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WGMD-FM 92.7 is killing the competition: WXDE-FM 105.9... You're thoughts?

R

raceradio

What competition??? Not only is WGMD the #1 talk show radio in the area, they are now the #1 most listened to radio including music...
Froggy 99.9 has got to be happy as well. They are now rated as #2.
The sad news looks like what used to be the leader in country music in the area, CAT COUNTRY 97.5, is now rated at #12.
WXDE-FM 105.9 is a sloppy #4, and losing Cat as #1 is horrible.
What's your thought?
 
It has only been since September that WXDE 105.9 switched to news/talk. #4, in two months, not too shabby at all. It takes time, and granted, WGMD still has elRusbo. Even in Wilmington, where WDEL generally has higher numbers throughout the day, I believe that WILM during Rush beats WDEL, but I don't have access to the numbers so that is only a guess and its what I remember back when I worked at WILM. I'm sure someone from Delmarva can offer more clarity without giving actual numbers. But it wouldn't surprise me to hear them say, yes we beat WILM during the rest of the day, but they beat us during Rush, same with our Lower Delaware station WXDE, it's doing quite well, but WGMD beats us during Rush. Like him or not, Rush still pulls in a solid block of listeners which is why stations pay the fees he requires to get his show.

I'm assuming that you're saying WGMD is #1 in the OC/Salisbury market as the only market in Delaware that is rated is Wilmington (unless that's recently changed).
 
You are right. It does not include Wilmington area. It does include OC/Salisbury and Sussex/Kent in Delaware. You may be surprised to learn that WGMD is not just beating the competition during the Rush show, but throughout the day as well. Of course, like you say, It's still early.
 
So I gather, you're implying that Dan Gaffney's listeners didn't follow him to 105.9.

Well maybe WXDE will do a heavy billboard campaign in Delmarva as they did for WDEL in the Wilmington Metro when Allan Loudell left WILM and moved to WDEL. It worked then, it might work for Gaffney, if Dan really had a following as Allan did and still has. If Delaware ever has a broadcasters hall of fame, Allan Loudell should be in it. To be fair, I've never listened to Gaffney so I really can't say.
 
What ratings are you quoting? The fall rating period doesn't even end until December 5.
 
No Mike, I am implying nothing. I do believe that many of Dan Gaffney’s listeners have tuned to WXDE to hear Dan but are not are loyal listeners to the station. The very same listeners are listening to WGMD and listen through the day, including the morning. This was expected since WGMD has been on the air for almost 30 years and most feel a loyalty to their home station. Although WGMD has a 3 to 1 advantage of daily listeners, their listeners are tuned to the station throughout the day, whereas WXDE has 65-70% of their listeners tuning into the morning show (Dan) and the rest of the day suffers. With that said, WGMD’s morning show still has more listeners than WXDE. The billboard campaign might be a good idea (your idea) but might be more advisable to advertise the rest of the day. My opinion however is different from yours. When a radio station has to rely on “billboards” to advertise their own station, how do you expect merchants to believe advertising on your station is a good idea when they see that same station using billboards to advertise themselves? Successful radio stations advertise themselves on their own stations. Again, I agree WXDE is new and numbers can change.
And for “amfm.com” You are correct that the “Arbitron” ratings come out after December 5, for the fall period. Maybe you’re not aware that Media Research Firms can and do hire Arbitron Custom Research to obtain the numbers at any time with of course a premium fee.
 
>>Maybe you’re not aware that Media Research Firms can and do hire Arbitron Custom Research to obtain the numbers at any time with of course a premium fee. <<

If only that were true! You can order "Ratings" from Arbitron at any time, but the fact is - the market is only surveyed at certain times of the year. You receive data from the last ratings period...and that's it. Oh, and not to mention - WGMD isn't even an Arbitron subscriber.

With that being said, *other* research firms will do custom canvasing of markets, outside of the traditional Arbitron rating periods. Those numbers use a much different methodology than Arbitron, and generally are not numbers that any agency will buy.

