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Spring Has Sprung

S

SirRoxalot

Neilsen numbers are out for Spring 2018. The beauty contest numbers put WYRK on top with an 11 share - up 2.7. WBLK takes 2nd place with a 9.6, and WHTT finished 3rd with a 7.3 - up 2.5. WBEN drops from 9.8 to 7.2. 97 Rock is 4th, down from 7.6 to 6.4.

Maybe WNY is simply tired of politics and blather. WHAM in Rochester also dropped 2.5 shares from 8.3 to 6.7, placing third in the Flower City.

Star & Kiss were both up a share or more. WGR-AM headed downward toward the summer doldrums. Mix 92.9 dropped to 10th with a 2.5. WECK was down slightly with a 2.3, beating WBUF's swoon from 3.2 to 2.0. The Lake eked out a 1.3, beating WWWS who posted a 1.1 on 1400 AM.

I know, money demos, dayparts, females, males, 25-54, 35-64, blah, blah, blah. There still seems to be a lot more movement in this book than we usually see. Maybe it's a fluke.
 
SirRoxalot said:
Maybe WNY is simply tired of politics and blather. WHAM in Rochester also dropped 2.5 shares from 8.3 to 6.7, placing third in the Flower City.
Click to expand...

I agree...there seems to be a national movement in that direction. Talk stations would be wise to find other subjects to talk about.
 
I have to say, I am very proud of my team at WECK. To BEAT WBUF and to come .2 shares behind 96.1, two powerhouse 50,000 watt stations with money to burn is pretty damn good for my 1KW AM. As well as BEATING 107.7, another killer signal. This book is without our 100.5FM frequency and our additional oldies sound. Yes, I know....a 4 share is what I want, and it will happen.

I would also like to address that like ROX said, these are 12 plus numbers. The 35 plus and 50 plus numbers for WECK make it the best radio value in the market. Some of the best numbers ever. The only demo I care about is 50 plus. Don't be fooled, that IS the money demo.
 
Rox & Shula made a couple errors. Alternative Buffalo got the 1.3. The Lake used to be on 107.7. The 107.7 signal is far from "Killer", but The Lake still got 3 shares or better as an Album Rock format. The ALT format can't draw flies. Maybe content does matter to many people...
 
tbolt909 said:
Rox & Shula made a couple errors. Alternative Buffalo got the 1.3. The Lake used to be on 107.7. The 107.7 signal is far from "Killer", but The Lake still got 3 shares or better as an Album Rock format. The ALT format can't draw flies. Maybe content does matter to many people...
Click to expand...

I said 107.7 has a killer signal. I did not say metro. They cover 13 counties.
 
tbolt909 said:
Rox & Shula made a couple errors. Alternative Buffalo got the 1.3. The Lake used to be on 107.7. The 107.7 signal is far from "Killer", but The Lake still got 3 shares or better as an Album Rock format. The ALT format can't draw flies. Maybe content does matter to many people...
Click to expand...

The WLKK call letters belong to Alternative 107.7, which is why I called it "The Lake" - an appellation that would be familiar to locals on this board who relate it to the 107.7 frequency.

The coverage is indeed monster if you count counties where cows outnumber people. It's a fringe frequency in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls and Rochester markets. Buddy may have better coverage in the metro with his AM and translators.

'Bolt, you can whine all you want about the old Lake variety format. It ain't coming back. Entercom has moved on. Perhaps you should do the same.
 
Buddy Shula said:
I said 107.7 has a killer signal. I did not say metro. They cover 13 counties.
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Many of those counties are rural with more plants & animals, than potential Radio users. 107.7 is using the WLKK call letters, but they do not call themselves The Lake on the air. Rox the expert should know this. The Lake was a different format than the current ALT one. These days a 1.3 share is a smashing success. The bar is pretty low.

Nielsen hasn't updated their format list. The Edge is Alternative, not Active Rock. WECK is still listed as Standards. Even Nielsen thinks it's all irrelevant at this point...
 
tbolt909 said:
Nielsen hasn't updated their format list. The Edge is Alternative, not Active Rock. WECK is still listed as Standards. Even Nielsen thinks it's all irrelevant at this point...
Click to expand...

Nielsen does not provide format names or descriptions to the websites that publish ratings results. That is the job of the websites themselves.
 
tbolt909 said:
Many of those counties are rural with more plants & animals, than potential Radio users. 107.7 is using the WLKK call letters, but they do not call themselves The Lake on the air. Rox the expert should know this. The Lake was a different format than the current ALT one. These days a 1.3 share is a smashing success. The bar is pretty low.

Nielsen hasn't updated their format list. The Edge is Alternative, not Active Rock. WECK is still listed as Standards. Even Nielsen thinks it's all irrelevant at this point...
Click to expand...

WECK will be listed as Oldies next time around
 
Radio Online is a website devoted to RADIO. Shouldn't they they make an effort to care about accuracy?

WECK is five shares behind WHTT right now(probably its closest format competitor). That's a wide gulf...
 
tbolt909 said:
Radio Online is a website devoted to RADIO. Shouldn't they they make an effort to care about accuracy?

WECK is five shares behind WHTT right now(probably its closest format competitor). That's a wide gulf...
Click to expand...

WE have no format competitor - HTT is an 80's station. WECK has an exclusive format
 
tbolt909 said:
Radio Online is a website devoted to RADIO. Shouldn't they they make an effort to care about accuracy?
Click to expand...

Maybe they should. But if they report ratings in about 200 markets, with perhaps an average of 20 stations listed per market, that is over 4,000 stations to keep track of.

The strange thing is that Nielsen asks stations to identify one of a standard list of formats, and that data is in the subscriber and agency release... but they do not provide it to the press. And even then, there are plenty of stations that don't update Nielsen after a format shift.

WECK is five shares behind WHTT right now(probably its closest format competitor). That's a wide gulf...
Click to expand...

As buddy said, the formats are not overlapping.
 
SirRoxalot said:
Neilsen numbers are out for Spring 2018. The beauty contest numbers put WYRK on top with an 11 share - up 2.7. WBLK takes 2nd place with a 9.6, and WHTT finished 3rd with a 7.3 - up 2.5. WBEN drops from 9.8 to 7.2. 97 Rock is 4th, down from 7.6 to 6.4.
Click to expand...


Can't remember the last time WBEN slipped out of the top 3.

Were there a lot of funerals this spring?
 
It's Persons 12+. No wagering, please.

Still... WYRK, which a few weeks ago parted ways with its PD and PM drive talent, is again sitting atop the pack at Numberrr One (slap-back echo added for emphasis) and probably owns every day part and demo. WBLK, guided by a PD who came to Buffalo just over a year ago, is equally dominant. With ratings like that, the two stations will no doubt charge Townsquare's revenue.

Star and Kiss look quite healthy, especially as a complimentary force. But the other side of the Entercom coin is surprising. WBEN's Spring slide surprises this poster because the period was chock full of talk-worthy news events, both locally and nationally. Could WBFO has taken a small but effective bite out of WBEN? Could be people are burned out from all the political posturing at "930 WGOP?" It wouldn't not be helpful (see what I did there) to see WBFO's P12+ rating in order to compare WBEN to WBFO. Again, it's Persons 12+. Very likely, WBEN has a monkey grip on 55+.

WGR slipping from 5 to 4.2 also is a bit surprising, given the topicality of the Sabres and Bills draft picks. Again,we're looking at Persons 12+. WGR could have scored very well with Men 25-54. Somehow, I'm sure the Entercom cluster will be able to sell those combos on the street.

WHTT surpasses 97 Rock? Amazing! But given that Western New York ("Buffalo") has had an affinity for Oldies-Classic Hits, and the 104.1 frequency has been home to the format in one form or another since 1986 when the station first went Classic Hits (which morphed into Oldies, then became Buffalo's Greatest Hits, followed by the Mix experiment [epic fail], before returning to Classic Hits), this number shouldn't be that big of a surprise. Still, it's impressive. Wonder if some of the gains made by WHTT came at the expense of Cumulus co-owned 97 Rock, which is down slightly more than a share. And the Edge being slightly down at 3.7 is revealing. Shredd and Ragan carry the station, but what happens after 10 a.m.

As to WECK, a 2.3 isn't a 4, but it's pretty darn impressive. Yet, the 2.3 reflects programming before the format was tweaked. Lots of people will be watching what happens as the WECK officially positions itself as Oldies. Then again, as a poster noted on a previous thread, if WECK becomes too successful, its format could be encroached upon by a more powerful poacher.

Big question: What do Alt 107.7, Jack FM and Mix do? Their numbers aren't not disappointing. Is Jack playing what listeners don't want? Wrong ingredients in the Mix? Is Alt smallternative? Let the speculation of format adjustments begin on this board. Step up and spin the wheel!

Anybody remember Alice@92 point 9? Joy? It's Deeper at the Lake?

Kidding.
 
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tbolt909 said:
Many of those counties are rural with more plants & animals, than potential Radio users. 107.7 is using the WLKK call letters, but they do not call themselves The Lake on the air. Rox the expert should know this. The Lake was a different format than the current ALT one. These days a 1.3 share is a smashing success. The bar is pretty low.

Nielsen hasn't updated their format list. The Edge is Alternative, not Active Rock. WECK is still listed as Standards. Even Nielsen thinks it's all irrelevant at this point...
Click to expand...

I don't think that The Edge considers itself "Alternative" - and the music list doesn't support that. The Edge considers itself Active Rock, and compares with other Active Rock stations more than Alternative stations around the country.

You can quibble all you want about my use of "The Lake." It was simply a shorthand identifier for those less contentious about the former 107.7 format. Nobody said that 1.3 is a "smashing success." Its demos, however, may be more saleable than the superior 12+ numbers garnered by the old Lake format, particularly when bundled with Entercom's other stations. 12+ numbers don't mean much, and they mean nothing if you can't turn them into revenue. They're non-traditional revenue appears to be much higher than the Lake format offered. Their Kerfluffle shows do way better than anything the Lake delivered, and draw an audience more desired by advertisers and clubs.

WECK was a Standards station during the Spring book. We'll see if it's an Oldies station during the next book. At the moment, I'd call it "evolving." We'll see if it ends up as "oldies", or "eclectic." In general, format tags are boxes. Sometimes it's more effective to break out of the box and serve an available audience.
 
Buddy Shula said:
WE have no format competitor - HTT is an 80's station. WECK has an exclusive format
Click to expand...

WHTT has more '70s music than '80s music. WECK will only be "exclusive" if they stay in the '50s and '60s, and even then it's arguable that WWWS and WJJL are already there. Of course, the latter two don't have translators or the programming talent of WECK. Overall, I think it's arguable that WHTT listeners may punch WECK's button during some of those long commercial sets. So far, they seem to be finding a reason to punch back to 104.1. That's not to say that Buddy can't make a nice living as an "alternative" for those 55+.

Radio listening in general appears to be skewing toward the upper demos as younger listeners abandon their iPods for Pandora, Spotify, and other on-line audio sources.
 
Rox, you may want to look at The Edge website. They call themselves Rock Alternative. The playlist is essentially the same as other cities Alternative formats.

It's amusing that you despise anything different, yet now you advocate trying to "break out of the box & try something different". Just because people attend a Summer concert doesn't mean they listen to that station. The ratings confirm that. Maybe people do want something "different" than what is currently being served...
 
SirRoxalot said:


WHTT has more '70s music than '80s music. WECK will only be "exclusive" if they stay in the '50s and '60s, and even then it's arguable that WWWS and WJJL are already there. Of course, the latter two don't have translators or the programming talent of WECK. Overall, I think it's arguable that WHTT listeners may punch WECK's button during some of those long commercial sets. So far, they seem to be finding a reason to punch back to 104.1. That's not to say that Buddy can't make a nice living as an "alternative" for those 55+.

Radio listening in general appears to be skewing toward the upper demos as younger listeners abandon their iPods for Pandora, Spotify, and other on-line audio sources.
Click to expand...

WHTT is getting away from the 70's. The 70's they play is mainly mid to upper 70's, lots of disco type stuff. They are not playing Jay Ferguson "Thunder Island" like WECK does. They are not playing "Chevy Van" like WECK does. No Major company will change to Oldies. They think there is no money in it, and they need to have a futuristic view to tell their stockholders. Their stock holders want to hear that radio is hitting 25-54, is incredible at digital and everything else. I have said this before. Younger people are NOT listening to radio, and if they are, it's not by choice.

Radio is an old medium. At WECK,we don't try to fight that, we embrace it, as I do not answer to shareholders.

We have gotten nothing but compliments from our audience on the addition of more of the 50's and 60's. They love it in addition to the Frank, Dean, Perry, which you will still hear.

WECK is focused solely on one thing. The older demo, in a city that is older by nature. I don't make moves based on ratings, I make them based on sales. Like I said, I am very proud of what a 1KW AM has been able to do in both ratings and revenue, and most importantly the way we can help charities and community.

Let the other guys figure out what their going to say on their quarterly conference call
 
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