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WDEL showed in PPM in Philly for April

M

MikefromDelaware

An interesting note: for the first time time, 1150 WDEL AM showed in the Philly rankings, with just under 27,000 listeners.

I don't ever remember seeing a Wilmington AM showing in the Philly ratings.

My guess is, most of those were commuters going either from Wilmington to Philly or Philly to Wilmington. Of course, as it was the April ratings, maybe some of the Philly suburban listeners are listening to the Phillies on WDEL at night rather than WPHT. Maybe they can't get WPHT as well, but can get WDEL. The FM's show regularly, but never any of the AM's. Congrats, WDEL.
 
Congratulations to the WDEL staff. In a time when most stations just run a computer for programming or run satellite programming, it's freshing to see a station that serves it's listeners and market. There is a way to beat companies like Clear Channel and others that voice track from other cities, and cut staff to the point where almost nothing is local anymore. I home Delmarva Broadcasting will take this example and spread it to other stations they own. It's a shame that the company that owns WDEL with such quality only runs satellite programming on WICO-FM/AM in the Salisbury market. They filled the hole for Oldies in the Ocean City-Salisbury market which has a large retirement community, but everything is from computer. Live local programming and hosts can give a station an advantage in any market, especially a market with a lack of quality owners.
 
You're correct. It would be wonderful to see "Live & Local" in Salisbury and southern Delmarva. But my understanding is the market is over-saturated with radio signals (compared to population size & advertising dollars), and just won't support such expenditures. In many respects, Salisbury is more like a smaller Sunbelt market. And unlike northern Delaware - lacking its own commercial, or now even public, TV station, and only getting attention from Philly TV on the sensational stories - Salisbury, of course, has two TV channels, one of which (WBOC-TV) has a longstanding excellent reputation. They gobble up many of the advertising dollars.

As an experiment, one might TRY mounting an aggressive "Live & Local" station with a 5-year time-frame. But it could very well be a fool's gamble. Would ratings, public recognition, and most of all, revenue, offset the costs... even after five years? Doubtful.

And don't forget: Not only would you have the burden of supporting a much bigger staff; you'd need a big marketing/promotions budget to make the public aware of your new product, particularly when so many younger demos don't have a clue about A.M. radio. (At least in the Philadelphia/Wilmington area, some younger men become aware of A.M. because of stations like WIP.)

As noted before on this board, in the Wilmington area, it's exceedingly difficult to recruit local retail advertisers for all the conservative nationally-syndicated fare: Hannity, Beck, Savage, even Limbaugh. Conversely, local retailers LOVE to be on live & local, particularly news and sports. Further south, it's just the reverse. Paradoxically, you could spend a lot of money for what you and I would regard as a superior (local) product, and have little to show for it!

The Salisbury public station DOES cover some local news, and - at least in past years - has received some awards for it.
 
WGMD is live and local from 5:30am to 10pm, except for Rush from 12non to 3pm. They also are on the only single operator in the market. They have 3 full time news people, and do live "remotes" something most Talk stations don't do. They have had themselves a big part of the community, and work very closely with their advertisers. As for the number of stations in the market, with Clear Channel selling two stations for the non-commercial K-Love that removes two stations. Clear Channel has a very small staff in Salisbury, mostly voice tracked from other markets. Great Scott is reportedly trying to sell two two of their stations and has been unstable for a long time, this makes a opening for a company like Delmarva. The already have a good start with Kat Country and Eagle 977. If they start with local morning shows on 97 1 the Wave and WICO-FM they could build those stations into revenue and market leaders. They didn't rebuild WDEL over night, remember they picked up several of the people from WILM. It can be done, and the cost varies with how long they want to do it over. Giving the lower show a local voice similar to what WGMD does on WICO-FM, and building on the legacy of the original WAVE with a morning show would be a good start.
 
Is WGMD live and local with AM / PM news blocks, or at least news every half hour during drive time, with weather, sports, traffic. If so, then WGMD has already covered that market with that sort of product.

Are the Delmarva stations getting good ratings and local spot revenue? If yes, then why go to the added expense to duplicate what WGMD is already doing and apparently quite successfully, as I believe they were tied for #4 station in the OC market ratings wise.

As OC does have two local TV stations covering local news, and WGMD, plus the Salisbury news paper, their getting way more local coverage than Wilmington does with around 3x the population. So I'd have to wonder if a second news/talker would succeed and it would be a long battle to unseat WGMD, if that were the plan.

Wilmington is an underserved market due to the proximity of Philly being so close. No local TV coverage other than a 30 minute once a week news magazine that covers the entire state, not just Wilmington. WDEL has taken over where WILM left off after CC gutted the former News/Talk leader for Wilmington. The News Journal truly is the best source for local news, with WDEL and WILM doing the radio news for the area.

