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Philadelphia Radio Ratings: December 2014

J

Jul

Guest
The December 2014 survey period covers Thu. November 6 - December 3 - publicly released for subscribing stations age 6+ overall:

Philadelphia: http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb007

Next report will be for the Holiday 2014 survey period covering December 4 - December 31.
Data release date will be Mon. 1/20/15.
 
Looking at those ratings 950 WKDN-AM [Family Radio] and WRFF tied for 10th place with a 4.0 rating. That is unless that is a typo and WKDN only had a 0.4. You can't tell by how its typed and the placement of WKDN there with WRFF and its 4.0 vs being at the bottom of the rankings with the other stations getting 0.4 or less. Apparently Family Radio must buy the Arbitron book since they're listed in the ratings at all or do non-comms get listed for free?].

WKDN does play religious Christmas music vs the Santa/Reindeer/Frosty stuff on the "secular" stations. This more choir/orchestra type of religious Christmas music may appeal to more listeners than one might have thought. I've scanned by there a couple of times and heard music, no preaching when I tuned in, so who knows. If that 12+ number from the PPM's truly is a 4.0 and not a 0.4 that's quite a bump up for them given the other months PPM's previously show N/A, so this may simply be a typo.

Maybe someone who has access to the real numbers can clarify whether or not WKDN-AM had a 4.0 or 0.4 in the 12+ PPM numbers.
 
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MikefromDelaware said:
Looking at those ratings 950 WKDN-AM [Family Radio] and WRFF tied for 10th place with a 4.0 rating. That is unless that is a typo and WKDN only had a 0.4. You can't tell by how its typed and the placement of WKDN there with WRFF and its 4.0 vs being at the bottom of the rankings with the other stations getting 0.4 or less. Apparently Family Radio must buy the Arbitron book since they're listed in the ratings at all or do non-comms get listed for free?].

WKDN does play religious Christmas music vs the Santa/Reindeer/Frosty stuff on the "secular" stations. This more choir/orchestra type of religious Christmas music may appeal to more listeners than one might have thought. I've scanned by there a couple of times and heard music, no preaching when I tuned in, so who knows. If that 12+ number from the PPM's truly is a 4.0 and not a 0.4 that's quite a bump up for them given the other months PPM's previously show N/A, so this may simply be a typo.

Maybe someone who has access to the real numbers can clarify whether or not WKDN-AM had a 4.0 or 0.4 in the 12+ PPM numbers.
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It's .4 (4/10 of one percent) with a cume of 25,500
The surprise is they'd spend money subscribing to Nielsen.
The other surprise is they even get that many listeners are the predicted end of the world didn't happen.

Yes, AM radio is dying. Proof is once fine stations like WFIL and WPEN are filled with brokered preachers conning old ladies out of their life savings.
 
Radiophiler and FredLeonard, thank you. That makes sense. 0.4. I agree Fred it does seem crazy for Family Radio to buy the book to see n/a most months and a 0.4 at Christmas time.

It would be interesting to see what their 12+ numbers were just prior to them selling 106.9 and moving to 950. Did the move to AM kill off some listeners or did most make the transition from FM to AM.
 
WPHT down to a 1.8, gained 600 listeners in cume. Yeah I know that More FM, started playing Christmas music during this period but Either way, time to wave the white flag for this format after 18 years IMO. I wished we had access to the demo numbers for WPHT. That would really tell the story.
 
MikefromDelaware said:
Radiophiler and FredLeonard, thank you. That makes sense. 0.4. I agree Fred it does seem crazy for Family Radio to buy the book to see n/a most months and a 0.4 at Christmas time.

It would be interesting to see what their 12+ numbers were just prior to them selling 106.9 and moving to 950. Did the move to AM kill off some listeners or did most make the transition from FM to AM.
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Well, right-wing talk numbers really fell off with the shows moving to FM and then back to AM

And Family Radio was off in the market for almost six months. I wouldn't be surprised if they lost listeners to other brokered religion stations, especially WFIL.
 
Re the 0.4 WKDN showing :

A poster to another forum (Rick or Rich) mentioned that he noted an AM religious station from the Carolinas showing up in this latest Philly Book.

Evidently, a few people went 'Whooops!' and went back to rectify all the confusion.
Or some of it, at any rate.
 
B101 on top in the money demos?
Check Accuweather to see if hell is freezing over.
 
