Fall 2011 Poughkeepsie Book is in

[Fidel Ipac]

Looky here: http://www.radio-info.com/markets/poughkeepsie

The numbers are in and they tell some interesting stories. You pros feel free to chime in with the breakouts. I'll go with what I see so far.

Another monster book for live-and-local K104 sitting pretty at the top of the heap with a double-digit number that leaves everyone else in the dust. You have to look four points down for the nearest competition. Congratulations to the whole team down there.

92.1 Lite FM comes in at #2 with 'RNQ's strongest book in years. It could be even stronger with more local content. An attractive place for your ad dollars.

WPDH continues to suffer from PTSD: Post Tobin Stress Disorder. No longer the gold standard thanks to the bozos in Atlanta. They need a big change in the morning.

WRWD is going in the wrong direction. If I were the new GM one of my first jobs would be trying to fix this before it slips below a 5.

KISS 96.1 settles back a bit this book. Watch for further slippage as the Premium Choice really kicks in with people who don't want canned stuff from far away on their radio.

WHUD gets it's usual 4ish. Anything they get in Poughkeepsie is gravy now that there's a Hudson Valley book for them to rule.

The combined RRV/RRB does what it usually does, a 4. Respectable considering the potential reach of the niche format, but nothing to write home about.

Looks like word is spreading about FOX Oldies. Their numbers more than doubled from the spring. Despite a stupid name and poor execution, WGNY is building an audience. The station is still sub-4, but look who they're beating.

Mark Bolger and Rick Dees weren't the answer at MIX97. The once mighty WCZX continues it's slide to the bottom with a sub-three-and-a-half showing. Cume-You-Less strikes again. What a waste of a decent signal.

Hey, look who rounds out the Top 10. WDST gets some of its best numbers in a long time. Chalk this up to disgruntled PDH listeners looking for an alternative.

Star 93.3 is officially a trainwreck. Marino's not working (how predictable was that?) and I wouldn't be surprised if the new GM blows up the station and starts over. If he wanted to make a dent in PDH this would be the stick to do it with.

Does anybody else see the irony in Cumulus' Country KICKS 105 targeting Danbury coming in with a bigger number than The Wolf 94.3?

92.9 WBPM was flat with a weak 1. It's too soon to judge Bob Miller at this point but I wouldn't hold my breath for a major improvement because of how weak this signal is south of Hyde Park. Too bad. Miller deserves better.

 

[disney fanatic]

Thanks for the info. And by the way, congrats to WSPK's "K104" for being #1 in the latest fall book for the third time, beating "Kiss-FM" at 96.1 to death with all of that syndicated garbage known as CC's "Premium Choice" network which also run a rhythmic CHR. "Kiss" is also behind "K104" in the fall ratings period. WRWD is still doing well at a 5.2 still beats "The Wolf" which is down at a 1 share which is close to a .9, but I'm not sure what's going to happen at the Cumulus outlets that some of the people from WPDH and WRRV has let go, but I don't see Beth Christy, Jack Hammer and others letting it go anytime soon. Cumulus which also now owns two of the stations that are in New York City including WABC and WPLJ since it took over from Citadel last year. WBPM is still right next with "The Wolf", but Bob Miller did very well in morning after he was filling in for Joe Manglass back in October at WGNY's "Fox Oldies" and also filled in for Van Ritshie last summer. I don't see Bob going back to "Fox Oldies", but keep it as a morning person at BPM.

And now, for the rest of the fall book, I'm talking about "Fox Oldies", in the latest fall book that came out, WGNY's "Fox Oldies" which is now at 98.9 has a .0 still in the ratings. What happened? My guess is that this station sounded a lot like the old CBS-FM since it first hit the airwaves back in 1972 until it went to "Jack" in 2005. The station is still at the bottom of the barrel, playing too much pre-64 music and all of that sound way too old for this format. Remember "Cool 92.9" that was a great station and the home of Rick McCaffery's "Solid Gold Jukebox" show, I used to listen to this back in 2004 until the station was sold to Pamal back in 2007 and went to a classic rock leaning format, but I listened to a little bit and it's still a good station than CBS-FM. CBS-FM is doing very well in the PPM ratings in New York City not playing 50's but it edged into the 80's stuff. I hope "Fox Oldies" need to tweak a lot more and play more 70's music like the Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive" and other songs from "Saturday Night Fever" and a few more disco songs. I was mentioned in the New York section of the board that WLTW's "Lite-FM" has dumped the 70's music completely. It would benefit listeners to go to either WHUD, "Fox Oldies", WBPM, WPDH and WDST. "Fox Oldies" needs a doo-wop show, put Bob Corsino on weekends to do a specialty show where he can play doo-wop music like "Morse Code of Love" by the Capris and many others. WKNY had a doo-wop show during the WKNY's oldies show with Warren Lawrence at a 4 PM hour every Saturday. This station should not get credit on getting a .0 for the second ratings book. WGNY's "Fox Oldies" is going nowhere, just like they did with WEMP's 101.9 where they call it "FM News" under Walter Sabo. I hope it needs to fix the music and bring some more people like Rick Knight, Lou Brown and a few others to join "Fox Oldies", but I don't see why Rick McCaffery would come out of his retirement to do a "Solid Gold Jukebox". His last show on WKIP was on Halloween 2009. I didn't listen to that show, because of that interference from IBOC. I wish they need to bring the "Solid Gold Jukebox" back to "Fox Oldies" and instead of Rick McCaffery, bring Gary Lee Schwartz to the table. Keep Van Ritshie in mornings and Bob O in afternoons and bring in "Downtown" Lou Brown in afternoon drive and maybe Rick Knight would do fill-ins for "Fox Oldies". I hope former CC jocks would be happy if they can end up on another station.

