FEBRUARY 2011 PPMS REVIEW

[discjockeyjohn64]

OLDIES 95.7 has taken the #1 slot in the just released February 2011 PPM's. Followed by KRWM, KISW, KIRO, KOMO, KBKS, KUBE, KKWF, KZOK, and rounding out the top 10, KUOW. ROCK 99.9 has now tied for second, and so it was not just a one month wonder. KOMO has inched to within 1/10th of a point of number four KIRO FM. Major losers in this month's survey: KPLZ, KJAQ. Both were off almost a full share point. KING FM rose a full share point. Click 98.9 actually improved quite a bit from a month earlier but still off from the Smooth Jazz days.

Speaking of cume audiences, this is listening 15 minutes or more per week to a specific station, here are the top 5 cume stations: KBKS, KRWM, KJR, KPLZ, KQMV.

These, of course, are 6+ numbers, advertisers don't really use these numbers. They use 18-49, or 25-54 age group numbers for ad buys.

Speaking of KVI, another loss of 500 cume listeners, and they continue their decline into oblivion.
KSGX (Gen X 104.9) showed no improvement from last month.

KTTH 770 continues its climb back to ratings they had early last fall.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

FYI...'PLZ did not encode thru much of this survey. Arbitron has as a note.

 

[equalinercard]

Is the Bonneville dumping of KBSG-FM still looking like the greatest blunder in the history of Seattle broadcasting/

 

[scott salvatori]

Is the Bonneville dumping of KBSG-FM still looking like the greatest blunder in the history of Seattle broadcasting/

uh huh, was just thinking that same thought before i scrolled down to your post(except probably not the greatest blunder in history). oh well, someone compare the playlists, and programming similiaritys 'tween the two.

next thing ya know, KTTH will go #1, and KVI/fisher will be sheddin tears? ....

 

[radioguy123]

Bonneville looks silly today for blowing up KBSG before the first PPM arrived. KJR-FM was huge this book, Oldies was a viable format in PPM and has been across the country. Should have kept KIRO news on AM, where KOMO news is doing just fine and then gotten the number one rating on an FM Oldies too instead of the silly ESPN sports experiment. KVI was a smart move, until KJR flipped. No way an AM can beat an FM. Nice book for KISW. Begs the question: what happens to the Oldies numbers when Bob Rivers starts in a week? What happens to KISW in the morning when Bob RIvers starts in a week? Got to think CLick hurt KPLZ, KJAQ and KNDD. (I guess not encoding for part of the book didn't help either for kPLZ).

Kudo's to KISW for complete domination 25-54 and to KJR for the guts to go Oldies and then add Rivers. Nice to see KIRO and KOMO in the top five. Lots of snow and big news stories drive their numbers. Been quite the year of change.

Don't see KTTH going to number one anytime soon. They ranked 28th 25-54.

 

[te519]

Still trying to figure out how/why a single monthly matters - especially when the panel is running at least 250 meters under the original ARB target of 1625.

 

[equalinercard]

Bonneville dumped KBSG just a few months before PPM started in Seattle. There was already strong evidence in several markets, including NYC, that the format was doing well in PPM.

And then Bonneville ended the KIRO AM/FM simulcast, taking KIRO off of AM, the same week PPM started.

It's not like someone else was ready to do talk on FM or someone else was about to launch a sports station.

We'll never know if KBSG could have become a dominant station in Seattle or how well KIRO-AM might have done under PPM.

Maybe in the long-run the Bonneville Seattle moves will prove to have been very smart. But it's odd that they wouldn't have at least waiting a few more months to see if what they had in place was going to work under PPM, especially when there was evidence from other markets indicating that it would.

