TALK WWIQ and its lackluster ratings

[joshzz]

How much longer must Talk WWIQ endure? The station has terrible ratings but has an incredible signal. I would hope by this time come Christmas, the owners will switch to a Soft AC like WDUV,-FM, Tampa, Fl.

The station owns the Tampa Market with a 10.1 rating! I believe such a station would command good ratings in the Philly market. The Purple People Meters will help it along as many offices will tune to a station like this. This would be a great format for the mediocre talk station, WWIQ to switch to.

Do you agree?

TAMPA RATINGS : WDUV-FM is #1
WDUV Soft AC Cox Media Group 10.1 10.1 10.1 712,200

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[FredLeonard]

Sorry, there's an AC station that already owns the market. And Philly ain't Tampa. Tampa is where Mid-westerners go to die.

Besides, according to Julius, it's 1210 that has terrible ratings and needs to do something - because of IQ.

But, OK, you like Soft AC. Sunny. A station in Tampa. This is the latest in a long line of posts saying I like it - they should flip. Not on how it works. Listen to Tampa online and enjoy.

 

[BobSmolarek]

Plus last time I was in Tampa and checked out DUV I noticed very little 60's music on it, and the "old man" who did all the promos was gone, replaced by a younger man. It's not the old WDUV. I heard a lot of Chi-Lites and Stylistics.

 

[chrocket87]

Do you agree?

TAMPA RATINGS : WDUV-FM is #1
WDUV Soft AC Cox Media Group 10.1 10.1 10.1 712,200

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And due to its ancient demos, WDUV isn't even top 10 in the market for billing.

 

[joshzz]

chrocket87 wouldn't you agree that the listeners of WDUV are much more likely to be upbeat, positive and spenders rather than the listeners to Mean Ole Syndicated Talk Radio WWIQ?

 

[cg41386]

chrocket87 wouldn't you agree that the listeners of WDUV are much more likely to be upbeat, positive and spenders rather than the listeners to Mean Ole Syndicated Talk Radio WWIQ?

Come again?

 

[chrocket87]

chrocket87 wouldn't you agree that the listeners of WDUV are much more likely to be upbeat, positive and spenders rather than the listeners to Mean Ole Syndicated Talk Radio WWIQ?

Perhaps, but they are also much less likely to be persuaded by radio advertising, hence why stations like WDUV don't bill all that well, even with great ratings.

 

[joshzz]

SPEAKING OF BILLING,
Is there any place on the internet that offers this information other than buying the book?

 

[chrocket87]

Sadly, not really. A few large markets will have their top 5 or so billers available to the public, but for the most part, it's not public info.

 

[joshzz]

What does WDUV-FM bill? What do the top stations in the Tampa market bill?

 

[FredLeonard]

Some large research libraries subscribe to BIA/Kelsey but you have to get the information the old fashioned way: Go to the stacks and look it up.

Where did you ever get the idea that Soft AC listeners are "upbeat and positive?" Do you have any data to support that? Actually, soft AC and right-wing talk listeners are often the same people. Just like the same people drink both liquor and coffee. They listen to Rush to get a political goose and a sense of moral outrage and then soft AC to mellow out. Notice all the right-wing sub-text on Lawrence Welks' re-runs. Actually, soft AC listeners are the reverse of "upbeat and positive" when they think about the music on other stations (music kids or minorities listen to instead of appreciating "good music"), and just listen to them when kids play on their lawn.

 

[aindik]

After the PPM, it seemed nationwide that the audience for urban contemporary formats was not what it used to be (and/or it never was). Result was consolidation of th format into fewer stations in each market, to reflect a declining audience.

Same thing may be happening in conservative talk. I think there's still an audience for it. Probably enough to sustain a radio station. Just not enough to sustain two.

Same thing happened with WYSP. There's still a substantial rock audience in town. But it's enough for 4 stations, not 5.

My understanding of AQH share is that, by the nature of the number, there's no overlap. Which means you can look at the AQH share of two different stations and assume they are different people. In which case, if there was only one station airing conservative talk, it has a potential AQH share equal to the sum of the shares of these two stations. That would be a pretty good rating for a single station.

I think that's eventually what happens. I think CBS and Merlin both exit the format in this market and CBS sells an AM station to Clear Channel, which continues on with the format, while Merlin sells its station to CBS to do something else with.

 

[joshzz]

I'm surprised Merlin hasn't flipped WWIQ to a more favorable, more desirable music format.

 

[wprt949]

How about a spanish music format for 106.9 ?

 

[aindik]

How about a spanish music format for 106.9 ?

