• 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

NYC radio ratings 1958-65

A

alok

Anybody know how the following stations did from 1958-65 ,in NYC. ( actual numbers )

WINS
WMGM
WMCA
WABC

I am mainly interested in when each station was playing RnR. I know WINS started late 54 went to 65. WMGM I think it was in 1957-62. WMCA played with it then kind of went fulltime from about 58-beyond 65.
WABC was late 60-beyond 65.

Again the numbers from 1954-65,when stations were RnR.


Al
 
Contact Vince Santarelli, he has lots of old ratings data going back decades.

Vince got in touch with me,but he does not have any 50's/60's ratings,anybody else got them ?

Al
 
After a few years of dabbling with top 40, WMCA went full speed ahead on April 1, 1958. WMCA was now free of its baseball commitment with the Giants, who had just moved to San Francisco. WMGM, who had the Brooklyn Dodgers until they left for LA, picked up the Yankees from WINS.

WMCA with a 5 kW signal beat WMGM & WINS, who both had 50 kW signals. As most of us know, WMGM & WINS ended up leaving the top 40 format. WMGM flipped to easy listening WHN in 1962, WINS to all-news in 1965. WMCA was the winner over WABC in the NYC boroughs well past 1965. :)
 
Unfortunately, local radio ratings from the 1950s and early 60s are next to impossible to find - even for the nation's largest market. Arbitron did not begin surveying local radio until 1965, so you must rely on Hooper and Pulse numbers - neither of which would allow their results to be published in local newspapers or trade magazines. In NYC, Hooper and Pulse would publish monthly numbers, with quarterly summaries. These were delivered to subscribing stations in printed pamphlets, which were easy to discard once the newer results arrived - and if those companies did archive their results, the subsequent companies that operated them did not. In nearly two decades of research I've discovered less than three dozen existing Hooper surveys nationwide. Ironically, the earlier Crossley service from the 30s and 40s was archived - and so I have a great deal more information about the ratings in NYC from the 30s and 40s than the 50s and 60s.

Here are a few bits of info that I do have from that era you asked about:
SEPT-OCT 1959 HOOPER
WINS was #1 with a 15.3 share.

MAY-JUN 1962 HOOPER
WINS was #1 with a 16.9 share.
(No other stations available for the above surveys)

JAN-MAR 1964 HOOPER
1. WOR 18.8
2. WMCA 15.9
3. WABC 11.9
4. WNEW 9.8
5. WINS 7.2

MAY 1965 ARBITRON (first survey of the market by Arbitron)
1. WMCA 17.2
2. WOR 16.2
3. WABC 13.9
4. WNEW 12.2
5. WHN 9.4

And - if anyone reading this DOES have any Hooper or Pulse surveys from the 50s or 60s (from any market), please message me!
 
WMCA was amazing back then.

A 5KW station that was at the top (or near the top) of the overall New York ratings and was hands down the #1 contemporary music station in the market at the time. Of course, being way down at 570 certainly helped make it sound like more than 5KW.

I was told that part of the reason was the engineering staff. Reportedly, WMCA board ops were mostly young guys who knew how to keep things tight and sizzling.

WABC had (at the time) too many old-timers who probably went back to the Blue Network days trying to board op rock and roll, so the station didn't "sizzle" the way WMCA did.
 
HHH said:
A 5KW station that was at the top (or near the top) of the overall New York ratings and was hands down the #1 contemporary music station in the market at the time. Of course, being way down at 570 certainly helped make it sound like more than 5KW.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the general truth is that 1 kw at 550 is equal to or better than 50 kw at 1500 (given the same kind of site and conductivity).

So 5 kw on 570 is quite nearly as good as 50 kw on 1010 or 1050, explaining why WMCA would beat WINS and WMGM.

Another factor is that noise levels in the 50's and 60's were much lower, and signals could be heard in places where today they are useless; add in the fact that population was more centralized then and you have the ability to compete very well with that facility.
 
The ratings picture between WMCA & WABC was described at the time like a doughnut. The center of the hole was NYC where WMCA was the clear winner. The rest of the doughnut was the outer suburbs where WABC and its blaster signal was the ratings champ.

