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Spring Ratings

How could WILM even possibly beat WDEL in the ratings with the poor quality dreck they dish out!  Is WILM's new morning show making the difference?  This is impossible to believe.

As for WJBR, it looks like that they have taken a hit since dumping Michael Waite, which I think was an unfortunate move. I imagine that morning listeners are also increasingly put off by Jill Quail's horribly deteriorating voice. She sounds like the late Selma Diamond.
 
WDAS-FM is killing everybody. And Power 99 is doing well.

WILM's new morning show must be working. And somehow, picking up Beck must have helped. His show has really gone downhill, but people must be listening.

With Phillies baseball, WDEL should be up. But the fact that every game is on TV is taking a toll on radio coverage. And the radio announcers are so crappy they are hurting the product. They don't know we can't SEE the game. They announce radio like its TV and that's no good. When I have to go 20 minutes before I hear the score, I get ticked off. Remember, us radio listeners cannot see the score!

Without the Blue Rocks, The Ticket's ticket has been punched.

How can WSTW fall that low? I think we are talking the 80's since it was that low. More and more shops I go into that used to play WSTW have switched to WJBR. But that doesn't seem to be helping 99.5 either.
 
As far as WILM goes, "Elliot's in the Morning" is a good AM drive program. Bruce has a good sense of humor. His co-reporters are good. They bring the same news, as WDEL, it's more about the presentation of the product.

As I've said before WDEL's AM newscast is good and very professional sounding, with two excellent anchors in Melanie Armstrong and Peter McArthur, BUT they play at least one spot AFTER each item, so they do traffic, then a spot, then the weather, then a spot or two or three, etc, then a news story and then a spot. They play so many spots so often that it can take quite a while to hear what you tuned in to hear. It seems like 60 sec of info then at least 60 sec of spots/PSA's/Promos then another 60 sec of info then another 60 sec of spots, etc, then Melanie or Peter will tease you with what's coming up and then another 60 seconds of spots, etc, then another 60 sec of info and then another 60 seconds of spots, etc, etc. Frankly it gets irritating. As the old joke goes, "we'll interrupt these commercials for a news story". I've tried to listen to WDEL during morning drive, but the constant barrage of spots interrupting so often, is a turn off and causes me to switch to WILM.

WILM on the other hand traffic/weather together, then a block of spots, then some news story Bruce comes up with or a clip from The Colburn Report, so he gives you a chuckle as well as the serious news. His interviews with the various Fox reporters have improved greatly where he stays more focused on the news and less on trying to bash Obama or the Democrats so those are now better interviews, more news worthy. So bottom line is you get a reasonable amount of info before getting the next block of spots. Frankly it seems like WDEL and WILM are airing around the same amount of spots per hour, but WILM puts them into a block where WDEL gives you one or two every 60 seconds. To each his/her own. Plus the humor makes for a lighter start to the day, makes all that bad news a bit easier to hear first thing in the morning. I enjoy the Coburn stuff and look forward to it for my morning laugh while getting ready for work. So for AM drive, at least for my ears, WILM.

However, I would think as older more conservative type listeners listens to AM which might give WILM the advantage over WDEL during Al Messitti's Show. Even though Beck is Beck and a bit out there, conservative ears are not going to want to hear the liberal dialogue of Messitti, so they tune to WILM for Glenn Beck.

The one problem with Al's show is as working folks can't sit and hang on the phone waiting about 12-20 minutes to get on Al's show, he generally gets the same callers, most of whom are retired or unemployed. Because, when Al gets a call he'll have a nice long conversation with the person which brings him to the next 3-5 minute WDEL spot break along with the weather. If there's more than one caller a head of you, you're sitting for almost a half hour waiting to get your chance to talk to Al thus eliminating working folks from participating. If you're on a cell phone driving (hand's free of course heh heh) that's a lot of wasted minutes you're paying sitting on hold. Some of those callers are a bit boring which might also contribute to a gain for WILM.

Someone suggested placement of diaries being the issue. However, with WDEL vs WILM that's not likely an effect as WDEL gets out far better than WILM, even during the day, and at night no contest at all WDEL has it over WILM signal wise.

However, this is the first book in a while that WILM has beat WDEL, if it became a consistent thing, I'd then get worried at WDEL, but the fall book could just as easily have WDEL ahead of WILM. They both are not that far apart in ratings.

Another thing that might be helping WILM is their simulcast with WDOV in the AM drive so folks coming north from Dover or going south from Wilmington might remember WILM for the diary better than WDOV, even though they've switched to WDOV as they get below Smyrna and switch to either 1450 or 1410 depending on which way they are driving.

Shifting gears a bit. Maybe the Baltimore Oriole games have helped WWTX 1290 a bit to make up for losing the Blue Rocks and may be why they at least show at the bottom of the ratings. Baltimore has very polished radio sportscasters doing the play by play and they do give the score more often the the Phillies radio guys do and there are a fair number of O's fans here.

I didn't notice 89.7 WGLS showing up so the Blue Rocks may not be helping their ratings in the Wilmington area.

Also 1260 WNWK Newark shows at the bottom of the ratings too, which is a rare thing for the Newark station to show at all.
 
Mike, you may want to review the ratings again. Yes, both WWTX and WNWK show at the bottom of the list. But with ZERO listeners. Last Spring, both had numbers.

That may be part of the problem. Last Spring, AM had 10.2% of the audience numbers. This Spring it is 7.6%. The AM audience base in Delaware is vanishing quickly. In most markets it is still 10-15. But we are nearing the time of zero AM. You can, like WDEL, put out a great product. But if there is no one on the AM band to listen, what's the point. You may as well pull a Clear Channel and just syndicate national shows.
 
Mike, I fully agree with your assessment of WDEL's chopped-up, "tell you-what-were-are-going-to-tell-you-then-play-two-spots-then-tell-you" format.

I also note that they have a VERY stale news cycle. The exact pieces that Amy, Peter or Melany may produce to run in the mid-day or afternoon, usually end up running again the next morning. At the same time, pieces that are new in the moring, are still running in the afternoon. In all of these cases, it is not an alternate version and cut of the same story, but it is THE SAME STORY.

When I heard that Carl Kanefesky had recently rejoined WDEL, I assumed it was to provide the newsteam with some broader audio story coverage and to alleviate this problem. But apparently not, as he is working on video projects.
 
I agree with the death of AM. The life support line is running out of energy. The question is, will cc or delmarva pull the plug on an FM, ala WSTW or WDSD and put the talk on FM? It's coming, just who will be first.
 
jhguthlac, I noted both WWTX and WNWK were on the bottom of the list with 0%, but figured that meant that some folks had actually listed them on their diary, but not enough folks to equal 0.1% and the ratings don't break it down to say 0.09% or 0.01%, etc. Maybe only 10 folks listed the station, but how many years have gone by when neither station was even mentioned. But I totally agree that AM is losing its audience. I listen to AM far less than I used to and I'm 60, so I agree that the younger listeners definitely are not seeking out AM.

Your point about WDEL and with a smaller AM audience, probably will eventually pull a CC and go more syndicated, but as long as they can make money doing what they are doing, they seem willing to do it. I give Delmarva a lot of credit for going to the trouble and effort to be live and local, they seem to be investing in making their web site a place to go for Delaware / national/ international info. Someday when AM finally does bite the dust in this town as Family Radio buys 1150 and Focus on the Family buys 1450, I agree that CC's WDSD and Delmarva's WSTW will probably drop music and go news/talk for local radio and both Delmarva and CC are banking that their websites will pull in the younger news listener and the ad dollars.
 
Arbitron leaves a station on the list if it showed listeners in the recent past. 1290 and 1260 were in Spring of last year, so they stayed for the Fall and Spring 2011 books.
 
WSTW going down in the ratings is no surprise to me. The morning show, with Spencer Graves is really weak? More music and less talk, I think would help. Spencer sounds like he is really into himself, and it is a real turn off to listen too. As for WDEL, I am shocked! WDEL puts out a MUCH BETTER product then WILM. I can not listen to Bruce Elliot in the mornings, and the rest of it all none local CRAP!!! Chris Carl, and the rest of the team at WDEL do one hell of a job, and when the fall ratings come out, I think WDEL will be back at a 3.0 to a 3.3.
 
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