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Spring Ratings

W

WTUX

Guest
There are several surprises in the ratings just issued for Wilmington. First, by calling itself "NEW", WJBR-FM rebounded nicely to move back into first. Probably morning show issues contributed to a drop over at 93.7.

The big story, to me at least, is the big move up for WDEL. In 4th place now, for the first time in years. Losing Rush, adding another 3 hours of local talk plus Allen, seems to have done the trick. At the same time, WILM dropped, showing that the RUSH factor is no help at all for them.

Sports fans are continuing to stick with WIP; WWTX "The Ticket" is once again a no show, even with Blue Rocks baseball. Their afternoon "local" talk show, which often originates from Conn, is one of the worse talk shows I have ever heard. At one time, the host even admitted he had not been to any of the Philly/Wilmington sports venues.

Of course, no WAMS. That will help grab a buyer's attention!

R&B fans in Wilmington, as in Philadelphia, are still loving WDAS-FM.

Not a good book for country. Both WXCY and WXTU are down. I honestly think the Fall book was off, since WXCY is back to its normal numbers, not the huge gain it had in the Fall. Diary placement has a lot to do with that. Or maybe Keith Thompson leaving had a big negative impact?
 
Keith here...actually my departure would have no effect on the Spring numbers since I was there up until about the last week of the period. Even for nearly a week after my departure, my music scheduling was still in place, so I'll take some of the credit (or the blame as the case may be). We'll see how my absence affects them in the Fall! (sarcastic laughter goes here).

If I was still at WXCY, I'd be a little disappointed with the numbers...not because of the big dropoff from the Fall numbers, but because there was no growth from the previous Spring book. For whatever reason (signal issues could be the most likely culprit), WXCY always does better in the Fall than in the Spring, so we never really tried to compare Fall numbers to Spring numbers, but instead compared Spring numbers to previous Spring numbers and Fall numbers to previous Fall numbers. The Spring 2006 showing doesn't appear to be bad, but it seems to not show any growth from the previous Spring numbers. Of course, I don't have access to the complete breakdowns so I can only judge by the 12+ nuimbers.

As for WJBR, I really believe that the Fall 2005 book was an abberation (WXCY's probably was too) and that the Spring 2006 book was probably a reasonably accurate reflection of the market. As much as posters here like to pick on WJBR for their "vanilla" programming, I've always felt that WJBR does a fantastic job of programming to their demo...they do what they do very well (and those TV commercials with Katey Hill certainly pump up the visibility).

To me the most eye opening number was the showing of WRDX. Perhaps "The River" is starting to click. I think they'll be the most interesting station to watch in the Fall book.
 
Back last spring '05 when WILM's numbers shot way up as WDEL's just did in this spring's 12+ book, many here said that it was an aboration (placement of books), which apparently it was as the fall and now the new spring 12+ numbers bring WILM back to the number range they've been in for years. So, I guess for WDEL's new high, we'll have to wait until the fall book to see if it is an aboration too. However, if the numbers do hold for WDEL that might be a sign that local talk is starting to make a comeback to the radio scene over national syndicated talk, at least in Wilmington. It also may signal that Rush's long run as #1 is coming to an end. I heard Michael Savage the other night say that he was #1 in New York City and the #1 talk show in San Francisco. My guess is Hannity may be bumping Rush from #1 in other markets as well. It could be a combination of these two things, Limbaughs time as king of talk is ending and local talk is again becoming popular. The only time, I believe, that both WDEL and WILM go head to head for local talk is from 9am-11:30am (Al Masetti on WDEL vs John Watson on WILM). WDEL has Jerry and Rick in the afternoons during Rush on WILM. WILM has a new local talk show at 3pm-4pm while WDEL has Hannity (WILM then does their afternoon newsblock starting at 4pm as WDEL continues Hannity). I am not familiar with WDEL's weekend schedule in terms of local talk. WILM does have local talk Saturday mornings with Harmon Carey 8am-9am, and then A.Ralph Woodrow (doing a home fix it show) 9am-10am, then NewsTalk PM - Saturday night with your's truly from 9pm-10pm ( I've been doing the show since mid March when the previous host moved to another state). Then Sunday evening at 7pm-8pm with Charles Brittingham. So actually, local talk seems to be alive and well on Wilmington radio.

Just as back when radio moved away from Network Radio programming at the beginning of the 1950's and reinvented itself by becoming local mostly music vs dramas comedies, etc, maybe we're seeing a new trend where talk radio is changing again, it had been mostly local talk then the Limbaugh thing happened and talk radio went mostly national, to now where maybe the trend will be moving back to more localized talk and fewer national satellite talkers. I guess time will tell.
 
WILM has several clearly-spoken, good male voices on staff, Fowser, LeCompte, etc.....  Why aren't any of them anchoring AM drive?
 
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