Herald: Rush Radio's ratings 4 times higher than Spanish

[raccoonradio]

1200's ratings are almost 4 times higher than before. yeah 24th place but not bad for a beginner. The first month.

http://bostonherald.com/news/region...es_big_run_in_ratings/srvc=news&position=also

 

[DToTheJ]

"The Clear Channel-owned station jumped from a 0.3 in February and a 0.3 in January to the March 1.1, putting it in 24th place... The March ratings period ran from March 4 to 31..."

So, basically, not that many fans of "Coast To Coast" in Boston...

 

[BRNout]

They still have a LONG way to go before anyone can proclaim Clear Channels "Rush Radio" format to be a success in Boston. I'd say that they need to increase that audience at least 3 fold before this starts looking like a brilliant idea. Don't get me wrong, it's not impossible and talkers tend to take some time to get off the ground. It's clear that the signal is a detriment which is serious enough to make this an uphill battle. As said many times before: we'll see - the jury is still out.

 

[raccoonradio]

They can do a little better though not sure if they can match WRKO or WTKK numbers. Thoughts:

--People were still trying to find Rush, etc. for a few weeks ("what happened to Rush?" comments on WRKO
facebook) Now people hopefully know where he is, and there are billboards. Signal-wise, it will help with later
sunsets--and in some areas it can do well. As I mentioned, at night the signal beams due east right into the
heart of Boston proper and it comes in even up here in Beverly. Much better signal than before but yes more
that a few will have trouble

--Even at its peak, prog talk got maybe a 0.7, but weaker signal, little promotion, xmtr in Fram. not Newton

--This was before Jeff Katz started. Maybe more and more people will discover his show and it could help
WXKS ratings. Now, how many people will find they prefer Katz to E&B or Finneran; Beck to Graham or Laura I.;
Rush to Manning or Graham, Hannity to Howie or Jay, etc.? Obviously the lineup is mostly syndie and local
when DONE well can DO well here...it's almost like when ESPN was rolled out on 890/1400; how many people
want the national shows?

--If they clear the national spots and get half decent ratings on a low budget, they may declare it a success.
(Only 1 local show, the rest syndie). What would be interesting would be if Greater decided to ditch WTKK
(but, for what?) or if Howie jumped to WXKS in 2012 or possibly earlier (a miracle would be needed)

Given other possible formats Clear Channel may have figured this was about as well as they could do

 

[DanStrassberg]

They still have a LONG way to go before anyone can proclaim Clear Channels "Rush Radio" format to be a success in Boston. I'd say that they need to increase that audience at least 3 fold before this starts looking like a brilliant idea. Don't get me wrong, it's not impossible and talkers tend to take some time to get off the ground. It's clear that the signal is a detriment which is serious enough to make this an uphill battle. As said many times before: we'll see - the jury is still out.

So, if they got a 3.3 (three times 1.1) and nobody else's ratings changed, what place would they be in and where would they rank compared with WRKO and WTKK?

 

[raccoonradio]

Not sure if these ratings are 12 plus or 25-64 or 35-64 (prob 12-plus)
(aside: as I type this I'm listening to WTKK's Irish HD station, actually via comp., and I like it!!
Foster and Allen, cover version of I Don't Know Why I Love You But I Do)

Hmm, it actually says demo is 6+ (yeah 8 yr olds are a really important demo? )
If WXKS went up to a 3.3 it would match WTKK and be slightly lower than WRKO; WBZ's (talk at night)
are twice that.

Going by the chart here at radio-info:
WBZ #2 overall
WRKO #11
WTKK #13
If WXKS (AM) got a 3.3 they'd tie for #13

Ratings for these stations have been higher at times, into the 4s and maybe even over 5

WRKO ratings are steadily down the past 3 periods (in this demo)
WTKK has also declined but not as much. WBZ of course is usually one of the top dogs.
Again for now they (Clr Channel) are at least getting their ads on in Boston and we'll see how the ratings do.

If anything it already is probably getting better ratings then the previous attempts at mostly
syndie conservative talk we had, WTTT (now WWDJ) 1150 and WBPS (now WAMG) 890

 

[aerie]

CC should consider putting the 1200 programming also on WXKS-FM HD3 to cover some of the areas that lose the signal at night. Where I live, both WWZN and WXKS disappear almost completely at sunset. Now that's fairness!

 

[SRGuide]

Two other things to consider...

The station format change happened earlier than planned (at least the official plan) - they turned the switch March 8th at noon, several weeks early. They just barely had a web site in place and still the occasional computer problems with playing announcements / IDs about spanish music...

The second, more important thing. Radio people can get tunnel vision about ratings = ad rates = $... 2010 is a very important election year, and at least for now the Supreme Court has said Political ads are "Free Speech", which means a ton of ad revenue in the fall for a news / talk station.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

The 12p-3p ratings for the 6+ demo:

February
WRKO: 5.3 (4th)
WKOX: 0.3 (tied for 38th)

March
WRKO: 3.3 (12th)
WXKS: 2.5 (18th)

In the 55+ demo (the usual target for AM talk radio) in March, WRKO (4th) still beats WXKS (13th).

 

[raccoonradio]

Wish I could see all of the show by show ratings and different age rankings --thanks for that info.

