MARCH PPMs

[FreddyE1977]

you have a generation coming up that has never filpped the switch on that radio over to AM...that's the issue.
(and one coming behind them that sticks to the iPod alltogether)

 

[Pratte4Life]

Okay, fine.

By the way, technically I'm part of that generation. But the reason I listened to AM was simply that was where the ballgames were.

In most markets they still are.

Now, will this generation be familiar with AM because they listened to AM 540 Radio Disney when they were 8? I don't know.

Regardless, what I'm speaking of is generally talk radio, which doesn't appeal to a younger audience so the point is rather moot. But I would think that as an person searches for someone to talk about the ballgame with or someone who develops an interest in politics as time goes by, eventually they will find the talk show on whatever band it is carried on.

Something else- Sunday front page of the Post-Gazette spoke of how there was now a movement to get away from marketing towards youth. TV programs are being catered to an older crowd and even Betty White is getting a sitcom next season.

That could very well carry over to radio. Certainly KDKA is banking on it.

 

[Parttimer]

Let's take the Fan out of the equasion. If Fox Sports 970 suddenly moved to FM, would they start beating out WEAE?

Not as it stands now... but if you combined the X's and 970's sports programming (Benz, Dan Patrick, Jim Rome, and Madden, maybe Bendel at night) I think that would do well, even with the Fan on the dial.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Now, will this generation be familiar with AM because they listened to AM 540 Radio Disney when they were 8? I don't know.

If they were 8 and bopping around in the back seat of the minivan to Hampster Dance, I doubt they bothered
to look at the digital display on the tuner to check out the station ID, or cared.

 

[Pratte4Life]

I know what you're saying, but I remember tuning the radio at the age of 8 or younger.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Yep, so do I. It was THE way that most people got access to music back then.
I still remember my dad lining us kids up and reading us the riot act. "If I EVER
hear one of you answering MY telephone 'I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q..."

Of course, we all handled radios, worked the dial and figured out where the statioins
were back then. (unless you were one of those people who just let it rust into place
at 1020)

 

[Pratte4Life]

Another thing, Fred, is that if the dial was on 540, wouldn't it be at the request of the child who would presumably know how to tune into the station themselves?

I know a lot of people think I'm crazy for defending AM, and as far as music goes I would agree it is obsolete.

But talk's a different animal. Give you a story- yesterday I'm at the bar watching the Pirates play the Brewers. Guy comes in from out of town, baseball fan, sits next to me and said he wanted to give the game a listen in his car but he couldn't find the game.

Now, you know that guy only looked at the AM part of his dial, and I think it shows that I'm hardly the only one who has the mindset "Talk- AM/Music-FM."

I know of many radio battles where the AM talker does better than the FM one does. Case in point- KDKA does have a higher overall rating than 104.7 and ESPN 1250 did had a higher percentage rating in the last book than 93.7 The Fan.

 

[Boss Radio]

Case in point- KDKA does have a higher overall rating than 104.7 and ESPN 1250 did had a higher percentage rating in the last book than 93.7 The Fan.

If you find an agency that is interested in buying the 12+ numbers, call KDKA asap. They'll be grateful for the help. After morning drive, their share of under-55 demos is about a 1 in some hours.

As far as The Fan vs. 1250, The Fan is a start-up with less than three months on the air.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Case in point- KDKA does have a higher overall rating than 104.7 and ESPN 1250 did had a higher percentage rating in the last book than 93.7 The Fan.

If you find an agency that is interested in buying the 12+ numbers, call KDKA asap. They'll be grateful for the help. After morning drive, their share of under-55 demos is about a 1 in some hours.

As far as The Fan vs. 1250, The Fan is a start-up with less than three months on the air.

A long-time KD employee (I won't say who) once told me that "our biggest problem is that we lose
ten listeners a day through the obituary column".

 

[MsMusicRadio]

After that they have 1320

 

[Pratte4Life]

Case in point- KDKA does have a higher overall rating than 104.7 and ESPN 1250 did had a higher percentage rating in the last book than 93.7 The Fan.

If you find an agency that is interested in buying the 12+ numbers, call KDKA asap. They'll be grateful for the help. After morning drive, their share of under-55 demos is about a 1 in some hours.

As far as The Fan vs. 1250, The Fan is a start-up with less than three months on the air.

See, you're getting off the point again. It's like when I would mention how K-Rock would go out and cover concerts while WDVE would stay in the studio- and you would respond with "Saturday night isn't drive time" or something similar.

That's an excuse for half-assing?

Think about this for a second. When KDKA had Rush and the Pirates they had the same demographic problems. Now, 104.7 has built around this programming, and I'm supposed to believe it has a significantly younger audience than KDKA?



I'm done with this. If you have to resort to this to try and counter the fact that talk and sports listeners still listen to AM and probably will for a long time to come, I can't help you.

 

[Boss Radio]

Here's what you need to do: Find someone who has an actual Arbitron book and the patience to explain what it means to you.

Then you'll see the difference between the audiences for KDKA and 104.7.

As long as you keep following those worthless 12+ numbers, you'll never understand.

 

[Parttimer]

I'm done with this. If you have to resort to this to try and counter the fact that talk and sports listeners still listen to AM and probably will for a long time to come, I can't help you.

SOME talk and sports listeners still listen to AM. They are typically old, the numbers are declining every day, and THE SAME PROGRAMMING on FM draws younger numbers because it's on FM (104.7 vs KD). CBS' wave of FM sports stations has had some major success stories immediately in places like Boston and Detroit. They made some questionable talent choices here so only time will tell (apparently they thought this was NJ or Connecticut), but trust me, if people are still listening to ESPN over the Fan it's not because they like AM better. If you traded dial spots between ESPN and the Fan, the Fan would have no chance.

