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krichardson
Guest
I understand via Arbitron's public website ratings are due today. Anybody have them? Kudos to ratings winners in advance!
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her's what i heard: big book for jlk... huge eve. big bounce back for wchr - the hawk. adult drop for rat. big overall drop for htg, not sure what demos dropped. i think the breeze stayed pretty much even... maybe up a little? but the clear winner this time around is wjlk.
It's really sad.......G-Rock Radio is sounding the best it has ever sounded (thank you Terrie Carr) and they have a ratings collapse.......Hopefully this is just a fluke and they bounce right back in the next book.....Terrie Carr is one of the best PD's in the business and is known to make her stations sound great.....Just look at what she did at WDHA.......When she was PD there the station sounded awesome and that was with a different type of rock format........Today WDHA sounds like crap.
Radio and records rating page show wjlk go from 3.3 to 3.9 which is good for them. and wchr-fm did good also going from 2.2 to 2.6 also good for that station. the losers look to be wrat and whtg both big drops, wrat went from 3.3 to 2.1 and whtg went from 3.2 to 2.1 which is suprising i thought terri was fixing up the station. also wobm-am and wabc-am dropped alot. from this book we see that wjlk hot ac format is dong ok if they had a better signal it be even better also the breeze is still a top contender and nj1015 gets alot of its audience from monmouth and ocean county so its not surprising to see them as number one.
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BigBoy41
Guest
I agree....(I know I always say this...) but I loved WDHA- never used to shut it off- hate it now- can only get 106.3 south of 135 on the GSP- and when I can get it , it truly is the best station around- are the stations monitored by meters there or not? from what I read on these boards, it's not always very accurate. I don't know the logistics of getting rated- just the rock stations I like.....there aren't many- 106.3 (again when I can get it) is one as it sussex counties WNNJ and 104.3 in New York. DHA and KROCK are no longer an option. (but my wife will listen to KROCK on occasion)????
Maybe they dropped because of everyone flocking to 24/7 christmas tuneage. I listen online and love whtg now!!!
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AMraydio
Guest
By looking at these numbers, you can tell it just wasn't a rock book. The Rat took a hit, too. Formats targeting a much older demographic benefitted from book placement, hence the big numbers for stations like Lite FM. Must be all that Christmas programming.
That being said, GRock is still a breath of fresh air on the dial, and I hope that there are no knee jerk changes. I can't think of another station anywhere that I can hear The Smiths in mid-day.
That being said, GRock is still a breath of fresh air on the dial, and I hope that there are no knee jerk changes. I can't think of another station anywhere that I can hear The Smiths in mid-day.
G Rock: Press is a company with a reputation for knee-jerk changes. I can't even keep track of all the times WHTG has morphed over the 7+ years that they have owned it. Despite not changing the way they reported, they went from Modern AC to Adult CHR to semi-Alternative to basically Hot AC back to semi-Alternative right when The Killers and Franz Ferdinand were taking off ... then they became G Rock Radio and kept the same sound. During the first five years, while playing very few actual Alternative artists, they found plenty of room for the following acts: Nelly Furtado, Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton, John Mayer, Maroon 5, Five For Fighting, Norah Jones, Sting, Santana, etc. Kudos to Terrie Carr for taking WHTG and turning it into a full-fledged Alternative for the first time under Press ownership.
G Rock is sounding pretty good these days. They're working in a lot of acts that you pretty much never heard in the first five Press years (Tool, Stabbing Westward, Rage Against The Machine, Smiths songs other than "How Soon Is Now?", Pixies, etc.). There does seem to be dayparting, with the station leaning toward the '80s a bit more during the day and toward the '90s and a slightly harder slant at night. The listener-friendly features will go a long way in helping this station - I only hope Press will give G Rock the chance to build an audience now that it sounds the way it should have back in 2000 when they bought it. Some criticisms aside ... namely, too much of the early '90s grunge scene (if they're going to play Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP, etc., I would much prefer hearing slightly less ubiquitous tracks like "Breed", "Go", and "Still Remains" over well-established classic rock staples like "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Alive" and "Plush" - and for Pete's sake, can lite-rock regulars like "Better Man" and "Daughter" already!) and also way too much of dull corporate rock fodder like Green Day, new school Chili Peppers, Linkin Park, etc. ... this station is finally living up to its potential, so here's hoping that greener pastures are ahead for G Rock.
WRAT: I used to listen to this station. They actually were on top of their game when they first launched, with a solid mix of old and new that posed a formidable challenge for then-dominant FM 106.3. This was actually the station that introduced me to one of my favorite bands, Failure (they played "Stuck On You" from the Fantastic Planet album in '96). Then something went terrible awry - I suspect it was the sale of the station to those old codgers over at Greater Media that basically turned the station into a safe, timid MMR clone. They continue to wear out the same moldy oldies that they have been playing since the beginning - yes, Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Maker" sound awfully stale after hearing them a million times. They're playing roughly 20 "Currents" right now, many of which are over a year old and technically not current in the least. (Nickelback Rant) Worst of all, they seem to have anointed that worthless corporate hack Chad Kroeger as the "Savior of Rock". That means tons of airtime for wuss-rockers Nickelback, spins for Santana/Chad Kroeger's "Into The Night" (this is a HOT AC song!!!!! NOT ROCK!!!!!), lots of spins for like-minded acts (hello there, Daughtry, Hinder, 3 Doors Down, Creed, etc.) - if Chad Kroeger is the most important recording artist today, that means music is dead. Nickelback is so horrible that they make even the worst corporate rock of the '70s and '80s look good. And WRAT wants them at the forefront of their station. Newsflash to those calling the shots at The Rat: You know who's buying all those Nickelback albums? No, not fans of rock music. Soccer Moms! Turn on WPLJ, The Point, SoJo, Fresh - chances are you won't have to wait too long to hear Nickelback! There is nothing even remotely important about this band, as there is no artistic aspect whatsoever about their music - it's all as vapid as any random highly-polished commercial jingle you might hear. My advice to you is to drop Chad Kroeger as your Savior and turn somewhere - ANYWHERE - else. Might I suggest leaving the stone age and finally embracing the edgier sounds of Active Rock in 2008. (End Nickelback Rant).
Not only is WRAT way too soft for a so-called Rock station (i.e. playing no-screaming edits of songs, like Atreyu's current single and Five Finger Death Punch's "The Bleeding" when they played it during their "Steel Cage Match" feature), but they are extremely slow when it comes to new adds. It took them several months to add Killswitch Engage's "Holy Diver", and there are still a ridiculous amount of acts they they should be playing by now but aren't (Hurt, FFDP, Mudvayne, Red, Bullet For My Valentine - all of these acts have songs that are either on or will soon make the Active Rock Top 20). Maybe they can't make room for them because they're still playing tired tracks like Velvet Revolver's "She Builds Quick Machines (20 spins last week), Breaking Benjamin's "Breath" (18 spins), Daughtry's "It's Not Over" (16 spins - because WRAT thinks people would rather hear some clown from that soul-sucking machine American Idol than rock bands that actually matter), Papa Roach's "Forever" (14 spins), Linkin Park's "What I've Done" (14 spins), Disturbed's "Ten Thousand Fists" (14 spins) ... believe it or not, there's more, but I'll leave it at that because the point has been made. Said point being that there's a very lazy approach to programming this station at play, because it follows a model closer to an Adult Contemporary station than a Rock station by leaving all these older songs in high rotation.
To WRAT's credit, they have almost the same airstaff in place as they did when they first launched in '95. To their detriment, see if you can get a hold of their playlist - does this sound like something that people want to listen to? It basically combines the worst elements of classic and modern rock by taking almost all overplayed tracks exclusively and wearing them out even further. Especially if you remember how WRAT used to sound, it's pretty much unlistenable. If not for the DJs, I think their ratings would be even more anemic. WRAT needs a major overhaul. Monmouth/Ocean deserves better than an FM signal that basically seems like nothing more than a tax write-off for the owners.
