• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Radio 961 getting blown up?

vchimpanzee, you'd need to become a subscriber to see what the stations and agencies look at. Part of subscribing is keeping that information confidential (as in among your employees only). So, you'll not be provided with different data unless you pay to subscribe. The 6+ and 12+ ratings are not important for how the radio game is played. It is all about the right age groups and the most desired groups the advertisers want to reach. Winning among certain groups of people means the advertising dollars go to you and you win all the way around. If by doing this leaves you at #10 in the 5+ or 12+ ratings, so be it, even if you had been #2 a year before.
 
For what it's worth... WTRG being blown up we know was a mistake. Wasn't a numbers or even revenue issue. "Oldies" stations were flipped throughout the SE 2003-05 by then SVPP Marc Chase because, and I quote "don't get the format or see a long life span". Well, we now see classic hits, pop leaning and classic rock based, getting a resurgence nationwide over the last few years due to PPM loving the format. Chicago now has two classic hits stations in a format battle. Given that.. if it (WTRG) were to be flipped it should've been flipped to country. WRDU should've been left alone. The OM and GM at the time thought there was a hole in the market in 2004 for classic rock *lite* (ne classic hits) adding Strawberry Fields, Daniel, etc type of faire to 'RDU. Wrong. WTRG was already playing those titles and more, and doing well I might add. WRDU was always a "classic rock that rocks" format. Was it ever going to be a 6 share again (last hit that 1999) ? No. But it was still a winner M25-54... under the right programmer.
 
WQDR has been going down for a while.

WQDR came in at #2 in 12+ in the average of the three "fall" books, and #3 in 25-54. As I mentioned, agencies generally use a multi-book average so looking at single months in smaller PPM markets is not a safe thing to do.

Remember, stations buy the ratings so that they can get transactional business... meaning agency business that is won based on target demo numbers. So when we look at ratings, we have to consider how agencies will view a station. Agencies almost universally do not look at 12+.
 
For what it's worth... WTRG being blown up we know was a mistake. Wasn't a numbers or even revenue issue. "Oldies" stations were flipped throughout the SE 2003-05 by then SVPP Marc Chase because, and I quote "don't get the format or see a long life span". Well, we now see classic hits, pop leaning and classic rock based, getting a resurgence nationwide over the last few years due to PPM loving the format. Chicago now has two classic hits stations in a format battle.

It wasn't just a Marc Chase thing. WTRG was one of many oldies stations with many different owners that left the format during that timeframe. The station should have evolved to classic hits and ditched the "Oldies 100.7" moniker. Of course, at the time, PPM was either not out or in its infancy, and no one really knew classic hits would perform as well as it has under PPM. They were still under the impression it would work like those all-70's stations in the mid-90's and the all-80's stations that had failed more recently.
 
. JB&B and the death grip playlist that was instituted in '04 along with jettisoning theme weekends and putting on a 70s Sunday show that featured more classic rock than pop. Bowie and Clapton? Didn't work. Despite the tight playlist and dumbass management the station did well in the ratings. Better than it should have. Was #1 M25-54 AM drive at the flip beating sister WRDU. But doing so well with JB&B fans is what killed the rest of the station. JB&B were parked on WTRG summer 2001 after being removed from WRDU (in favor of Bob and Tom). Was a Corporate decision. And a bad one. The live morning show of "Tuna & Co" was doing well and gaining. JB&B weren't supposed to be on the station long. Three years later we finally got them off and numbers started to rise across the board with a VT'k AM show via Charleston. But it was too late.

. It was the Dumbass upper mgmt part!
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom