Rock Solid Radio

[robbbc]

The N&O, keeping with its tradition of being a year behind on most major cultural issues, is reporting that the iPOD has not killed off radio.

wow. Next they will be reporting on the new low carb diet craze.

http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/story/2763064p-9201823c.html

Back to the subject: The ratings for WUNC (3rd in the market) and WCPE (12th!) are listed along with Arbitron numbers. You won't find them on this link- so ya gotta buy the paper or check out the archives (requires a 7 day a week subscription-what a racket!)

Only three AMs make the top 20 list: WPTF, the buzz, and a gospel/old time country station out of Smithfield! WDNC/Z? not a blip....Vanity, vanity CMG.

 

[BLewis]

The AM in Smithfield is 1270 WMPM. It's not 'polished' radio...but, it is definitely good, LOCAL radio. Listening to this 5KW station is like taking a step (in a good way) back 30 years. It's family-owned, all live, and features lots of Johnston County and Smithfield-related information. It is amazing that doing what WMPM is supposed to do, which is to serve Smithfield and Johnston County, this little station manages to score (modestly) in the RDU book. That is ALOT of Johnston county folks listening to WMPM, instead of cookie-cutter big city radio.

Another interesting item...most commercial radio stations have NO idea how many people listen to the non-commercial stations. I grew up at a 1KW station, that did get the book. I grew up thinking no one must listen to that little Christian non-commercial station across town. With non-comm numbers being non-published for most, I think commercial radio people are usually shocked to see the strong audiences these stations have. I did, however, notice that WUNC's WRQM is really, really weak. As strong as WUNC is in the metro, I wonder what is up with WRQM and if they will ever make any changes to it?

The N&O, keeping with its tradition of being a year behind
> on most major cultural issues, is reporting that the iPOD
> has not killed off radio.
>
> wow. Next they will be reporting on the new low carb diet
> craze.
>
http://> www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/story/2763064p-9201823c.html
>
>
> Back to the subject: The ratings for WUNC (3rd in the
> market) and WCPE (12th!) are listed along with Arbitron
> numbers. You won't find them on this link- so ya gotta buy
> the paper or check out the archives (requires a 7 day a week
> subscription-what a racket!)
>
> Only three AMs make the top 20 list: WPTF, the buzz, and a
> gospel/old time country station out of Smithfield! WDNC/Z?
> not a blip....Vanity, vanity CMG.
>

 

[middlega]

> The AM in Smithfield is 1270 WMPM. It's not 'polished'
> radio...but, it is definitely good, LOCAL radio. Listening
> to this 5KW station is like taking a step (in a good way)
> back 30 years.

At the risk of throwing cold water on that nice warm fuzzy feeling, a serious question: What happens when their audience literally dies off?

Make no mistake, their performance is impressive in Johnston County, regardless of what the demographic breakdown is. At this point, any "hometown AM" that can post a number of any kind is doing yeoman's work & I join you in praising their performance.

But when you look at the audience they're getting, and break it down demographically, the cold hard truth is that everytime the funeral home gets some business, their audience shrinks. This is about as an old skewing an audience as I can remember seeing in years regardless of market or format.
I've been through a similar situation & the result isn't much fun.

So, just using this station as an example of others in the same situation, I'll ask a question I honestly don't have an answer for myself: at what point do stations like this have to start looking to the future? Or do they? Is the "right" answer for stations such as this one to simply ride the horse until it drops & then join the rest of their kin that exist largely in some combination of obscurity,oblivion & memory?

Straight up, I'd never heard of WMPM before happening upon this thread, so I'm not trying to kick dirt on anybody or get anybody upset or anything of that sort. But when curiosity sent me looking a little deeper into the situation,
I was reminded of one of the hardest riddles I faced in 13+ years of radio, how and _when_ to address an completely grayed audience.

 

[Timothy]

> I did, however, notice that WUNC's
> WRQM is really, really weak. As strong as WUNC is in the
> metro, I wonder what is up with WRQM and if they will ever
> make any changes to it?

We talked a little about this when I was up there (great new studios, I highly recommend anybody in Roanoke Rapids bug ZRU for a tour). I looked back the numbers for the ENC market, and it's not just WRQM. WUND followed them down the well. In fact, of the three, WUNC is strongest in Pitt County, and our 91.5 has more listeners in Pitt than their 91.5. It's not a fluke, it's a year long trend.

I really think they had inflated numbers due to our poor marketing when we launched our news/talk stations. For all anybody knew, we were them. WUNC's stations, particularly WRQM had a HUGE increase when we flipped. They started running ads in the Greenville paper, started trying to open a studio at ECU, then the next book they were way down and we were starting to crawl out of the muck. The programming department has pretty much taken over the marketing of the station and we've been showing strong gains in every book for the past year, proportional to what WUNC+ has lost in ENC. We rarely utter a word now without mentioning ENC. Our original marketing plan was one of those group session, account for all people, explain all things kind of goofy plan. We had billboards that people couldn't read, mostly bad placement, and this phrase, "your choice radio networks". Huh?

At least that's what has happened in our market. I don't get the RDU book, but I know WUNC is still a major player there, don't really need the book to know that. Their assistant GM told me that WRQM was more trouble than it was worth, back when he was the CE. That was when it had good numbers.

 

[robbbc]

Big City Patrons?

Probabaly sounds more like patronizing to you guys I am sure...IMHO The feel you get from listening to WUNC in RDU is that we (the listeners who donate to WUNC) are helping to support these little backwoods stations in the east that otherwise would not have any public radio (for shame!). It is a form of outreach or charity. Bet that would go over like a lead brick in Rocky Mount...

Maybe this can be used to justify the Manteo station but not RQM. It should be its own entity and ECU and the other colleges down east ought to put some effort into it instead of letting it repeat the UNC programs. We get enough "UNC is the center of the universe" from the statewide PBS system (just repeaters of WUNC-TV programming). I like my PBS and NPR affiliates locally operated unless it isn't feasible (very rural etc.) If an area can support a few TV stations it can support an independent NPR/PBS affiliate for sure.

> > I did, however, notice that WUNC's
> > WRQM is really, really weak. As strong as WUNC is in the
> > metro, I wonder what is up with WRQM and if they will ever
>
> > make any changes to it?
>
> We talked a little about this when I was up there (great new
> studios, I highly recommend anybody in Roanoke Rapids bug
> ZRU for a tour). I looked back the numbers for the ENC
> market, and it's not just WRQM. WUND followed them down the
> well. In fact, of the three, WUNC is strongest in Pitt
> County, and our 91.5 has more listeners in Pitt than their
> 91.5. It's not a fluke, it's a year long trend.
>
> I really think they had inflated numbers due to our poor
> marketing when we launched our news/talk stations. For all
> anybody knew, we were them. WUNC's stations, particularly
> WRQM had a HUGE increase when we flipped. They started
> running ads in the Greenville paper, started trying to open
> a studio at ECU, then the next book they were way down and
> we were starting to crawl out of the muck. The programming
> department has pretty much taken over the marketing of the
> station and we've been showing strong gains in every book
> for the past year, proportional to what WUNC+ has lost in
> ENC. We rarely utter a word now without mentioning ENC.
> Our original marketing plan was one of those group session,
> account for all people, explain all things kind of goofy
> plan. We had billboards that people couldn't read, mostly
> bad placement, and this phrase, "your choice radio
> networks". Huh?
>
> At least that's what has happened in our market. I don't
> get the RDU book, but I know WUNC is still a major player
> there, don't really need the book to know that. Their
> assistant GM told me that WRQM was more trouble than it was
> worth, back when he was the CE. That was when it had good
> numbers.
>

 

[Keith_Lake]

> I was reminded of one of the hardest riddles I faced in 13+
> years of radio, how and _when_ to address an completely
> grayed audience.

> At the risk of throwing cold water on that nice warm fuzzy feeling,
> a serious question: What happens when their audience literally dies off?

I don't understand why that is such a difficult question. Simply play what the "grayed audience" wants to hear. Standards and classic country would be a good place to start, at least in eastern NC. When our local easy-listening station went away in the early 1990s, MANY over-50s asked me what happened to "their" station. The reason why that demographic doesn't show up in the ratings is because they are, for all intents and purposes, IGNORED.

Sales departments, staffed these days mostly by under-35s, have somehow convinced themselves the senior crowd is going to die en masse next week and is therefore not worthy of the effort. From the marketers's point of view, they're in the prime of their lives and so are most of their friends and associates. They've managed to convince themselves, with the aid of the media, that the world revolves around them and only them, just like the 60s baby boomers who preceded them and who now face their own sunset years. This prospect scares the hell out of them and they cling tenaciously to the illusion of eternal youth. The advertising industry knows this and makes billions servicing that illusion.

Getting this post back on track, I really don't need to point out how the over-50 generation, for the most part, has PLENTY of disposable income and still
buys lots of high-end stuff. But they are turned off by in-your-face advertisements and short-sighted marketing tailored to appeal to the MTV generation. That demographic is as worthy of attention as any other, but they're not interested in Music Of Your Life. There IS, however, a large segment of the population that is almost totally ignored by advertisers, and they definitely WOULD be interested in such programming. Placing it on a noisy daytimer AM drastically underserves that market. There are exceptions but they are few and far between.

If the advertising and ratings people would approach the over-50 demographic as a viable economic market instead of saying "you're going to be dead soon and not worth the bother", I would bet they would see many many $$$ flowing into their coffers sooner rather than later.

KL

<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a>

 

[Timothy]

> I would bet they would see many many $$$ flowing
> into their coffers sooner rather than later.

I would just as soon they don't. We have all the 50 and 65+ and we are quite happy to have them.