G Rock is sounding pretty good these days. They're working in a lot of acts that you pretty much never heard in the first five Press years (Tool, Stabbing Westward, Rage Against The Machine, Smiths songs other than "How Soon Is Now?", Pixies, etc.). There does seem to be dayparting, with the station leaning toward the '80s a bit more during the day and toward the '90s and a slightly harder slant at night. The listener-friendly features will go a long way in helping this station - I only hope Press will give G Rock the chance to build an audience now that it sounds the way it should have back in 2000 when they bought it. Some criticisms aside ... namely, too much of the early '90s grunge scene (if they're going to play Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP, etc., I would much prefer hearing slightly less ubiquitous tracks like "Breed", "Go", and "Still Remains" over well-established classic rock staples like "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Alive" and "Plush" - and for Pete's sake, can lite-rock regulars like "Better Man" and "Daughter" already!) and also way too much of dull corporate rock fodder like Green Day, new school Chili Peppers, Linkin Park, etc. ... this station is finally living up to its potential, so here's hoping that greener pastures are ahead for G Rock.
WRAT: I used to listen to this station. They actually were on top of their game when they first launched, with a solid mix of old and new that posed a formidable challenge for then-dominant FM 106.3. This was actually the station that introduced me to one of my favorite bands, Failure (they played "Stuck On You" from the Fantastic Planet album in '96). Then something went terrible awry - I suspect it was the sale of the station to those old codgers over at Greater Media that basically turned the station into a safe, timid MMR clone. They continue to wear out the same moldy oldies that they have been playing since the beginning - yes, Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Maker" sound awfully stale after hearing them a million times. They're playing roughly 20 "Currents" right now, many of which are over a year old and technically not current in the least. (Nickelback Rant) Worst of all, they seem to have anointed that worthless corporate hack Chad Kroeger as the "Savior of Rock". That means tons of airtime for wuss-rockers Nickelback, spins for Santana/Chad Kroeger's "Into The Night" (this is a HOT AC song!!!!! NOT ROCK!!!!!), lots of spins for like-minded acts (hello there, Daughtry, Hinder, 3 Doors Down, Creed, etc.) - if Chad Kroeger is the most important recording artist today, that means music is dead. Nickelback is so horrible that they make even the worst corporate rock of the '70s and '80s look good. And WRAT wants them at the forefront of their station. Newsflash to those calling the shots at The Rat: You know who's buying all those Nickelback albums? No, not fans of rock music. Soccer Moms! Turn on WPLJ, The Point, SoJo, Fresh - chances are you won't have to wait too long to hear Nickelback! There is nothing even remotely important about this band, as there is no artistic aspect whatsoever about their music - it's all as vapid as any random highly-polished commercial jingle you might hear. My advice to you is to drop Chad Kroeger as your Savior and turn somewhere - ANYWHERE - else. Might I suggest leaving the stone age and finally embracing the edgier sounds of Active Rock in 2008. (End Nickelback Rant).
Not only is WRAT way too soft for a so-called Rock station (i.e. playing no-screaming edits of songs, like Atreyu's current single and Five Finger Death Punch's "The Bleeding" when they played it during their "Steel Cage Match" feature), but they are extremely slow when it comes to new adds. It took them several months to add Killswitch Engage's "Holy Diver", and there are still a ridiculous amount of acts they they should be playing by now but aren't (Hurt, FFDP, Mudvayne, Red, Bullet For My Valentine - all of these acts have songs that are either on or will soon make the Active Rock Top 20). Maybe they can't make room for them because they're still playing tired tracks like Velvet Revolver's "She Builds Quick Machines (20 spins last week), Breaking Benjamin's "Breath" (18 spins), Daughtry's "It's Not Over" (16 spins - because WRAT thinks people would rather hear some clown from that soul-sucking machine American Idol than rock bands that actually matter), Papa Roach's "Forever" (14 spins), Linkin Park's "What I've Done" (14 spins), Disturbed's "Ten Thousand Fists" (14 spins) ... believe it or not, there's more, but I'll leave it at that because the point has been made. Said point being that there's a very lazy approach to programming this station at play, because it follows a model closer to an Adult Contemporary station than a Rock station by leaving all these older songs in high rotation.
