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NYC Metro Radio Ratings - December 2022

Up to around 2 years ago, one could hear 4 Country stations in parts of the nearby Hudson Valley. There's Townsquare's The Wolf, and IHeart's WRWD. There was also Kicks 105.5, but that became a simulcast of The Wolf. And Pamal had AM stations in the Peekskill, Poughkeepsie and Kingston areas carrying the Real Country syndicated service. They switched to a simulcast of their Poughkeepsie classic hits station.
 
There are only two country stations in the core of the Rochester market, the dominant WBEE and iHeart's WDVI, which has only had the format for a year and hasn't made a significant ratings dent.

Sure, you can hear WLKK in most of Monroe County, but it's a Buffalo market station, and WCJW and WUUF are relatively distant rimshots without viable Monroe County signals.
Where I had lived in the area I could pick up all of those (one of WCJW's translators, I think 104.3) pretty reliably, which is why I gave a disclaimer of "depending where you are"; I probably should've specified as around Monroe County, NY ;).
 
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We lack Alternative Rock and Country stations. With several stations playing the same types of music aka KTU, Z, and 102.7 and Lite. BLS, Hot, Power, and The Block, 97.9, 93.1, and 96.3 and spoken word The Fan and ESPN radio we lack variety 100%. With 92.3 being all news and 98.7 and 101.9 being sports when they're on AM, theres waste of space. Non commercial stations being 92.7, 95.5, 96.7 and soon to be 103.9 we are losing valuable radio frequencies.
To each their own. As someone that grew up in a fairly status quo market (5 country stations just in the core city, 10 if you count surrounding areas, as well as several 70s/80s oriented stations and religious stations up and down the dial), I’ll take the NYC dial (even LA and Chicago’s) over what I had. Hip hop and R&B, all-news and multicultural stations? Classic hip hop? Little suburban signals? Sign me up! There’s variety there, you just have to think outside of the box and objectively.

And no, there is no “waste of space” on the dial with non-comms taking over frequencies over 92. Blame the individual format’s failure to not resonate with the market (alt, country, etc.), and market economics. The dial is keeping up with demographic changes, whether you like it or not.
 
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Not everyone has HD radio...
Then stream it.

(And before you say “data plans are expensive”, look at the major phone companies and compare prices for data. I pay $45/month for unlimited data - if you budget right (and if it’s a high priority to you), the majority of cell phone customers can afford it. Data plans are cheaper now compared to 10 years ago.)
 
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Then stream it.

(And before you say “data plans are expensive”, look at the major phone companies and compare prices for data. I pay $45/month for unlimited data - if you budget right (and if it’s a high priority to you), the majority of cell phone customers can afford it. Data plans are cheaper now compared to 10 years ago.)
Streaming it via WiFi (available on most phones) is also an option. Won't work in the car, naturally, but for home and possibly at-work listening, it would work.
 
Streaming it via WiFi (available on most phones) is also an option. Won't work in the car, naturally, but for home and possibly at-work listening, it would work.

When you are at home of at the office, you can use their desktop app. When you are on the road, use the phone app...<Works for me and I have 100% unlimited. If your radio has "Bluetooth", you can configure it into the radio. The reason why unlimited became more affordable isn't about the plan itself. It's the "price war" John Legere used on T-Mobile to force competition versus Verizon and AT&T. It's still going on currently. But with mismanagement of the smaller companies, this is why bigger companies are buying out smaller companies.
 
Because it was an extremely poor performing music format that attracted few listeners and no advertisers. I know you alt fans are desperately seeking a different answer, but you won't find one.
And to think I thought it was the programming and lack of new bands being signed.
 
And to think I thought it was the programming and lack of new bands being signed.
In a way it is.

When you have so many bands that fail to generate enough interest to result in meaningful radio listeners that appeal to advertisers, it stands to reason that record companies would be hesitant to sign more of them and radio programmers would seek more attractive programming options. The occasional rock hit can get some spins on CHR or Hot AC…and that seems to be good enough these days.

It is clear that in general, there is somewhat less interest in newer rock when compared to other types of music. Maybe someday that will change, but that does not seem to be the trend right now (and has not been for a while).
 
Then stream it.

