Top Stations in Seattle

[djdan]

This board judges stations by ratings. Corporations judge them by billing and cash-flow. Here is the approximate order of revenue leaders in Seattle moving into fourth quarter:

KMPS
KIRO
KZOK
KRWM
KOMO
KMTT, KUBE, KPLZ (Tie)

None of these numbers include sports billing. If the Mariners and Huskies were included in the MK numbers, KOMO would be number one and KJR-AM would join the top five.
Top billing clusters in Seattle are Infinity, Entercom and Fisher.

Only KMPS is down in billing from the previous year. A good year for the rest of these stations. Many times ratings and revenue do not correlate. KZOK and KMTT are the only stations in the above group that rank top five 25-54 adults. KIRO and KOMO are not even top ten. There is more to a successful station than just ratings. Note that all of the above stations have live air-staffs, market heritage, and a community minded image. Each of these stations has one other huge attribute: they are consistent and slowly adjust to change without overreacting. That is VERY important to an advertiser.

 

[mammaknowsbest]

These kinds of ya ya posts irritate me to no end. Advertising agencies and cleints like
DJ dan are a disgrace. To see non-performing stations like KIRO, KOMO,KMPS continue to lead
the market in billing is just plain insane. Come on!!! KMTT and KPLZ are dogs that got lucky for a couple of books in women, but it will be shortlived.
You want a reason why inventive radio like MOVIN, JACK
and WOLF have trouble its cause clients keep feedin cash to the DOGS. Seems to me people with vision like
follow mammas lead and look for future winners at a good price rather than keep sending money to
stations that ain't got it anymore. This site is about PROGRAMMING dan, not sales. What you posted is a
crime in so many ways. Advertisers that buy most of these stations are gettin ripped off. They are the past. If you paid 400 bucks to be on
KMPS and 200 to be on the WOLF. The advertiser that bought the WOLF spent their money well. You get my drift. Four book averages are for
those that live in the past. Look to the future and win.
Mammaknowsbest!

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

I'm reading your comment and thinking "I could substitute MOVIN' for ANY station you mentioned" and the sentence is just as accurate. Lucky and Movin' could be synonyms.

This site is only about programming? I never got that memo. Sorry!

So much for the shot at this year's ya ya "gets along well with others" congeniality trophy! (But based on the anger I see in your gender mentions you still have a great shot at "most likely to climb the Space Needle with an assault rifle".


....breathe!

 

[Shark]

This site is about PROGRAMMING dan, not sales.

Um, excuse me but I thought this site was about RADIO? That includes programming, sales, engineering, promotions and even the traffic people if they want to chime in. By the way, the whole ya-ya schtick is beyond annoying at this point.

 

[pbf1]

By the way, the whole ya-ya schtick is beyond annoying at this point.

Amen!

Let us now refer to it as the "yada yada" sisterhood.

 

[joellyroll]

To see non-performing stations like KIRO, KOMO,KMPS continue to lead
the market in billing is just plain insane.

I am not in radio but I can assure you that the reason stations like those above are top billing is because
people like me listen to them. I am a male age 52 and am in the over 60k per year wage bracket. I have and
will continue to buy from the advertisers of the stations I listen to. So, mammaknowsbest, where is the
money????

I couldn't care less about Jack, Movin, Kiss, and any other station that is just pop-culture. I want to be informed
about what is really going on in the world around me. I care what kind of world my children and grandchildren will
have to live in.

That is my opinion and if I am not mistaken I'll bet djdan will back me up on this.

 

[ilovebeer]

Joelyroll, you're close but not quite. 25-54 is the money demo. KMPS delivers that perfectly. KOMO just has a HUGE cume and they're the only true news station in the market. KIRO is heritage.

However stations like KRWM, KZOK, etc. who perform well in that 25-54 also bill well. And wage bracket isn't everything...poor people spend money too and there's lots more poor folks than rich folks! That's why Walmarts, Targets, etc. advertise so damn much! And Jack/Movin/Kiss who do target those 25-54 bill decent and always will as long as they have listeners.

 

[radioprofessor]

Both posts above are correct. Older demographics tend to have more dollars and spend more, but are less swayed by a radio ad. Younger poor people can be easily swayed by advertising, but have less money to spend. Therefore the 25-54 demographic becomes the gold standard for advertisers, particularly 35-54. These people are young enough to hear an advertisement and be open to buying a product, yet old enough to have dollars to spend. Power ratios also come into play. News and Talk stations make more dollars because they play twice as many commercials. For example KIRO and KOMO play up to 22 minutes of commercials an hour, versus JACK which plays 10. Personality Adult Top 40 and CHR stations also play more commercials at 12-15 minutes which is more than automated stations primarily because personalities help bond listeners to a station beyond music. Heritage AM stations and personality driven stations have the ability to play more commercials while keeping an audience. This leads to stronger billing. Audience composition parameters also drive power ratios. 35-54 female and male stations, that score high on income statistics tend to get a bigger share of national business. AC, HOT/AC and Newtalk tradionally top this category.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

This brief interchange is why I detest focus groups!! Someone will say "I like 'this' or 'that' about a station ... or 'this bothers me', etc." In joellyroll's case he's even loyal to a station's advertisers with discretionary income within his reach.