To WRAT's credit, they have almost the same airstaff in place as they did when they first launched in '95. To their detriment, see if you can get a hold of their playlist - does this sound like something that people want to listen to? It basically combines the worst elements of classic and modern rock by taking almost all overplayed tracks exclusively and wearing them out even further. Especially if you remember how WRAT used to sound, it's pretty much unlistenable. If not for the DJs, I think their ratings would be even more anemic. WRAT needs a major overhaul. Monmouth/Ocean deserves better than an FM signal that basically seems like nothing more than a tax write-off for the owners.
PleasetoShore said:
Nice BUMP indeed for The Hawk! In my opinion the station is sounding better and better, especially in terms of variety. In such an saturated area of station choices (AC, Phl, NYC) The Hawk needs to distance themselves from the rest of the pack and do things "slightly different" which they do with their special features. I think I even heard a promo that they're going to start their "A-Z feature" which YES has been done countless times before by other stations but IMO it's a refresing change from the SAME Zeppelin/Floyd/VH/Stones tunes/monotony that get excessive airplay not only there but on ALL Rock stations. Nothing worng with them being the "core artists" of a stations playlist but it should ONLY be a foundation NOT the law. VARIETY, the lack of IT is what drives people away to their CD's, Ipods, Satellite. Here at the shore The Hawk seems to be picking up on the "Variety" approach and as a listener its becoming noticeable. Keep up the good work guys!
As for WJLK, a very good book for them! With all the late-year changes at Millennium last year they're still doing something right!
Amen to whoever said hearing the smiths in mid day!!!As that smiths song goes there is a light that never goes out heres hoping g rock shines!!!
1)Great book for 101.5! Kudos to Eric Johnson and Casey Bartholemew who were skewered after Craig Carton left. Craig is a great talent, but he was also polarizing to alot of the audience. Perhaps the Casey/Ray team is getting some of the people that didn't like Craig (and there were many).
2) Good book for JLK and CHR too (and Millenium overall). As far as I can tell, only WOBM-AM had a down book.
3) The Breeze continues to be solid. The have made the transition nicely from a sleepy "light" station to upbeat classic hits very well in the last few years.
4) G Rock is a mess. I don't mean they are a mess musically...I like the playlist alot. But, a 2.1 for a booming signal like that is pretty awful. It's even worse considering that just 2 1/2 years ago, G Rock was pulling 4 shares and finishing in the top 5 in the market. Flash forward to the present day...they have since changed PD's, changed the imaging, tweaked the music, and turned over the entire on-air lineup (except Matt Knight who used to do nights). Now they're tied with K98.5 (who only cover Ocean County), and have gone from top 5 to a tie for 17th. It seems like they might have tried to fix something that wasn't broken. That being said I hope there aren't any knee-jerks in it's future cause rock radio is pretty awful right now...and the station is fun to listen to.
2) Good book for JLK and CHR too (and Millenium overall). As far as I can tell, only WOBM-AM had a down book.
3) The Breeze continues to be solid. The have made the transition nicely from a sleepy "light" station to upbeat classic hits very well in the last few years.
4) G Rock is a mess. I don't mean they are a mess musically...I like the playlist alot. But, a 2.1 for a booming signal like that is pretty awful. It's even worse considering that just 2 1/2 years ago, G Rock was pulling 4 shares and finishing in the top 5 in the market. Flash forward to the present day...they have since changed PD's, changed the imaging, tweaked the music, and turned over the entire on-air lineup (except Matt Knight who used to do nights). Now they're tied with K98.5 (who only cover Ocean County), and have gone from top 5 to a tie for 17th. It seems like they might have tried to fix something that wasn't broken. That being said I hope there aren't any knee-jerks in it's future cause rock radio is pretty awful right now...and the station is fun to listen to.
mondoradio said:
*shrug*. Although 101.5 had a great book, so did WFAN. Went up big in MonOc and Middlesex/Somerset/Union, which are KXW's bread and butter markets. I'm sure that's no coincidence.
I personally am not a big fan of Casey's, and with Craig in the morning, my afternoons are now with Opie and Anthony. I kinda realize how the "other side" feels when they said they love Ray but can't stand Craig.
