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Fall '12 ARBs' - New Haven: WYBC 9.4-9.5 WPLR 7.2-6.4!

A

amfmradio1

New Haven -

Once again, a university radio station (Yale) beats a Cox corporate -

'PLR touting themselves as "Connecticuts' Number One Rock Station".

Admittedly, 'PLR PD Keith Dakin has done an indescribable job with the playlist & the liners/sweepers/breakers.

&, you think they would have had better ratings after the great job they did with the Newtown issue.

Maybe the listeners are sick & tired of Mike "Slap Happy Lappy" Lapitino saying "Uh" & "Ah" in between every other sentence.
 
When I go to the library in the afternoon and listen to streaming audio while doing my browsing/work, etc, I tune in to WPLR about 12:30 ish and like clockwork, sometime between 12:30 and I:00, Green Day's "She" comes on. I love grunge and am a Green Day fan, but the same damn song day in and day out at the same half hour is ridiculous!!! If there must be Green Day at that time, try another song!!!
 
Four stations were listed in the publicly released New Haven beauty contest numbers:

WYBC-FM went 9.4-9.5 from Spring '12 to Fall '12
WPLR went 7.2-6.4 Spring to Fall
WKCI went 7.9-5.3 Spring to Fall
WELI went 3.3-5.1 Spring to Fall

WELI's bump is probably attributable to Hurricane Sandy coverage for the ravaged shoreline.

Who knows what happened with that big KC101 dip.
 
The only reason I'd question that is because no other talk station in New England saw any considerable bump due to the election.
 
reelyreal said:
The only reason I'd question that is because no other talk station in New England saw any considerable bump due to the election.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean about ratings. With theaters and stadiums, you either fill the seats or you don't. :)
 
The overall "beauty contest" slippage of WPLR doesn't tell the whole story. For one thing, their shift to more recent rock may have produced decent results with a younger demographic even if they had to shed some older baby boomers. A one-book drop of .8 is no disaster in New Haven - market #116. WPLR is also more of a regional factor, especially in the Bridgeport area where WYBC catches some Long Island interference and WELI gets nulled at night. WKCI, WEZN and WEBE straddle New Haven and Bridgeport pretty well too. WYBC-FM is Yale-owned but is a Cox LMA with a very solid signal throughout Greater New Haven and has had a consistently strong format for years. It's not a David vs. Goliath or King of the Hill thing in that WPLR/WYBC/WEZN are all operated by Cox and are supposed to complement each other.

KC-101's decrease seems more mysterious, but it's easy to make too big a deal out of the few numbers most of us see in a market outside of the top 100. And don't forget about the up and down effects of the Meriden-based stations, most of which have equally strong signals in New Haven and Hartford.
 
Given the apparent high ratings of WYBC, I have always wondered why no commercial station in the entire state of CT has an Urban AC format? Has there ever been one? Come to think of it, are there any Urban AC stations anywhere in New England?
 
910 AM of New Britain/Hartford was once JAMZ 910 in the late 90s and early 2000s, until the then-new HOT 93.7 wiped the mat with them. They played a lot of hip hop, but with adult urban on many occasions. There was a syndicated countdown show on the weekends with Walt "Baby" Love. I think they even ran gospel/inspirational music on Sunday mornings like WYBC does.
 
KML-224 said:
910 AM of New Britain/Hartford was once JAMZ 910 in the late 90s and early 2000s, until the then-new HOT 93.7 wiped the mat with them. They played a lot of hip hop, but with adult urban on many occasions. There was a syndicated countdown show on the weekends with Walt "Baby" Love. I think they even ran gospel/inspirational music on Sunday mornings like WYBC does.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm familiar with those stations, but I was wondering about a station similar to WBLS that is entirely R&B. Are there any in New England besides WYBC?
 
Mediabase only monitors 71 Urban AC stations in the country, and most of them are south of the Mason-Dixon.

As for other stations in New England trying the format, I can tell you from personal experience that it's an outrageously difficult sell to local advertisers. I've sold urban in New England, and it's no picnic. It doesn't matter how well the sales staff knows the station and the format, how good the signal is, how high the ratings are, or how well it's marketed. There are still a lot of prejudiced beliefs that are engrained in the decision makers that keep them away from urban stations. As a result, you've got to apply deep discounts to your rates to make the sale. Things aren't a whole lot better on the agency side, either.

Urban is a tough sell in lily-white New England. It's not impossible, and stations like Hot 93.7 and 94.3 YBC have shown that it can be done... but it's not easy, and there isn't a very big advertising pie to slice up.
 
reelyreal said:
WKCI went 7.9-5.3 Spring to Fall
...
Who knows what happened with that big KC101 dip.
Click to expand...

I notice an improvement in KC101's audio quality. Wonder if it's related to this...
 
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