NY PPM RATINGS RELEASED FOR 6/09: 5/28/09-6/24/09

[JerseyDude]

We were driving down Stillwater Avenue on Stamford's West Side this past Monday. Mostly fuzz. I could just hear a beat trying to kick through.

Nick, you are able to pick it up Stamford?

My TSL of Pulse 87 is all day at work. Pulse 87 does come in at Stamford. .1 may be a statistical fluctuation, but the trend is rising .1 every ratings period. .8 is really great for a signal on 87.7 that some radios can't even tune to. If WNYZ operated as a real TV station, it wouldn't have 700,000 viewers. Please don't call it Guido Dance music, everyone's welcome to like dance music, not just Italians.

 

[neo11]

We were driving down Stillwater Avenue on Stamford's West Side this past Monday. Mostly fuzz. I could just hear a beat trying to kick through.

Nick, you are able to pick it up Stamford?

My TSL of Pulse 87 is all day at work. Pulse 87 does come in at Stamford. .1 may be a statistical fluctuation, but the trend is rising .1 every ratings period. .8 is really great for a signal on 87.7 that some radios can't even tune to. If WNYZ operated as a real TV station, it wouldn't have 700,000 viewers. Please don't call it Guido Dance music, everyone's welcome to like dance music, not just Italians.

Could it also be the radio itself that has trouble tuning in? There seem to be some receivers out there which can't pick up Pulse 87 clearly because it doesn't broadcast exactly on 87.7. Most tuners seem to be able to overcome that but some seem to narrowly tune to the exact frequency and would thus have trouble with Pulse.

I haven't been to CT in a while, but on recent trips to Orange County, I've been able to receive 87.7 well into Middletown, NY so there's no reason why it shouldn't also be able to be received in Stamford with the correct receiver.

 

[lalumia]

NYC has it's own WALK; it's called LITE FM
and both stations play songs that have a broad base of popularity with the masses, something that dance in it's current state could never do, standing on it's own and playing only dance;
it's just not popular with the masses,and the artists associated with it are not 'pop' stars' by any stretch of the imagination

 

[nd2023]

Pulse 87 plays many pop artists and remixes. They are usually on to rhythmic CHR tracks well before NOW. I got Pulse 87 on I-95 up to New Haven last time I drove up to Boston which was months before the DTV transition. Now, I think it might be audible up to Bridgeport. Pulse was crystal clear in Rye last week, and Stamford is just 10 or so miles from there.

 

[neo11]

NYC has it's own WALK; it's called LITE FM
and both stations play songs that have a broad base of popularity with the masses, something that dance in it's current state could never do, standing on it's own and playing only dance;
it's just not popular with the masses,and the artists associated with it are not 'pop' stars' by any stretch of the imagination

Yes, but you completely misunderstood my point. My point is that Pulse is doing as well, within the overall NYC market, as a mainstream format with a 50kw signal, which while not covering NYC proper but still within the market, and which certainly has a coverage area of several million in its own right.

 

[PhDance]

I don't think you can realistically expect a dance formatted station to ever have a high TSL. The so-called "casual" listener probably would tune in just to sample the station but not remain very long.

.
Do you have the data to back that up or is that just an assumption?

 

[lalumia]

casual listeners are attracted to mass scale pop hits and stars;
dance does not have these;
years ago, when KTU went nuts with such tracks, the ratings went south;
even current 'hits' by Kim Sozzi and Kelly Rowland are in reality, struggling in pop chart/Hot 100/Top 40 scheme of things

 

[neo11]

casual listeners are attracted to mass scale pop hits and stars;
dance does not have these;
years ago, when KTU went nuts with such tracks, the ratings went south;
even current 'hits' by Kim Sozzi and Kelly Rowland are in reality, struggling in pop chart/Hot 100/Top 40 scheme of things

The reality is that Pulse, with all its limitations, is doing better than most people seem to have expected. They seem to be on their way towards a 1 share on a frequency which some radios cannot even tune to, with a signal that's inferior to the major NYC stations, and with established competition (KTU, Z100, even Party 105 on LI) to go up against. We could go into a larger discussion about the state of dance music in the USA in general, but looking at our own backyard, and with the specific station we're discussing, the reality is that it's doing well for itself.

 

[stationless listener]

NYC has it's own WALK; it's called LITE FM
and both stations play songs that have a broad base of popularity with the masses, something that dance in it's current state could never do, standing on it's own and playing only dance;
it's just not popular with the masses,and the artists associated with it are not 'pop' stars' by any stretch of the imagination

Really? I think the problem is quite the opposite. There are too many "Names" being played at Pulse. They're supposed to sell the music, not the acts. Sure, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get some dance music performers more exposure to outside the dance genre. However, as a listener, my first test for any dance record is "Is it any good?" When I hear a really good record, then I would expect to know the name of that song and the performer who performs it. I could then go to the station website to get the name from the playlist or hopefully the DJ would say the name of the song and the performer on the air.

