Philadelphia Radio Ratings: May 2016

[davideduardo]

@ David .... got a question I asked on another forum about Alternative:

That .3 power rating is something I find puzzling. Aren't younger listeners what FM in particular (radio in general) want and need ? Doesn't the mantra 'the younger the demo the more receptive it is' matter here?

Why is almost a decade of listeners, solid, considered so undesirable?

The same thing that happens to WRFF also happens to the relatively new alternative station in Atlanta. Fairly decent numbers, poor power ratio.

I think the issue is related to the "environment" and advertiser perception that the format does not attract quality consumers. Thus the plethora of bail bonds and pawn shop advertising on some of them.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm aware of the history. I understand they have 19 class A's. Even at the beginning, they had one FM and one AM. Now it's 19 out of 800 and change. "Clear channel" is meaningless to most people and doesn't represent the scope of their business. It's just meaningless bragging by two J.R. Ewing types. Not that naming a radio company after a New York tourism bumper sticker or a cloud formation makes more sense - or less.

It makes just as much sense as naming a computer after a fruit.

 

[Radiolover971]

Can anyone give me Mega and El Zol ratings thanks

 

[Oscar Madison]

Neither station subscribes.

 

[pab]

Speaking of WRFF (and because it was brought up as an example of the "success" that a similar station might have in NYC), it is #4 in 18-24 and 8th in 12-17. It is 3rd in 18-34, and 2nd in 18-49 and 25-49. In fact, it is 2nd in 35-44.

I don't see any overlapping format. There are two urban variants, an AC and a CHR. None of those formats is among the high sharers with alternative.

It bills less than half of the billing of its second lowest billing FM. I can not imagine how they would be happy with that.

Maybe it's billing less than half, but what does it cost to run? What would it cost to blow it up to build a new #2 in any format? Could it be profitable enough not to fool with?

I was referring to demographic sharing. The others focus on younger listeners as well. (Well, except for the AC).

And as for proof that a format would work in New York, I will tell anyone saying that the same thing I always do: go write 200 times "New York is not Philadelphia, Philadelphia is not New York." Philadelphia is more of a rock town than a pop/dance town. It is very much less a country town than just about any other format. Every market is completely different and you cannot use success in one market to predict success in any other market. Remember that.

 

[Gregg.]

>>> WRFF... is #4 in 18-24. It is 3rd in 18-34, and 2nd in 18-49 and 25-49. In fact, it is 2nd in 35-44. <<<

Geez, what more does a station have to do to please advertisers? #2 18-49! #3 18-34! I'm sure among male demos, it scores even better. "Well, it's great that you're #2 in the 18-49 demo. But you don't have enough Ph.D. candidates in that group." Haven't advertisers who want young men been buying time on all manner of Rock stations over the years, playing AC/DC and Ozzy Osborne? Alternative may not be my cup of tea, but I think the class of listeners it attracts is still a good cross section of young men.

Howard Stern once said that Infinity CEO Mel Karmazin had no problems with how his show was perceived by the advertising community. Mel said, "You get me the ratings, I'll figure a way how to sell them."

 

[Tylerbreeze]

The answer is simple, because some people have a hot nut against any type of Active, Classic, Hard or Alternative Rock formats, no matter how they perform and bill its always the same line, Rock is dead, this is not a rock town, yadda yadda yadda. But, any type of Urban format, Hip Hop, Rap, Soul or whatever can earn a 1.0 and the same people will say its OK, they are billing great. What we need is yet another urban format to compete, saturate the dial with nothing but urban formats, no body listens to anything else. That is the deal plain and simple in a nut shell, if a city has nothing but urban formats that is what the young people think is the only type music out there, nothing else is happening, so they embrace it. If you feed a cat the same food over and over and give them something else they don't know what it is or what to do with it, its foreign...same instance.

