• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Cleveland Radio Dec 24 Ratings

skiwest said:
Cleveland Radio Dec 24 Ratings

Huge jump for WMJI with Christmas music.

Nice jump for WDOK for same reason.

Big drop for WTAM.

WKSU in a downward trajectory.

N/A for 50 kW WHKW. Ouch.
Click to expand...
iHeart seemed to have added a bit more variety to their Christmas playlist this year. Perhaps the reason why WMJI did better.

I didn't once tune into WDOK.

Most of my Christmas listening came from WAKR, which seems to have the best variety in my opinion. I didn't hear *NSYNC's Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or Rob Thomas' A New York Christmas like I did last year, but heard a few new additions like NewSong's The Christmas Shoes.
 
Keep in mind this was the December report but actually covered the period from Nov. 7-Dec 4. WMJI could shatter another record in the Holiday '24 period that will be released at the end of January. But WMJI also had a two week head start on WDOK. WMJI flipped on the second day of this book, WDOK didn't flip until the book was half over.

Either way - a very good showing for WMJI. Especially because if you look at the majority of the other markets, the holiday stations were down considerably from the December 2023 book that reflected the month of November.
 
skiwest said:
Cleveland Radio Dec 24 Ratings

Huge jump for WMJI with Christmas music.

Nice jump for WDOK for same reason.

Big drop for WTAM.

WKSU in a downward trajectory.

N/A for 50 kW WHKW. Ouch.
Click to expand...
I was listening to WMJI much more lately for the Christmas music. Doesn't surprise me with WTAM. Same old stuff. Their on air talent was already on their extended vacations already. I would rather listen to Brad Sussman any day over Wills.Very irratating when that station does silent for many minutes at a time. . It happens very frequently, especially at night. Program director doesn't seem concerned. It sure went down hill when Ray Davis (prog. director) left or was released a few years back , I don't know which.
 
I know that people will point to news fatigue as the reason for WKSU continuing to fall, but their books leading up to the election aren't all that hot. There doesn't seem to be much growth happening. Looks more like instead of each station (WCPN and WKSU) getting a2.5-3 when they were competitors, they have just merged audience. Station just doesn't seem to have much personality...very passive approach...here's what the network sends, so we will run it...the station's repetitive nature makes it a tune-out for people (like me) who are interested in the news, but don't want to hear the story of the day rehashed 14 times, the way news junkies do
 
Vidtech said:
I was listening to WMJI much more lately for the Christmas music. Doesn't surprise me with WTAM. Same old stuff. Their on air talent was already on their extended vacations already. I would rather listen to Brad Sussman any day over Wills.Very irratating when that station does silent for many minutes at a time. . It happens very frequently, especially at night. Program director doesn't seem concerned. It sure went down hill when Ray Davis (prog. director) left or was released a few years back , I don't know which.
Click to expand...
Ray was fired. You could make a very big list of experienced Cleveland jocks and experienced Cleveland programming people who were fired by iHeart.
 
geoffpeters said:
I know that people will point to news fatigue as the reason for WKSU continuing to fall, but their books leading up to the election aren't all that hot. There doesn't seem to be much growth happening. Looks more like instead of each station (WCPN and WKSU) getting a2.5-3 when they were competitors, they have just merged audience. Station just doesn't seem to have much personality...very passive approach...here's what the network sends, so we will run it...the station's repetitive nature makes it a tune-out for people (like me) who are interested in the news, but don't want to hear the story of the day rehashed 14 times, the way news junkies do
Click to expand...
NPR oriented public radio is down in most markets. Down in Boston, Down in New York City. I don't think that it has any long running impact. It appears that all non-right wing radio and non-right wing cable TV news is down, which usually happens for a while after an election where the fatigue factor sets in with political junkies who want a rest, especially around the holidays.
 
Vidtech said:
Doesn't surprise me with WTAM. Same old stuff. Their on air talent was already on their extended vacations already. I would rather listen to Brad Sussman any day over Wills.Very irratating when that station does silent for many minutes at a time. . It happens very frequently, especially at night. Program director doesn't seem concerned. It sure went down hill when Ray Davis (prog. director) left or was released a few years back , I don't know which.
Click to expand...
Brad Sussman does a good job when he fills in. He has a lot more energy than Wills who seems to be just mailing it in.

