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October 2011 Ratings

A

aindik

First full book for WIP-FM. The last full book for WYSP was August. September was a split book.

In August, WIP had a 2.1 and WYSP had a 2.2. In October, WIP-FM has a 3.0 and WIP(AM) has a 0.9. So, the two stations lost a combined 0.4 AQH share 6+ from August to October. Of course, the in-demo numbers are what matters. If they gave up 1.2 in older demos in exchange for 0.8 in younger ones, that could be a big win.

Somewhat surprisingly (to me anyway), WPEN's numbers are way up. Combined AQH share of the AM and FM in October is 2.6, up from 1.6 in September.

WMMR also benefits from the departure of WYSP, up to a 5.2 in October from a 4.3 in August.
 
The Phillies hype benefitted both stations. 97.5 had the playoff games (albeit via ESPN), which I'm sure helped them somewhat. WIP is the Eagles station, and they were newsworthy during the ratings period. My guess is there was quite a bit of button-pushing between both of them. Let's see what happens in the next book, with no baseball talk and WIP running all the Eagles and Flyers play by play. I expect both stations to backtrack a bit, but WIP-FM still holds the edge. Unlike Boston, where there are two FM sports talkers in the Top 10, neither Philly sports station is in the top 15 overall. The market may not be able to support two stations in the format. If these patterns hold, GM may be looking for another format for 97.5 within the next 12 months...unless they can score the Phillies broadcast rights. That would change the game.
 
I agree that it is a bit early to judge the success of WIP-FM against WPEN. Now that the World Series is out of the picutre, we will see the true ratings.
 
The most logical music format in Philly is AC, to compete head on with B-101 and siphon off some of its massive audience. But GM already tried that with 97.5 and it didn't work at all. If they were to try something new, I'm not sure what it would be. The other huge audience to attack is KYW's, but I don't see GM trying that.
 
WPHT's ratings have been much higher, but probably will drop with the end of Phillies baseball for the year. Prior to the Phillies season, WPHT's ratings were down, right below WHYY-FM's. More folks were listening to NPR talk than their old format of Glenn Beck/Rush/Hannity. It will be interesting to see if the live and local (other than Rush) format will give them better ratings without the Phillies, than NPR's WHYY-FM.

WIP-FM and WPEN-FM are growing listeners, granted at the expense of their AM sister station, but that is to be expected, why listen on AM if you can listen on FM. However, there may be those who couldn't get WIP 610 or WPEN 950 very well or not at all at work as is my case, so they've also gained some new listeners who can get both 94.1 and 97.5.
 
There's better ratings, and better return on investment. You can have both, ideally, but you could, depending on the circumstances, still make out better with lower overall numbers.
 
Somebody mentioned AC as a possible competitor to B101. What would be interesting to know is how that worked when Sunny was on, as that i think had a more fair advantage. GM didn't give 97.5 a lot of time before switching it to Hot AC. that was given even les time from what i remember before it switched to WPEN-FM.
 
Thinking about it more, I don't think 97.5 specifically can compete by airing a music format that's a direct competitor to another station in the market. Especially not in a format that makes its money by being on in offices.

When that happens, the station with the inferior signal almost always loses. A signal with holes in it like 97.5 one needs something like sports because it needs to be a destination. It can't be airing the same exact thing as another station that's more easily received.
 
imhomerjay said:
That didn't work so well as WJJZ. ;)
Click to expand...

Quiet music of any type isn't going to work on a signal that's static-ey in a lot of places. They need a car format, not an office format.
 
Rapidly narrowing the options. Has to be a car format, and not duplicitive (or some sort of slight variation on a theme)...and yet viable. That doesn't leave much room. So in this case, being the second player to an existing format may be the best path (the other likely one being FM talk, snapping up the syndicated shows not cleared here).
 
They can be the second player in an existing format, if that format isn't a music format.

Two stations playing the same music format are literally playing the same thing most of the day. Box of records in a different order. If one has a much better signal than the other, that one is going to win.

Two stations playing the same talk format are not literally playing the same thing all day. Different hosts, different content, etc.
 
aindik said:
They can be the second player in an existing format, if that format isn't a music format.

Two stations playing the same music format are literally playing the same thing most of the day. Box of records in a different order. If one has a much better signal than the other, that one is going to win.

Two stations playing the same talk format are not literally playing the same thing all day. Different hosts, different content, etc.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately thats not the case in Philadelphia. The two sports stations are virtual clones, in reality its 4 stations that are being wasted .

The one unique format would be Tony Bruno. Everything else blends into the same stodgy routine, Eagles are the default boredom topic and occassionally you'll get a bonus issue like the current Penn St debacle. Both stations will beat that subject to death for a week or 2. You'll hear 5,000 callers repeat the same
exact sentiment over the next week if you are a glutton for punishment.

Ive been listening to an awful lot of older bootlegged stuff from the net ( Zeppelin,Floyd,neil Young etc etc) .
 
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