That goes to the heart of the problem I have with Pulse: They're trying so hard to avoid the failures of past dance music stations that they're not really playing dance music. They're playing Rhythmic CHR, which is a cop-out in my book. If you're going to be a dance, then BE A DANCE STATION! Why do I want another outlet for Flo Rida, Pitbull or Kid Cudi? I could go to Z or KTU or NOW for that.

New York really missed the boat when the stations didn't want to take a chance at techno, trance, Chicago house, trip-hop and drum n' bass. Heck, they also missed the Italo craze and even much of the early House and Techno scene because they went too much pop and freestyle. It is only because the city has become rhythm-obsessed that the radio stations are being dragged kicking and screaming into playing "danc-y tunes" (that's my description of it). They missed a lot of good stuff that happened in the '90s and early '00s, when acts like Orbital, Fat Boy Slim, The Crystal Method and Meat Beat Manifesto broke into the scene. Z did play songs like "One More Time" by Daft Punk, but that was between the likes of 98 Degrees and Backstreet Boys. Not a strategy that would attract the likes of me. The one glaring exception was the show Solid State by DJ Liquid Todd, which aired on K-Rock late night Saturdays, which is how I got exposed to much of the good stuff. I would never know what Hooj Choons is if it were not for Liquid Todd.

There are more than enough CHR's for this city. Why should Pulse be like another CHR?

 

[nd2023]

One thing different about Pulse, they play the CHR hits before the other stations. That is a selling point for the casual listeners who happen to stumble on 87.7.

 

[stationless listener]

Well, a dance station has to play more than CHR hits. Some of the acts that did cross over to CHR I couldn't care less. Now if Pulse were to play a record like this, even if it is more than a decade old now, then I would be pleasantly surprised.

 

[d21ofnj]

Pulse 87 is up yet again, and only down 1 point from NOW and RXP. 3 to 1 odds that Pulse surpasses NOW or RXP in either cume or share by the end of the year.

I didn't realize that a .1 increase was such a cause for celebration. You didn't mention that the station's cume dipped slightly in June as well.

Let's not forget also, if it wasn't for that pirate on 87.9, I'm sure the cume would've gotten higher. Now as far as a .1 increase in the ratings, that sure is a lot for a limited signal station, compared to when RXP was literary a .9 for a signal that can be heard 3x as much as Pulse.

 

[MarcR]

I think some of you dance fanatics are exaggerating the supposed "weakness" of Pulse's signal. The station comes in quite strongly from my vantage point here in south-central Nassau County, and others have said that the signal penetrates south along the Jersey shore and north to Westchester County.

 

[neo11]

I think some of you dance fanatics are exaggerating the supposed "weakness" of Pulse's signal. The station comes in quite strongly from my vantage point here in south-central Nassau County, and others have said that the signal penetrates south along the Jersey shore and north to Westchester County.

Yes and no.

The station does get out pretty far when listening on a car radio, in certain directions (though as has often been posted, it gets destroyed in many parts of Northern/Central NJ from the 87.9 pirate out of Newark). I recently posted about being able to pull in Pulse as far as Middletown, NY, on a car radio.

Of course, listening in the car is one thing, and building penetration is another. I believe the audio signal is only around 2 kw, which would make it a Class A if it were a "real" FM station. Less wattage = less penetration. Even where I am in Queens, only a few miles from the Citicorp building, Pulse is noticeably weaker than the other NYC stations on my indoor radios, but comes in just as well as any other NYC station in the car. Not to mention that the Citicorp building is about half the height of Empire.

Then of course there's the fact that some radios begin tuning at 87.9, while other radios have trouble picking up Pulse because it's not actually on 87.7 but on 87.76. Most tuners seem to be able to compensate but some do not.

Finally, Pulse gets all but wiped out in many parts of Manhattan thanks to the strong Empire signals overpowering most radios and also thanks to the tall buildings blocking a clear signal from the Citicorp building in Queens to penetrate.

So no, the "dance fanatics" are not exaggerating the problems with Pulse's signal.

 

[lalumia]

nothing wrong with being dance fanatics;
but even fanatics have to be realistic to balance out their zeal if they want to truly make progress;

 

[JustinCase]

One could say... KTU is that mass appeal "dance station" ... it's playing a little something from all kinds of sounds and eras of dance... It's danc"y" as someone said without being boom boom boom'ed to death while working...

That danc"y" comment about the city could also be why KTU is over a 4 share with webstream and has the 2nd highest cume in NYC; rated top six in the glamour demos and doing extremely well in target demos.

The problem with mass appeal is that hardcore fans of specific genres being covered are never happy! I say if a mass appeal station like KTU can make a household name out of dance artist because they have a range of audience... then all the better for dance music... don't tear them apart because they may also play a disco, new wave or flreestyle song too.