Because it worked so well the last time somebody tried it?

 

[FredLeonard]

I'm surprised Merlin hasn't flipped WWIQ to a more favorable, more desirable music format.

You do understand that "more favorable" and "more desirable" is your personal preference? It's not what everybody desires or prefers? Besides, either way, you still get an old audience you can't sell to advertisers.

 

[joshzz]

HI Fred,

Good point.

Mike mentioned the hispanic format. I don't understand why it is a bad format other than the fact that a good portion of the audience would consist of illegal immigrants that can't report to Arbitron.

Fred I do think an easy listening format albeit with a more contemporary library library possibly than WDUV would do well. I think B101 and WJBR air too much kid stuff that people in the upper twenties to forties would prefer to do without.

Appreciate thoughts on this.

 

[FredLeonard]

HI Fred,

Good point.

Mike mentioned the hispanic format. I don't understand why it is a bad format other than the fact that a good portion of the audience would consist of illegal immigrants that can't report to Arbitron.

Fred I do think an easy listening format albeit with a more contemporary library library possibly than WDUV would do well. I think B101 and WJBR air too much kid stuff that people in the upper twenties to forties would prefer to do without.

Appreciate thoughts on this.

Musical tastes are diverse. Maybe more diverse than a generation or two ago. And people are less willing to listen to something that isn't exactly what they want. In additional to musical tastes, add in language, political preferences, sports... There are not enough stations in this market or any other for all the possible formats. Somebody gets left out.

Soft AC fans can get sort of close to what they want from B-101, JBR or maybe 98.1. Probably, years ago they got closer to what they wanted but those stations (like most) keep evolving to keep the money demos in their sights. A few years ago they planned a lot of 60s-70s music. Now, it's 70s-80s music (and 90s are creeping in). What you call "kids' stuff."

And soft AC fans always have the Internet.

Here's the hard part. Radio stations don't make money from ratings. They can use ratings to sell but selling makes money, not ratings. WPEN 950 had respectable ratings playing standards but they weren't making money. They had some local accounts but ad agencies were not interested. Same for soft AC and, yes, even right-wing talk. You only see raw totals in the published ratings but that's not what matters to ad agency media buyers. They want to know who is listening, and whether it's the kind of people who are likely to buy the clients' products.

Soft AC is available on the Internet. Maybe soft AC fans are slow to embrace Internet radio. Whatever it is that may make soft AC (or older) listeners slow to embrace new media, also makes them slow to embrace new products. That makes them not good prospects for advertisers. This discussion has happened here many times. Yes, older people have disposable income. They've already bought much of what they need, they aren't raising families and brand preferences are pretty set. Besides, a station like B-101 can deliver older listeners, in addition to "kids," because it's pretty much the best option for older listeners.

Now, somebody is going to want to point out somebody (themselves or somebody they know) who is an exception. Somebody in their 20s who likes soft AC, somebody in their 70s who listens online or even early-adopter grandparents. It happens. But media buyers aren't looking at individuals; they look at statistics.

PS: If you think a "good portion" of the Spanish-speaking population is undocumented, you might like IQ more than you realize. :

 

[John1]

Over 55 people ARE listening to internet radio or satellite. A friend who I'd expect to be listening to regular radio recently mentioned listening to WDUV all day at work. For an adult male who liked the traditional 'soft AC' of the 1970's-80's, then B101, etc. are no substitute playing basically 90's to now female-oriented pop music. WOGL is good but not 'soft'. The closest locally to soft AC is "Easy 93" in Wildwood but their streaming is inconsistent; my internet radio keeps knocking them off as a bad signal.

At the time Rumba 104.5 signed on I worked with several native Spanish language professionals from South America who had been listening to stations like Q102, they liked 104.5 for the music and culture more than the fact it was Spanish language as they spoke English & Spanish fluently. There is a good sized population of young professional Spanish & English speaking people in this market who aren't going to listen to 1310 or 1340 but would listen to a station playing contemporary 'Latin' music - the problem is there are many styles of Hispanic music and from varied cultures so in this area its hard to combine into one format.

 

[jay1986]

that would never happen in Philadelphia, it will be hard to beat B 101, clear channel tried with sunny 104 .5 and greater media tried with 95.7 and 97.5 and those stations didn't even make a dent on B 101, the only thing left to do in Philly is to put KYW on FM everything else has been tried if is not on the air is because it failed. philly has too many radio stations and the market is saturated Plus half of the population don't even listen to terrestrial radio anymore there's too much competition with satellite, Internet, and iPods.