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No Christmas Bump?

I get ya, FlyGuy. I'm pretty much the same way. Usually it's Elton John that has me reaching for the button. I think that I'm just Eltoned out.
 
Ho, ho, ho... step out of Christmas. Sales people are still the best source of information and some of the ratings from the Fall book are beginning to filter through the grapevine. Entercom sales people are all aglow about WGR's performance, but they're scratching their heads because Star wasn't shining as brightly. At least three sales people from two different clusters have been heard to say "all the diaries went to the city." Women 25-54 Mon-Sun, Townsquare's WBLK (Urban) and WYRK (Country) were #1 and 2 respectively. Kiss and Star placed 3rd and 4th. Kiss, playin' the hits, beat All Christmas Star. The "city diaries" lament doesn't hold up when a Country station scores #1 or #2 in all dayparts. Maybe that's what has some of the Entercom sales reps scratching their brows. WBLK, with the exception of PM drive, where it placed 4th but up from Summer '11 and Fall '10, had what one rep called "the effin' book of its life." Tsk, tsk. Such talk around Christmas time. Kiss was up too. The 7-mid ratings for WBLK were "off the hook" according to a proud Townsquare rep who admitted that WJYE (AC) was "off" and added that "firing a PD in the middle of the book probably didn't help." Townsquare owns the Wall of Women (25-54) in Buffalo because WYRK, WBLK and WJYE account for more than a 30 shares, Mon-Sun, 6 a.m. to mid. Fall 2011 doesn't appear to be a great book for All Christmas Music stations. Maybe Santa and his Buffalo elves don't like radio stations that play All Christmas Music beginning two weeks before Thanksgiving. Too much stress.
 
Yes'em. Same stories, different time, different people, different situations, different everything. :(
I quote "The Soon to be Legendary..but Not Quite Yet" Robert Craig Savage (from another thread) "Live by the book, die by the book". (OK...it's NOT his quote...but he was the last to repeat it ;D)
Someday, this too shall pass.

HDBG
 
jas2525 said:
I'm kinda shocked that ANYONE is surprised that WECK has a .4 OF COURSE THEY HAVE HORRIBLE NUMBERS! They're playing music on a rimshot AM in 2012!!!!!!! Who in God's name is going to listen to that? I honestly do sometimes stop on 1230 and think to myself "do they really think ANYBODY is gonna bother with this?" My incredulousness over this is only eclipsed by the way I feel when I read people discussing HD radio like anybody friggin listens to it!Sometimes radio insiders really are too close to the situation to have a clear perception of reality.
Thursday night a guy named Pete Cleary (?) was doing a talk show, interviewing Booker Edgerson one of the 60's era Bills. It was a pretty good interview. Another talk show on a station that seems to be trying to position itself as a MUSIC station. That pretty much says it all. jas2525 is right. WECK isn't going to draw many listeners to a rimshot AM and a light bulb translator FM. It would be better off doing talk. The problem with that is live bodies cost money and WECK has already churned through a talk format that didn't seem to take hold. What do you do with this bundle of wires?
 
TheBigA said:
Element9 said:
What do you do with this bundle of wires?

When you come up with a PRACTICAL answer, let me know. There are hundreds of owners who are in this exact situation.
That's the best you got? Jeez! I'm disappointed. Thought YOU'D have the answer.
 
TheBigA said:
Then again, a small AM in Pittsburgh attempted that exact thing with one of their local legends, and it fell flat on its face.

Allow me to add a couple things, A...

1) If I hadn't read about it on the R-I Pittsburgh Board I'd have never known about it.

2) The legend in question - 93-year-old Porky Chedwick - is probably best appreciated by those who grew up with that style of radio back in the pre-Top 40 format days of Rock & Roll. He was Pittsburgh's version of George Lorenz.

For what it's worth...

Element9 said:
TheBigA said:
Element9 said:
What do you do with this bundle of wires?

When you come up with a PRACTICAL answer, let me know. There are hundreds of owners who are in this exact situation.
That's the best you got? Jeez! I'm disappointed. Thought YOU'D have the answer.

Don't hate me...but I say turn in the license if you can't make a go of it. I've said it before...a thinning of the herd may help the survivors to get better rates. Then again with all the entertainment choices now available to us, it may end up being a bucket of water over Niagara Falls.

You decide.

Ok, A...9...carry on!
 
chas108 said:
I say turn in the license if you can't make a go of it.

There was a part of me that felt the exact same way when I read E9's post. Great programming isn't always the solution. And that's hard for programmers to accept. All you end up with is an empty wallet. As I said, there are hundreds of these single station owners in this country. Each one of them has to look inside themself and ask what compromises are they willing to make in order to stay in business. Syndication? Barter? Brokered? Ethnic? Those are the good choices.
 
Yes, Chaz. Salient observations, but "thinning the herd" isn't likely here because somebody paid a truckload of money for the right to broadcast with 1 kw on AM 1230, to say nothing of how much $$$ for the right to broadcast with 72 watts @ 150' on 102.9. Let's see... WBEN and WGR have the talk, news and sports franchises locked up. Gamblin' Lou has the Classic Country franchise... WWWS has Solid Gold Soul... Wait! Colon Blow 1230! You laugh, but it would make money. And it might get more than a point 4. When you're in that deep, turning in the license is not an option. Although selling might be.
 
Part of the history behind the loosening of ownership rules in 1996 was that owners couldn't make money with single or double station operations because of Docket 80-90. Too many stations diluted the audience and revenues. So Congress said, OK, owners can now own as many as 6 stations in the same market. So what did that do to all the single station operators? The clusters can afford to lose money with a low power AM as long as they make tons with their FMs. That was the intent of the rule change. But after the ad crash in the mid-2000s, even cluster operators don't want AMs. Some of the big companies have either sold or donated them. Meanwhile, there are lots of single station operators with low power AMs struggling to breathe with the deck stacked against them.
 
Element9 said:
Ho, ho, ho... step out of Christmas. Sales people are still the best source of information and some of the ratings from the Fall book are beginning to filter through the grapevine. Entercom sales people are all aglow about WGR's performance, but they're scratching their heads because Star wasn't shining as brightly. At least three sales people from two different clusters have been heard to say "all the diaries went to the city." Women 25-54 Mon-Sun, Townsquare's WBLK (Urban) and WYRK (Country) were #1 and 2 respectively. Kiss and Star placed 3rd and 4th. Kiss, playin' the hits, beat All Christmas Star. The "city diaries" lament doesn't hold up when a Country station scores #1 or #2 in all dayparts. Maybe that's what has some of the Entercom sales reps scratching their brows. WBLK, with the exception of PM drive, where it placed 4th but up from Summer '11 and Fall '10, had what one rep called "the effin' book of its life." Tsk, tsk. Such talk around Christmas time. Kiss was up too. The 7-mid ratings for WBLK were "off the hook" according to a proud Townsquare rep who admitted that WJYE (AC) was "off" and added that "firing a PD in the middle of the book probably didn't help." Townsquare owns the Wall of Women (25-54) in Buffalo because WYRK, WBLK and WJYE account for more than a 30 shares, Mon-Sun, 6 a.m. to mid. Fall 2011 doesn't appear to be a great book for All Christmas Music stations. Maybe Santa and his Buffalo elves don't like radio stations that play All Christmas Music beginning two weeks before Thanksgiving. Too much stress.

Tough to get a read when two stations do Christmas in one town. In Buffalo, it would appear that neither Star or Joy has done enough to distinguish themselves as Buffalo's Christmas station. Joy, as the Mainstream AC should be the station that benefits the most from Christmas. Hot A/C's like Star who do Christmas usually don't fare as well. Yes, firing a PD in the middle of the book was short sighted and I'd be willing to bet Christmas didn't get the attention it needed this year at Joy. Those responsible for Joy's mess should be held accountable now. Oh---the Jack station had a down book so perhaps someone is in the building didn't spend enough time on his own farm vs concerning himself with someone elses.
 
Answer this- - is there any music on WECK that can't be heard elsewhere? Let me correct that-is there any music worth a darn on WECK that can't be heard elsewhere? I can't hear either out here, but recall on my last visit that WECK was playing some pretty eclectic music -and it's definitely not mainstream. The biggest challenge (and opportunity) for music on AM is to find out who's still listening to AM -and would appreciate music that was made for AM radio. That would be 65+....a demo that no advertiser wants. (stupid advertisers anyway). It's still a 25-54 world-and for anyone who says the radio model is a dinosaur, talk to the agencies. Radio's still an advertising vehicle- and it's all based on results-or 25-54. We're older. 25-54's stay the same (while the population shifts).
 
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