October Nielsens

[ckg279]

Per AllAccess and Radio-Online. 12+ only.

Top 5 stations first....

1. WBLK 8.7(down .5)
2. WYRK 8.0(down .2)
3. WGRF 7.6(up .5)
4. WBEN 6.9(up .8)
5. WHTT 5.8(up .7)

Other notes:

-WGR got a boost from the Bills season as well as the start of the Sabres season, seeing it rise to a 5.5(nearly a 1 point gain).
-WECK pulled a 3.3 in this book(down .4) but it did beat out WEDG(which had a 3.0).
-WLKK(The Wolf)stays at 1.3 .
-WBUF drops to a 2.2 .

Additional analysis and takes welcome.

 

[SirRoxalot]

The Breeze beat Star for a second straight book in the 12+. It would be interesting to see the demos. That alone seems like a significant shift to me. With both going all-Christmas it will be interesting to see if that give either one an advantage.

Outside the top 5, most movement was less than half a share - well within the margin of error.

 

[tbolt909]

WBUF and The Wolf are the two "Newest" formats. The puny ratings indicate that very people care about that vapid content.

Will Buddy will be dropping by to talk about "Weighting"? WECK slips back a bit. Maybe The Big WECK isn't as buoyant...

 

[SirRoxalot]

WBUF has been around long enough now that it's likely found its audience. It doesn't seem to be impacting 97-Rock and its audience. It's still way too early to say the same of The Wolf. If they're still under a 2 six books from now then they haven't had the effect they hoped for. Meanwhile, WYRK continues to trend downward. That can't be good news for TSM.

WECK's numbers have been in the same ballpark for quite a while. "The Big WECK" hasn't even been marketed long enough to affect this book. Less than half a share is statistically insignificant considering the sample size used by Nielsen in this market. About all you can discern from this book is a general trend over time.

 

[Buddy Shula]

WBUF and The Wolf are the two "Newest" formats. The puny ratings indicate that very people care about that vapid content.

Will Buddy will be dropping by to talk about "Weighting"? WECK slips back a bit. Maybe The Big WECK isn't as buoyant...

This book reflects 1 week of The Big WECK.........Focus on the fact that a 1KW is in the top 10 in Buffalo

 

[Buddy Shula]

WBUF has been around long enough now that it's likely found its audience. It doesn't seem to be impacting 97-Rock and its audience. It's still way too early to say the same of The Wolf. If they're still under a 2 six books from now then they haven't had the effect they hoped for. Meanwhile, WYRK continues to trend downward. That can't be good news for TSM.

WECK's numbers have been in the same ballpark for quite a while. "The Big WECK" hasn't even been marketed long enough to affect this book. Less than half a share is statistically insignificant considering the sample size used by Nielsen in this market. About all you can discern from this book is a general trend over time.

Like I said, Wolf with not be significant in ratings ever, however, the revenue will go up, which is what counts.

Nobody in Buffalo was looking for another country radio station to play the essential basic playlist as the heritage Country station .
Also, there are plenty of syndicated very good morning shows for country, that are better than a live person on air in the morning. Country listeners are VERY loyal. They are not going to listen to Liz, just because she used to be on the YRK morning show. It's not entertaining at all, and the music is essentially the same.

They will make more revenue (not as much as i could) , but the ratings will never do well ( which I would do better as well if I owned LKK)

 

[Buddy Shula]

WBUF and The Wolf are the two "Newest" formats. The puny ratings indicate that very people care about that vapid content.

Will Buddy will be dropping by to talk about "Weighting"? WECK slips back a bit. Maybe The Big WECK isn't as buoyant...

Also, just FYI, WECK gets hurt by weighting and where the diaries fall. There are several areas, including many in Niagara County that WECK (Mainly the FM's) do not reach. WECK absolutely gets hurt by weighting.

We are in the top 10 and we hardly reach an entire metro county! If we reached that county , like everyone else does, the story would be even more different.

I am happy to lead and own the #1 Oldies station in America (Nielsen Oct 2021) AQH Share 12 + Oldies Format

 

[ckg279]

To post #6: The rest of The Wolf's lineup is from out of town(from Audacy's stations in Chicago and Detroit mostly).

 

[tbolt909]

WBUF has been around long enough now that it's likely found its audience. It doesn't seem to be impacting 97-Rock and its audience. It's still way too early to say the same of The Wolf. If they're still under a 2 six books from now then they haven't had the effect they hoped for. Meanwhile, WYRK continues to trend downward. That can't be good news for TSM.

WBUF has found its audience? You set the bar really low. Great signal and it's a 2 share format. They hired the former Alternative Buffalo PD. He never delivered ratings there either and he's an atrocious announcer.

WYRK is still near the top of the heap. I guess it's possible they could slide below a 6 share. It's a race to the bottom after all...

 

[davideduardo]

WECK absolutely gets hurt by weighting.

No, it does not. Weighting restores proportionality to a methodology where those over 55 tend to "overperfrom" in participation.

Un-weighted groups that return too many or too few diaries give a distorted view of the real behavior in the market.

When a group returns more than a proportional share of diaries, then each one is "valued down" so that the sum of the diaries in that group (age, gender, ethnicity, income, etc) is weighted in exact proportion to its share of the market.

