thu. 3/28/13-Wed. 4/24/13.
Next survey period will be May 2013 (covering Thu. 4/25/13-Wed. 5/22/13) with the data release date being Mon. 6/10/13.

 

[pjc1961]

AllAccess.com Arbitron April 2013 PPM Analysis with demo breakouts (scroll down page for "Chicago: V Is For Vastly"):

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...rch-director-inc-presents-exclusive-april-ppm

 

[Dr Wayne]

WLS FM heads SOUTH!

 

[radioman148]

WLS FM heads SOUTH!

It's a shame. They had a good thing going until Jeffries got his hands on it.

 

[davideduardo]

WLS FM heads SOUTH!

It's a shame. They had a good thing going until Jeffries got his hands on it.

No, they did not have a good thing going. 2012 revenues were 25% below 2008 revenues, and falling. They had to do something to lower the average listener age.

Whether they did the right thing is a different argument. But it is very clear that economics dictated a refocusing of the format.

 

[radioman148]

WLS FM heads SOUTH!

It's a shame. They had a good thing going until Jeffries got his hands on it.

No, they did not have a good thing going. 2012 revenues were 25% below 2008 revenues, and falling. They had to do something to lower the average listener age.

Whether they did the right thing is a different argument. But it is very clear that economics dictated a refocusing of the format.

Were they making money then and are they making money now?

 

[davideduardo]

Were they making money then and are they making money now?

Their revenue, as I said, was plummeting. Not due to the recession, not due to new media... due to the really old unsalable demos on the station. They had the choice of changing formats or modifying the existing one, but they could not stay the way they were at that revenue level.

 

[radioman148]

Were they making money then and are they making money now?

Their revenue, as I said, was plummeting. Not due to the recession, not due to new media... due to the really old unsalable demos on the station. They had the choice of changing formats or modifying the existing one, but they could not stay the way they were at that revenue level.

You already said their revenue was dropping, but my question was were they still making money?

 

[audioguy]

I hate it that in the U.S. all the media care about are young listeners. Perhaps when all of those young listeners have switched off the radio and migrated to iPods and netbooks, they will start programming something worth listening to for the rest of us. As for those young listeners, they're getting older every single day!

 

[BRH]

I hate it that in the U.S. all the media care about are young listeners. Perhaps when all of those young listeners have switched off the radio and migrated to iPods and netbooks, they will start programming something worth listening to for the rest of us. As for those young listeners, they're getting older every single day!

And there's another generation right behind them to then target. Time marches on and this same trend has always been the case with previous generations.

 

[davideduardo]

I hate it that in the U.S. all the media care about are young listeners. Perhaps when all of those young listeners have switched off the radio and migrated to iPods and netbooks, they will start programming something worth listening to for the rest of us. As for those young listeners, they're getting older every single day!

It's not "the media" but advertisers who make the basic determinations that affect programming.

Look at newspapers: their appeal is decidedly older in focus, but there are few advertisers who want over-55 or even over-50 readers. So newspapers can't find the revenue to survive.

Or in radio, look at standards and oldies formats: the appeal of standards is over 70 and oldies is over 65. There are essentially no advertisers looking to reach those audiences, so there is no revenue to sustain those stations and for the most part, they have disappeared.

Heads up: netbooks are nearly dead, and iPods are not what they used to be. The preferred distribution method for music... and increasingly for radio... is streaming via smartphones and other mobile devices that have connectivity.

 

[davideduardo]

Were they making money then and are they making money now?

Their revenue, as I said, was plummeting. Not due to the recession, not due to new media... due to the really old unsalable demos on the station. They had the choice of changing formats or modifying the existing one, but they could not stay the way they were at that revenue level.

You already said their revenue was dropping, but my question was were they still making money?

They were probably making some money, but the trend was obvious: aging listener base and no revenue for 50+ or 55+ dominant stations. In other words, the end was in sight and it was better to do something now than wait until a full relaunch... at greater cost... was needed.