New Buffalo numbers

[Bob1370]

Summer 12+ numbers are in...and show no change in rankings for the top 5 stations. Kiss 98.5 is a stronger 4th than it was last time out in the spring, and 97 Rock a little weaker (it'll be interesting to see if the pitiful Bills give them any boost in the fall book). In the next 5, WHTT holds its own in 6th, just a fraction behind 97 Rock, while WJYE dropped a full share point. Edge gained fractionally, Star 102.5 stays below a 4 share (what's going on there?) and Jack is as weak as it's been in over a year, barely staying in the top 10.

Below the top 10, WGR has had another historically weak summer, matching its pitiful 2.4 share of a year ago. They are probably praying for another strong season from the Sabres--not to mention a deeper run into the playoffs, which could get them back into contention in the fall, winter and spring books.

KB? Buried near the bottom below WECK and tied with WJJL.

Question for everyone...which stations are in the best competitive shape, and which ones need either a format change, talent transplant or both?

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Obviously WWKB is the biggest problem. I'm surprised it hasn't gone religion. I'm sure the religious groups would love that big 50KW signal.

I'd like to see it become an NPR station and take it out of the ratings race.

 

[Element9]

Find the Summer, Person 12+ ratings here.

First order of business, it's only 12+ and a Summer book, the least critical measurement of the year. YMMV. No wagering, please. With that disclaimer out of the way... WBEN must be relieved, it's up from a year ago and Spring.

WYRK and WBLK are the pride of the recently re-organized-out-of-bankruptcy-we-just-hired-two-of-Citadel's-best-closers Town Square cluster. What do you say about WYRK? It's a great radio station without any direct competition, which goes a long way to making it #1. Would it surprise anybody if it's #1 Persons 25-54 and 35-64? Probably looks decent 18-34, too.

WJYE/Joy, with its "droid," over-equalized backsells, sounds mechanical. But its Women 25-54 ratings might be more encouraging than it's soft Persons 12+ indicates. Could be Joy's Summer 12+ reflects a loss of 50+ or 55+ Women (to WHTT) which (1) should be no surprise, and (2) no great loss.

Star has to be a better radio station than its 12+ ratings indicate, but a 3.9 (down from last Summer, but up a smidge from Spring) might indicate there's a problem with listeners differentiating between Star and its sister, Kiss, which had a nice uptick... but how much of Kiss' kiss is teens or even Persons 12-24? Hard to tell. Star once had the hottest, cleanest audio processing in the market. Over the last year, it sounds ugly. Mashed 'n smashed.

Not much else to kick around that hasn't been kicked. WGR? Another ugly Summer book when there's nothing to talk about, the first string is on vacation and the crew from Buffalo State get their chance to play radio.

The Lake? Stagnant at a 2.2 which seems to suit the boys at Corporate Parkway just fine. It's different at the Lake, where nothing seems to have changed much ove rthe last five years.

KB with a point 7, tied with WJJL and Beaten by WECK, which surged to a point 9. KB, not even the red-haired step child of the cluster, is what it is, Mike S. WNYPB doesn't want another AM, it has WNED-AM and soon to be LMA'd WBFO-FM.

Jack might have been expected to perform better. Insiders say it's getting squeezed by WHTT, which has re-discovered its sweet spot, and 97 Rock, which may look soft 12+, but continues to own Men. Citadel's fleet looks stable, at least in the programming department.

Besides, what does Town Square care about Jack? The station runs on life support, costs nothing and makes weekly payroll by 7 p.m. every Monday. Tuesday through Sunday is gravy.

 

[Bob1370]

"Obviously WWKB is the biggest problem. I'm surprised it hasn't gone religion. I'm sure the religious groups would love that big 50KW signal. I'd like to see it become an NPR station and take it out of the ratings race."

Neither is going to happen, and basically KB is the single biggest prosecution exhibit in the case against the ownership deregulation of 1996. If there were still stricter limits on how big a cluster could get, KB would be a separately programmed station within the portfolio of someone who would program it with a news/talk lineup heavily localized and heavy on personality. It would be a lot like WGR was 15 years ago when Rich Communications owned it, and it was a serious high-quality challenger to WBEN.

Entercom can't be expected to do anything like that, because they'd be crazy to operate an in-house competitor for WBEN, and equally crazy to give up what's currently the only facility that, in other hands, could ever challenge WBEN. They tried to do something different with it to extend their 35-64 reach beyond anything WBEN could get them, with a personality "true oldies" format. They did surprisingly well with it, but then got discouraged too quickly and didn't give it enough promotional muscle and enough time to catch hold. A tactical mistake because they were really starting to chip away at WHTT as it was morphing into a hybrid classic hits/soft AC, and KB could have made further inroads 35-64 if they'd kept it up...but now that WHTT reclaimed the classic hits and olfies audience, that window's closed. They could sell it and gamble no one else will make a go of it. They might even try to move the TL to western Monroe County and COL to Rochester, plop the studios in the Mill St. building, call it a "minor move" under today's rules and take on WHAM (which is ripe for the picking) but short of that, as long as KB stays in Buffalo there's nothing else to be done with it under Entercom ownership and little pressure to sell what's been a very good protector for WBEN.A religious group won't buy at this stage (they can ring the market with FM rimshots and translators at a fraction of the cost and get the same reach) and the pubcasters have what they need.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Well, 92.9 has already gone through so many different formats.
An easy quick glance at older books most likely suggests they should go par the course.

When was the last time 92.9 maintained a 3 something share? (Stern excluded)