Spring Arbs

[SirRoxalot]

The 12+ numbers are out for the Spring book. Yes, they're beauty contest numbers, so they don't really tell the full story, but...

WYRK and WBEN are #1 and #2, with 'YRK gaining a share, and 'BEN losing one. There's more joy in the Rand building as 'BLK grabs 4th with a 1.0 share increase, and 'JYE remains in 5th despite a small drop.

Citadel must be celebrating. 97-Rock and WHTT both saw big jumps, with 97-Rock up 1.8 and into 3rd place, and WHTT up .9 and into 6th. The Edge gained .4, which likely indicates that their younger male numbers are still strong.

Entercom took a hit with 'BEN down, Kiss down a little, and Star at its lowest number in a long time. 'GR's numbers were halved without Sabres support. The Lake fell to their lowest number in over a year.

Other notes of interest? 'KB stays under a share, and WECK shows up with a .4 - behind sister station WLVL's .6.

 

[Mark Giardina]

The Rochester book (12+) proved some what interesting.

WHAM and WBEE are still fighting for first place. WBZA moved up quite a bit.

WDXK took a bit of a hit, but not as bad as WRMM. Maybe removing Dee Alexander from morning drive was a bad move.

Legends FM almost doubled their numbers from the previous book and it will be interesting to see how they do in the summer book.

The rest of the stations in Rochester hardly moved from Winter 07 to Spring 08.

 

[SirRoxalot]

It looks like WRRM got spanked in Rochester, while Buzz had what looks to be their best book in over a year.

'DKX just came back to normal after getting kissed in the last book, as did 'PXY.

'CMF looks essentially flat, so the coming battle with a Wease-led Fox should be interesting.

 

[Element9]

Those beauty contest ratings for Buffalo are pretty interesting. Observations?

WGR: Nothing without the Sabres, which didn't make the playoffs. If WGR took this much of a dive 12+, we can only imagine what their 25-54 share looks like. But does this surprise anyone? Live by the sword, die by the sword.

WECK: Dick Greene paid HOW MUCH to do local news-talk? Ouch! Reality in Cheektowaga calling on a car phone: "Hey, why don't you guys change format to Standards, CHWO and WWWS combine for a 3 share... I'll hang up and listen to your answer." Pretty discouraging when your Lockport AM pulls a (marginally) higher share.

The Lake: OK, it's different at the Lake. But the fun's over, David. Entercom's stock is at an all-time low. Your 12 kW Play Station in Wethersfield isn't helping your Buffalo cluster. Used to be that you could bundle The Lake with WGR and try to stick it to 97 Rock. Not this book. Do the right thing for your clustermates WTSS and WKSE. Start wearing socks and take the Lake Country, if for no other reason than to take a few shares away from WYRK which most likely is steam rolling the market 18-94. (Here's where some astute poster pulls up one of my previous posts that reads something like "it would be stupid to take on WYRK..." yeah, OK, it would, but it would be stupid-er if The Lake was left to sit there and wet its pants with this catatonic format adored by 72 fans and Scott Fybush's wife, who has the station programmed on one of the buttons on her car radio.)

97 Rock: Well, well, well... the Sabres suck bilge water, WGR takes a hit and where do all the Men go? AC-DC, Zep, Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who...

WBEN: Down from Winter, Up from last Spring. Nice work... helps to be the market's only commercial news talk station with the highest paid air personality in America working middays... no, not Tiny Tommie B.

WJYE: Upper demo chicks dig it... living vicariously through Celine Dion, but there's likely more to the story, like maybe Delilah pulling big shares or Lance "I'm not Neil" Diamond putting up big numbers on Saturday night and big at-work shares too. That TV campaign paid off.

WTSS: Deceptive... bet there's some big shares there for Women 18-49.

WKSE: Star and Kiss, beating each other over the head for Women, the lines being blurred by the nature of Hot AC and CHR... Janet doing the "my daughters are going to college now, but in my mind, I'm still 27" thingie... another reason to take 107.7 Country and slice a few pounds off of WYRK... Addition by subtraction. Give the ladies a hand here.

WHTT: Up from Winter, nearly flat against last Spring. Changes on the horizon? Gold-based AC or a full flush flash back to Classic Hits... there's likely a format hole that could be filled with 60s-70s-80s-90s... and there's this station in New York that... never mind.

The Edge: Well, Opie & Anthony have left the building, but it's likely they didn't contribute much to the big picture, so no great loss. Good riddance to bad (white) trash. Bet these Edge numbers are solid Men 18-34, squarely 9 a.m. to midnight.

WBUF: Jack, playing what it wants and apparently not making that big of a dent in the market. CBS put this format on as a spoiler to 97 Rock and maybe WHTT... so far, 97 Rock has crushed Jack and WHTT seems to consistently outperform Jack. Buffalo's low-overhead, automated thorn-in-the-ass-station.

WBLK: Big winner as heritage Urban format pulls numbers from the inner city and the white bred 'burbs. 12+ numbers have a tendancy to yo-yo... it's all about diary placement and since Buffalo won't be a PPM market anytime soon, don't expect this scenario to change.

CKEY: Consistent, ehh? It's Kiss' thorn-in-the-ass station. Barkeep, another round of Can-Con here!

WWWS: The little station that could. Solid gold soul with a stick in the middle of the target demo. Old skool is cool. Temps, Tops, Aretha... imagine if this was on FM... whoa! Wait a minute, it was on FM... well, some of it. Did I mention Dick Greene and WECK.

