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March 2022 PPM and an AM surprise

Theater of My Mind

Theater of My Mind

Two AM stations showed up in the top 10 for March '22 including WINS as expected, and shockingly WABC finishing 8th with a 3.8, damn. Obviously these are 6+ numbers, presumably with a heavy emphasis on the "plus", as in 60+. But still, credit where it's due when it involves an AM station in this decade.

Also WOR beat WCBS 880 which finished 18th in the beauty contest with a 2.4 - not exactly great. At least that's still double the 6+ share of WXBK The Block.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Also WOR beat WCBS 880 which finished 18th in the beauty contest with a 2.4 - not exactly great. At least that's still double the 6+ share of WXBK The Block.
Click to expand...

WCBS 880 has been the weaker of the two news stations for a long time. Years ago, CBS had a similar situation in LA where it had two all news stations: KNX and KFWB. Ultimately they sold off KFWB and focused all the attention on KNX. However WCBS and WINS are each attracting a lot of revenue regardless of published ratings. But if that changes, I would expect one of the stations to disappear before the company decides to transition the other to FM.
 
I like elements of both news stations but my preference is actually WCBS 880. I like the presentation better, I find it sounds a little more grounded, in-depth, and less tabloid than WINS. And I like the personalities, especially in the morning. I even prefer hearing the top-hour national CBS news which I know was done for NY network clearance purposes under the previous ownership, but Audacy was wise to keep since it's such a big part of the station's identity.

I realize both stations still exist because they reportedly both do well despite 880's lower ratings, and because there's no other format they could realistically flip either of them to. As discussed in other threads, NYC simply doesn't have enough space on the FM dial for all the commercial formats that should be supported due to NCE stations occupying so many frequencies on the right hand side of the dial, and that's another reason the news stations are still on AM. In any case, it's a real luxury for NYC listeners to still have two top-sounding all-news stations to choose from when most markets don't even have one.
 
WBLS is still number one, with a rating of 6.5 in March, up from 5.9 in February.

Below is the link to the chart for your reference.

Nielsen Audio Ratings for New York
 
WBLS is number one in 6+ and 18-34
WSKQ (Mega) is number one in 18-49 and 25-54 (WBLS is #3 in both of those demos)
WXBK appears to be dead last among full-coverage NYC commercial FMs no matter how you slice it.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Two AM stations showed up in the top 10 for March '22 including WINS as expected, and shockingly WABC finishing 8th with a 3.8, damn. Obviously these are 6+ numbers, presumably with a heavy emphasis on the "plus", as in 60+. But still, credit where it's due when it involves an AM station in this decade.
Click to expand...
Yet in 25-54, WABC has a 0.8 and WOR leads with about 20% higher shares in that demo.
 
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DavidEduardo said:
Yet in 25-54, WABC has a 0.8 and WOR leades with about 20% higher shares in that demo.
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The difference is iHeart seeks agency business while I think WABC shoots for more local sales and doesn't mind admitting its demos as much. At least that's my impression but I don't listen to either station much.
 
TheBigA said:
What that says to me is that if iHeart were to flip a station in NYC, we might see Rumba, as we did in Philadelphia and Boston.
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WXNY already sort of occupies that territory and I don't think iHeart has any stations doing poorly enough in New York to risk such a flip. Can you imagine the backlash if they tried doing it with WWPR?
 
Theater of My Mind said:
WXNY already sort of occupies that territory and I don't think iHeart has any stations doing poorly enough in New York to risk such a flip. Can you imagine the backlash if they tried doing it with WWPR?
Click to expand...

I agree, but there's a lot of speculation about what might happen if a big company were to somehow get another FM, if the ownership rules were to change, if a deal were to be made for either 99.5 or 95.5, and the reality is that traditional English speaking formats are not the most likely prospect. It's the same in LA and several other big cities.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
WXBK appears to be dead last among full-coverage NYC commercial FMs no matter how you slice it.
Click to expand...
WXBK is not a full coverage FM. That is part of their problem.

Additionally, that station only in the last few weeks has begun to build an airstaff and image. It's a work in progress.
 
TheBigA said:
WCBS 880 has been the weaker of the two news stations for a long time. Years ago, CBS had a similar situation in LA where it had two all news stations: KNX and KFWB. Ultimately they sold off KFWB and focused all the attention on KNX. However WCBS and WINS are each attracting a lot of revenue regardless of published ratings. But if that changes, I would expect one of the stations to disappear before the company decides to transition the other to FM.
Click to expand...
Hard to compare KFWB with WCBS.

KFWB has a limited signal, and it mostly covered the areas where Hispanics, Blacks and Asians lived... groups that are not heavy all-news users. WCBS has a better signal than WINS.

In my opinion, KFWB was the better station. But it had severe limitations. And both KNX and KFWB are in a Sunbelt market where all-news has never done as well and has even failed in several markets.
 
TheBigA said:
What that says to me is that if iHeart were to flip a station in NYC, we might see Rumba, as we did in Philadelphia and Boston.
Click to expand...
Mega has a 25 year "ownership" of the Dominican audience, and it is very loyal. It would be hard for iHeart to win in NYC with a more generic format.
 
DavidEduardo said:
KFWB has a limited signal, and it mostly covered the areas where Hispanics, Blacks and Asians lived... groups that are not heavy all-news users. WCBS has a better signal than WINS.
Click to expand...

The signal may be better, but listeners are making their decision on the product. At some point it makes no sense to have two news stations from the same company. Internal competition only makes sense as long as there's revenue. Once that stops, the strong survives. And they're certainly not going to give up two valuable FM frequencies for the two all-newsers.
 
TheBigA said:
The signal may be better, but listeners are making their decision on the product. At some point it makes no sense to have two news stations from the same company. Internal competition only makes sense as long as there's revenue. Once that stops, the strong survives. And they're certainly not going to give up two valuable FM frequencies for the two all-newsers.
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Since consolidation, CBS has been the suburban metro station and WINS the Manhattan and boroughs station. The WINS signal is directional and is the equivalent of a bit over 100,000 watts over the central area si better suited for a focus on pure NYC content.
 
TheBigA said:
What that says to me is that if iHeart were to flip a station in NYC, we might see Rumba, as we did in Philadelphia and Boston.
Click to expand...
Who would they flip to rumba
105.1 that’s not happening not unless they wanted to get rid of all that high priced talent at some point
 
wprt949 said:
Who would they flip to rumba
105.1 that’s not happening not unless they wanted to get rid of all that high priced talent at some point
Click to expand...

If ownership rules change or if a format ages out. They've owned these stations for 20 years, so look ahead maybe ten or so years. Obviously not going to happen this year, but maybe in 2035.
 
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