The NY metro area population was more centralized during the 50s and 60s. WABC's blowtorch reached the Jersey Shore, deep in to Suffolk County on LI, north to the Hudson Valley and well to the west in NJ. WMCA's signal didn't reach these areas, but not many people lived there either. WMCA did just fine in the close-in suburbs such as Nassau, Lower Westchester and NE New Jersey. :)
 
Huff said:
Unfortunately, local radio ratings from the 1950s and early 60s are next to impossible to find - even for the nation's largest market.
Click to expand...

The sad story is that I used to have a Pulse (IIRC) from 1966 sent to me in a sales package from WOR. It, along with most of my radio memorabilia has long since been lost during a series of moves. What I do recall, and I think this is correct, from a fading memory are the rankings.

Overall
WMCA
WOR
WINS
WABC
WNEW
WPAT

Adults
WOR
WINS
WNEW
WPAT
WMCA
WCBS

I hope that's correct and it was from one survey period in the mid-60's. What I remember is that WOR performed quite well and that WPAT, then beautiful music, was a solid performer since the FM BE/EZ stations were either not rated or the FM penetration hadn't hit a threshold then.

Other snapshots from that Pulse that come to mind are these. WMCA was beating WABC across the board. That may have been due to a smaller survey area, WABC was still saddled with some old-line network programs (The Breakfast Club and a newsblock in the evening) or both. I also recall noticing that WNBC fared poorly in that particular rating book, perhaps because they had not yet made the transition to the talk format and didn't have much of an identity.
 
I remember listening to WMCA, sometimes up here in Poughkeepsie,back in the 60's when WABC had on the “network shows’ or other non-music stuff I did not want to listen to. They came in rather weak, but listenable and amazing, since they only had 5KW.Most of the time we listened to WABC, which had an excellent line up of DJs and came in much clearer. I thought WABC was # 1 forever back then, their promos certainly gave that impression, but you have the facts.
Now with all the noise WMCA is no longer listenable up here, not that I would want to.
 
WMCA was an incredible station. I grew up on Long Island in the 60's and was so fortunate to listen to the greatest radio in the country, and in my opinion, the greatest era for radio. WMCA was my choice, even though I had to listen to big Dan every day. What a choice for a teenager in the afternoon..Jack Spector and Dan Daniel on 57 and Ingram on 77!

In 1964 and early 65 WINS still played music and sounded great. Jack Lacy and Johnny Holliday were very talented air personalities. Jack went back to 1947 with WINS. I really became a huge fan of radio and music at the beginning of 1964,just when the Beatles were invading America.

Just reading this thread reinforced what a wonderful era for New York radio this was. All on AM with some of the greatest personalities of all time.

It's almost 50 years later and I can still remember the DJ line ups. Some things you never forget.
 
benale said:
WMCA was an incredible station. I grew up on Long Island in the 60's and was so fortunate to listen to the greatest radio in the country, and in my opinion, the greatest era for radio. WMCA was my choice, even though I had to listen to big Dan every day. What a choice for a teenager in the afternoon..Jack Spector and Dan Daniel on 57 and Ingram on 77!

In 1964 and early 65 WINS still played music and sounded great. Jack Lacy and Johnny Holliday were very talented air personalities. Jack went back to 1947 with WINS. I really became a huge fan of radio and music at the beginning of 1964,just when the Beatles were invading America.

Just reading this thread reinforced what a wonderful era for New York radio this was. All on AM with some of the greatest personalities of all time.

It's almost 50 years later and I can still remember the DJ line ups. Some things you never forget.
Click to expand...

It was indeed a fantastic time for New York radio! You knew who the DJs were on both WMCA and WABC and the time they were on the air. The most important day of the week was Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, Big Dan released the new WABC survey. On Wednesday, Dandy Dan Daniel counted down the new top 25 on WMCA.

Memories of a long-gone era that I'll never forget! :)
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
So much for the story that WABC-770 had pretty much wiped-out WMCA-570 and WINS-1010 in the ratings by mid-1961!

;)
Click to expand...

Despite its blowtorch signal, WABC was not an instant success. It took WABC nearly a decade to beat WMCA. It was the FM upstarts of the late 60s, particularly the Drake-formatted WOR-FM that helped WABC finally top WMCA. :)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom