March 2016 Boston Radio Ratings.

[davideduardo]

Yes, I understand your view of "success". However, my definition of a successful broadcaster is more than simply ROI.

But any of the other things a commercial radio station can stand for are based first on the funding made possible by a successful business model.

 

[blackgold]

Well, with the growing ethnic population in Boston, the stations that broadcast foreign-language programs are doing well. After all, there's a demand for programming like this. WUNR broadcasts in 20 languages and we have several stations catering to Spanish and Portuguese populations, as well.

 

[Wimmmex]

But any of the other things a commercial radio station can stand for are based first on the funding...

But if the only thing they are doing is paying the bills, then I don't consider them to be a success.....unless the other elements of broadcasting are part of the mix.

Do you?

i.e....if a station leases themselves 24/7 to "Brother Stair" to pay the bills.

Is that considered success?

 

[CTListener]

But if the only thing they are doing is paying the bills, then I don't consider them to be a success.....unless the other elements of broadcasting are part of the mix.

Do you?

i.e....if a station leases themselves 24/7 to "Brother Stair" to pay the bills.

Is that considered success?

Only financially and to the few devotees of his worldview and idiosyncratic version of Christianity. But the FCC has shown over and over that it doesn't care what a radio station programs so long as it isn't indecent and the station forks over its hefty license fee on time. The "public interest" requirement can be weaseled out of through use of PSAs and graveyard-shift half-hour snoozefest that no one will be awake to listen to. Arguments that ultra-niche programming isn't fit to squat on valuable bandwidth are moot here because the FCC makes gaming the system so ridiculously easy for broadcasters who can assure themselves profitability no matter how few people want to listen to their stations.

 

[Wimmmex]

But the FCC has shown over and over that it doesn't care what a radio station programs so long as it isn't indecent and the station forks over its hefty license fee on time. The "public interest" requirement can be weaseled out of through use of PSAs and graveyard-shift half-hour snoozefest that no one will be awake to listen to. Arguments that ultra-niche programming isn't fit to squat on valuable bandwidth are moot here because the FCC makes gaming the system so ridiculously easy for broadcasters who can assure themselves profitability no matter how few people want to listen to their stations.

What the FCC does only makes it legal....not worthwhile.....

 

[davideduardo]

But if the only thing they are doing is paying the bills, then I don't consider them to be a success.....unless the other elements of broadcasting are part of the mix.

Do you?

i.e....if a station leases themselves 24/7 to "Brother Stair" to pay the bills.

Is that considered success?

While I would not be professionally or personally happy with having that kind of station, generally owners who resort to that kind of programming have facilities that are good for just about nothing else.

On the other hand, when I was just getting into radio, I saw that the first profitable FMs in my hometown (at the time a top 10 market) were ones that brokered programming to one of the nearly twenty bigger ethnic / nationality groups in town. They had programming in Italian, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, German, Yiddish and others, and both the stations and the brokers made good money while serving communities that did not have any other voice.

I would have been proud to have been a part of either of those stations.

On the other hand, the all-jazz station I was actually a part-timer at could not sell spots (the log could be done months in advance) as nobody cared and nobody listened. The transmitter had trouble staying on the air for more than an hour or two without cycling off. We had to bring our own bathroom supplies. Yet this was a unique format, on a Class B FM in a major market; it was shameful.

 

[CTListener]

What the FCC does only makes it legal....not worthwhile.....

Your question was about "success." The owner of such a station would certainly consider it a success if he was making consistent money by keeping it on the air regardless of worries about audience size. After all, it's other people's money he's taking in, and if they want to pay him a certain asking price to be on a station that only dozens or hundreds will listen to, who is he to stop them? Is the station an artistic success? Is it providing entertainment or information to a large, broadbased audience? No and no. But that is not what the station owner is in the business for; he'd get out in a heartbeat if the government told him he'd have to put mass-appeal, homegrown programming on his signal, and chances are, in today's AM climate, there'd be no takers and the frequency would be abandoned in that market.

 

[davideduardo]

...the FCC makes gaming the system so ridiculously easy for broadcasters who can assure themselves profitability no matter how few people want to listen to their stations.

The problem is that radio has not been a guaranteed profit enterprise since the early 50's. When the FCC mandated annual financial reports from up until the 80's, half of all stations did not make a profit.

At the time of consolidation, credible studies showed the same. And today, with more stations and the aftermath of a recession, I suspect nothing has changed.

Some small stations can pay the bills and pay the owner a salary, but nothing more. Others neglect the physical plant, let directionals go out of parameters or let the station run from some real estate office or storefront with a computer in a closet.

 

[Wimmmex]

Your question was about "success." The owner of such a station would certainly consider it a success if he was making consistent money by keeping it on the air regardless of worries about audience size. After all, it's other people's money he's taking in, and if they want to pay him a certain asking price to be on a station that only dozens or hundreds will listen to, who is he to stop them?

Sure, and there are pornographers, head shops owners, medical scammers, crystal ball readers and lots of other things free for someone to take part in. They are free to do so as long as it's legal.

However, I don't have to have respect for them...nor do I have to hold them up as successful.

Others may if they want.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

... The transmitter had trouble staying on the air for more than an hour or two without cycling off.

Sounds like maybe something was overheating and shutting down. Did they check to see if the transmitter cooling fan was working, if it had one?

 

[4CX1000A]

WZBC does not encode but WHRB does.