NASCAR off WSOC-FM?

[TGNT]

I'm hearing there will be no live race coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup races on WSOC or any FM station in the home of NASCAR.

 

[Mister N.]

Yep, moving it to 610 "The Blowtorch" :.


They didn't even carry the qualifying races anywhere Thursday - WSOC, WFNZ or otherwise.

 

[gymbeaux120]

Wow. This is a huge surprise. Can they get a decent footprint on 610? There are too many people who live around here that are associated in a personal way with one team or another. How are they going to react to this? My guess is that they won't find out until they tune in on Sunday. Wouldn't want to be answering the phones at 'SOC.

I remember when I went to WFMX years ago as PD, my first move was to drop the live coverage of qualifying. Boy, that was stupid. It didn't take me long to put it back.

 

[CrazeeCarroll1]

WOW!!! That sounds like 1987 all over again!!! CC1

 

[Mister N.]

FNZ's signal is just OK during the day - at night it's awful. Lotsa people will be unhappy when there are night races.

 

[yugoidar]

I wonder if Arbitron's PPM pending arrival in the market has anything to do with this. It seems to be changing the game on many music station, mostly in morning drive.

More than a few big name morning men are no longer in the picture. The most recent - Dick Purtan, a 45 year market institution in Detroit, announced his retirement yesterday. From a raw, unedited video interview I saw this morning, it was apparent that corporate "encouraged" him to retire.

It will be interesting to see what the impact of losing NASCAR races will have on 'SOC's weekly cume.

 

[Mister N.]

Care to guess which daypart was the ONLY one in which 'SOC was number one?

 

[yugoidar]

Nah! Why don't you fill us in? Also, #1 in what demo?

 

[Mister N.]

Sunday afternoons

 

[eacalhoun1]

I'm not a racing fan -- I pretty much hate it. HOWEVER, as much as I loved WFMX I appreciated them as the racing fan's station. The music, the sport -- WFMX certainly cared and catered to the racing fans. Was there ANYTHING WMFX did NOT carry that was racing? Seems to me they carried everything. WFMX -- still being missed almost 5 years later.

Back to WSOC -- when they simulcast on AM 930? I remember when they would continue the regular music format on the AM (and they maintained that this was for the race-haters) and air the race on the FM.

 

[urbanradio704]

Nobody cares, it's a bunch of cars going around in a circle. Nobody half-way intelligent would waste their time with that mess. It's a sport (even though it doesn't take much athletic ability to push the pedal), that's why it goes on a sports station. Whoever thought interrupting music for this mess on a 100,000 watt blowtorch was a dumba__ in the first place. Crappy feature, crappy signal.

 

[test123]

Nobody cares, it's a bunch of cars going around in a circle. Nobody half-way intelligent would waste their time with that mess. It's a sport (even though it doesn't take much athletic ability to push the pedal), that's why it goes on a sports station. Whoever thought interrupting music for this mess on a 100,000 watt blowtorch was a dumba__ in the first place. Crappy feature, crappy signal.

UR704...

I will gladly pay for you to take a few laps in a driving school at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Then I will bet you double the cost that you would come out of the car saying it does take a good bit of athletic ability to drive those cars.

Second most popular spectator sport in the country. No radio where the sport (and both Radio Networks that broadcast the races) is based is a shame.

Test123

 

[jtudor]

Nobody cares, it's a bunch of cars going around in a circle. Nobody half-way intelligent would waste their time with that mess. It's a sport (even though it doesn't take much athletic ability to push the pedal), that's why it goes on a sports station. Whoever thought interrupting music for this mess on a 100,000 watt blowtorch was a dumba__ in the first place. Crappy feature, crappy signal.

What rock did you crawl out from under? NOBODY CARES??? Drive out to CMS on Memorial day and see how many nobody's are there, check the TV ratings, then remember that not everyone who cares about racing is able to be glued to a television set on Sunday afternoon, some folks like to go places and still keep up with the race while they are out.

Just like most anything else on radio, we need variety, and if you don't like what you hear on one station, there are two knobs on the radio, one will change the station, the other one will turn it off. And you can also listen to CD's if you choose. But when there is only one station carrying NASCAR, and you take that away then the NASCAR fans do not have anywhere else to go.