I have noticed dead air a few times on Sunday night at the start of Bill Cunningham show. WTAM must be on autopilot at that time.
 
skiwest said:
Cleveland Radio Dec 24 Ratings

Huge jump for WMJI with Christmas music.

Nice jump for WDOK for same reason.

Big drop for WTAM.

WKSU in a downward trajectory.

N/A for 50 kW WHKW. Ouch.
Click to expand...
Figured Majic and Star would get a nice Christmas bump.

106.5 The Lake got a nice bump as well, probably from people who wanted a break from Christmas music.

WTAM and WKSU both took pretty decent whacks, as post election people were politicked out.

92.3 The Fan also took a whack, as people didn't want to be depressed over the Browns.
 
skiwest said:
Brad Sussman does a good job when he fills in. He has a lot more energy than Wills who seems to be just mailing it in.
Click to expand...

Remember, Sussman by trade is a TV guy, as he spent most of the 90s as the weekend weatherman on WEWS, backing up Don Webster.
 
Brad was even their Chief Meteorologist/evening weather guy for a while when Mark Johnson was on mornings.
 
vw86 said:
Brad was even their Chief Meteorologist/evening weather guy for a while when Mark Johnson was on mornings.
Click to expand...
Correct - for about a 2 or 3 year span (wanna say from 1999-2002), Brad was in the big chair.

Johnson then became top man around 2002 and has been in that spot ever since.
 
MediaLover said:
2002 was also the year WEWS started messing with their anchor lineup and have not really recovered since.
Click to expand...
WEWS is always shuffling their morning anchor lineup, as they keep running into the brick wall that is Fox 8 News in the Morning.

It's really been since 2009 (when the legendary Ted Henry retired) that TV 5's evening newscasts have been in a constant state of flux (though Rob Powers has been a steady fixture since 2016).

Mark Johnson has been burned in ember as chief meteorologist since 2002

At the sports desk, WEWS was a revolving door from about 2000 (when Matt Underwood left to become a full time announcer for the then Indians now Guardians) until 2007, when Andy Baskin stabilized things, and when AB was fired in 2017, Jon Doss quickly established himself and has since become a mainstay.
 
vjm said:
Correct - for about a 2 or 3 year span (wanna say from 1999-2002), Brad was in the big chair.

Johnson then became top man around 2002 and has been in that spot ever since.
Click to expand...
Brad later ended up on FOX 8 before he moved mainly to WTAM.

Speaking of WTAM, could their listenership increase next year, along with WKSU?
 
MediaLover said:
Q104 and 107.3 ALT CLE both went up

Z107.9 was flat

KISS-FM and Real both went down

95.5 The Fish was also all-Christmas, but was flat
Click to expand...
The Fish waited too long to switch. (While I know most people want to wait till Thanksgiving and I understand that) If you're the 3rd station to flip to Christmas music generally it isn't going to help. WMJI is always the first to do the flip. Usually around November 9th-11th every year and then WDOK follows a week or two later and The Fish waits till Thanksgiving Day. I haven't listened to the FIsh much lately but they should maybe do the opposite and go with Christmas music till at least Epiphany. Then they get the other side cause nobody is playing Christmas music after Dec 25th. They get the audience to themselves. Just a thought.
 
I haven't looked at the year to year Christmas music ratings but does it seem like they're starting to not be as high as they have been in the past? Of course they're going to tick up above the "normal" ratings but maybe people are just getting tired of the same-old same-old and moving on to online streams, etc. which may have a bigger, more diverse playlist to chose from.
 
The 6+ monthly shares for the December book (that is actually reflective of the month of November) showed a significant downward trend for many of the early flippers comparing November 2024 and November 2023. WMJI was an exception. I'm already eager to see the Holiday book to see how the format fared in the month of December
 
While I would normally be surprised to see a drop at 92.3 during Browns Season, I am NOT surprised when you consider the God-Awful programming decisions that have been made! Putting Nick Wilson and Jonathan Peterlin on afternoon drive was a HUGE mistake! Nick Wilson is a pompous Know-it-all who acts like a 20-year-old frat boy and Peterlin is about as entertaining as pure static...which I would welcome over BOTH of them. They too often engage in locker room talk that border on DISGUSTING! They talk down to their listeners and are an automatic channel turn when they are on!! They also need to figure out the Night show...Hopefully pulling some of their under-utilized talent like Danny Cunningham!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom