• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Now It's KJR With The Dead Air

Check out Montana, i'm talking rural, not urban. I would call Shelton Urban, as you are so close to Tacoma you probably are on their Nielsons page
 
systemdump said:
Check out Montana, i'm talking rural, not urban. I would call Shelton Urban, as you are so close to Tacoma you probably are on their Nielsons page
Click to expand...

Shelton on Nielsons page? I believe you mean Nielsen, the ratings service for television. No, Shelton isn't a metered market for Nielsen, nor does Nielsen rate radio in Shelton, WA.

Did you mean to say Arbitron?
 
So define our market, are we urban then? See, this is what happens when somebody makes a sweeping generality not based on fact. A review of small rural markets may be revealing. I know I have never paid minimum wage to anyone. Heck, my parttime office assistant is by far the lowest paid, at $10.50 an hour.

Oh yeah, we have no tape, no 8-tracks, no cassettes, etc. We have this new-fangled thing called Media Touch (five on-air systems, and four production systems), and since we can't afford a record player, we use the hard drive.

No board ops either; and totally live and local morning shows on four of our "rural" (or "urban") stations.
 
Sorry, was thinking of how I was treated with low pay in Helena. MT, working overnight with old equipment. Oddly ended up building automation for that station years after in Seattle. I remember the PD calling it Nielson ratings. We were also aware of Arbitron, and all the tricks to get listeners to vote during the sweeps. Now nobody is home but the sales people, except announcer did his liners and other production, then whatever. Wenatchee WA is another low paying market, recently all the stations in town with exception of KPQ which eventually joined when Fisher Sold the stations to Cherry Creek, and other entities, at one time all were owned by same parent co. 5 stations in 1 building. Anyone home? Not at night when I was there last. Maybe Neilson used to do radio as well as tv? So Shelton does not even show in Tacoma Market, then how do you make any money, listeners in prison?
 
systemdump said:
Sorry, was thinking of how I was treated with low pay in Helena. MT, working overnight with old equipment. Oddly ended up building automation for that station years after in Seattle. I remember the PD calling it Nielson ratings. We were also aware of Arbitron, and all the tricks to get listeners to vote during the sweeps. Now nobody is home but the sales people, except announcer did his liners and other production, then whatever. Wenatchee WA is another low paying market, recently all the stations in town with exception of KPQ which eventually joined when Fisher Sold the stations to Cherry Creek, and other entities, at one time all were owned by same parent co. 5 stations in 1 building. Anyone home? Not at night when I was there last. Maybe Neilson used to do radio as well as tv? So Shelton does not even show in Tacoma Market, then how do you make any money, listeners in prison?
Click to expand...

You're kidding right? Shelton is the Mason County seat. Population UP 20% in the last 10 years. New businesses opening on a pretty regular basis. As for KMAS... 10KW AM signal which is the most powerful AM between Seattle and Portland. The signal is as strong as any Olympia area AM station IN Olympia as well as Tacoma and up to Sea Tac the last time I was up that way.

As for making money... have you ever been involved in direct business to business selling? OUR business is getting better every day. As for Wenatchee... NO, not all the stations in town are under the Cherry Creek umbrella. May I respectfully suggest you do your research before posting ridiculous info? Neilson to my knowledge has never done Radio ratings although if someone has information contrary to that please let us know. Oh, also as for Wenatchee- at the time I left there in 2003 I was making more $ than I'd ever made in 25 years of Radio. But I was Program Director for a group of 5 stations... no, not Cherry Creek but Pioneer Broadcasting which was purchased by Morris Communications. How can you generalize that "Wenatchee WA is another low paying market"? It's simply not true. Ask me how I know.
 
Actually, Neilson did jump in briefly a few years ago, and I believe they have jumped back out. I don't know what markets they tried.

Aside from the morning talent in the major markets, and the ones who still have contracts, I'm not so sure anybody is getting rich on air these days. As far as nobody home, it's not just Helena, and Wenatchee, and Aberdeen, the metro stations are doing a great job of offloading, often to the point in some markets of having smaller staffs than some of the smaller markets. Lots of small markets, including ours, have a fulltime newsman. Can Clear Channel top that?
 
