Ratings for Talk in Top 10 Markets

[sshuffield70]

OK, fair points. What is it that KOA, WLW and KFI (all CC stations BTW) are doing right? And BTW, I am a proponent of news, talk and sports on FM.

Not sure about the others, but WLW is live almost all the time. And except for the Adam Bold show, it's locally based. Even the trucking show is from Cincy.

 

[NewsStud]

...and then there is Miami. WIOD has zero competition and only gets a cume of 215,000 in a market of 3.6 million! Rank #18 in 6+

WIOD suffers from a problem it can't fix: Much of the metro it serves speaks a language other than English. Spanish speakers have a few differnent choices for News and Talk in South Florida. Miami is the only market in which English stations must compete with Spanish-language stations.

Still, WIOD isn't much to listen to these days. They try hard with their morning show but I find it rather bland. They hired a "live and local" person for afternoons but he too doesn't generate a "can't miss it" feeling for his show.

Beck's first hour isn't played. Rush is always there. Hannity is delayed by three hours and Schnitt by six; meaning you're hearing tape-delayed rehash instead of live rehash. Weekends are filled with infomercials and other obvious amateurs hawking services.

To top it all off, the news product is non-existant. An anchor rewrites the paper but long gone are the days in which they dispatched reproters who could file form the scene of breaking news.

For however many English-only listeners are out there, WIOD doesn't serve them.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Only speaking from the gut, but, KOA appears to have it's finger on the pulse of the Denver market, a point that would affirm an earlier post about the advantage of "local" programming. Key example: Mike Rosen's successful mid-morning show.

That's been my point regarding New York talk radio. WABC is totally disnegaged from the New York market. WOR is only a little better. With CC taking over WOR, I see a local AM Drive show and Premiere syndication all day long. CC isn't going to make WOR into a NYC version of KFI. Sad, especially in market #1!

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Only speaking from the gut, but, KOA appears to have it's finger on the pulse of the Denver market, a point that would affirm an earlier post about the advantage of "local" programming. Key example: Mike Rosen's successful mid-morning show.

That's been my point regarding New York talk radio. WABC is totally disnegaged from the New York market. WOR is only a little better. With CC taking over WOR, I see a local AM Drive show and Premiere syndication all day long. CC isn't going to make WOR into a NYC version of KFI. Sad, especially in market #1!

I agree. Having grown up in the shadow of NYC, the NY Metro market offered my first exposure to broadcasting. The Gamblings, Cousin Brucie, Allan Colmes, Jack Spector... all of them captured that NY additude. How did they do it? They were local personalities, and they sounded every bit of it.

 

[MC]

KGO...#1 for 20 plus years but then tanked.


talk radio decline

20%-25% IS BECAUSE OF THE CORPORTE stuff,
20-25% is because of the audience changing
10-20% because of local mis-management ...

 

[jhguthlac]

Two points. There are so many more options available now for receiving shows. Internet stream for one. Apps on your phone is another. Rush has been using this recently to brag that he has more listeners than ever, but they don't necessarily show in the "ratings." Hard to know if this is the truth or not.

Second point. Live vs. local? Where do we hear the weather forecast? The Weather Channel or the internet. Where do we get our sports? ESPN, Fox, Comcast, etc. News: CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. SO how important is radio being live and local? In my market, the all syndicated station beats the all local station consistantly. They are live/local 4 hours in the morning and that is it.

So WABC is mostly syndicated. So national/international issues aren't important in NYC? You don't use a 50kw signal to talk about potholes. Few people really care about the neighborhood issues like they did in times past.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Live vs. local? Where do we hear the weather forecast? The Weather Channel or the internet. Where do we get our sports? ESPN, Fox, Comcast, etc. News: CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. SO how important is radio being live and local? In my market, the all syndicated station beats the all local station consistantly. They are live/local 4 hours in the morning and that is it.

So WABC is mostly syndicated. So national/international issues aren't important in NYC? You don't use a 50kw signal to talk about potholes. Few people really care about the neighborhood issues like they did in times past.

Not true in all markets. In LA, mostly local KFI trounces mostly syndicated KABC. In Seattle, mostly local KIRO-FM beats mostly syndicated conservatalk KTTH and both stations are owned by Bonneville.

National and international issues are important in NYC, but so is the New York angle on these matters. WABC is completely disengaged from New York, a sad but true commentary in market #1.

 

[MC]

Right, KFI has Limbaugh, coast to coast, the Laporte computer show and Handel on the Law...so about 35% syndicated. KABC has a crapy signal as well, so that has to be factored in.


Does someone want talk radio blasting in their work place or in their car at a stop light?

As pointed out, Look at all the time people are on the smart phone as well. Radio will not go back to what it was.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Right, KFI has Limbaugh, coast to coast, the Laporte computer show and Handel on the Law...so about 35% syndicated. KABC has a crapy signal as well, so that has to be factored in.

A 65% local KFI is much better than anything in New York at present. When CC gains full control of WOR, it won't be even close. Probably AM Drive local and Premiere syndication the rest of the day.

 

[MC]

Right, Handel, John and Ken, Conway, and the other guy...people listen even if they don't agreed, because it fits LA area.

Rush and Listeners...he may mean the internet and the replay? His ads seem to be: conservative websites, conservative think tanks, and his tea. There are two nation sponsors that are owned by "conservatives" as well. If your drop Rush as an advertising venue, will he turn around and trash you on the air? He did that to a couple of sponsors.

 

[Bob1370]

"KGO...#1 for 20 plus years but then tanked."

An obvious reason...when the Mouse owned it, and before that CapCities/ABC, it was all live, local, thoughtful and center-left talk, just the way the market liked it. The rot set in after Citadel started cost-cutting to cover its debt (a failed effort in the end), long time ABC management took their pensions and walked out the door, and popular shows started disappearing. Now, under Cumulus they're trying to compete with KCBS as essentially a newser, but on a shoestring. Good luck to that.

The real winners? KQED and KCBS.

Same thing is happening in a lot of other markets. Once-dominant WMAL in Washington suffered a similar fate and handed the market to WAMU and WTOP-FM. There's a similar opportunity open in NYC for WNYC if they retool and tweak, although it'll be somewhat harder given the high quality of their hard news competition (WCBS-AM and WINS).

 

[recto101]

How about all-news WBBM and WGN. I do know that WBBM is within the top 10 in the Chicago market and WGN Talk is.