(And before you say “data plans are expensive”, look at the major phone companies and compare prices for data. I pay $45/month for unlimited data - if you budget right (and if it’s a high priority to you), the majority of cell phone customers can afford it. Data plans are cheaper now compared to 10 years ago.)
There are still radio companies that don't stream their HD2s. WDRC-FM Hartford has had oldies on its HD2 since the late '00s and has retained the format through three ownership groups, none of which has ever made it accessible to anyone other than owners of an HD-capable over-the-air radio receiver.
 
To each their own. As someone that grew up in a fairly status quo market (5 country stations just in the core city, 10 if you count surrounding areas, as well as several 70s/80s oriented stations and religious stations up and down the dial), I’ll take the NYC dial (even LA and Chicago’s) over what I had. Hip hop and R&B, all-news and multicultural stations? Classic hip hop? Little suburban signals? Sign me up! There’s variety there, you just have to think outside of the box and objectively.

And no, there is no “waste of space” on the dial with non-comms taking over frequencies over 92. Blame the individual format’s failure to not resonate with the market (alt, country, etc.), and market economics. The dial is keeping up with demographic changes, whether you like it or not.
You're acting sarcastic right.
That is not variety at all.
I rather have rock and country than hip hop, R&B, classic hip hop, all news and multicultural.
 
I rather have rock and country than hip hop, R&B, classic hip hop, all news and multicultural.

Radio is a free service, supported by advertising. The formats you have are the ones that get support. Somebody has to pay so you can hear music for free. It was shown that there isn't enough financial support for rock and country. That's why they're gone.

When people say there's no variety, they're really complaining that there aren't enough people in their town who like what they like. You go down to Philadelphia, and you have a very different situation. There you have country & rock. That's because the population is different, and advertisers support rock & country.
 
Radio is a free service, supported by advertising. The formats you have are the ones that get support. Somebody has to pay so you can hear music for free. It was shown that there isn't enough financial support for rock and country. That's why they're gone.

When people say there's no variety, they're really complaining that there aren't enough people in their town who like what they like. You go down to Philadelphia, and you have a very different situation. There you have country & rock. That's because the population is different, and advertisers support rock & country.
This is why I wish I lived near Philly.
 
Internet radio stations always offer programming not available on commercial stations. Many not-for-profit stations offer unique styles of music. If you are not averse to paying there is always SiriusXM.
 
Internet radio stations always offer programming not available on commercial stations. Many not-for-profit stations offer unique styles of music. If you are not averse to paying there is always SiriusXM.

Everything has its downside. Internet radio requires giving up personal information and being more proactive in what you hear, rather than simply turning on a box and instantly hearing music. What the studies show is that most people use a combination of media services, from on-air and online, depending on the circumstances.
 
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Alternative and Country failed in New York City in both ratings and revenue. Regardless of the operator, you would have seen the same result.

I am not confident that is true with regard to country.

94.7 earned decent ratings at times as a country station, especially given signal deficiencies.

Billing was never great when Cumulus owned it, but it performed much better than when Audacy owned it. Audacy ran that station into the ground.
 
I am not confident that is true with regard to country.

94.7 earned decent ratings at times as a country station, especially given signal deficiencies.

Billing was never great when Cumulus owned it, but it performed much better than when Audacy owned it. Audacy ran that station into the ground.
There was buyer resistance. The rating were never strong enough to be a "must buy" in any demo, and so agencies often did not get that deep in buys and if they did, they skipped it due to the format.
 
There was buyer resistance. The rating were never strong enough to be a "must buy" in any demo, and so agencies often did not get that deep in buys and if they did, they skipped it due to the format.

That's what you will always hear from sellers based in the city. That's where the former CBS sales team was based. They sell news and sports, not country music. I'll be interested to see if they can sell WXBK. The problem with the New York market is that it's really too big and too spread out for sellers to reach with suburban formats like rock & country. Those formats are much easier to sell in New Jersey and Long Island.
 
That's what you will always hear from sellers based in the city. That's where the former CBS sales team was based. They sell news and sports, not country music. I'll be interested to see if they can sell WXBK. The problem with the New York market is that it's really too big and too spread out for sellers to reach with suburban formats like rock & country. Those formats are much easier to sell in New Jersey and Long Island.
Country has no place to go in Nassau/Western Suffolk or in Northern NJ.
 
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