Seattle May 2022 ratings

[davideduardo]

It's silly to think that one low 6+ book is going to make them change back to...what? Urban CHR?

And advertisers who buy by the numbers look at multi-book averages.

With the PPM being much more "wobbly" in the last two years due to panel and meter problems, agencies are looking at even longer rolling averages for buys.

And we have to remember that, traditionally, agencies look at ratings, not shares. That flattens the wobbles even more than a downpour flattens waves on a lake...

 

[davideduardo]

Sports is also a significantly seasonal format. The seasonality varies by market.

However, those numbers for KJR-FM are pretty bad, even outside of prime Seahawks talk season.

Remember, sports is not a pure numbers proposition. Much of the money comes from "sports marketing" budgets... the same budgets that buy display locations in the stadium, TV, team websites and the like. It even includes monies spent on player endorsements and branded apparel; it is very much about ownership by association.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

An all-news station should NOT do that. All-news KRLD Dallas, to save money, runs Dave Ramsey and Our American Stories in late nights, no politics. If there are no non-political syndicated shows available, KNWN-AM-FM should just run automated news.

What is KNWN actually airing late at night? It looks like their online schedule is out of date, showing Seattle news until 2am, and then news programs from Westwood One (intended for AM drive in the east) until 4:30am. That seems reasonable.

There is very little syndicated talk these days that isn't stridently political. Dave Ramsey and Lee Habeeb's shows are less shouty for sure. But they are certainly shows designed to resonate with the conservative listener. Which is fine, but I'm not sure why their shows would be better for a news-formatted station than Bohannon.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

I was a big advocate of moving KJR's sports programming to 93.3 FM and still am. Cutting off access to the programming on AM 950 so quickly was a completely unnecessary move, however.

Maybe very similar to the assumptions about audience behavior on the music formats. We really hate a song after a few weeks and want it to die quickly .... but audience is JUST BEGINNING to find it familiar and like it. The KJR-AM thing sounds like either an executive somewhere was assuming people would switch from AM to FM in 15 minutes .... OR they were so gung-ho to get "the Patriot" cleared in Seattle that the results were not well executed. Can't think of any other reason not to go 3-6 months in "parallel" before dumping the familar AM version.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Did you ever think that maybe the consultants had data that you don't have?

My read is that just because "consultant" appears on the business card....doesn't make the person any smarter. They don't usually see it the same way.

Gary Bryan & I talked about that one day and he had a great way of summing it up: If ratings go up, consultant tells the station "thank God you hired me to save your ass". If the ratings go down, consultant tells the station "you didn't hire me quickly enough ... I didn't have enough time".

 

[Kelly A]

My read is that just because "consultant" appears on the business card....doesn't make the person any smarter. They don't usually see it the same way.

Weren't you considered a consultant for the F-company, and their Seattle stations for quite a while?

Gary Bryan & I talked about that one day and he had a great way of summing it up: If ratings go up, consultant tells the station "thank God you hired me to save your ass". If the ratings go down, consultant tells the station "you didn't hire me quickly enough ... I didn't have enough time".

Consultants regularly get a bad rep. Some of it deserved, others unfair. Unless it's for the government, most consultants are retained by a corporation if they get results, or at least use a reasonable and prudent methodology in making a recommendation.

 

[davideduardo]

Gary Bryan & I talked about that one day and he had a great way of summing it up: If ratings go up, consultant tells the station "thank God you hired me to save your ass". If the ratings go down, consultant tells the station "you didn't hire me quickly enough ... I didn't have enough time".

This reminds me of the story I have repeated several times here:

While chatting with Owen Charlebois when he was CEO of Arbitron, he told me, "there are three kinds of reactions to ratings. If they go up, it's because of great programming. If they stay the same, it's stability. If they go down, it's a problem with Arbitron".

The same goes with consultants. Station managers may blame them if the ratings don't improve, but usually that is because the management has chosen not to follow all of the consultant's advice.

 

[davideduardo]

Consultants regularly get a bad rep. Some of it deserved, others unfair. Unless it's for the government, most consultants are retained by a corporation if they get results, or at least use a reasonable and prudent methodology in making a recommendation.

Unfortunately, in radio and before most programming advisers were in-house following consolidation, many consultants were just unemployed PDs who had lost a job.

 

[Kelly A]

Unfortunately, in radio and before most programming advisers were in-house following consolidation, many consultants were just unemployed PDs who had lost a job.

That's because they had more credibility simply coming from a programming background. Doesn't mean they were any good at it.

Was talking with a retired Navy fighter pilot the other day about Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick. I asked whether the Navy used to bring in non-Navy, or civilian consultants to work with pilots or squadron crews, like Kelly McGillis' character. He said; all the time. Civilian consultants are very common. The difference is; none dealt with tactics. Mainly consultants/contractors addressed aircraft performance or maintenance.

 

[Rock 100.7]

Heat is relative: this week, at my home in the Palm Springs market, our home weather station registered 118°. That's lots less than last year's high of 124°, though.

I miss eating breakfast at Sherman's.. GREAT food!

 

[MVB13]

You were intimating that because of poor performance in one book, (6+ numbers) that iHeart made a wrong decision. That opinion wouldn't be based on any actual facts or proper data. You only think I'm obnoxious, because I identified your observation as being completely wrong? Got it.

Did you ever think that maybe the consultants had data that you don't have? Like; don't let listeners hang around on AM. Get them to switch sooner than later? I'm sure whatever research identified there would be a transition period. I'm also pretty sure any transition period wasn't concerned with maintaining 6+ published numbers.

Other than the Jailblazers, Portland is a smaller market with less professional and college teams to broadcast or talk about. LIke comparing apples with figs.

Seattle seems willing to support two sports talk stations for the long haul.

BigA, David, and I have already explained many times what has happened to CHR stations everywhere. No need to repeat it again and again because you weren't paying attention.

Seattle needs a basketball team again.

 

[Kelly A]

Seattle needs a basketball team again.

Probably won't happen in our lifetime.

 

[fordranger797]

Probably won't happen in our lifetime.

Why not? Most people said that that the NHL would never make it back to Seattle either, and yet here we are. It seems like (most of the time) little movement happens on getting an expansion franchise, and then all of a sudden it happens.

 

[Kelly A]

Why not? Most people said that that the NHL would never make it back to Seattle either, and yet here we are. It seems like (most of the time) little movement happens on getting an expansion franchise, and then all of a sudden it happens.

1. Too expensive to buy a team. Last transaction; Steve Ballmer paid over a billion for the Clippers. Estimates are now, that a NBA lackluster team like the Grizzlies would cost well over two. Even if Jodi Allen were to consider selling the Portland team that could be moved to Seattle, a price like that would be a tough ROI.
2. Little chance of franchise expansion. The NBA has been pushing for the next expansion to occur in Europe or Asia, not in the U.S. That, and likely another city such as Las Vegas would be eligible for expansion sooner than Seattle. The whole sale and move of the Sonics was a huge PR debacle with the NBA. They'd rather just stay out of Seattle.
3. The NBA sees even the recent remodel of the Colosseum/Key Arena/Climate-Change-Promise-Whatever-Arena as still being inadequate for NBA games, primarily due to sight-line's. Seattle had an opportunity to build an acceptable arena back in the 90's, but the city threatened to sue in order to protect business for (at the time) Key Arena.