 

[mightymoose]

I find KJR-FM promoting "The Oldies Are Back" to be very amusing. Just what the hell were they playing before?? Call it Rock And Rolls Greatest Hits. Call it Classic Hits, it's all the Top 40 music of the rock era that started with the British Invasion and continued into the early 70's. If you asked listeners before the change to Christmas music last fall they'd say KJR-FM was playing Oldies...and what are they playing now? Oldies. And yeah Bonneville booboo'd by dumping Oldies on KBSG-FM.

 

[TVradioguru]

One month shows that oldies rule and Bonneville was wrong? Really?? Let's look at a four month runner at least before jumping to wild conclusions. My bet is all stations will settle back into the typical positions next month.

It seems to me if you look back on past threads regarding oldies, many here were predicting that KVI going oldies would show how music on AM can return to the albeit hazy memory days of success. Anyone care to step up and admit their predictions were wrong? No, didn't think so.

And the doomsayers here who were laughing at KIRO for going to FM, killing off the dying doo wap oldies station, seem to go quiet when discussion of target demo numbers 25-54 come up. KIRO has seen gradual and steady increases that would be typical for that sort of move. To focus and mock them for 6+ numbers quoted here only shows a fain desperation to make your point. Either that or you don't know what you don't know about target demographics.

 

[equalinercard]

I only saw posts from a few people who thought KVI going back to music was a good idea. Everyone I know thinks giving up on the talk format for KVI was a mistake.

I'd also be very careful about looking at the 25-54 numbers for KIRO-FM for November, December and January. Those numbers may have been impacted significantly by Seahawks.

Maybe KIRO-AM, had they stuck with the format, would have numbers just as good under PPM. Even if the KIRO-AM numbers were almost as good, and KBSG was #1, then Bonneville would be ahead of the game.

All I'm saying is making the moves when they made them and suffering through nearly two years of bad ratings before seeing improvement probably cost Bonneville $5M to $7M in lost revenue.

 

[David1960]

@radioguy123 -- Nice analysis. I agree on all points.

I wish we had numbers for KMCQ, KLFE and (to a lesser extent) KKOL. Having taken most of KVI's programming, the ratings for KLFE could lend some insight into how well KVI might have done if they'd continued with the talk format. As is, we have no evidence that the format switch was a mistake. While the ratings were better before the switch, they weren't exactly stellar then either. And don't forget that listeners are only one part of the equation. While they translate into revenue, the expenses of running a particular format are another factor and only the biz heads at Fisher have that type of info.

But I'd really be interested in knowing the true listenership of KMCQ. I've heard them being played in more businesses than any other local radio station. KRWM is the only other station I hear much. If KMCQ didn't exist, what station would be the beneficiary? Would it be KJR-FM? Or possibly none, since a large part of KMCQ's appeal is the lack of commercials?

 

[equalinercard]

Unless I'm missing something, KMCQ, KLFE and KKOL all failed to even show up in the latest PPM numbers.

Fisher could have easily kept KVI as a talk-station with all syndicated or mostly syndicated product and it would cost them no more than what they are spending today. And chances are they would have better ratings.

KKOL might also be showing up in the book by now had they kept their talk lineup in place instead of switching to a business format. Of course, most of the 'shows' on KKOL are paid infomercials, so with their horrible signal that's probably best for Salem.

 

[David1960]

Well I'm assuming that the only reason they're not showing up in the Arbitrons is because they don't subscribe. I'm sure they get enough listeners.

I completely understand why KMCQ wouldn't subscribe. But as for KLFE and KKOL, maybe it just doesn't matter for the type of advertisers they seek?

 

[discjockeyjohn64]

I do believe Salem Broadcasting does subscribe to Arbitron ratings. They do have two stations that regularly show up that they own, KGNW and KKMO. I stand corrected, they recently sold KKMO to a group of private investors. Nonetheless, KGNW shows in almost every survery. Salem owns KGNW, KKOL, KLFE, and KTFH. They are located at 820 AM, 1300 AM, 1590 AM, and 1680 AM respectively. The signals for the latter three are so thrashed, that probably is why they never show up in the ratings. The only station that has a good signal is KGNW, and at 50,000 watts, they probably would do better moving the Christian programming to 1590 and the conservative talk to 820, and they'd get a lot higher ratings for the conservative talk format, possibly up to the 1.5 share that KVI was pulling.