FredLeonard said:
Well, right-wing talk numbers really fell off with the shows moving to FM and then back to AM

And Family Radio was off in the market for almost six months. I wouldn't be surprised if they lost listeners to other brokered religion stations, especially WFIL.
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Possibly both AM religious stations: 560 WFIL and 740 WVCH [Chester]. I can get both clearly with solid signals, during the day, in the car in Wilmington, so I'm assuming 740 would be heard well in Philly as well. Both WFIL and WVCH would appeal to a similar type of Christian music listener as Family Radio.
 
Maybe you've noticed that some people here think it's "racist" to discuss religious stations - or apparently anything other than "urban" music radio.

Other religious stations are available in parts of the region, plus any number of Internet religious stations, plus (of course) all the religious channels on cable. People who want preaching have no shortage of options.

Add to that, people who stopped listening to "Family Radio" when they sold off 106.9 may have no idea that they are back on 950 AM. The company is not spending on promotion and with digital tuners it's not likely people will stumble on a station as they could in the days of slide-rule tuners (from back when people used actual slide rulers).

Besides, when the world didn't end as they advertised, it probably didn't help the company's credibility any.

In any case, the REAL big story on Action News is NOT some obscure hip-hop station at the end of the dial - which moved into the market and bumped an educational and a classical station to do it - but the significant jump at The B during Xmas music season. Apparently what Bing Crosby and egg nog have in common is that people only want them once a year (a category that previously also included Burt Parks and Jerry Lewis).

Otherwise, the fact that these beauty contest numbers fluctuate with no apparent reason (i.e., KYW but no snowfalls) and said fluctuations are beyond what can be accounted for by statistical error shows - yet again - that these numbers are unreliable and Nielsen carries on Arbitron's tradition of POS research.
 
FredLeonard said:
In any case, the REAL big story on Action News is NOT some obscure hip-hop station at the end of the dial - which moved into the market and bumped an educational and a classical station to do it - but the significant jump at The B during Xmas music season. Apparently what Bing Crosby and egg nog have in common is that people only want them once a year (a category that previously also included Burt Parks and Jerry Lewis).
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There is nothing unusual about WBEB going up at Christmas. It does that to about the same degree every year.

"The end of the dial" is a negative for AM... upper end of the dial stations covered vastly less than lower end stations. But on FM, one end of the dial is just as good as the other. And a station that changes format and debuts around a 4 share in a top 10 market is very big news.

Otherwise, the fact that these beauty contest numbers fluctuate with no apparent reason (i.e., KYW but no snowfalls) and said fluctuations are beyond what can be accounted for by statistical error shows - yet again - that these numbers are unreliable and Nielsen carries on Arbitron's tradition of POS research.
Click to expand...

There are more reasons for a news station fluctuating than weather reports. With the down-trend in ratings, KYW may have made internal changes in areas that are not immediately perceptible that could have enormous effect on TSL and listening incidents. Or there just may have been more interest in news than usual...

It's funny that you disagree with ratings and call them pieces of ****, while every significant ad agency in America uses them on behalf of their clients and are, essentially, staking their reputation on them.
 
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A class A FM in a big market that debuts a new format with a 4 share is big news, agreed.

What does it mean? I'm not familiar enough with classic hip-hop to know, but it does beg some questions. This format has arrived in a number of markets, including, I believe, three stations in Atlanta. Other formats, and jammin' oldies and active rock (in the northeast) come to mind, started off strong and could not maintain. Does classic hip-hop have enough music with popular appeal that stations can avoid too-short playlists without digging into deep tracks that alienate all but the avid fan? Is personality important, or is this all music? Is there a parallel to WRFF here, a station that annoys the avid fan, has minimal personality, but pays the bills year after year? Is the key to continued success with 107.9 to keep operating costs down and at the same time avoid listener fatigue?
 
DavidEduardo said:

It's funny that you disagree with ratings and call them pieces of ****, while every significant ad agency in America uses them on behalf of their clients and are, essentially, staking their reputation on them.
Click to expand...

Ah, once again, you spout the industry line. First off, I don't disagree with "ratings." I think the "beauty contest" numbers being discussed here are worse than meaningless. And, secondly, I say Arbitron/Nielsen numbers are unreliable and invalid - they are bad research using highly flawed methodology. To the extent ad buyers use them it's because there's nothing else. And the fact that there is nothing else is a big part of why major advertisers have abandoned radio.

But keep telling us how well radio is doing, and how AM is thriving and how good Nielsen's audience data are. You'll score points with potential clients, if any read this board. I can't think of any industry as self-deluded as broadcasting.
 
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