WGKA - you are all that is wrong with corporate radio

[AtlBanker]

How is it possible to have a station that everyone in Atlanta can hear but you have the embarrassingly dismal numbers that they have? I could pick a bozo out a communications class at any college within a 100 mile radius and get better numbers. Go to ratings and check out the latest numbers. It irritates me that a radio station, a station with such great potetial with the right management, could squander the signal as badly as they do. I hate corporate radio and what they have done to local radio. They give us crap, and because they have hundreds of other stations, they don't care. Well I care and I am disgusted by WGKA.

 

[radioworld]

1. You're evidently listening so it can't be all that bad.
2. In key demos they are beating WGST in AM and PM Drive. So if you want to beat up on corporate radio, start with Clear Channel.
3. You still can't get over the fact Joel Aaron beat Scott Slade for Radio Personality of the Year.
4. You say, "I could pick a bozo out a communications class at any college within a 100 mile radius and get better numbers." If your log in name is correct, take some of your bank money, buy your own radio station and program it the way you like. Weber is getting great number with 1160!

 

[RoddyFreeman]

WGKA's main reason for being is having an Atlanta affiliate for Salem's talk network.

Network radio buyers want networks to have an affiliate in the top-10 markets; not having one could jeopardize getting network advertising.

This reason far supersedes being successful locally.

You probably want to keep your teller job.

 

[Richard Kimball]

sounds like somebody forgot to eat his prunes again this morning.

 

[monkeymanmoi]

Sad to hear about their dismal numbers. Even when others used to bash WGST, I still listened. Now I'm over at WGKA waaay more than WGST. I'd choose local over a syndicate, except with the case of Herman Cain only talking about taxes or health care. I like him, but damn. Same stuff over and over. Dennis Prager is one of the most interesting talk show hosts I've ever heard. And Medved allows dissent from callers, which is interesting to me as well. Although I think Mike Gallagher comes across as a total bozo. Still listen, though.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Sad to hear about their dismal numbers. Even when others used to bash WGST, I still listened. Now I'm over at WGKA waaay more than WGST. I'd choose local over a syndicate, except with the case of Herman Cain only talking about taxes or health care. I like him, but damn. Same stuff over and over. Dennis Prager is one of the most interesting talk show hosts I've ever heard. And Medved allows dissent from callers, which is interesting to me as well. Although I think Mike Gallagher comes across as a total bozo. Still listen, though.

Prager and Medved are their best hosts. Bennett has his moments. Gallagher and Hugh Hewitt are forgettable. (Sorry but Hugh is best a third or forth-tier LA host; let alone being a national host...)

 

[amlover]

1. You're evidently listening so it can't be all that bad.
2. In key demos they are beating WGST in AM and PM Drive. So if you want to beat up on corporate radio, start with Clear Channel.
3. You still can't get over the fact Joel Aaron beat Scott Slade for Radio Personality of the Year.
4. You say, "I could pick a bozo out a communications class at any college within a 100 mile radius and get better numbers." If your log in name is correct, take some of your bank money, buy your own radio station and program it the way you like. Weber is getting great number with 1160!

WHAT? 1160 getting great number,(should be numbers) with 1160. They don't even show up! The only time 1160 showed,(low but showed) was when they were MOYL. Weber was quoted in the paper once he has never made a dime with his stations. His programing reflect's his statment.

 

[Radio1360]

Prager and Medved are their best hosts. Bennett has his moments. Gallagher and Hugh Hewitt are forgettable. (Sorry but Hugh is best a third or forth-tier LA host; let alone being a national host...)

[/quote] Laura Ingram was the best hope before she jumped ship and went over to "the talk of the town".

 

[jabba17]

1. You're evidently listening so it can't be all that bad.
2. In key demos they are beating WGST in AM and PM Drive. So if you want to beat up on corporate radio, start with Clear Channel.
3. You still can't get over the fact Joel Aaron beat Scott Slade for Radio Personality of the Year.
4. You say, "I could pick a bozo out a communications class at any college within a 100 mile radius and get better numbers." If your log in name is correct, take some of your bank money, buy your own radio station and program it the way you like. Weber is getting great number with 1160!

