June 2013 PPM

[Boss Radio]

Y108 makes a nice gain. WDVE up slightly, ties Y108 for the top spot.

Kiss, WRRK and 3WS virtually unchanged.

The Fan gets a bump from the Pirates' success, but only a small one.

The X loses with the Penguins finished.

KDKA-AM is down for a fifth straight report. They've lost about 45% of the share they had in January.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Nice gain is an understatement. This is the first time in eight years Y108 is at the top spot.

My question is why.

And why would KDKA lose so much in a few months? Don't give me "audience is dying off."

That isn't the reason for the demise of the last five months. The "KDKA's audience is too old" line didn't just come about this year.

 

[garnet]

With the exception of Mangino, the hosts aren't that interesting. Politics and the 'pitbull attack of the week' just aren't enough. Its the same thing everyday. Marty and his wife pulling down $300,000 a year is also a tough sell when you're yelling at lazy poor people, and creating a bit about their new car was a stretch. That never should have made it on the air. I like the news blocks, though.

 

[Parttimer]

Nice gain is an understatement. This is the first time in eight years Y108 is at the top spot.

My question is why.

And why would KDKA lose so much in a few months? Don't give me "audience is dying off."

That isn't the reason for the demise of the last five months. The "KDKA's audience is too old" line didn't just come about this year.

As far as Y108 is concerned, I think it's more an Arbitron thing.

I follow the Tampa and Orlando markets pretty closely and it seems like there are more wild swings with music stations under PPM than there were in the diary system.

I think all it takes is for a couple of people to have a meter all day at work and thenTSL goes through the roof. Y108's cume is lower than DVE, Kiss, Bob, 3WS and even Star, so it's definitely because someone with a meter is listening all day.

I think KDKA is simple too, people are listening to baseball on FM.

 

[Boss Radio]

With the exception of Mangino, the hosts aren't that interesting.

OK, but those are the same hosts who were on the air in January, when they had almost twice as big a share.

 

[Parttimer]

With the exception of Mangino, the hosts aren't that interesting.

OK, but those are the same hosts who were on the air in January, when they had almost twice as big a share.

It wasn't baseball season.

 

[Boss Radio]

With the exception of Mangino, the hosts aren't that interesting.

OK, but those are the same hosts who were on the air in January, when they had almost twice as big a share.

It wasn't baseball season.

Could be something to that, but they started dropping before baseball season. Also, KDKA has been dropping steadily and significantly every months. The Fan showed an upward bump in April when the games resumed, but they've basically been at that level for April-May-June with only the tiniest fluctuation.

 

[Parttimer]

With the exception of Mangino, the hosts aren't that interesting.

OK, but those are the same hosts who were on the air in January, when they had almost twice as big a share.

It wasn't baseball season.

Could be something to that, but they started dropping before baseball season. Also, KDKA has been dropping steadily and significantly every months. The Fan showed an upward bump in April when the games resumed, but they've basically been at that level for April-May-June with only the tiniest fluctuation.

I think the Fan's talk shows drop dramatically without football as a daily topic, and that offsets a lot of the additional baseball play-by-play listening.

 

[pman44]

KDKA-AM benefits from bad weather. People tune in to listen for road and weather and school closings. They probably will get a bit of a bump from the storms the last few weeks.

They are the only consistent source for local news and weather. A truly local version of KDKA-AM would do well on the FM band.

 

[Parttimer]

KDKA-AM benefits from bad weather. People tune in to listen for road and weather and school closings. They probably will get a bit of a bump from the storms the last few weeks.

They are the only consistent source for local news and weather. A truly local version of KDKA-AM would do well on the FM band.

While true, there's no way it would produce that much of a change in the numbers.

I think it reflects the national trend where conservative talk tanked after the election and KD picked up a lot of 104.7 listeners. After a while, some listeners went back to Rush and friends, some are listening to baseball at night, and some just turned on some music.

 

[Boss Radio]

All the TV stations run a crawl with school closings and delays. A lot of school districts have alert systems set up to send the information by text, e-mail or robo-call. I can't believe school closings are a big ratings-mover for radio in 2013.

 

[pman44]

i have 2 school aged children, believe me they are. Schools, road conditions, weather alerts, people discussing the weather--KD is the only place on the radio to get all of that.

 

[Boss Radio]

i have 2 school aged children, believe me they are. Schools, road conditions, weather alerts, people discussing the weather--KD is the only place on the radio to get all of that.

It's easily available from sources other than radio. That's the point. Why would you sit there and listen to a list of school closings when you can snap on the TV and watch the crawl, which is in alphabetical order? Or just check a website. Or your text messages.

And there's this: When there's a big snowfall, chances are travel will be difficult. Do you need Larry Richert to validate that?

Doesn't the fact that other stations don't bother reading the closing list indicate it's not in big demand from most listeners? If it was a ratings pull, every station in town would be reading the list.

 

[Parttimer]

If it was school closings driving the ratings spike, the additional listeners would be people with school age children, usually 25-54.

They aren't. The growth was mostly in listeners over 55, meaning they came from 104.7 for the most part.

Now it's summer, people aren't in the house all day, 104.7 is up a little, and baseball is on at night.

 

[pman44]

@Parttimer: 55+ have grandkids and that demo is obsessed with weather, traffic and impending doom when the snow starts to fall.

 

[dB]

@Parttimer: 55+ have grandkids and that demo is obsessed with weather, traffic and impending doom when the snow starts to fall.

Cause if school is cancelled, the grandkids get dumped on grandma and grandpa.

 

[Boss Radio]

And, sadly, apparently none of those grandparents has a TV. They have to listen to an endless list of school closings being read on KDKA-AM.

 

[garnet]

Our kid's school gives an automated call, an e-mail, and text. If you give something entertaining enough on a station like KDKA, people would listen. The head of the FCC was on the other day for hours. I'm in radio and was bored.

 

[dB]

And, sadly, apparently none of those grandparents has a TV. They have to listen to an endless list of school closings being read on KDKA-AM.

TV requires being in front of the TV, and actually watching (at least watching the crawl). For radio, you just need to be within earshot.

 

[Boss Radio]

And, sadly, apparently none of those grandparents has a TV. They have to listen to an endless list of school closings being read on KDKA-AM.

TV requires being in front of the TV, and actually watching (at least watching the crawl). For radio, you just need to be within earshot.

Maybe I'm a freak of nature, but I find it easier to skim a constantly-repeated, alphabetized visual list than to listen for a single name in a long cluster of narration.