As I mentioned one of the CC stations "Star 93.3" is down a bit further at a 2.2, not bad but Tony Flash has being let go from that station in afternoon drive replacing with "Premium Choice" syndicated network, and while WRWD is still doing well, gone was "Downtown" Lou Brown in afternoon drive replacing with a washed out syndicated garbage known as "Premium Choice". I remember Lou when he was on WBPM original "B94" back in the 1990's where he did middays and di the "All Request Power Hour" for many years and then he was on afternoon drive at a jammin' oldies station known as "Rhythm 94.3" and then to "Cool 94.3" in 2002 and then at "Cool 92.9", "Lite-FM" and last but not least, WRWD until he was let go. I missed Lou so much, he was a great talented jock in the Hudson Valley. Now that Chuck Benfer is taking over the realm at the CC Joker, maybe Batman will see his revenge.

 

[MHVRadiofan]

Although the 12+ ratings we see don’t mean much you would think, the bozos in Atlanta would se the trend. They tweak WCZX and over the course of a year, the ratings continue to drop. WKXP, which never challenged WRWD, is now being beaten by co -owned, out of market WDBY. WPDH has been dropping for the past few years, so, Gary Cee gets the ax. Although I strongly feel it is not his fault that is how corporations operate, if the ratings are not good fire the PD. Again, this is another bad move on Cumulus part.I would be looking at the Poughkeepsie group management, since they won’t look at the real problem, themselves.
Sure, the critical morning lead in Coop Crap is a serious impediment; it can’t be the only problem. I hope that Boris can come up with a plan that Atlanta will approve, starting with coming up with two morning shows, one to replace himself on WRRV and Coop on WPDH. What else can he do, perhaps a format tweak?
On a positive note a nice gain for WGNY-FM; obviously, the word has gotten out about a good oldies station on 98.9. I think some of the audience comes from unhappy former WCZX as well as some WBPM listeners. WBPM has been more or less flat so I guess Pamal is happy with the ratings. I think Bob Miller’s routine was better suited for WGNY.
As for WRNQ and to a lesser extent WRWD they are up one book down the next. WBWZ continues to disappoint but is now less costly for Clear Channel.

 

[aka. the steve]

If they can't fix the morning show, everything else is meaningless. Someone should go appologize to Tobin and beg him to come back...since that won't happen, i'd bet on Bob and Tom or some other syndicated piece of crap. I'm sure glad I'm not Borris.

 

[Fidel Ipac]

If they can't fix the morning show, everything else is meaningless. Someone should go appologize to Tobin and beg him to come back...since that won't happen, i'd bet on Bob and Tom or some other syndicated piece of crap. I'm sure glad I'm not Borris.

You're right. The fish stinks from Coop's head. That's why it's even more bizarre they made Gary Cee the fall guy. Could you see Cume-you-less floating the Bob and Tom trial balloon from Atlanta and Gary Cee taking the hit for shooting it down?

OK, who's got the demos?

 

[oldies4ever]

Fox Oldie--Correct-o-mundo--the word is out, and the 12+ demo, as the guys said, jumped 2 points to a 3.7, but, again. look who they beat out. They finished 6th over all in the 12+. Not bad for a brandy new station with a format that everyone said was dead, and BTW, only their second Book! The rest?? BPM needs to be put out to pasture. The wolf never has and never will be a threat to WRWD, which is sounding terrible these days, with the low cost so called talent they have. Wonder how they can afford hammer??? He's nothing to write home about on air..whats the big deal??? and If they let gary Cee do his job PDH would have been ok...no good deed goes unpunished...

Fire away
Oldies4ever ;D

 

[disney fanatic]

Thanks for the correction. I thought WGNY's FM station "Fox Oldies" didn't do all that great in the spring book. But it went straight up in the ratings in the 3.7 in the fall book. If you look at the numbers that CBS-FM dominates, it does pretty good playing the same amount of music that "Fox Oldies" plays rather than playing the pre-Beatles songs, but sometimes CBS-FM throws in a few 50's in there. "Fox Oldies" is the new original CBS-FM circa 1972-2005. I hope they should get a few more listeners to the table and a few other former "Cool 92.9" and "Oldies 97.7" listeners to check it out, especially the former old CBS-FM listeners to go to "Fox Oldies". Let's see how it develops.