WHAT? 1160 getting great number,(should be numbers) with 1160. They don't even show up! The only time 1160 showed,(low but showed) was when they were MOYL. Weber was quoted in the paper once he has never made a dime with his stations. His programing reflect's his statment.

WGKA is getting within spitting distance of WGST, although I would agree with Radio1360 that losing Ingraham was a significant loss.

Nobody is going to knock off WSB without spending some serious money (see WGST in the Jacor pre-Planet Radio days vs. WGST today), but I would guess that WGKA serves as somewhat more than an ATL placeholder for Salem. What else could someone do with that signal?

WCFO is a joke by any measure...signal, ratings, etc. If WGUN went all MOYL they could probably outdo WCFO in the ratings, but the owners of WGUN seem to want to give significant airtime to brokered preaching.

 

[vigodsky]

1010 probably pulls in really good, predictable money from "brokered" preaching. Like they say in the country..."You don't mess where you eat."

 

[swin-pba03]

How is it possible to have a station that everyone in Atlanta can hear but you have the embarrassingly dismal numbers that they have? I could pick a bozo out a communications class at any college within a 100 mile radius and get better numbers. Go to ratings and check out the latest numbers. It irritates me that a radio station, a station with such great potetial with the right management, could squander the signal as badly as they do. I hate corporate radio and what they have done to local radio. They give us crap, and because they have hundreds of other stations, they don't care. Well I care and I am disgusted by WGKA.

What one could do, if they truly cared for the station they are speaking of, is send a similar message of concern to the owner/GM of said station(s). The voice of one is heard by thousands over the airwaves...while the sights and thoughts of disgruntled listeners (via letters and e-mails) can be seen forever in print. Power of suggestion, my friends, can start a trend.

 

[onetake]

1. You're evidently listening so it can't be all that bad.
2. In key demos they are beating WGST in AM and PM Drive. So if you want to beat up on corporate radio, start with Clear Channel.
3. You still can't get over the fact Joel Aaron beat Scott Slade for Radio Personality of the Year.


(A: I don't think he's still listening
(B: Statement #2 is undocumented and probably exaggerated. Anytime a radio person says "we're winning in demos" it's a smoke and mirror game. What demos? Atlanta talk radio isn't showing a lot of change and after 8 years WGKA has never hit a 1 share, period.
C: Statement #3. What a cheap shot. Scott Slade is a long time, well known solid pro. I don't see a joel Aaron show listed on their lineup so how does someone without a show beating a guy with a show seem legit.
Wasn't WGKA's most popular show Laura Ingraham. If she's gone and if they're beating WGST in demos and if they also have the radio personality of the year something is way off in that response. You kind of expect a news talk station to get the facts right, unless Radio world is a salesman. Then facts are just for argument.

 

[Delta767]

WGKA has been my #1 station since coming to Atlanta.

I don't understand the love affair with WSB---compared to news/talkers in other major markets, they are mediocre at best. Their traffic reports are AWFUL...I can't understand a word any of their reporters say. Boortz is.... eeeh. I would much rather listen to Michael Medved than Sean Hannity. I can get plenty of Hannity on FNC.

It seems to me that WGKA's rating issues are largely due to the fact that nobody knows they exist. They don't do any advertising or marketing (at least that I have seen) and most everybody I know has never heard of the station. It's pretty tough to get ratings if people don't know you are there! Most people don't "scan" the AM dial the way they do the FM dial (expect for radio nerds like us ) They have one or two AM presets, and that's about it.

 

[jabba17]

WGKA has been my #1 station since coming to Atlanta.

It seems to me that WGKA's rating issues are largely due to the fact that nobody knows they exist. They don't do any advertising or marketing (at least that I have seen) and most everybody I know has never heard of the station. It's pretty tough to get ratings if people don't know you are there! Most people don't "scan" the AM dial the way they do the FM dial (expect for radio nerds like us ) They have one or two AM presets, and that's about it.