 

[davideduardo]

The answer is simple, because some people have a hot nut against any type of Active, Classic, Hard or Alternative Rock formats, no matter how they perform and bill its always the same line, Rock is dead, this is not a rock town, yadda yadda yadda. But, any type of Urban format, Hip Hop, Rap, Soul or whatever can earn a 1.0 and the same people will say its OK, they are billing great. What we need is yet another urban format to compete, saturate the dial with nothing but urban formats, no body listens to anything else. That is the deal plain and simple in a nut shell, if a city has nothing but urban formats that is what the young people think is the only type music out there, nothing else is happening, so they embrace it. If you feed a cat the same food over and over and give them something else they don't know what it is or what to do with it, its foreign...same instance.

That is just totally whack.

It might have applied in the late 50's when there were MOR, R&B and Top 40 formats to pick from, but it does not apply today when you can get any format or musical genre from Alternative to Zydeco somewhere on the Internet.

Terrestrial radio stations are limited by the fact that they must not only appeal to a relatively large audience segment but also have to deliver an audience that advertisers want to buy.

The issue with WRFF is that it is the lowest-billing full-coverage FM in the market. It is beaten in revenue by more limited signal FMs such as WPHI, WRNB and WPHI because those stations either appeal to a strong and salable niche audience or they have formats more favored by advertisers.

The MSA is 21% African American, and out of 18 FM stations that are home to the market, 5 are specifically targeted at predominantly African American audiences. Of those 5, WRNB, WPHI and WUSL have significant listenership by non-African American audiences. Of course, three of those stations, WPPZ, WRNB and WPHI have more limited signals, ranging from covering less than a third of the market (WPPZ) to about 75% of it (WRNB) with a usable all-location signal.

The five signals that fall under your criticism that seems to reduce itself to "there are too many black targeted stations" have shares ranging from an average of 1.6 (WPPZ) to 5.2 (WDAS). And if you weight the lower performers against coverage, none has less than a 3 share of its coverage area. Since there are a total of 76 AM and FM stations (not counting translators) licensed to the metro, that performance by the 5 that fall into your description is outstanding. If any of those formats did not exist, someone would jump in and cover it because it makes economic sense.

On the other hand, when the newer member of the local rock spectrum can't bill any more than 30% of the apparent value of each share point even as a member of a rather successful cluster, it likely means that there is advertiser resistance to what I would refer to as the "environment".

As an out-of-market comparison, look at the same company's commitment to alternative in Atlanta, where WRDA is also getting a shabby 0.3 power ratio. Or Denver, where KTCL (after 8 years in format with a usable signal) also has a 0.33 power ratio. If iHeart did not think that the format had potential, they would not have continued those formats for so long. And iHeart has at least 20 stations that they classify as "alternative". Some, like the one in LA or the one in Pittsburgh do quite well on revenue conversion... but they are not in the rather different Northeast Corridor... and that is a subject for discussion of its own.

But on the other hand, if an operator in NYC believes a 0.3 power ratio

 

[davideduardo]

Alternative may not be my cup of tea, but I think the class of listeners it attracts is still a good cross section of young men.

Increasingly, advertisers are looking at sports to reach the same 25-44 male demos that alternative most appeals to. And sports stations have the advantage of efficiency in that they do not waste ad dollars reaching women. The presence a high billing sports station in WIP (more than triple the billing of WRFF) and a secondary sports station in WPEN (nearly double the WRFF billings) may mean less younger male dollars left over for the music station.

That would be a situation that is paralleled in NYC, with huge biller WFAN and mid-ranger WEPN taking male dollars. Not a good environment for a 25-44 focused alternative format.

 

[Oscar Madison]

One factor not mentioned: The alternative audience is shared with 'XPN.

 

[Jul]

Future of the low rated commercial radio stations in town

What does the future hold for the low rated commercial stations like WZMP 96.5 FM and WPHT 1210 AM for example in light of the May ratings. Will we see some major changes soon?

 

[davideduardo]

What does the future hold for the low rated commercial stations like WZMP 96.5 FM and WPHT 1210 AM for example in light of the May ratings. Will we see some major changes soon?

The issue is not totally ratings based. The real decision is based on revenue.