Example. Your market is 50% male and 50% female. But 60% of the returned diaries are from women. If the diaries are tabulated "raw" then a station that is strong in women will look even more powerful. But we weigh up the men by 25% and weigh down the women proportionally; the result is that women and men both reflect half the people in the market.

 

[CassChopper96]

You think audacy flips Star 102.5 after Christmas??

 

[SirRoxalot]

You think audacy flips Star 102.5 after Christmas??

To what? They still have strong female numbers. They cover 12 hours a day with two people - one the long-time morning show and the other the long-time PM drive show & PD. You can't run much cheaper than that and still be competitive in this market.

 

[Majic rockstar]

I could see them doing what they did to their Star station in Atlanta

 

[CassChopper96]

I could see them doing what they did to their Star station in Atlanta

Buffalo isn't atlanta demographiclly

 

[ckg279]

I could see them doing what they did to their Star station in Atlanta

I can't. Even though neither station makes much noise in the ratings, they'd be going up against WUFO(which has a heritage name but not much else as a urban AC/classic hip hop station)and WBBF's 98.9 translator(which ALSO does classic hip hop, but off the bird, as 98.9 the Vibe). WTSS has been Star since 2000 or so.

 

[Radio-Bored-Op]

Like I said, Wolf with not be significant in ratings ever, however, the revenue will go up, which is what counts.

Nobody in Buffalo was looking for another country radio station to play the essential basic playlist as the heritage Country station .
Also, there are plenty of syndicated very good morning shows for country, that are better than a live person on air in the morning. Country listeners are VERY loyal. They are not going to listen to Liz, just because she used to be on the YRK morning show. It's not entertaining at all, and the music is essentially the same.

They will make more revenue (not as much as i could) , but the ratings will never do well ( which I would do better as well if I owned LKK)

That's funny because when talking about the sell-off and cut your losses ( Entercom / Audicy) you were the first to chime in and say,
people weren not talking about a standing alone FM station. It is NOT for sale....
so how do you suppose mr bs, buddy Shula gets his hands on this station.

?
( oh, I have a theory if interested )
lol

 

[Majic rockstar]

Again I could see them doing what they did to Star in Atlanta. Why, Cuase they are running up against themselves with both Star and kiss. Star in Atlanta is a unique hybrid station that IS NOT a typical urban rhythmic station. Star could follow their lead but Taylor the station more to Buffalo with how they want to lean the station. And yes I know 102.5 has been Star for 20 years but still to this day the a lot of 35 and up still refer to the station as Majic 102, it’s makes me laugh that a station that only lasted 4-5 years made that much of a mark on its listeners that even 20 years still can’t wash away peoples memories. And when the station was Majic they were playing a lot of the music that would go into the shift in music. BTW This would not be a classic hip hop station either but would definetly incorporate some of it.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Unless you have access to the demographics you'll never know if it makes sense for Star to change formats. The 12+ numbers don't tell the story in 25-54 women - their bread and butter. It would make more sense to tilt Kiss a little more urban than Star if you think that would expand the audience. As it is now, the stations reinforce each other and make a pretty package for advertisers looking for female numbers.

 

[four4rock]

Like I said, Wolf with not be significant in ratings ever, however, the revenue will go up, which is what counts.

Nobody in Buffalo was looking for another country radio station to play the essential basic playlist as the heritage Country station .
Also, there are plenty of syndicated very good morning shows for country, that are better than a live person on air in the morning. Country listeners are VERY loyal. They are not going to listen to Liz, just because she used to be on the YRK morning show. It's not entertaining at all, and the music is essentially the same.

They will make more revenue (not as much as i could) , but the ratings will never do well ( which I would do better as well if I owned LKK)

Agreed that "Wolf" is seeking revenue - as it should. Rating should be a "nice to have".

While I suspect there wasn;t a grand cry for a new so-called modern country station, I think it is an option nobody knew they wanted. but, yeah, the playlist copy/paste deal is disappointing. They get high marks, however, for an apparent focus on music. WYRK has become sooooo commercial heavy it has gotten annoying to the point of literal "turn off". As you say, there is a lot of loyalty... and that's where Mantel comes in. She had/has a pretty strong following in Bflo. She's not really my cup of tea, but she's better than the "& Company" part of WYRK's offering. Frankly, even Moden has turned some folks off. [I'm not sure if his evolution came from is superiors, or if he has simply changed, but, he's not the "kid" he's trying to portray. It's a bad look, IMO. And surely harder to listen to.]

I do believe that there would be greater revenue potential were the playlist to be moderately tweaked. But, then again, I don't know what the overall strategy may be.

 

[TheBigA]

While I suspect there wasn;t a grand cry for a new so-called modern country station, I think it is an option nobody knew they wanted. but, yeah, the playlist copy/paste deal is disappointing.

That's an incorrect characterization. Just because they're both currents-based country stations doesn't mean their playlists are the same. This is what competition looks like. I guess it's been a long time since Buffalo has had two stations in the same format, but it was once a common thing. There was a time when a city would have two Top 40 stations or two MOR stations. Since consolidation, it doesn't happen as often. But country is a format where you see active competition in a lot of markets.