Little bit of history: WGKA 920 was WGST's old signal. WGST jumped at the chance to pick up a 50k signal at 640 back in the late 1980s. Some will say that the actual improvement in listenability was negligible (or worse), especially at night. In fairness, IMO WGKA's signal carries well but not as well as WGST, especially during the day. The night difference isn't as great.

WGKA did do a billboard blitz a few years back when Salem shuffled all their ATL AM stations, moving the famous WGKA calls (formerly at daytimer 1190 which flipped to Spanish gospel after Salem bought it from Jack Weber, current owner of WMLB and WCFO--the WGKA calls were also at 92.9 a long time ago) to 920 and going conservative talk. Nobody (the owner was Moody Bible Institute) did anything meaningful with 920 until Salem went conservative talk with it with a slate of nationally syndicated names. IIRC, it was mostly unremarkable religious programming between the WGST and WGKA eras. Maybe the signal sat stale too long and lost mindshare.

The same thing happened with Salem sister station WNIV 970--it used to be the AM side of WKLS 96 Rock, and the owner at the time (Taft? Great American?) sold it to a religious broadcaster (don't remember who), who did the same thing with it until they sold it to Salem who put a cohesive "teachin' and preachin'" schedule on it.

One big blow to WGKA was their loss of Laura Ingraham, probably their highest-rated show, to WCFO. Bill Bennett, another top-rated show and their player in AM drive, is impacted by the same-old pre-sunrise signal issues as their competitors (except You Know Who).

 

[RoddyFreeman]

WGKA increased day power to 14,000 watts a couple of years ago. And it's non-directional. So while WGST has a stronger signal, I don't think signal is an issue during the day. At night, WGKA used to be 1,000 watts but went to 495 when it built the current tower. But 495 with the current tower should be equivalent to 1,000 watts with the former tower according to an ATL CE I spoke with.

I think WGKA's tower is in a much better, more central location and covers the northern parts of town at night better than WGST does. Also, WGST has powerful stations on its frequency, which interfere at night. WGKA gets some interference too but generally comes in more clearly than WGST over northern ATL at night.

 

[DuckBlue]

The ratings of Salem talk stations in major markets are pretty dismal. Some current ratings are: NY - 0.2%, LA - 0.7%, Chicago - 1.1%, Dallas / Ft. Worth - 0.3%, Atlanta - 0.6%, Philadelphia - 0.7%, Detroit - 0.2%, and Tampa / St. Petersburg / Clearwater - 0.5%. If the company is doing something that appeals to a large number of listeners, the ratings surely don't show it.

According to the article linked below, Salem was formed by a couple of graduates of Bob Jones University who are active in ultra-right wing politics. It says that, the company was one of the first to use radio to promote a partisan political agenda. The network even has its own PAC which funnels money to Republican candidates.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/features/story.asp?id=10441

 

[onetake]

Good points. But there is a basic marketing fundamental that people are really too busy to be bothered with new things. If they're satisfied with a product they generally stick with it. That's why if you study people they mostly don't have lots of stations they listen to but rather only a couple or so a week. It's folks like us on this board that get a little too plugged in and in turn too close to the product.
WSB has just won the hearts of the audience like other major brands from Coca Cola to Tide detergent.
WGKA does silly and petty things like make fun of Captain Herb but that's clearly not solving their problem which isn't about marketing dollars. They are marketing themselves as something they're not. They are mostly a political talk station doing agenda topics. I don't sense they have a real newsroom, don't do local shows except for cheezy infomercials on the weekends.
They aren't that bad just boring and redundant. The hosts have one theme song: bash Obama.
Which makes you wonder. After being on almost a decade, being in a state with a Republican governor and 2 republican senators shouldn't they be doing better? Doesn't it seem they would have a sympathic audience. Look at Fox TV and Hannity types. Same slant. Yet it does well. The real issue is probably just lousy hosts doing content that is boring and very overstated. They've run TV ads on Fox. They were very visible at the tea party. It's just as simple as this, most people haven't embraced their product and probably won't. It's not a secret, it's just not a success and all the excuses beg for a bigger question: How much longer can they keep this up? It's kind of sad and embarrasing to never have hit a 1 share. If WSB is that bad...well...WSB doesn't have any competition guys. Not really

 

[RTibbs]

I also prefer Medved to Hannity. Hannity needs to be whacked off his high horse.