WZMP bills about 40% less than WRFF, a much higher rated station... so the station may be considered to be an adequate financial performer.

The AM, as long as it is profitable, has no choice in formats. There is nothing else it can do, format wise, so the only eventual option would be to sell it but that's not the immediate issue.

 

[Jul]

The AM, as long as it is profitable, has no choice in formats. There is nothing else it can do, format wise, so the only eventual option would be to sell it but that's not the immediate issue.

1210 AM is truly Between a Rock and a Hard Place, given that is on AM where the audience is small and some instances, non-existent and most people listen to FM these days. If CBS were to sell 1210 AM, who would buy it?

 

[davideduardo]

One factor not mentioned: The alternative audience is shared with 'XPN.

If you take the WRFF cume to be the "alternative" market, there is more than one shared format and station.

Using the leading music-based alternative station in Los Angeles, KYSR, we find that the station it shares with the most is a CHR, which shares nearly half of the cume, then the second Alt station comes in, followed by these formats that share from 45% down to 25% of the KYSR cume: Hot AC, Adult Hits, AC, Rhythmic CHR, Classic Hits, Album Rock, Classic Rock, another rhythmic CHR and an urban station.

 

[davideduardo]

1210 AM is truly Between a Rock and a Hard Place, given that is on AM where the audience is small and some instances, non-existent and most people listen to FM these days. If CBS were to sell 1210 AM, who would buy it?

As long as it makes money, they are not going to sell it. The capital gains aspect of selling what was the first CBS o&o station make that a no-win situation.

 

[Tylerbreeze]

If you take the WRFF cume to be the "alternative" market, there is more than one shared format and station.

Using the leading music-based alternative station in Los Angeles, KYSR, we find that the station it shares with the most is a CHR, which shares nearly half of the cume, then the second Alt station comes in, followed by these formats that share from 45% down to 25% of the KYSR cume: Hot AC, Adult Hits, AC, Rhythmic CHR, Classic Hits, Album Rock, Classic Rock, another rhythmic CHR and an urban station.

Enough already, we get it, you think Alternative is a dead, non money making format and WRFF is a thorn in I Hearts side, even though they rate fantastic. Maybe they should flip back to Spanish with a 0.3 rating, that should make your day.

 

[davideduardo]

Enough already, we get it, you think Alternative is a dead, non money making format and WRFF is a thorn in I Hearts side, even though they rate fantastic. Maybe they should flip back to Spanish with a 0.3 rating, that should make your day.

Where in my post does it say "alternative is dead"?

To the contrary, WRFF was used to show that ratings and revenues do not always go hand in hand in a discussion about two CBS stations that have lower ratings but higher billing than WRFF.

Alternative is a high billing format in many markets such as LA, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, etc. But in many more markets, it underperforms with power ratios below 1.0. In other words, it is easier to get ratings than the commensurate share of revenue. That is not something "I think" but simple facts.

The Spanish language format was a huge mistake. Clear Channel could only see that 6% of the market was Hispanic, but they did not see that most of that population is Puerto Rican and now second and third generation (at least in the sales demos) where use of Spanish language radio is low to none.

Assuming that every Spanish dominant Hispanic would listen to the same format only yields about a 2 share at the max. Someone did not do the math.

On the other hand, going back to the original argument about Alternative in NYC, the math is clear: few stations switching to this format in the general Northeastern area of the US have achieved optimum billing levels. Period.

 

[chrocket87]

Really? David simply explains that alternative listeners (like listeners of every other format) listen to formats other than alternative and you took that as criticism of the format and it's viability? Unreal.

As long as WRFF pays its bills (which it probably does, with some couch money on the side), I would assume that it is safe.

 

[broadcastguy]

If CBS were to sell 1210 AM, who would buy it?

Probably a Hispanic/ Religious/ Asian broadcaster.

 

[davideduardo]

Probably a Hispanic/ Religious/ Asian broadcaster.

I don't know of any of the Hispanic market players that would buy a major market AM to do a Spanish language format on.