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Gravity Check

passtheword

passtheword

Winter arbitrons are out today for Birmingham. "New Country 97.3" came out ahead of "Y-94.5". Something must be out of balance in the Universe. Unless there's some sort of error, it looks as though as "Y" lost almost 2/3 of their audience in three months time. The only FM's which did worse than "Y" were Crawford's "Source" and WPHC.

Here's the link to the R&R page:

Birmingham Winter '07 Arbitrons



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Holy cow, you might be right about the universe being out of balance - this is the first time I've ever seen WAPI beat WERC on these ratings!

Dare I speculate that Y's loss is due to Rick and Bubbles leaving for the country?

Nice little drop on WENN's ratings as well, around the time they flipped... Seems like most all of the stations have lost ratings. On the other hand, WLGD (Legends) is finally showing a number - you mean people will actually listen to music with the IBOC buzz and 4 kHz brick wall filter over it? :)
 
Zach said:
Dare I speculate that Y's loss is due to Rick and Bubbles leaving for the country?
Click to expand...

That would be my guess, too. Rick and Bubba were on both major drive slots, and they were what was carrying the station. When you have all your eggs in one basket, you really have problems if the basket breaks!
 
You've got to remember that R&B are also on 97.3's PM drive (I think) and poor WYDE (OK... I'm lying) - They are a laughing stock.
 
BlueRaja said:
You've got to remember that R&B are also on 97.3's PM drive (I think) and poor WYDE (OK... I'm lying) - They are a laughing stock.
Click to expand...

94.5 and 101.1--two big signals with little ratings to show for their efforts. I gotta think WYSF will rebound a little, but only after retooling post-Rick-and-Bubba.

Specifically for Crawford Broadcasting, you'd think there'd be some urgency to get ratings & revenue up for both 101.1 and 92.5 WPHC, considering the boo-koo bucks they've spent buying and upgrading both in the past few years.

Of course, WPHC's format is pretty much the answer to a question nobody asked--WHY did they upgrade this for IBOC? And the programming on WYDE just doesn't seem to compare to the other talk stations in town. Who knows what they'll do to turn things around?
 
Nate Wesley said:
Specifically for Crawford Broadcasting, you'd think there'd be some urgency to get ratings & revenue up for both 101.1 and 92.5 WPHC, considering the boo-koo bucks they've spent buying and upgrading both in the past few years.

Of course, WPHC's format is pretty much the answer to a question nobody asked--WHY did they upgrade this for IBOC? And the programming on WYDE just doesn't seem to compare to the other talk stations in town. Who knows what they'll do to turn things around?
Click to expand...

Crawford as a whole has made an early commitment to IBOC, from what I recall. I know they have properties in Chicago and Denver that made the HD jump early. (A year ago I was stunned at how many HD AM's were on in Denver, most being Crawford's I think... All those sidebands rendered my 'Seek' button pretty useless on the dial.)

I don't think WPHC can ever do well in the Birmingham ratings - the signal's just not there. Same thing with WLGD - even pre-HD the signal was kinda iffy in the far suburbs and at night, fugitaboutit. And WYDE-FM? I don't think the ratings really matter to them, as long as they supposedly toe some strongly Christian conservative line. Or so I've heard -- that is merely heresay, taken with a grain of arsenic.

It's been a while since I've been able to listen to 101.1 but I recall the feeling that any of us on here could easily do a better talk show... (Especially me, Mr. No Radio Experience, Just A Fan M.D. -- ha ha.)
 
WENN's 12+ number may have dropped from its gospel days, but its 18-34 number is very strong. With the 25-54 carcass nearly picked clean, somebody needs to step up and grab those non bump and thump lovin rocker/hipsters, and The Vulcan is getting them without a fight, marketing campaign, or staff for that matter. Question is, can they sell it? ???
 
whit979 said:
Seems like Birmingham is ready for a hot AC station.
Click to expand...

Hot AC has been tried twice in Birmingham since the mid '90's...first on Mix 94.5, then when Magic segued to Hot AC in the early '00's. It didn't work either time. So, what else can Y-94.5 do, besides actually spending some time programming their station?
 
Maybe Crawford should put WDJC on 101.1. Most of the area north of Birmingham-101.1 WDJC would probably do at least as well in Huntsville as WFIX, which doesn't put as good a signal in to Huntsville and Madison. That would probably also keep from handing most of the CCM listeners in north and central Alabama to WAY-FM (Christian CHR) as well.
 
I don't think it would ever happen. Don Crawford has invested quite a bit of money in moving Crawford into a new building and new studios and everything. I think they are probably under the impression that they can go paid programming for most of the day plus the ever so boring Lee Davis. Poor guy.
 
crawford's 101.1 doesn't seem to have any problem with participation. i hear callers from **all over** the coverage area. i assume they're still billing quite a bit. What they're doing seems to be working for them - and yes, i even turn over there some because sometimes, i get tired of music.

I doubt they change anything unless, pray tell, they can get it even more staffed.
(but that would cost money too)
 
William_Yeager said:
Maybe Crawford should put WDJC on 101.1. Most of the area north of Birmingham-101.1 WDJC would probably do at least as well in Huntsville as WFIX, which doesn't put as good a signal in to Huntsville and Madison. That would probably also keep from handing most of the CCM listeners in north and central Alabama to WAY-FM (Christian CHR) as well.
Click to expand...

How about this: Move 'DJC to 101.1, then make 93.7 Black Gospel? (I'm sure there's a certain Citadel station that'd love to see Kiss FM take the potential hit.) Those former "Hallelujah FM" listeners didn't all go back to Heaven 610/WAGG, and that's just the kind of advertiser money Crawford has done well attracting.

Crawford won't mess with their golden goose, obviously. On second thought, make 92.5 black gospel. With the most of it's signal hitting west of Birmingham, I bet it'd make a small showing in the ratings. It couldn't hurt to try--the only ones listening to WPHC might be board ops.
 
Ya think Crawford sprung for actual live board ops? ::)

How about a simulcast of black gospel on 92.5 and 1260 in HD?

Better yet, in a move that would really shake up the status quo, Y-94.5 could flip to black gospel. At this point, it couldn't hurt.
 
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