 

[jabba17]

The ratings of Salem talk stations in major markets are pretty dismal. Some current ratings are: NY - 0.2%, LA - 0.7%, Chicago - 1.1%, Dallas / Ft. Worth - 0.3%, Atlanta - 0.6%, Philadelphia - 0.7%, Detroit - 0.2%, and Tampa / St. Petersburg / Clearwater - 0.5%. If the company is doing something that appeals to a large number of listeners, the ratings surely don't show it.

According to the article linked below, Salem was formed by a couple of graduates of Bob Jones University who are active in ultra-right wing politics. It says that, the company was one of the first to use radio to promote a partisan political agenda. The network even has its own PAC which funnels money to Republican candidates.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/features/story.asp?id=10441

To be fair, what kinds of stations (in terms of power and day/night coverage) does Salem get those small ratings with? Also, when was the last time WGST got a 3 share? A 2 share?

Also, the programs on WGKA are pretty much a rundown of second- and third-tier conservative talkers--basically WSB's and WGST's leftovers. Stuff that is also heard elsewhere in the country, on stations with different owners, and I would guess similar share in other red states. But you're not going to get Rush ratings with them, and never will.

Salem is doing well with their Fish format, and not just in Atlanta, considering how nichey CCM is. And I would also say that "preachin' and teachin'" WNIV/WLTA has decimated the brokered preaching stations, with the exception of longtime stalwarts (I use that term loosely) in that format like WGUN. I wonder if sister WAFS has done the same with small Spanish gospel stations. Many of the shows on WNIV are also on XM/Sirius's Family Talk Channel, which is also programmed by Salem.

 

[almaniac27]

The ratings of Salem talk stations in major markets are pretty dismal. Some current ratings are: NY - 0.2%, LA - 0.7%, Chicago - 1.1%, Dallas / Ft. Worth - 0.3%, Atlanta - 0.6%, Philadelphia - 0.7%, Detroit - 0.2%, and Tampa / St. Petersburg / Clearwater - 0.5%. If the company is doing something that appeals to a large number of listeners, the ratings surely don't show it.

According to the article linked below, Salem was formed by a couple of graduates of Bob Jones University who are active in ultra-right wing politics. It says that, the company was one of the first to use radio to promote a partisan political agenda. The network even has its own PAC which funnels money to Republican candidates.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/features/story.asp?id=10441

To be fair, what kinds of stations (in terms of power and day/night coverage) does Salem get those small ratings with? Also, when was the last time WGST got a 3 share? A 2 share?

Also, the programs on WGKA are pretty much a rundown of second- and third-tier conservative talkers--basically WSB's and WGST's leftovers. Stuff that is also heard elsewhere in the country, on stations with different owners, and I would guess similar share in other red states. But you're not going to get Rush ratings with them, and never will.

Salem is doing well with their Fish format, and not just in Atlanta, considering how nichey CCM is. And I would also say that "preachin' and teachin'" WNIV/WLTA has decimated the brokered preaching stations, with the exception of longtime stalwarts (I use that term loosely) in that format like WGUN. I wonder if sister WAFS has done the same with small Spanish gospel stations. Many of the shows on WNIV are also on XM/Sirius's Family Talk Channel, which is also programmed by Salem.

WGKA's lineup is pretty much identical with other Salem talk stations, (Bennett-Gallagher-Prager-Medved-Hewitt) and most of them have pretty decent signals. KRLA in Los Angeles is 50kw during the day. WIND in Chicago has a local morning show, which is probably why they have the highest ratings of the ones DuckBlue listed.