 

[amisdead]

The only station that has a good signal is KGNW, and at 50,000 watts, they probably would do better moving the Christian programming to 1590 and the conservative talk to 820, and they'd get a lot higher ratings for the conservative talk format, possibly up to the 1.5 share that KVI was pulling.

But 820 is the money maker. If they moved that programming to 1590 it wouldn't be the money maker that it is today. Also, Salem doesn't care about ratings, at least not in the traditional sense like Entercom or Clear Channel. For further reference, look at what they recently did in Honolulu, blowing up a ratings success on 99.5 only to replace it with a format very similar to 820.

 

[equalinercard]

Salem does NOT subscribe to Arbitron.

All stations in a metro are listed (assuming they get enough listening). Whether you subscribe to Arbitron or not means nothing in terms of who shows up in the book.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

It's those marginal stations that probably directly benefit from the sample size. If small number of PPM carriers determine the market and none of them are checking out those niche stations, game over. The small sample set probably OK for determining approximate cume/TSL for the larger stations within a decent margin of error ... but not the case for these specialty stations.

 

[radioguy123]

Once you get out of the top twenty stations my experience is 95% of your business is local direct. KTTH, KVI, KPTK, KKOL, KRKO, KIXI, KPTK, and fringe signals like KNBQ, GenX and others rely on direct clients. These stations have audiences but well under a two share in prime demos, so irrelevent to local media agencies, regional and national buys. The trick is to position them to do well and deliver an audience. Most of the AM sticks are talk. KVI and KIXI differentiate themselves by doing music news and talk. NONE of these stations merit discussion with ratings. KTTH is the highest ranked 25-54 at 28th. KVI went from 32nd to 37th when they went to music, I doubt it killed their business or increased it. KIXI is around 32nd 25-54.

To be honest I doubt any of the people who advertise on the stations are buying them for ratings. Each has a cume of 40-140 thousand. That isn't huge, but a viable audience to an advertiser with little money. You don't have to buy the arbitron to encode, just to use the ratings. KMCQ did not encode because the owners thought actual numbers might decrease the value. The new owners may encode.

 

[bobmathers]

Regarding KVI's decision to go 'Oldies': It was a wise one...and they still have a valuable opportunity to make it pay off.

The talent is all top notch. Tommy Hutyler & Marina Rockinger are solid, Bill Rice is my main man, and I personally don't know Hansen and Christopher but they're local legends so that's all that matters.

In my humble opinion, Fisher needs to apply some of its formidable promotional muscle on KVI's behalf and do some 'old school' promotions on the street. One of the challenges radio faces in general today is its tendency to throw generic themed promotions at the audience, i.e, 'Win a Cruise to Ixtapa'. Here's one idea of what KVI could do to localize its appeal.

The station can hold block parties and hops at neighborhoods around Seattle, and really reach out and grab that affluent 45 plus adult.

One could rather enjoy creating an aura of nostalgia and local 'buzz' on KVI. What fun it could (can still) be to go up against KJR-FM and KBSG and win!

 

[equalinercard]

Was KVI's decision to go 'oldies' a wise move?

This is a radio station that was #1 12+ and top 5 25-54 in the mid/late 90's. Granted, they had fallen considerably from that level, but no where near the bottom-feeder status they have reached as an "AM music station."

KVI is now ranked #35 6+. 25-54 they have slipped out of the top 40. (They have given new meaning to the term "Top 40" I guess.)

The KVI total week cume actually dropped a little in their second month of music, down to 53,200.

Not exactly nipping at the heels of KJR's cume of 853,400.

If they have account executives assigned to just KVI, I hope they keep them off of the top floor of Fisher Plaza.