As Boss said, mid-days KD's 25-54's are down there with KQV. That's not what advertisers are looking for, not the ones who spend real dollars.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Here's what you need to do: Find someone who has an actual Arbitron book and the patience to explain what it means to you.

Then you'll see the difference between the audiences for KDKA and 104.7.

As long as you keep following those worthless 12+ numbers, you'll never understand.

That's interesting because every month the board, not just me, discusses the overall numbers when they are released.

I stand by my original comment. If you can show me where 104.7's average age is significantly younger than KDKA's average (which I believe is 65), then please do so.

But to give you an example, the last I looked the average age for WEAE was 45 and the average for WDVE was 39 or so.

That's significant?

And considering the ESPN 1250 demo goes up to 54, what's the problem?

 

[Parttimer]

That's interesting because every month the board, not just me, discusses the overall numbers when they are released.

Because it's all most of us have access to.

I stand by my original comment. If you can show me where 104.7's average age is significantly younger than KDKA's average (which I believe is 65), then please do so.

With all due respect, what part of "KD is dead last 25-54" don't you understand?

But to give you an example, the last I looked the average age for WEAE was 45 and the average for WDVE was 39 or so.

That's significant?

Average age isn't the issue, it's how many people in that demo a station delivers.

And considering the ESPN 1250 demo goes up to 54, what's the problem?

Sports radio advertisers want 18-34 males.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

That's interesting because every month the board, not just me, discusses the overall numbers when they are released.

Because it's all most of us have access to.

I stand by my original comment. If you can show me where 104.7's average age is significantly younger than KDKA's average (which I believe is 65), then please do so.

With all due respect, what part of "KD is dead last 25-54" don't you understand?

But to give you an example, the last I looked the average age for WEAE was 45 and the average for WDVE was 39 or so.

That's significant?

Average age isn't the issue, it's how many people in that demo a station delivers.

And considering the ESPN 1250 demo goes up to 54, what's the problem?

Sports radio advertisers want 18-34 males.

So do I

 

[garnet]

Its all in the programming. Put on programming that isn't intersting to a certain demo, they're not going to listen. WKBN has Phil Hendri on, could imagine what most people who listen to KD would do if something like that came out of their radio? WKBN has educated their audience enough to not expect the same dribble that been coming from Pittsburgh AM's forever. Yea, we had Dom and Mike for a while on 1550 years ago, although nobody knew it...what since? Nothing new. If you don't care about sports or politics(and business talk to a lesser extent) there is nothing for you on the AM dial, IN PITTSBURGH. And since there is probably very little sharing among those two demo's, you really have a tough situation. Other cities have very profitable AM's. Youngstown is one, WKBN doesn't have the baggage of being politics or sports. Same with WTAM in Cleveland, yes they are sports, but you can hear hours at a time with no sports, just fun, stupid(in a good way) talk. We have none of that. And try and think of the last time something was attempted on any of our AM's...and when one of them does, it gets buried...like Imus.

 

[Boss Radio]

That's interesting because every month the board, not just me, discusses the overall numbers when they are released.

Because it's all most of us have access to.

I stand by my original comment. If you can show me where 104.7's average age is significantly younger than KDKA's average (which I believe is 65), then please do so.

With all due respect, what part of "KD is dead last 25-54" don't you understand?

But to give you an example, the last I looked the average age for WEAE was 45 and the average for WDVE was 39 or so.

That's significant?

Average age isn't the issue, it's how many people in that demo a station delivers.

And considering the ESPN 1250 demo goes up to 54, what's the problem?

Sports radio advertisers want 18-34 males.

So do I

Still frisky.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

That's interesting because every month the board, not just me, discusses the overall numbers when they are released.

Because it's all most of us have access to.

I stand by my original comment. If you can show me where 104.7's average age is significantly younger than KDKA's average (which I believe is 65), then please do so.

With all due respect, what part of "KD is dead last 25-54" don't you understand?

But to give you an example, the last I looked the average age for WEAE was 45 and the average for WDVE was 39 or so.

That's significant?

Average age isn't the issue, it's how many people in that demo a station delivers.

And considering the ESPN 1250 demo goes up to 54, what's the problem?

Sports radio advertisers want 18-34 males.

So do I

Still frisky.



Its still crazy after all these years

 

[ScottyBman]

Its all in the programming. Put on programming that isn't intersting to a certain demo, they're not going to listen. WKBN has Phil Hendri on, could imagine what most people who listen to KD would do if something like that came out of their radio? WKBN has educated their audience enough to not expect the same dribble that been coming from Pittsburgh AM's forever. Yea, we had Dom and Mike for a while on 1550 years ago, although nobody knew it...what since? Nothing new. If you don't care about sports or politics(and business talk to a lesser extent) there is nothing for you on the AM dial, IN PITTSBURGH. And since there is probably very little sharing among those two demo's, you really have a tough situation. Other cities have very profitable AM's. Youngstown is one, WKBN doesn't have the baggage of being politics or sports. Same with WTAM in Cleveland, yes they are sports, but you can hear hours at a time with no sports, just fun, stupid(in a good way) talk. We have none of that. And try and think of the last time something was attempted on any of our AM's...and when one of them does, it gets buried...like Imus.

KBN is a waste. They all just call in and say, "We need the Steel Mills and Jim Traficant back." I bought a new car with satellite radio and don't anticipate ever returning to the wasteland of Youngstown's terrestrial radio.