Note that in the "headline news" page of radio-info where they mention WXKS' initial ratings it says

>>while WRKO-AM (680) was Beantown’s top news-talker with a 3.6 share

Of course this means stations that have talk full time. WBZ gets higher ratings but they only have talk at night.

 

[DanStrassberg]

The 12p-3p ratings for the 6+ demo:

February
WRKO: 5.3 (4th)

March
WRKO: 3.3 (12th)

In the 55+ demo (the usual target for AM talk radio) in March, WRKO (4th) still beats WXKS (13th).

So how much did the loss of the Limbaugh lead-in affect Carr's ratings? As I explained in an earlier post, I believe that even though Carr has no intention of staying with Entercom after his contract expires in 2012, he wants Entercom's offer because it will help him to command more $$$ from a new employer. As I see it, the reason Carr is so ticked at the moment is that he sees the loss of the Limbaugh lead-in as Entercom's justification for a lower offer in 2012 than he was expecting. He blames Entercom management for not forking over more money to Premiere so that WRKO could continue to run Limbaugh and thus make Carr a higher offer two years from now. Sounds a bit delusional on Carr's part--especially if Entercom wasn't going to be able to make money on Limbaugh at the higher cost Premiere wanted for continuing him on 'RKO.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Not much affect at all. He went from a 5.5 in February to a 5.3 in March (6+ demo). In the 55+ demo, he was #1 both times, and his share actually increased slightly from February to March.

 

[Don Juan]

If anything it already is probably getting better ratings then the previous attempts at mostly
syndie conservative talk we had, WTTT (now WWDJ) 1150 and WBPS (now WAMG) 890

Good point. None of those stations could even make a dent with a talk format.

This is the first time someone has launched a talk format with such a promotion, and with a 9AM-6PM lineup of heavy-hitters.

CC should consider putting the 1200 programming also on WXKS-FM HD3 to cover some of the areas that lose the signal at night. Where I live, both WWZN and WXKS disappear almost completely at sunset. Now that's fairness!

This is almost a no-brainer! I don't know why they didn't do this from the start. Hannity dissapears at 4:15 in the Winter (sunset) in a lot of places....and would extend the reach of C2C AM.

 

[DToTheJ]

CC should consider putting the 1200 programming also on WXKS-FM HD3 to cover some of the areas that lose the signal at night...

This is almost a no-brainer! I don't know why they didn't do this from the start...

And considering it shares call letters with 107.9, I'm surprised there isn't any HD radio simulcast right now!

 

[raccoonradio]

Yes they should probably do this. And if Clear Channel had a moderately powered FM station in town that wasn't doing well with music, we could have had Rush Radio on FM (as in other cities). Though we already do have an FM talk station with Greater's 96.9, which has had the format for over a decade now and gets half decent but not spectacular numbers (they have declined recently but I can't picture them changing; if so, then to what?)

Don't expect 1200 to get huge ratings, given the signal and the fact that they only have one local show, but it could do half decently and make a good profit. But while their signal isn't as good as a 680,it still can cover
a pretty wide area and sound OK (here in Beverly they're maybe a 9 by day and a 7 or 7.5 by night) and as I said before, if you can't get them in your area, there are stations with many of the same shows on the
Cape, Worc.,Prov., NH, etc. --all but Cape Cod also being owned by CC. It would be a longshot for them to match WRKO's numbers but they could do a 2, 2.7, who knows, and it's low cost yet some pretty well known names for the syndie shows.

 

[del_griffith]

But if Rush radio can't command a significant ratings increase, then the old yarn about progressive talk being ham strung by poor signals may indeed be valid. If the top talkers can't pull great ratings, how can a line up of second and third tier talkers be expected to pull it off?

 

[JustinT]

And if Clear Channel had a moderately powered FM station in town that wasn't doing well with music, we could have had Rush Radio on FM (as in other cities).

Clear Channel does actually have a moderately-powered FM station right outside of town that's doing terrible with music - 93.3 WSNE. Could that signal be moved any closer to Boston?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Clear Channel does actually have a moderately-powered FM station right outside of town that's doing terrible with music - 93.3 WSNE. Could that signal be moved any closer to Boston?

It's not right outside of town, it's a Providence market signal transmitting from near the Rhode Island line, and it wasn't doing "terrible" in the last published ratings for that market. It got a 4.0 12+, which isn't stellar, but not "terrible".

I doubt it could be moved any closer to Boston due to second adjacents WBOS and WMKK, and co-channel WNHW Bedford (Concord), NH.

 

[NHRadio]

WNHW is licensed to Belmont, NH. Saga's WMLL is licensed to Bedford.
(Back to lurk mode)

and co-channel WNHW Bedford (Concord), NH.

 

[DToTheJ]

... if Clear Channel had a moderately powered FM station in town that wasn't doing well with music, we could have had Rush Radio on FM (as in other cities)...

Likewise with Clear Channel's New York cluster - all five of their FM music stations are performing well - outside of Lite-FM, not exactly setting the world on fire... let's just say producing WSNE-type numbers. I bet CC wishes they had that 105.1 conundrum that has plagued that frequency for years before they flipped the "Power" switch several years ago...