With Froggy being in first place, having 105.9 as a flanker for the country format made perfect sense. Now, you are just giving the "6.0" share that you had to 99.9, and guaranteeing them the first spot.
 
raceradio: Advertisers are smart enough to know that Dan Gaffney was on WGMD and now on WXDE. Obviously WGMD isn't going to sell advertising to WXDE to promote Dan's move to 105.9. Those listeners are not music listeners, so they'd not be listening to the other Delmarva stations and may NOT know that 105.9 has dropped Country and now is News/Talk with Dan Gaffney. So the next best way to get that word out (other than somehow getting WGMD to promote it) is to use billboards. As I said earlier, it worked well for WDEL when Allan Loudell left WILM, so it should also work well for WXDE.
 
There may be enough of a talk listener market there, as there is in Wilmington (both WDEL with live and local political talk and WILM with Beck/Rush/Hannity are doing fine). So WXDE with its live and local political talk and WGMD with its national satellite line up that includes Rush, may both be doing fine too. Now talk listeners there have more of a choice, plus 91.1 WDDE- Dover for NPR programming.

Speaking of down state radio, is there a sport talker yet? Wilmington has 1290 WWTX (Fox Sports Radio - Dan Patrick and Jim Rome, etc), we also get both 97.5 WPEN and 94.1 WIP for Philly oriented sports talk. I and some others have found this to be a great change of pace from political talk, both conservative and liberal (NPR).
 
First, it's great that there are choices. WGMD has been leading with the strong news dept. I am a little suprised at how weak WXDE's news is, Mark Fowsler is sounding better, but it sounds rip and read, which doesn't fit with what WDEL is. Also the afternoon news is weak. I don't think the Noon news works, too much non-Delaware stuff. If Allan wants to act the "star", go work for KYW, WTOP, or NPR might be a goods fit. The CBS, Magazine reports doesn't work for a station that is trying to be "live and Local".

I do think Bill Collie would be better back in the afternoon, since he is so opinionated. If they really want to be "News" in the morning, find a person that is more centered, big tent.
Dan sounds good on WXDE, but I must day the business news and traffic are a distraction. Not enough need for traffic, it just takes up time.

As for WDDE, they don't really compete in this converstation. The are not erven a full class A station. They are 2.2 kw, and the signal is very limited, from Milford to about Smyrna (on a short tower too!). WXDE is a full 6kw at just under the limit, about 315 ft and WGMD is at 4.4Kw at about 420 ft. WDDE has issues with dial position (90.9 in Philly and D.C., plus 91.1 in Harford Co. Md. and 91.3 in Newark which last year upgraded to 6kw), it's not much more that a LPFM.
 
In Allan's defense, how much local news is there in the entire state of Delaware and Ocean City MD to report much less have long form interviews? Surly not enough to cover an hour. Mostly police blotter stuff anyhow. Some of Allan's interviews aren't of interest to me, but most are. It's a unique format. Not many local reporters have a stable full of worldwide contacts to call upon for interviews. That's something unique Allan brings to the table. The problem you'd have with more local indepth reporting, say there's some issue in Wilmington that Allan chose to do an in depth interview, most of WXDE's listeners aren't interested in what's going on in Wilmington, and frankly wish the city was not part of Delaware, so that sort of interview would cause station surfing, just as some farm issue from Selbeville would cause station surfing for most of WDEL's listeners.

Mark Fowser's a fine news man and anchor. He probably is just getting used to this format of cutting back and forth from local to WDEL. The program does still sound choppy and uncomfortable for Allan too, who's used to being only WDEL. I'm surprised they didn't do it more in a network style format. Having a sounder, a format clock where Allan being the network did his thing and then Mark doing the Downstate local as Allan did the upstate local (reminiscent of old NBC Monitor program of the 50's, 60's and early 70's). That would flow more smoothly in my opinion and make the transitions back and forth less cumbersome.
 
As local radio has become little more than "Radio For Dummies" I am thankful that Allan asks us to give a hoot about more than our own back yard. What we don't know CAN hurt us.
 
It will be interesting but Delaware 105.9 seems to be gaining listeners by the day and is local all day. Now GMD has Rush, so I think they are up 1 on XDE. But XDE will crush GMD mornings and afternoons.
 
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