Certainly not on your station.
Radio Ink didn't do the poll in my link. It was done by an independent source.
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Hannity Out at WBEN
- Thread starter Long Time RadioFan
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Certainly not on your station.
Radio Ink didn't do the poll in my link. It was done by an independent source.
Not a big problem. They just move Mark Levin into the slot.
Radio Ink will not put out reports that nullify radio. As far as breaking new music, you are correct, we don’t break new music.
Joe Beamer is available...
It's not "blaming" ... it's stating that fact there are alternatives. Not mentioned in my post relative to this discussion was personal entertainment devices that provide access to personally owned music and pod casts.
That noted, the PPM and 2DAY analysis you provided was instructive.
Entercom's Alt 107.7 is using this approach. Toronto's Q-107.1 employed the same for about a year. That station appears to have reverted to the two-stopset-per-hour approach.
Regarding the total shares given to non-commercial or outside the market stations: a reliable programming source states that the shares given to Canadian stations at times approached between three and seven shares total listening. Diaries from north towns communities in Erie County, and communities throughout Niagara County reveal more diary shares given to the Canadian stations broadcasting from Toronto than revealed by diaries of listeners in central and southern Erie County. No surprise there.
The sum of those shares may not pose a high degree threat, but it does indicate that listeners are very aware of Canadian stations (91.7; 97.7; 98.9; 99.9; 101.1; 102.1; 104.5 and 107.1) as alternatives to Buffalo stations. Not only are they aware, they actually access those alternatives.
What does that say about the value of local talent?
It says whatever you want it to say.
Buffalo/Western New York and Canada have long co-mingled. Until the pandemic when the Canadian government closed the border to all but absolutely essential traffic, crossing was little problem. The locals crossed back and forth with ease. Before 9/11, it was far easier. Buffalo diners could drive to Ft. Erie for lunch or "Chinese" (as it's said) just as easily as driving to Amherst.
Canadian bands/acts/singers like Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Tragically Hip, Alanis Morissette, along with Loverboy, Nickelback, Honeymoon Suite, BTO, the Guess Who are all over Buffalo Classic Rock, Classic Hits and contemporary radio.
A lot of what crosses the river and lake, be it music or air personalities, is perceived by many on this side of the border to be "local talent."
But maybe not from your perspective. Hence the answer to the question may be, "Everything. Nothing."
Put it in the context of "homogenized content." There are a lot of people who are listening to Buddy's station who live hundreds or thousands of miles away. They don't care if he has local talent, because they're not local. There are people in Buffalo who choose to listen to radio from a completely different country. People in Detroit do the same thing. So all this hang-wringing about "homogenized content" is over rated. It doesn't matter if the content is homogenized or the talent is local as long as they give the listeners what they want.
The Canadian numbers could also indicate that US listeners are searching for less homogenized content. Canadian stations have Canadian content rules that broaden their playlists. Also, US listeners in WNY heard a lot more from Canadian bands than the corporate headquarter honchos in NYC, ATL, and LA. A lot of people here are shocked that the Guess Who isn't in the R&R Hall of Fame. They consider them to be much more deserving than The Beastie Boys, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and other NYC favorites favored by Rolling Stone magazine.
Canadian listening could be P1 for some listener, and certainly viable P2 or P3 listening for people on the US side. The Canadian music wouldn't be a turnoff. The Canadian local content might be enough to get listeners to come back to US stations.
Canadian listening could be P1 for some listener, and certainly viable P2 or P3 listening for people on the US side. The Canadian music wouldn't be a turnoff. The Canadian local content might be enough to get listeners to come back to US stations.
Depends on your point of view. It's homogenized content from a different country.
Mass media equals homogenized content. The only thing that varies is the scope.
The formats are the same in every Canadian market (Virgin, Kiss, TSN, Sportsnet, Global News, Jack, Breeze, Country). Maybe the advantage for listeners in Buffalo and Detroit is that they have more variety of formats on the dial, but internet streaming has made this a moot point.
It may be homogenized to Canadians, but it may be a breath of fresh air to those on the US side - and perhaps vice-versa. Airwaves know no borders, and we're aware that Canadians listen to US stations as well. Either way, the fact that a wider variety of music is available - and apparently consumed - indicates that at least part of the US audience isn't satisfied with the pap fed to them by corporate radio. Canadian content is free, unlike satellite, and available in the car more conveniently than online.
CanCon does not really have to broaden content. True Top 40 was permitted on AM when AM was still a music source. And FMs, limited in repetitions, don't have to play more songs. They just are limited in the number of repetitions of individual songs.
Some would say that the best songs are held back, while lesser songs are pushed to higher rotations than they deserve.
Of course everyone knows there are lots of American alternatives to corporate radio without listening to foreign stations. Only about 10% of all radio stations in the US are owned by large radio companies. So people have choices. But statistically they seem to prefer the more predictable options that are available.
No, it doesn’t have to, but it most often does, at least in this market.
Actually, it’s slightly higher than 10%, but let's go with ten per cent. Approximately 15,400 licensed radio stations in the US. Of those, approximately 1,840 owned by iHeart (c.855); Entercom (c.235); Cumulus (c.428) and Townsquare (c.322).
This duly noted, the statement relating to “large radio companies” misdirects the argument. A more accurate metric relates to the market sizes reached by the corporate owned radio stations and the per cent of population, and more precisely the major and medium population centers of the United States reached by the “only about 10%.”
It's not as though all corporate stations program the same way, or have the same level of concentration in every market. IF "at least part of the US audience isn't satisfied with the pap fed to them by corporate radio," there are alternatives in every market, including NYC and LA. Do more people listen to WABC now that it's not owned by Cumulus? Do more people listen to KKGO because it's owned by Saul Levine? Even with all the small owner competition, the corporate owned stations are the most popular in the biggest markets where people have the most choices.
While we're talking about corporate ownership, what about corporate ownership of radio in Canada? What makes Rogers and Corus less corporate than iHeart or Entercom? What makes their "corporate pap" better? The fact that its foreign?
Canada has it's share of corporate pap. The US certainly has its share of corporate pap. In WNY, we get to hear different varieties of corporate pap - and two varieties of programming from smaller owners as well. The point is that many listeners seem to be looking for something they're not getting here, as demonstrated by shrinking TSL and increased listening to other audio options.
That started happening in the 1980s before the so-called corporate pap. Back then people made their own cassettes for the car. Replacing corporate owners with local owners won't cause people to stop listening to other more personalized options.
In many markets, there are stations owned by smaller regional chains whose programming philosophy is pretty much identical to the big boys'. Connoisseur's WPLR New Haven, Red Wolf's WDRC-FM Hartford and Saga's WAQY Springfield are doing nothing more daring and rule-breaking than any of Entercom's classic rockers in other markets and they are all doing just as well.
TSL is not shrinking, depending on the station locally. Overall listening cume is shrinking. In short, there are not as many people listening to local radio stations on any platform, as there were a few years ago. Local Talk Radio has the most loyal listeners, the highest TSL, and exclusive content. I am a huge fan of Country and local talk radio. The difference is I have not listened to YRK in probably ten years. I listen to Sirius country channels. I do listen to WBEN because of the local exclusive content. Plus, advertisers love talk radio. The key, it must be REALLY unique.
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