 

[bigwoody]

> > I was reminded of one of the hardest riddles I faced in
> 13+
> > years of radio, how and _when_ to address an completely
> > grayed audience.
>
> > At the risk of throwing cold water on that nice warm fuzzy
> feeling,
> > a serious question: What happens when their audience
> literally dies off?
>
> I don't understand why that is such a difficult question.
> Simply play what the "grayed audience" wants to hear.
> Standards and classic country would be a good place to
> start, at least in eastern NC. When our local
> easy-listening station went away in the early 1990s, MANY
> over-50s asked me what happened to "their" station. The
> reason why that demographic doesn't show up in the ratings
> is because they are, for all intents and purposes, IGNORED.
>
>
> Sales departments, staffed these days mostly by under-35s,
> have somehow convinced themselves the senior crowd is going
> to die en masse next week and is therefore not worthy of the
> effort. From the marketers's point of view, they're in the
> prime of their lives and so are most of their friends and
> associates. They've managed to convince themselves, with
> the aid of the media, that the world revolves around them
> and only them, just like the 60s baby boomers who preceded
> them and who now face their own sunset years. This prospect
> scares the hell out of them and they cling tenaciously to
> the illusion of eternal youth. The advertising industry
> knows this and makes billions servicing that illusion.
>
> Getting this post back on track, I really don't need to
> point out how the over-50 generation, for the most part, has
> PLENTY of disposable income and still
> buys lots of high-end stuff. But they are turned off by
> in-your-face advertisements and short-sighted marketing
> tailored to appeal to the MTV generation. That demographic
> is as worthy of attention as any other, but they're not
> interested in Music Of Your Life. There IS, however, a
> large segment of the population that is almost totally
> ignored by advertisers, and they definitely WOULD be
> interested in such programming. Placing it on a noisy
> daytimer AM drastically underserves that market. There are
> exceptions but they are few and far between.
>
> If the advertising and ratings people would approach the
> over-50 demographic as a viable economic market instead of
> saying "you're going to be dead soon and not worth the
> bother", I would bet they would see many many $$$ flowing
> into their coffers sooner rather than later.
>
> KL
>
> The Last Radio Station
>


WELL SAID KEITH! Exactly why OLDIES is still viable! It's a 35-64 format. NOT 25-54. Hell, even classic rock is "graying" with most stations catering to the 45-54 cell.<P ID="signature">______________
Everyone is entitled to my opinion.</P>

 

[middlega]

> I don't understand why that is such a difficult question.

Well, for starters, the "new gray audience" won't have nearly the history that the current/recently grayed audience has.

Nor will a station like the one in this example have any real heritage position advantage with the "new grays" down the road, since none of them know/care that the station exists. FTR, that was one of the hurdles that seemed to eventually trip us my own efforts more than anything else, along with the next point ...

The "new grays" often don't give a rip about the sort of programming that works on the current grays. The Catch-22 that's created -- as people shift from one demo age cell to the next, they don't magically take on the same characteristics of the existing 55-64/65+ demo. Often, their wants bear little resemblence.

Which takes me back to the question I was trying to ask -- at what point to do sacrifice the existing 55+ to try to begin capturing the 45-54 or 35-54 that you'll eventually need to remain viable? And how do you do it without chasing off the entire existing audience in the process?

> Getting this post back on track, I really don't need to
> point out how the over-50 generation, for the most part, has
> PLENTY of disposable income and still
> buys lots of high-end stuff.

Some of them do, but if you check the income levels of the audience of the station serving as our example ... that's not who their existing audience is, or at least not a lot of it, not by a long shot. And that's a situation I see more often than not when you find the occasional station like this -- they're almost entirely 55+ AND they're lower income 55+ to boot, having swapped the high end for the larger total audience at the low+low middle range.

 

[Keith_Lake]

For the most part you're relying on statistics. Nothing will cloud the issue and lead you further astray than statistics. The over-50s (and they're not all "gray", by the way) are hardly targeted at all by current broadcast media. This, as I said before, is because the marketing and research bureaus are mostly staffed by people in that magical mythical 35-40 age group who believe the whole world is their oyster and they haven't got a clue how to reach older demographics. Believe it or not, "grays" buy other things besides denture adhesives and retirement home plans.

The sooner the ad buyers get over their deepseated fear of growing old, the sooner they will be raking in the bucks from an underserved market. One day they will wake up and discover THEY have become the "grays" and they won't understand the new youth market that will surely displace them as the darlings of the media.

Just for the record, I'm 47, hardly a "gray", but I can see it coming.

KL


<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a><P ID="signature">______________
</P>

 

[BLewis]

I make a living playing music to 55+. We're not WNNNNBC, but we are paying the bills.

I would bet they would see many many $$$ flowing
> > into their coffers sooner rather than later.
>
> I would just as soon they don't. We have all the 50 and 65+
> and we are quite happy to have them.
>

 

[middlega]

> For the most part you're relying on statistics. Nothing
> will cloud the issue and lead you further astray than
> statistics.

Then we probably have a fundamental disagreement that we aren't likely to overcome.

No need to get sensitive about the use of the word "gray" either, it's just
a convienient bit of shorthand that saved a little space in an already long
post.

Obviously, you haven't solved the riddle I was asking about either, since all I'm seeing are a handful of catchphrases & buzzwords that offer nothing in the way of concrete steps toward meeting the challenges I'm talking about.

Ah well, I figured it was worth a try. Maybe there's no answer because there isn't one.