I said a couple years ago on here... when it comes to dance music... A SURVIVING station is better for the genre than a dead station... KTU tweaked more and more classic and familiar to survive...

 

[stationless listener]

One could say... KTU is that mass appeal "dance station" ... it's playing a little something from all kinds of sounds and eras of dance... It's danc"y" as someone said without being boom boom boom'ed to death while working...

One could say that people are already being boom boom boom'ed to death by playing too many rap and R&B remixes. Anything with too much bass is accepted, it seems. While many dance songs do have a heavy bass sound, they get overplayed because the corporate elites think that's what the whole city wants. Their idea of "dance music" is take what's playing at Hot 97/Power 105 and up the tempo a bit, then mix in more R&B artists to give that "urban flavor". Works with some but leave plenty of other folks out.

That danc"y" comment about the city could also be why KTU is over a 4 share with webstream and has the 2nd highest cume in NYC; rated top six in the glamour demos and doing extremely well in target demos.

The problem with mass appeal is that hardcore fans of specific genres being covered are never happy! I say if a mass appeal station like KTU can make a household name out of dance artist because they have a range of audience... then all the better for dance music... don't tear them apart because they may also play a disco, new wave or flreestyle song too.

I said a couple years ago on here... when it comes to dance music... A SURVIVING station is better for the genre than a dead station... KTU tweaked more and more classic and familiar to survive...

Or maybe the "hardcore" (which I don't put myself in; I'm just a regular person who wants to listen to a station playing music I can like) and the "mainstream" live in vastly different parallel universes that the twain may never meet. Real people don't program radio stations anymore. Programming decisions are left to consultants, individuals who like to impress upper management with talk of "flow charts" and "target demos". Their influence is such that upper management, who are too busy to peer outside the corporate office, think that they know more about what people like than the disc jockeys and program directors, people who are actually on the front lines of the radio business. They were the first to hear about it if people react well to a certain song or they hate any particular song. The best ones gave radio stations their particular identities in which people can cite when looking for a radio station to hear. While Pulse may seem like a Mickey Mouse operation upon first look, at least they harken back to the days when people work in radio for the love of it.

Yes, the digital has made it generally harder to compete in the marketplace. But the rapid overconsolidation of radio station made it much easier for people to go towards non-traditional media like the iPod. That's the thing that all these corporate elites have failed to grasp.

 

[JustinCase]

You go into mom and pop owned stores, restaurants, and businesses in NYC and more times than not, you're going to hear the radio... and likely KTU and LITE over and over again throughout your trip... Lite is that typical office sound... KTU is upbeat, but not intrusive. For all the doom and gloom, radio is FREE and when budgets are tight and/or wallets are light... it's still radio that people can turn to for their background soundtrack.

As for alternatives... as broadband internet access gets easier to obtain on portable devices like iPhones and palm pre it allows more options, but radio for all its flaws is part of that too... some of the biggest downloaded aps are radio programs, which means people are downloading these programs, so as to bring their favorite stations (and others like them) with them wherever they go.

I'm big on tech stuff, I love buying new phones, laptops, and all the accessories, but whats missing from all those devices is a radio tuner, and I think mainly thats because there is no standard... are we staying analog or going HD... until we figure out how to do HD and spread a wide signal, it'll be streaming on those devices that keeps radio an active part of people lives and people will trend to new technologies and gadgets... and we're seeing that with increasing stream ratings and cume.

We must just remember, radio is more than music, its personality and connecting to people's lifestyles and lives...

 

[nd2023]

My iPod has no personality, no new music I don't put there, no audio processing, no commercials, no news, no traffic reports, and a predictable rotation that weights power hits and golds equally (no CHR station would play a gold as much as a song in power rotation, but an iPod in shuffle won't know). It has all the music I like, no static, and plays all my requests instantly, but that is it. I'm fond of the days when kids would call up the radio station to request a song to tape off their radio, and how mixtapes were a meaningful gift that took hours to create by recording songs off different radio stations.

 

[JustinCase]

Your ipod might not, but my iPhone does... I do listen to my favorite stations thru apps so I get the personalities, I get the interaction... KTU, Z100, PULSE, Q102 Philly, The Beat 96.1 Charlotte, Wild 94.9 in San Fran... all on my ipod favorites, far more than I get with just some songs I like...

I'm pretty sure most newer iphones/ipods can adjust play rotations based on the songs rating... you create your own ratings scheme so you are being the music director... so it can know the difference if you want it too... now I'm not anal enough to spend all the time to do that, but for those that want, you can... As for teens calling in... they still do... radio just has to compete with other distractions for their attention like texting and ipods... if radio tuners were in those devices teens would flip back and forth and it wouldn't seem like "the old way"