My point exactly. 18 to 24 has been eroding for some time now. G Rock enjoyed it's best numbers when it was focused older and more mainstream. Those of us who love Alt. music didn't want to hear the occasional 3 Doors Down or Nickelback, or overplayed Pearl Jam, U2, and Green Day tracks so often, but maybe it was those tracks (and some of the now departed personalities) that attracted a bigger overall audience.
G Rock has lost more than half of it's audience in less than 3 years. That can't just be 18 to 24. I bet there's alot of 25+ in there as well.
If WFAN went up in the morning in Mon/OC and Middlesex, then that's great. Again, I'm not knocking Craig who I like and think is a great talent. But, maybe a more accessible personality like Casey fits better with 101.5's overall presentation. At least in the short term, that seems to be the case.
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BigBoy41
Guest
Seems like alot of people here have alot of "inside information" that regular radio fan/posters don't have..(numbers eroding and what have you..how the hell does just a radio fan know these things......?????) .and surprisingly multiple names to post with....most of these posts seem like slams on competition by other stations. I guess that's the way it goes. I wish I had a clear WHTG on my car dial. (I mean I wish I could get it) on a regular basis....but alas....can't get it all the time due to my geography. Great station, fantastic music, excellent personalities, way more exciting website and a great stream that I do actually tune into even though listening online is very annoying to me. There is too much bad rock radio out there. especially unfortunately up north where I am from. southern jersey folks consider yourselves lucky. something different unique and fresh to listen to.for us rock fans that don't want Led Zeppelin....EVER.......so rare these days.
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AMraydio
Guest
I just think GRock offers more for listeners like myself that enjoy all the catalogue records. I heard lots of it this morning, for example. Like the above poster says, it sure beats Led Zeppelin.
mondoradio said:
Can someone actually post the ratings? Are you people saying that Casey and Rossi had higher ratings than Carton and Rossi ever did??
JoeFromTomsRiver said:Can someone actually post the ratings? Are you people saying that Casey and Rossi had higher ratings than Carton and Rossi ever did??
I wouldn't go that far, but KXW did have a very good book for 12+ in its key markets. And no, we can't post actual ratings. They are available on Arbitron's site. But the daypart breakdowns are only available for the stations.
mondoradio said:
There's a number of different factors at play here. The question is this: Where did the audience go? I don't seem to see much of an increase in the last few books at the stations that were G Rock's main competition at the time: WPLJ and WJLK to the north, WAYV and WSJO to the south. Perhaps the fact that some people are leaving New Jersey is having something of an effect on G Rock's ratings.
G Rock has changed in some ways, but not in others. While they are sounding very good these days thanks to expanding the catalogue and being more williing to play some edgier and some indie acts, they are still playing a lot of very commercial pop acts (i.e. Linkin Park, Green Day, Incubus, Paramore), and still manage to sprinkle in a little Sasquatch Rock as well (Velvet Revolver, Puddle Of Mudd). Minor complaints, though. But perhaps that is what's rubbing other people the wrong way? Maybe they want a little less of the aforementioned and early '90s flannel-fliers in favor of more acts that toed the line between the mainstream and the underground, like Sonic Youth and Primus. There's also a lot of modern acts that would fit in very well that G Rock isn't playing for some reason - Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Kings Of Leon, Hot Hot Heat, Rogue Wave, etc. ; let WRAT have Velvet Revolver, they fit in better with that station's trucker rock sensibilities. Again, just a minor critique. This is the flip side of looking at it. Or it could just be a cyclical drop in ratings. Remember that G Rock's Fall '06 book wasn't so hot either. Whatever the reason for the drop might be, this is the best G Rock has sounded since Press bought WHTG.
Forget about Nickelback and 3 Doors Down. Alternative radio has washed their hands of them, and the recent singles from these acts went absolutely nowhere on the format. There's plenty of places to go if you want predictable radio. G Rock has become an oasis in a barren wasteland for those of us that prefer something different. These days G Rock and NJ 101.5 are the only stations I listen to, because everything else is the same old same old. That said, hopefully G Rock will stick with what they're doing now and not morph back into a soccer mom station overnight - things will improve in terms of ratings for this station. Besides, they always have a better Spring book anyway. And for what it's worth, they are still killing the behemoth K-Rock here in Monmouth/Ocean.
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