• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

January Ratings

U

umfan

http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb011

WWJ wins the month. Imagine that, a station on an allegedly dead frequency band (AM) winning a major market. AM isn't so dead after all. A surprise, at least to me, was a solid gain posted by WJR. I guess that was the second stop on the dial for school closing and weather information. While NASH is lower than it was as DOUG, it appears to have pulled significant numbers from Young Country. Cumulus has just now started with a billboard and media campaign so it seems that the long reign at the top for WYCD is coming to an end. WNIC and WOMC appear to have benefitted the most from that format flip. The abysmal numbers continue for 105.1.
 
Interesting ratings! Not to bring up a bad subject.. but I would love to see what would happen if CKLW traded formats with CKWW. I think they would really shoot up in the rankings (on the American side, at-least). I live in Seattle, so I listen to CKWW online. What is the reception like out there?
 
CKLW comes in great, as one would expect with such a strong signal, CKWW isn't bad. I tune in often on Friday Morning just after midnight and it's clear enough to enjoy coming south from Auburn Hills towards Warren. Daytime they cover pretty well. Get much north of Auburn Hills on I-75 or New Baltimore in I-94 and the signal degrades pretty quick. Much west of Farmington, same thing.
 
Fordranger79 said:
Interesting ratings! Not to bring up a bad subject.. but I would love to see what would happen if CKLW traded formats with CKWW. I think they would really shoot up in the rankings (on the American side, at-least). I live in Seattle, so I listen to CKWW online. What is the reception like out there?
Click to expand...


I've been saying that for years, and you may be able to find my posts bringing up the idea on this and other forums. I do suspect that a 800/580 frequency swap may be politically impossible in Canada, where the government does include the format of a station as one of its parameters when considering whether an application should be granted. I think if Canada were to allow such a swap, 580/800 would have done it already.

What is interesting is that there are now other options in the Windsor area. CBEF recently moved from 540 to the 1550 facility that CBE abandoned when CBC Radio One moved from 1550 to FM (CBEF supposedly did this because the CBEF array would soon need repairs and considered the repairs too expensive), but I suspect CKWW could run more power on 540 from its existing array than they can run on 580 (as there is no station on 540 in Traverse City). Even more interesting is what could be done if CFCO were to leave 630 (either by replacing their AM signal with a network of powerful FMs or, since 540 Ottawa also went silent, moving to 540, where WRDT's IBOC would not cause as much interference Chatham and eastward, and, beaming east, CFCO could transform itself into a true multi-province, clear channel blowtorch, even getting a few US states in the night). CKWW (or CKLW) could then use 630, possibly diplexing the CKLW array near Harrow, or adding a new stick or two to it, to deliver one of the best AM signals in the Detroit/Windsor markets, with no stateside IBOC interference.

In any case, there is no way that an AM oldies station could become a ratings leader (it could actually get both a high listener loyalty and a high average listener income, but it would not be easy to sell the advertising time without giving some discounts).
 
Last edited:
Both stations do extremely well in Windsor, AM800 generally tops the ratings there, and 580 also does all right over here. I think they both meet the financial objectives Bell Media has for them. I really don't see Bell expending much effort to make changes to either station.
 
You describe the operation of 800 CKLW very accurately, but CKWW 580 definitely wants to tap into the Detroit side of the market offering oldies WOMC won't play. It shows up in their stateside traffic reports, mention of concerts at Detroit-side venues, and weather forecasts with the temperatures given out in Fahrenheit-only. The situation is amusing in that CKLW 800 had always been "The Big 8" targeting not only Detroit, but Cleveland, while CKWW 580 was specifically built to serve only the Canadian side (being lauded for doing so by Rt Hon PM Pearson).
 
Thanks for the information guys! I really would love to see the old "Big 8" return with the CKWW programming. Personally, it really annoys me when people talk about "oldies" being a dead radio format. I actually am 18, and true 50's and 60's oldies make up the majority of what I listen to. Its the same for at least 10 people I know who are my age. I happened to check out the playlist for WOMC. It was okay, but I would never listen if I could listen to CKWW.

Here in Seattle, our "oldies" station consists of bad 70's and 80's pop hits with no mention of the 1960's (with about a hundred song playlist). Its not even listenable. If we even had a radio station reminiscent of WOMC in this region, it would be such a breath of fresh air compared to what we have now (yes, its that unbelievably bad).

As I have told other people, if i ever make a lot of money I am going to buy a class A AM frequency out here and carbon copy the CKWW format. You never know, it might happen ;)
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom