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Philadelphia Arbitron Radio Ratings: May 2012

This is a serious question. When was the last time WOGL ranked 1st in Philly? I honestly don't remember that ever happening.
 
Fakeem said:
This is a serious question. When was the last time WOGL ranked 1st in Philly? I honestly don't remember that ever happening.
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It's been rare when anything other than B-101 or KYW came in on top. I was shocked, too.

Hopefully this will put to rest any rumors that they were going to blow up WOGL for KYW-FM.
 
I don't believe WOGL was #1 overall anytime before in it's almost 25 years. This has been a battle between KYW, 101 & sometimes WDAS-FM for many years, & for many years before it was a battle for #2 because KYW always came out on top. Not sure what this says - that WOGL captures the 'older' audience as the pie is divided for younger listeners over numerous other FMs, that their (our, me included) demo still listens to local radio while younger people are listening to ipods & streaming music, or just a temporary shift this book? People here used to argue over their music selection - I have to say the few times I put it on weekdays for a few minutes in the car they play a good mix of songs, but it would be very repetative if you listened all day every day. The mix really leans more toward classic hits these days rather than the 'Motown, Soul & Rock & Roll' it played for years. (Still too much disco for my taste, but apparently the mix works.)

Also interesting, no numbers for WNTP, I know Salem doesn't seem to care about ratings but interesting that tiny WBYO-FM in Sellersville, which reaches only a small part of Bucks & Montgomery counties, has better numbers with the Contemporary Christian format once on 990.
 
John1 said:
Also interesting, no numbers for WNTP
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Arbitron only recently stopped publishing the ratings of stations who don't buy the ratings. Maybe Salem doesn't buy the Philly book.
 
KYW share was back up a bit, but cume still below 1 million.

Next highest cume station on AM is WPHT with 543,000 (which is up substantially). (Radio-info's sorting on the ratings charts continue to be brain dead, continuing to act like 500,000 is higher than 1,000,000 because it starts with a 5).

I think whatever part of KYW's cume that was made up of WIP listeners tuning over during commercials breaks is gone now with WIP's move to FM.

From my brief listening to Phillies games on WPHT, I've never heard a mention that the games are now also on WIP-FM. It sounds like the two stations are just two separate affiliates of the Phillies Radio network, rather than members of the same local cluster in the same market. Perhaps this is on purpose?

I do like that the simulcast exists, because selfishly I like having one station air the game live (for use at the ballpark) and another on a delay (for use at home in conjunction with a TV). But that's my own selfishness as a listener. I don't know that it's good business.
 
I also am still listening to the Phils on AM.

The WOGL surge is interesting. WCBS-FM in NYC is going strong also. Of course they hit number one in the early 90's, something 98.1 never did.
 
WBEB is getting too hot. I know that's the trend of AC radio, but I think it shows there's still a market for 60s and 70s music, most of which WBEB has totally eliminated. I think that's why WOGL is becoming so wildly successful. It's the only Philadelphia music station I can stand listening to for more than 5 minutes.
 
Maybe Salem doesn't buy the Philly book.
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I don't think Salem buys Arbitron numbers for most, if not all, of its major market talk stations. Unfortunately, the ratings seem equally abysmal across the board, and would probably be tough to competitively sell with in most places anyway.

Salem does buy ratings in markets where it has successful FM music stations, but I wonder if they ever bought ratings books for the mostly directional AMs, like WNTP, that they converted to their own political talk when the market for block time religious programming started to move from radio to satellite and cable TV.

It is hard to believe that once market leading stations like WFIL and WIBG, now have so few people who even tune in once a week.

Still, with so many other broadcasters going bankrupt, Salem, as a company, continues to post profits, and even offer investors a dividend, so you have to assume that they know what they are doing and making the best of a challenging situation.
 
perfidia08 said:
Could WOGL's surge have anything to do with the occasional sports overflow they carried (Flyers/Sixers)?
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WOGL didn't air any sports overflow in May. WOGL had about 2 Sixers games, and they were both in April. I think WPEN's ratings got a little higher from the Sixers playoff run.
 
Hopefully not too far O/T here, but vis-a-vis Ari's and Time's comments about Salem :

In the NYC book, Thunder Country WKMK from New Jersey shows up with a miniscule figure, something like 0.3 in the NYC Metro. How much is it costing them to finish that officially low?
Meanwhile, bigger stations (more listeners) from Long Island, such as WBLI and WALK, obviously don't think it's worth it to purchase the NYC results.

Up this way (near Hazleton), Cumulus owns a few stations in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre book. That collection often had their Magic 93 at or near the top for decades, plus some others from the stable. But Cumulus obviously does not buy the book for that market. None of their stations showed in the latest book.

Same deal in Allentown. Last available survey, their country WCTO had an 11 share. Cumulus does not subscribe to the Allentown book, either. Only six stations -- two owners -- do show. Nassau and Clear Channel.

The Cumulus people obviously elected to save a few bucks, at least for now, for two markets in which they own quite a few properties. But what's up with Press gleefully sending their donation into Arbitron to show as the #33 station?
 
But what's up with Press gleefully sending their donation into Arbitron to show as the #33 station?
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I'm only guessing from looking at the ratings lists, but it appears that Arbitron is including some local stations in the major market PPMs if they buy their own embedded diary surveys within that major market.

For example, in the Philly PPMs, Nassau's WPST in Trenton is again included as is Townsquare's WKXW, Trenton, but the Lehigh Valley stations like WODE, and WLEV are not. WPST and WKXW both have a substantial cume in Philly and pay for diary surveys in their adjacent home market of Trenton, and WKXW, apparently also pays to be in the Middlesex-Somerset-Union PPM breakout.

In the New York PPMs, stations again in the metro listings include local stations owned by Press, Greater Media, Townsquare, in New Jersey, and Pamal in the Hudson Valley. Greater Media pays for its own embedded diary in Morristown, and an embedded PPM in Middlesex-Somerset-Union along with Townsquare. Townsquare and Press also pay for partially embedded diary surveys at the Monmouth-Ocean Jersey Shore.

So, the bottom line, probably, is that these stations are all good paying customers for Arbitron, and since they PPM encode, listing their numbers in the metro beauty contests isn't hurting anything for Arbitron, and keeping its clients a touch happier seeing how well they are doing against the big fish in the bigger pond, even though they only pay for full numbers in their smaller pond, which is the only place they can sell spots, anyway. WKMK is of special interest anyway since it is the only Country Music station heard in much of the New York market.
 
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