In the next interchanges it's almost like "radio" saying back "thanks ... but you're not attractive to us because we'd rather listen to buyers tell us we have to focus 25-54." A listener who can clearly identify what he wants from a station steps up and says "I like my stations to deliver local and you can keep the i-pod stuff -- not for me". Decades upon decades have proven that is the core of what works to MAKE a heritage station.

I was elated to read that because it tells me there IS hope for stations who keep the eyes on a local community and program to win ... 18-34 25-54 or whatever. Enough pie to go around. But we have to LISTEN to what people are asking and not just listen to the corporate memos, R&R columns, etc. that try to make "one size fits all" rules that don't always apply very well.

 

[Steenman]

As a media buyer I have personally placed millions of dollars of radio commercials in this market over the past 20 years with many stations and formats. I make this point only as a frame of reference. First, ratings are a "factor" in a buying decision, but by no means the only factor. Yes, you want low CPP or CPM but what you really want are measurable results for your customers. Sometimes a smaller station that is really priced right, wants to throw in a promotion or tie in on -air chatter, can better deliver customers to a business than a larger station where your available budget won't buy you the frequency you need (would you rather reach 2000 people one time or 20 people 100 times? Hint, pick #2 because radio is a frequency media). Also, there are factors like exclusive CUME, which is why KCMS is such a good buy for the right audience. There is also the whole foreground listening argument which is how stations like KOMO and KIRO get more than their share of business and how stations like WARM, JACK and JAZZ (and yes MOViN) get less than perhaps they should. I'd like to see this board be less about ratings and more about the relevancy of local Seattle radio to listeners and advertisers because, unless we are limiting our discussion to NPR and non-comm stations, these are the relevant factors for it's success. I'd also like to see more discussion about interactive and web, these are the up and coming partners to this media. Thanks for reading.

 

[djdan]

Right on Steenman! This was my point with the billing summary at the top of the post. In the end, the advertising has to work. The reason stations like KMPS, KIRO, KOMO, KPLZ, KZOK all bill at the top of the market is because they actually have exclusive cume and listeners that are truly listening because the stations are more than music machines. These are not background stations like KRWM, JACK, KQMV and KJR-FM. They also have listeners in the sweet demo spot of 35-54 and over index on income. KCMS is wonderful, but is one of the lowest indexing income stations in the market. I agree somewhat on your reach and frequency comments. Most savvy buyers, especially at the national level, search for a combination. They will buy expensive big reach stations and then use frequency stations to bring in the CPP. The reason for the post is to establish that ratings are just a factor, but not the only factor in radio success. Stations who win big deliver on market heritage, personalities who go the extra mile for clients and community service. When I go on national presentations these are just as important as the number I put in front of them. This may be sales crap to the programming folk that scan this board, but sales is an important part of the success of a station. To corporations, I guarantee you that being on top of MK is better than number one in an arbitron.

 

[ABQTom]

Re: KIRO HOSTS

While KIRO is indeed a heritage station and tops for revenue, as djDan points out, KIRO has also declined quite a bit in the ratings over the last few years. KIRO has been neck and neck with AM 1090's Hartmann/Schultz middays.

KIRO lost advertisers when they fired Webb and when Pate exited.
KIRO's advertising revenue could be much greater if the new owner would re-hire the discontinued hosts, and bring back Tony Miner/Linda Thomas for afternoon news to compete with KOMO. If they go with the KSL nightside project instead of local hosts, their ratings will go even lower, because listeners in the Seattle market are too affluent to appreciate lifestyle talk (...as was already proven with declining ratings w/ the lifestyle talk format under Ken Beck/Tom Clendening...).

My suggestions would be to give Bryan Styble overnights M-F 1-5, Lou Pate evenings 9-1 in the old Mike Webb slot, Ron Reagan weekends 4-7 after Dr. Brinker, Turi Ryder 7-9 Sa/Su, and Erin Hart back in her old weekend slot 9-1 Sa/Su.

=albuquerqueT

 

[slickkicker]

I can't stand the jocks on KJR-FM and B-97.3 knows that. It's the difference between "personality driven" as compared "voice-tracked boring". On the other hand B-97.3 ain't so special.

I'm a big supporter of letting the kids find an audience within a formatic structure. As an old fart I say let'em target an audience of core support instead of spraying the cume into Jackland. My buy would be with the loyals.

The only reason why some stations are on the air is complacency, laziness and a failure to get out of the way. There's other issues as well but c'mon. Any brain-dead suit could oversee JACK, WARM, KJR-FM, MOVIN and others. Building loyalty, P1's and a brand takes some effort. Only youth combined with some smarts, vision and energy can advance the medium.

 

[AQH]

I can't stand the jocks on KJR-FM and B-97.3 knows that. It's the difference between "personality driven" as compared "voice-tracked boring". On the other hand B-97.3 ain't so special.

I'm a big supporter of letting the kids find an audience within a formatic structure. As an old ------ I say let'em target an audience of core support instead of spraying the cume into Jackland. My buy would be with the loyals.

The only reason why some stations are on the air is complacency, laziness and a failure to get out of the way. There's other issues as well but c'mon. Any brain-dead suit could oversee JACK, WARM, KJR-FM, MOVIN and others. Building loyalty, P1's and a brand takes some effort. Only youth combined with some smarts, vision and energy can advance the medium.

Are you saying that what is "holding back" stations in Seattle is the jocks?