Philadelphia Radio Ratings: July 2014

[pjc1961]

July 2014 Survey period covering Thu. 6/19/14-Wed. 7/16/14 - publicly released for subscribing stations age 6+ overall:

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

Next report will be for the August 2014 survey period covering Thu. 7/17/14-Wed. 8/13/14.
Data release date will be Tue. 9/2/14 (delayed one day due to Labor Day).

 

[radiophiler]

XTU is 0.2 from being the top station in town 12+. I wonder if this could result in a country format competitor. Boston now has two country FMs, and rumor has it Pittsburgh is about to get a second one. The question is: Who would flip in Philly?

Sports 97.5? It's the lowest 12+ rating of any in-market commercial FM. And it's an expensive format to produce. Or, would the play by play contracts Greater Media has prevent this from happening? Another option: flip Ben-FM. Roll the dice that a country station might do somewhat better in the ratings (and therefore revenue) than Ben. But Ben has had a ratings rejuvenation recently since it refocussed on 80s and 90s music. So that might not be in the cards either.

My other thought: Would CC flip Mix 106.1? The pop category in Philly looks pretty crowded right now, with most all the players (Except More 101 ... which is down 12+) not hitting the top of the ratings. Flipping 106.1 to country might also benefit Q102 and maybe even 104.5 a little bit because of some of the playlist overlap.

Could this set up a race between CC and Greater Media a la Jammin Oldies? Word was that Greater Media heard CC was going to flip a Philly FM to Jammin Oldies and beat them to it by flipping Max 95.7 to Jammin Oldies. We all know how that turned out. Country is a different situation than Jammin Oldies ... but I wonder if Greater Media feels snakebit by that experience.

Thoughts?

 

[davideduardo]

The question is: Who would flip in Philly?

Follow the money, not the ratings.

The lowest billing full signal FM is WRFF, with less than 20% of the billing level of any of the top 5 bilers in Philadelphia (KYW, WBEB, WMMR, EDAS and WOGL).

Also down at that level are WRNB and WRDW.

WXTU looks like a less enviable target in that it does not bill as much as the market leaders mentioned above. If you fragment a billings underperformer, you get two stations that lose money.

 

[radiophiler]

How about expenses for these stations? 104.5 might be at the bottom of the revenue pile, but it appears to be cheaper to run: Few DJs, little promotion (you never see a billboard, but you do for other CC FMs).
Just for discussion purposes: wouldn't the real measure be revenue minus expenses? KYW is one of the more expensive stations to run. WMMR is surely paying its morning team handsomely and has DJs 24/7 ... and most of them are market veterans. Similar situation for WOGL.

But I get what you're saying about WXTU. The 12+ looks handsome enough, but the revenue doesn't completely reflect that ... at least not yet (we don't know yet what this year's total revenue numbers will be).

And I still think the pop and rhythmic categories are currently over-represented in Philly as far as number of signals goes, especially now that AC and Hot AC have moved their playlists much closer to CHR than they were 5 years ago. More current and recurrents now on AC and Hot AC.

 

[wprt949]

Prediction CC flips 106.1 to country before Labor day weekend 2014

 

[davideduardo]

Prediction CC flips 106.1 to country before Labor day weekend 2014

That's the 10th highest biller in the market, with 2 1/2 times the revenue of co-owned WRFF.

 

[wprt949]

oh okay My bad

 

[Jul]

prediction: 1210 AM WPHT will flip next month or before the year is over to sports or KYW moving to 1210 AM. the talk format will end soon, I hope.

 

[TheBigA]

prediction: 1210 AM WPHT will flip next month or before the year is over to sports or KYW moving to 1210 AM. the talk format will end soon, I hope.

My prediction is that you won't stop posting on this subject. I bet mine comes true.

 

[benale]

WPHT will stay talk. WIP runs CBS Sports, so why would CBS put sports on 1210? 1060 has been all news for almost 50 years. Branding is too strong. WPHT is no better or worse than most talk stations in the country. Actually, with a 6 plus share in the mid two's they are in better shape than similar formatted stations in New York,Boston,Miami and San Francisco.

 

[Jul]

WPHT will stay talk. WIP runs CBS Sports, so why would CBS put sports on 1210? 1060 has been all news for almost 50 years. Branding is too strong. WPHT is no better or worse than most talk stations in the country. Actually, with a 6 plus share in the mid two's they are in better shape than similar formatted stations in New York,Boston,Miami and San Francisco.

if that's the case, they need to make major changes, if they want to get to the 3's in the ratings.

 

[chrocket87]

prediction: 1210 AM WPHT will flip next month or before the year is over to sports or KYW moving to 1210 AM. the talk format will end soon, I hope.

How much are you willing to bet on this? I like my odds of betting against this.

 

[FredLeonard]

WPHT will stay talk. WIP runs CBS Sports, so why would CBS put sports on 1210? 1060 has been all news for almost 50 years. Branding is too strong. WPHT is no better or worse than most talk stations in the country. Actually, with a 6 plus share in the mid two's they are in better shape than similar formatted stations in New York,Boston,Miami and San Francisco.

No flip for 1210 (or similar stations elsewhere). Right-wing talk is like an old clunker. It's much more economical to drive it into the ground than to get a new (or even newer) car. Despite problems and repair bills or poor gas mileage.

The local hosts aren't helping. At some point, they will have to go (or not be renewed). Expect the same at 1150 in Wilmington.