Rochester Spring Ratings

[Bob1370]

The Rochester spring numbers are out, and here's what they look like, in order, in 12+ AQH, a book with few if any surprises or flukes;

WBEE on top and still in double digits--off a small fraction but within the margin of error
WHAM in second, off a half point from the winter but that's not unusual for this time of year
WDKX in a much stronger third, up almost a full share point, cementing 12-34 dominance; you
have to wonder if they'd be #1 in 12+ numbers if they had a full Class B signal.
WPXY in fourth, up just a tick
WRMM in fifth, off about eight tenths of a point
WFXF; best numbers for Wease's home base in a while
WBZA; The Buzz is not looking so good these days
Drive 100.5; is a share in the high 3s good for an automated station or poor for a big signal?
Legends 102.7; Still hanging in there with one of the weaker signals in town; stability in the night
show could help in the future
WCMF-Barely showing a 3 and barely in the top 10. Would a morning show with a strong anchor
host instead of a multi-person team of apparent equals help?

Below the top 10 you have automated/syndicated Kiss 106.7 in the mid-2s falling far behind format competitor WPXY, followed by Fickle 93.3, the Zone and WHTK 1280 in the low 1s, and everyone else under a 1 share. The lowest rated Rochester-licensed station is WROC-AM, the ESPN affiliate, with only a 0.5 share (and thats an improvement over their dash in the listing for "audience too small to accurately measure" a year ago). The sports-talk market isn't supporting one station well, let alone two.

None of the noncomms are shown here because it's still a diary market where only commercial stations' numbers get published, instead of a PPM market where everyone's numbers are on the record--although based on recent Radio Research Consortium reports both WXXI-AM and WXXI-FM would have a shot at a place in the top 10 in 12+ AQH if it were PPM.

I'm sure folks at WBEE and WDKX are opening up the champagne, maybe at WHAM as well...who ought to be smiling, shrugging or crying, and what do you think various managers ought to be doing to positions their stations better for the future?

 

[SirRoxalot]

It looks to me like The Buzz is just muddling along. The battle really is between 'CMF and 'FXF, and Wease is obviously winning. 'DKX owns its part of the market. Legends continues to slip, along with The Zone and The Drive. BTW, "Classic Hits" in Rochester seems to span a very wide range of music, and is defined quite differently by different stations.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Legends 102.7; Still hanging in there with one of the weaker signals in town; stability in the night
show could help in the future

Looking at the 12+ numbers for the past year Legends did lose a chunk of their audience. But remember these are 12+ numbers, so take it with a grain of salt.

There is a Canadian station at 107 fm called the Breeze that has a similar format, except the music rotation is larger and the songs are ones seldom heard played on radio these days yet they were still popular (for us older folks anyways).

No offense to Legends, but they remind me when WARM 101.3 first started in the mid 1980s. WARM had a 500 song rotation and it seems every time I do listen to Legends the same songs are featured. Granted I seldom listen to the radio anymore, but when I do, I hear the same tunes.

Well enough of my two cents!

 

[GeorgeKramer]

Any idea how Mike Schopp and the Bulldog are doing in their time slot in Rochester?

 

[Bob1370]

"Any idea how Mike Schopp and the Bulldog are doing in their time slot in Rochester?"

Don't have the daypart breakdown but if the whole station is barely above the dash level at a 0.5 AQH 12+ share, it can't be a stellar showing for any individual show on that station. Not their fault, mind you--the market is just not going to support two sports stations, and isn't even supporting WHTK and its rimshot Ontario County FM simulcast very well at barely a 1 share.So you won't get killer numbers for any show in a market which isn't friendly for sports radio overall (add the numbers of both 24/7 sports signals and you wind up with about a third or at best a half of what WGR pulls in all by itself in Erie and Niagara Counties alone).

Rochester's a funny market for sports--on the surface the market's as big as Buffalo and has a stronger local economy and better demographics...and it provides a significant part of the Buffalo major league teams' fan bases. But unlike Buffalo it's not quite big enough to launch a major league team of its own in any of the big four sports, and unlike Syracuse it's lacking a major division I college team in either of the big-money college sports (football and basketball). So the intensity and size of the fan base for any sport at any level isn't the same. Buffalo and Syracuse are better markets for sports radio, even though Rochester could be a better radio market for stations in other formats than either of those two cities.