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January Ratings -- Falling Rock
- Thread starter tbolt909
- Start date
I heard people saying that Star 102.5 should go country. I don't see that ever happening. Entercom Has a sales combo for women with STAR and KISS
You can almost guess what the iHeart folks at WGY are saying, "Rigged!"
Albany is the state capitol, and with the pandemic, WAMC seems to have benefited.
But still, a jump like that seems kind fluky.
It can't have helped WGY that their longtime morning host retired. And WAMC surely benefited from all the attention that's been on state capitol news for the last few months.You can almost guess what the iHeart folks at WGY are saying, "Rigged!"
Albany is the state capitol, and with the pandemic, WAMC seems to have benefited.
But still, a jump like that seems kind fluky.
And the rest of WGY's day is syndicated. Meanwhile WAMC has a lot of local talk shows.
Wait, you're saying that people are choosing local content over syndication? Those pesky local hosts are beating big-time talent?
This from the guy who's known for fervently beating the "local doesn't matter" drum on these boards. Chortle.
But yeah... WAMC does a fair amount of local origination, but they also import some NPR programming. I'm guessing WAMC's gains came from a combination of factors: WGY's personnel changes, the political climate in Albany, the national political climate... and a bit of luck with diaries getting into the homes of listeners prone to listen at length to WAMC. One part fluky, three parts reality. Good on WAMC, nonetheless. This month, they won the Nielsen lottery.
When talking about music station DJs. WAMC is not one of those stations. I always say stations make more money with local than with syndication because they don't have to run spots from the syndicators. That's why WBEN has stuck with local hosts when they could save money by using more syndication. Even iHeart knows this, and they've fiercely protected their local hosts at KFI and WLW, moving the syndication to their own, lower rated secondary station.
Actually, the trends between WAMC & WGY have been apparent for months. Consider:
October: WGY 7.2, WAMC 5.6
November: WGY 7.9, WAMC 6.9
December: WAMC 7.2, WGY 6.6
January: WAMC 8.6, WGY 6.1
Weekdays, WAMC devotes on average 6 hours of programming that's locally based. (This doesn't include cut-ins for Morning Edition or All Things Considered.) I know this: In the Albany market, I'd put a preset for WAMC on my car radio than I would WGY.
October: WGY 7.2, WAMC 5.6
November: WGY 7.9, WAMC 6.9
December: WAMC 7.2, WGY 6.6
January: WAMC 8.6, WGY 6.1
Weekdays, WAMC devotes on average 6 hours of programming that's locally based. (This doesn't include cut-ins for Morning Edition or All Things Considered.) I know this: In the Albany market, I'd put a preset for WAMC on my car radio than I would WGY.
In addition, there's a marked difference in tone and presentation.
BigA: What mystifies me is why WBFO doesn't do more local programming of their own. (WXXI-AM has a midday talk show of their own.) Their ND, Dave Debo, used to host Hardline on WBEN(which, from reports, was very well done); I see no reason(save for cost-cutting)why that couldn't get, say, a mid-morning time slot.
I'm sure they'd love to but they're utilizing their resources in a way that works for them. They do a lot of local cut-ins during morning edition, and they feel that's where they get the most bang for the buck. The audience is bigger in drive time than mid-day.
However, remember that this is a diary market, so "October" is really a piece of July, August and September and just a part of October. In other words, pre-elections. The January book is really from the Election period forward. So some of the variation from traditional numbers may be due to the election period. We won't know until we flush out the election-to-innauguration period, and that won't be until May.
I also wonder about the difference of WGY having only a partial coverage Class A FM vs WAMC being 10 kw at nearly 2,000 feet and covering even more than the MSA?
If you look at Syracuse, the situation is the opposite: WSYR beats WRVO almost two to one with a closer signal equivalent.
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I mean really... 810 WGY a 50kW blowtorch legacy (what used to be called a) 1A clear needs an assist from a Class A FM?
C'mon, man... the station comes in on the fillings in your teeth.
That may be, but I suspect more people listen on 103.1 FM.
Even though the coverage puts a 60 dbu over less than half the Nielsen MSA, I'd bet that the FM accounts for 60% t least, of the listening. And {probably near 80% of the 25-54 listeners.
I'd even bet a copla' beers and wings that the sales demos would not change if the AM totally went away.
WBEN doesn't have an FM translator and still does very well in the ratings. It must be that all those 25-54s listen online.
The "60% at least, of listening" is worth looking into. Not sure you'd win that beer and wings bet... yet.
WBEN couldn't motivate listeners to move to 107.7, but continues to do quite well solely as an AM. In Rochester and Syracuse, WHAM and WSYR respectively, do quite well. Could it simply be that WAMC offers programming that Capitol District listeners find more compelling, useful and interesting than the programming on WGY.
(I think we may have rescued the Albany board.)
It's certainly DIFFERENT, in the same way that WBFO is different from WBEN.
When WBEN was on 107.7, they did not yet have the 104.7 translator for the City and some areas where 107.7 is not that great a signal. Not saying that is the reason the simulcast failed to attract new listeners, but is certainly was a factor.
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