That's my 39 cent take. It's 12+ so it's all a wild-ass guess. In three months, somebody will write the 25-54's on a napkin and pass it across the table, but by that time, WJYE and Star will be playing Christmas music.

-9-

 

[ThePickleReport]

WECK: Dick Greene paid HOW MUCH to do local news-talk? Ouch! Reality in Cheektowaga calling on a car phone: "Hey, why don't you guys change format to Standards, CHWO and WWWS combine for a 3 share... I'll hang up and listen to your answer." Pretty discouraging when your Lockport AM pulls a (marginally) higher share.

It's still early, but they are going to have to promote the station better. I've never felt worse about AM radio than I do now; iPods, satellite radio, HD Radio, streaming audio, etc. You name it.

They need to result to guerrilla warfare and get this station noticed, and fast. I think they have some good things going, but my beef with news-talk-sports stations is weekend content. I don't think flipping to adult standards is a solution on its own. But what about doing it on the weekend? I don't think it meshes with what they are doing very well, but oldies on the other hand could make an interesting splash on the weekends. Beat someone else to the punch. There's some pretty good syndicated content out there too which could make it easier.

Do the right thing for your clustermates WTSS and WKSE. Start wearing socks and take the Lake Country, if for no other reason than to take a few shares away from WYRK which most likely is steam rolling the market 18-94.

I'm not feelin' that. This is what gets corporate radio into trouble, taking a frequency that they paid big-money for, and trying to use it to "run interference" against the competition. I wouldn't doubt if they did that their style would be: buy WTSS and WKSE and get WLKK free. Country has been done before and it isn't going to impact WYRK much at all. I think its a fallacy that another country station could make hay in Buffalo. I've seen it fail too many times in the Northeast (Syracuse is a prime example).

I'd re-tool The Lake to run slightly younger and hipper to serve a demo between WEDG and 97 Rock.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Can the Crickets!

I'd re-tool The Lake to run slightly younger and hipper to serve a demo between WEDG and 97 Rock.

Isn't that pretty much where Jack is? Entercom ain't gonna staff The Lake, and 'BUF has a MUCH better signal.

The Lake has to be either unique, or be a spoiler. At this point, they'd probably do as well simulcasting Solid Gold Soul, although it would be a tough demo to sell.

I'm not sure that WYRK can't be nicked with a "specialized" country format. Whether its "new country" or "classic country" or "punk country" or whatever, it seems that there must be a couple of country shares available, either at the top or bottom of the age spectrum.

 

[Radknowski]

These 12+ ratings certainly bring out some interesting observations and projections. It appears the Lake and WECK are getting the board's interest again. The point was made regarding purchase price for the Lake and WECK. Given Entercom's once deep corporate pockets, The Lake is probably paid for. I don't see the Lake changing to Country. A little while ago, I had the pleasure of talking to an Entercom sales honcho who said they wished the Lake was doing a few shares better "in demo" but overall, they were pleased. I don't know if he was blowing smoke, but it's possible Entercom really is pleased. As for WECK: phew, that's some serious debt service. Realistically speaking, it may be insurmountable for WECK to make any waves by changing format to Standards. It may be better to stay the course and using the WXRL platform with talk. That WJYE-WTSS-WHTT-WBUF scrum is always interesting: AC-Hot AC-Gold AC-Rock AC. Something's gotta give. 97 Rock gave away a Harley with big fanfare and the potential of 97 Harley's. Looks like Men took the bait. That was a great promotion.

 

[Mark Giardina]

It looks like WRRM got spanked in Rochester.

If the spring book is any indication of the future, then it appears that WRMM is heading for a steady decline in listeners.

Granted this is only one book and I'm the first to admit that one rating book does not make or break a station. However the WRMM morning show is what garnered an audience, and that program just isn't what it used to be without the team of Tony and Dee.

I believe that once Tony's contact expires, he and Dee will team up on another station either owned by Clear Channel or Entercom.

If Crawford Broadcasting played its cards right it could erode some of WRMM's audience. However Legends still needs to be fine-tuned, starting with its music rotation.

Let's see what the summer book looks like.

 

[ThePickleReport]

Re: Can the Crickets!

I'd re-tool The Lake to run slightly younger and hipper to serve a demo between WEDG and 97 Rock.

Isn't that pretty much where Jack is? Entercom ain't gonna staff The Lake, and 'BUF has a MUCH better signal.

The Lake has to be either unique, or be a spoiler.

I think that's where I was headed. The Lake isn't unique enough. I think there's music not being played in Buffalo in the AAA realm where they could have a more exclusive audience where they might develop the station instead of just being a spoiler.

I'm not sure that WYRK can't be nicked with a "specialized" country format. Whether its "new country" or "classic country" or "punk country" or whatever, it seems that there must be a couple of country shares available, either at the top or bottom of the age spectrum.

Maybe they should try one of those country/classic rock hybrids!

 

[SirRoxalot]

Get Your Rowdy Friends Together!

Maybe they should try one of those country/classic rock hybrids!

There you go. "Outlaw Country". Change the calls to WHIW, and call it "The Hole In the Wall" gang....

 

[aaronread]

If WGR took this much of a dive 12+, we can only imagine what their 25-54 share looks like.

Not necessarily...I know of a few stations that have had really terrible 12+ numbers, but their 25-54 numbers (which, of course, matter a helluva lot more) are top-three for their market. (shrugs)

And once I saw the vice versa, too...ouch!