 

[quadraphonic]

Nobody cares, it's a bunch of cars going around in a circle. Nobody half-way intelligent would waste their time with that mess.

Then why bother trying to refute it?

 

[urbanradio704]

all the little rednecks can go to FNZ, and that's what they're going to have to do. CBS agrees with me, so put that in your pipe and smoke it. CBS programs the #1, 2, and 3 stations so I'll trust their judgement.

 

[TGNT]

The Olympics Nordic had higher TV ratings then the Daytona 500. When NASCAR execs stop drinking their own Kool Aid and telling us how great the racing is they might come to their senses and realize that they have a passionate but very narrow red state fan base, sort of like those Tea Party folks.

 

[Mister N.]

Nordic? Not so much...


In the U.S., the only show standing up to the Olympics is "American Idol." Tuesday’s two-hour "Idol" episode on Fox out-performed NBC’s Olympic coverage by a preliminary estimate of 3.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.

Otherwise, NBC is enjoying nothing but gold medals for their time-slot wins during these Games. Based on the first four nights, NBC is averaging 27.9 million viewers a night with their Olympic coverage, up significantly from the 22.4 million who watched the first four days of the 2006 Turin Winter Games

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/olympics...oaring_ratings-2361059&prov=capress&type=lgns


-----------------------


29.8 million people watched at least some part of the season-opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event, a 14 percent gain over last year.
In the 31-year history of flag-to-flag television coverage of the Daytona 500, there have been two previous races that were delayed and re-started, and both suffered sizable ratings decreases. The 1995 running was delayed by more than two hours by rain and the result was a 19 percent decline versus the prior year (7.8 vs. 9.6). The 2003 race, shown on Fox, was also delayed by rain and not run to the full 500 miles. That race rated 10 percent lower than the 2002 running on NBC (9.8 vs. 10.9).

Fox reported substantial ratings gains in key markets, including Atlanta (an increase of 11 percent), Charlotte (8 percent), and Norfolk, Va. (7 percent).

Greensboro, N.C., led all markets with a 16.9 fast national rating, followed by Charlotte (16.8), Greenville, S.C. (16.6), Indianapolis (16.0), Orlando (15.4), Louisville (13.3), Nashville, Tenn. (13.1), Knoxville, Tenn. (13.0), Jacksonville (12.8) and Dayton, Ohio (12.7).

http://www.scenedaily.com/news/arti...le_delays_impact_ratings_for_Daytona_500.html

 

[MN Maniac]

This is a HUGE loss. WSOC has been the Charlotte NASCAR affiliate since...when? As long as I can remember. When I was there in 1995-96, NASCAR was hugely important. I board-opped a few races and was always REAL careful to keep it tight and smooth. I knew what kind of revenue was riding on those broadcasts.

 

[eacalhoun1]

This is a HUGE loss. WSOC has been the Charlotte NASCAR affiliate since...when? As long as I can remember. When I was there in 1995-96, NASCAR was hugely important. I board-opped a few races and was always REAL careful to keep it tight and smooth. I knew what kind of revenue was riding on those broadcasts.

I remember my younger days -- in the late 80s -- of babysitting NASCAR races at WSVM in Valdese. We didn't have a sat feed so we picked it up off WFMX or WSOC. I always preferred WFMX because WSOC loved to insert their God-rest-his-soul Bill Dollar 1-2 second liners before and after a stopset -- so a board op had to be quick on the trigger to prevent this from going on the air. I hated racing and still do, but didn't mind babysitting them as long as they stayed on schedule. Of course, it was the norm for them to run over. Weather impacts could make a 5-hour, NASACAR board-opping quickly turn into 8 or 9 hours. Of course, my saving grace was that the race had to be completed by dark. But, it was also in the late 80s and into the 90s that someone had the "bright" idea of adding lights to tracks -- I was not happy about this.

 

[surfdude]

Only about 30% of the Country radio audience is "into" NASCAR. Meaning 70% are not.
NASCAR fans are just as likely to be Rock/Classic Rock fans.

NASCAR on the radio used to mean more when all the races weren't on TV.