If your signal goes to Seatac and Olympia then you are not just another rural station, but a rural station that serves urban markets, If all you served was Shelton you would be hard pressed to make any money. Ratings= more $. Also I said: Fisher Sold the stations to Cherry Creek, and other entities. It sounds like I may know you, if you worked at KYSN before Challenger Broadcasting sold it, It was in E. Wenatchee, I did overnights, paid close to minimum, The GM came in one morning saying that I had the Highest ratings overnight, I thought Dan said it was Neilson, even on the teen page. If you started at KW3, and the other 5 stations on Wenatchee Ave. at the time KYSN was there then you would remember that all but KPQ was in here, for a time, I dont know what stations spun off of that brief period but last time I looked, KPQ was in there too. I only go there to visit friends now.
When you mention business to business marketing do you mean they share a commercial spot? I am seeing that on TV now with appliance sellers. Sorry I am so confused, all I know is what I observed during visits to Wenatchee. BTW, Since KYSN and the rest in that building are making good money now, and are hiring, I would move back in a day.
 
I feel compelled to jump back in here... it appears that systemdump knows more about Shelton than the folks working that market. Ratings does not necessarily equal more $$$. In a perfect world that would be the case, but it ain't necessarily so. The upside of being close to a larger market is there MAY be additional revenue, and the downside is that there are more competitors. There are many stations with no discernable ratings that do well financially, and there are stations with great ratings that are not the top billers.

Regarding the statement regarding "if all you served was Shelton you would be hard pressed to make any money", is this based on actual knowledge or just pulled out of a bodily oriface? Just curious, because I've seen very isolated markets do very well. It depends on the operator. Forks, Washington did okay until the death of the owner just a few years back.

In general, we get paid what we are worth. If we're working for minimum wage, there is a reason.
 
Is my old age setting in faster than I hoped ... I thought Nielsen had bought a piece of Arbitron at one point (if not a majority stake). that feels like one of those synergy things that was happening down the line ... or maybe it's just that Nielsen was taking a stab at doing radio measurement. Can anyone enlighten a codger who probably shouldn't be driving anymore??? Thanks!
 
I was there in Shelton a few years ago to visit someone in prison. Guessing maybe 10,000 live in the area, in comparison to Wenatchee is very small, station looks to be in a great place to bring $ into Shelton as it is near Bigger Puget Sound communities
 
systemdump said:
I was there in Shelton a few years ago to visit someone in prison. Guessing maybe 10,000 live in the area, in comparison to Wenatchee is very small, station looks to be in a great place to bring $ into Shelton as it is near Bigger Puget Sound communities
Click to expand...

You're pulling information out of an "orifice" again and I'm pretty sure I know which one. Where are you getting your 10,000 figure?

Here's a thumbnail sketch of the last 50 years of population in the Shelton area / Mason County...

year pop % growth
1960 16,251 8.2%
1970 20,918 28.7%
1980 31,184 49.1%
1990 38,341 23.0%
2000 49,405 28.9%
2010 60,699 22.9%
 
10000 people there was an educated guess from what I saw, I just looked up Shelton, It's even smaller than I thought. Per wiki: The population of Shelton, Washington on January 1st 2010 is approximately 8,442. (Extrapolated from a 2000 US census population of 8,442 and a population of 8,442 on June 24th 2010.)
Since you broadened the scope to include all of Mason CO, The Mason Co stats are as you say, from the same source or "orifice' as you keep saying, (wikipedia) I would imagine that is correct for the whole county.
All I am saying is that you probably have most of your revenue from outside of Shelton, WA. With 10000 watts you could easily cover S. Puget Sound.
 
You can lead a wannabee to water, but you can't make him think.
 
I wish to correct a prior statement I made on this forum. I'd mentioned that 1030 KMAS is the strongest AM signal between Seattle and Portland at 10 KW day power. I need to stand corrected as my Engineer Jack Ondracek pointed out to me that KHHO 850 Tacoma (Formerly KTAC) is 10 KW day and 1 KW night and KTBK 1210 Auburn (Formerly KASY) is 27.5 KW day and 10 KW night.

Just for the record. My statement should have read that 1030 KMAS is the strongest AM signal between TACOMA and Portland.

RR
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom