Talk Radio Scoreboard for Large Markets - Nov. 2013

[Gregg.]

The aftermath of the government shutdown and fiscal cliff continued to help the Talk Radio format in November. Five Talk stations scored in the Top 10 in their markets, with WSB holding on to the top spot in Atlanta. In Market 11, WJR Detroit was at #5, and in Market 13, KIRO(FM) Seattle was at #3.

WWIQ(FM) Philadelphia signed off, switching to Christian Contemporary K-Love. Oddly, that didn't help WPHT. They were at #21 in October, competing with WWIQ. And they were at #21 in November, even after bringing Rush back to their line-up.

1. New York...WABC (Cumulus) #13 tie ... WOR (Clear Channel) #22
2. Los Angeles...KFI (Clear Channel) #9 tie ... KABC (Cumulus) #37
3. Chicago...WGN (Tribune) #9 ... WLS (Cumulus) #15 tie
4. San Francisco...KSFO (Cumulus) #13 ... KKSF (Clear Channel) #17 tie
5. Dallas...WBAP (Cumulus) #12 tie
6. Houston...KRTH (Clear Channel) #7
7. Washington...WMAL-AM-FM (Cumulus) #7
8. Philadelphia...WPHT (CBS) 21 ... WKXW(FM) (Townsquare) #24
9. Atlanta...WSB/WSBB(FM) (Cox) #1
10. Boston...WRKO (Entercom) #15 tie

I only include commercial Talk stations that scored at least a one rating, except for heritage Talk outlet KABC.

 

[FredLeonard]

WWIQ(FM) Philadelphia signed off, switching to Christian Contemporary K-Love. Oddly, that didn't help WPHT. They were at #21 in October, competing with WWIQ. And they were at #21 in November, even after bringing Rush back to their line-up.

Except Rush was still on WWIQ - and not on WPHT - for most of the rating period. And WWIQ was not listed in the published numbers (probably because they stopped subscribing).

Too bad your listing does not include demos and revenue figures - the "ratings" that actually mean something.

 

[BigJimmy]

so you mean shares & cumes are virtuallly useless? Ive had other people telll me that.
And they said a lot of smoke & mirrors are used in radio & TV ratings. (ratings manipulation).

 

[Gregg.]

I wouldn't say "useless." Obviously if a station is at or near the top overall, they're probably doing OK in their target demos. If you see a Top 40 station at #5 and a competitor at #15, I think we can be confident the one at #5 is doing quite well in revenues. The one at #15 is likely not doing as well. The only time the overall ratings may have to be taken with a grain of salt is for older-skewing formats where many of the listeners are above the 54 year old cut-off, or a format that zeroes in on either men or women.

For instance, an Active Rock station may have so-so ratings. But if they only demo they care about is young men, they may be doing OK in that demo, even if they're ranked lower than other stations. Still, if they rank around #20 in the market, they probably aren't doing great in even their target demo.

I wouldn't call that smoke and mirrors. Maybe for a brief time they could stunt with big contests or no commercials. But eventually the true ratings will become apparent.