Even so, WILM's Elliot in the Morning with it's skeleton crew at both WILM and WDOV put on a fine AM newsblock. Frankly, I find myself listening to WILM while getting dressed in the AM for work, because I can hear the traffic and weather far easier with less hassle than on WDEL's AM newsblock. Nothing against Peter or Melanie, I understand the thinking that WDEL has to put a spot after every feature, so you get 60 sec of info then a spot, then another feature, then a spot, then a tease and then a spot, etc. If I was retired and had all morning to sit and focus on the radio maybe I wouldn't mind. So if I listen to WDEL, I hear the traffic on the 9's and I'm focused and stop near the radio to catch the weather (the two most important bits of info I want in AM), but WDEL goes to a spot break. With WILM they give both traffic/weather together on the 10's. So I hear the traffic and the weather and then can go back to moving around the house getting ready. Even with WILM doing their traffic/weather a minute later than WDEL I actually get to hear the weather sooner on WILM.

I realize WDEL makes more money than WILM (however, I've been hearing way more local spots on WILM during Elliot's show so apparently someone has been out there selling Elliot's show), but as a listener the constant interruption of spots after every little thing the anchor says gets old very quickly. WILM bunches them up so you get more info quickly before the spots. At least NOW on WILM many of the spots are real spots with some PSA's. Interestingly, I've noticed more PSA's on WDEL, the same one's I'd hear on WILM, so maybe WDEL has lost some local spot ads to WILM. In any case, both WDEL and WILM offer a fine AM newsblock. Granted Elliot is biased in his comments, but those comments are never presented as part of a news story, he's gabbing with a Fox News Reporter so it does come across as Elliot's opinion. Many a time I've heard the Fox News reporter correct Bruce and set him straight where Bruce is attaching too much of a biased for even a Fox Reporter, or where Bruce didn't have all the facts straight. So even though I may not agree with Bruce's opinion, I get a kick out of the Fox Reporter straightening him out. Also I enjoy the Colburn pieces Elliot airs. They add some humor in the AM, always a good thing. In any case, to each his/her own.
 
WILM has certainly improved since Elliot arrived. They actually have some spots in the afternoon and are including some community annoucements instead of those gastly PSA's over and over for six months. Promos are far better.

Since I'm driving to Ridley Park at 4:30AM, I am listening to KYW starting at 2:48am. Have one of my Grundigs in the bathroom. Light goes on, radio is next. While going through the morning routine, I hear "traffic and transit on the 2's" generally twice. They have the same clutter as WDEL around the traffic report, but the horn sounder alerts you better than WDEL's sound effect. Speaking of sound effects, when Frank Gerace comes in after the CBS top of the hour news, that sounder is weak also. You need something that says "YO!! LISTEN UP!"

Once morning devotions are over and I'm on the road, its WDEL all the way. WILM is clearer in Newark at that time, but I'd rather hear Georger Nory and the latest on space aliens than listen to Jimbo's political talk. I started listening to Jimbo in the hour leading up to the WNRK sign-on with NBC's "First Light" at 5am. Like the show, but I'll be listening to Imus and Rush at work, so I want something different at 4:30am. And Coast to Coast AM is sure different!
 
My thought for Delmarva was as follows: For WICO-FM, it's at 92.5 next to WGMD, and covers the lower shore best. WGMD, while doing a great job, covers primarily Sussex County issues, while there is no talk station that is covering Lower Eastern Shore issues. Secondly, 97 1 The Wave is playing some great music, but that music needs more interaction that just the liner guy. Yes it is expensive to add a Morning Person, but now you have someone to interact with listeners, to be at remotes and events and you can build a connection. As for advertising in the Salisbury-Ocean City area, it is pretty interesting. Comcast Spotlight handles adverting for their company as well as Mediacom another Cable company, and Fios. The also handle the advertising for WRDE-LD Digital Channel 31.1 in Rehoboth. It is available to almost as many cable viewers and WBOC and WMDT. Yes there are a lot of radio stations, but really only three companies, Delmarva Broadcasting (5 out of Salisbury with three formats and 3 out of Milford with 3 format), Clear Channel (down to 6 now) and Great Scott (with 10 stations, an am they LMA out to a Spanish group, a silient FM in Pocomoke City, and a total of 5 formats, but only three that they really put anything into). As a matter of fact, 95.3 runs Studio 106.1 on their RDS, that was the format originally on 106.1 in Pocomoke City, before they started simulcasting it, and then took it off the air. Since it,s a license renewal year, I'm sure it will be back on until the new license is granted.
 
Of course what none of us know, is how much money from Delmarva's other stations in Wilmington and Downstate are being infused into WDEL to make it the top of the line news/talker all live and local for day parts, that it's become.

However, if WDEL is totally supporting itself then maybe WICO-FM could put together a smaller scaled version, maybe more to the size of WILM /WDOV's AM drive newsblock staffing which seems to be working rather well (WICO could even get Delaware news stories and sound from WDEL like WILM/WDOV share) rather than trying to recreate the far larger WDEL staffing, to service the OC/Salisbury market. If CC can make it work, so could Delmarva.
 
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