What happens to 1440 advertising?

[ArtSpooner]

I live in a suburb of Worcester. I always listened to WEEI on 1440. I tuned in 93.7 this AM and suffice it to say I won't be listening to 1440 any more. I noticed that the Worcester-centric ads were not played on 93.7. I suspect that I won't be the only one who abandons 1440, so what does that do to the advertising rates?

As an aside, I won't miss many of the Worcester ads. They seem to use a staff announcer a lot who has a pronounced Massachusetts accent, along with a bad voice. I know they're trying to sell to the natives but it just sounds horrible. One ad in particular, for an insurance company, in which they do a very amateurish impersonation of the Gecko, really reeks of high school audio/visual club level talent.

 

[DavidZ]

I agree that anyone in Worcester or the surrounding suburbs will be listening now to 93.7 instead of 1440 WVEI. In fact there is another thread already started about the future of Entercom's 1440 AM.

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=197506.0

 

[reelyreal]

That's fine if you live east of Worcester, but to the areas south and west of the city, you lose WMKK to co-channel WZMX. That's where the value of WVEI 1440 comes in. However, it is much more sandwiched now with 105.5 to the west, 103.7 to the southeast, and now 93.7 to the northeast. WVEI will still have listenership, it'll just mostly be in Worcester county.

 

[DavidZ]

And outside the city limits, you pretty much lose WVEI-AM even in the south and west suburbs. Those listeners best bet would be 105.5 however a Pirate radio station in Worcester destroys any hope of getting 105.5, too. :-[

 

[ArtSpooner]

I guess I should have worded my question more clearly. If I'm an advertiser on 1440 and the number of people listening drops significantly because half of their audience is now listening to WEEI on 93.7 who does not play the Worcester commercials, do I still have to pay the same rates?

I think I'd have a problem with that. When the 1440 salesman came in, that would be the first thing I'd ask him.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>however a Pirate radio station in Worcester destroys any hope of getting 105.5, too

I'd mentioned that awhile back in a thread about Worcester pirates. I was just briefly there, on I-290 going from Auburn to Marlborough area where I picked up 495, and I scanned the dial. Indeed, pirates at freqs like that--in fact isn't that the one that's been on for years? Looked up online....I don't know if Greater
(WROR 105.7) complained but wonder if Entercom did.

Quick search
http://www.telegram.com/article/20100424/NEWS/4240344/1116
"Pirate Radio ordered to stop: Flava 105 lacks license" (April 2010)

It was on when I went through in late July. Or SOMEONE was on 105.5

Also affects the 105.3 in Fitchburg:
>>“I'm not sure how much they were affecting us, but we might have lost a little audience at our southern end,” said Ben Parker, WPKZ's station manager. “It's fine if it's just on the Internet, but when you've got a radio station like ours that pays the fees, has a license, follows the rules, pirate stations like this shouldn't be allowed to crowd our signal. They corrupt the airways for the stations around them.”

 

[DanStrassberg]

“I'm not sure how much they were affecting us, but we might have lost a little audience at our southern end,” said Ben Parker, WPKZ's station manager.

105.3 has one heck of a signal for a translator. I've caught them in Natick and, if I'm not mistken, in Belmont. I believe it's a 250W translator, but what is the HAAT and where is the transmitter located? I know that the AM (WPKZ, ex-WEIM) is up on a hill west or southwest of Fitchburg. But the AM towers are (or were) self-supporting and self-supporting towers are not conducive to side-mounting of FM antennas.

 

[raccoonradio]

Has been known to come in slightly up near my workplace in N. Reading (jct of routes 28 and 62, off 93)

Radio-locator info, not sure how current
http://radio-locator.com/info/W287BT-FX
>>Effective Radiated Power 150 Watts
Horizontal Height above Avg. Terrain 80.6 meters (264 feet)
Height above Ground Level 15 meters (49 feet)
Height above Sea Level 327 meters (1073 feet)

TL just NW of Fitchburg when you click on the geographical co-ordinates
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=42.59444,+-71.83667+(W287BT-FM)&om=1

Zoom out to get a better idea of where it is: just east of Route 12 which heads up N to Ashburnham.
North of Rt 2-A which seems to skirt the downtown area of Fitchburg

 

[jlehmann]

“I'm not sure how much they were affecting us, but we might have lost a little audience at our southern end,” said Ben Parker, WPKZ's station manager.

105.3 has one heck of a signal for a translator. I've caught them in Natick and, if I'm not mistken, in Belmont. I believe it's a 250W translator, but what is the HAAT and where is the transmitter located? I know that the AM (WPKZ, ex-WEIM) is up on a hill west or southwest of Fitchburg. But the AM towers are (or were) self-supporting and self-supporting towers are not conducive to side-mounting of FM antennas.

1280's towers are guyed towers, but the 105.3 translator antenna is on a very small tower right next to the transmitter building.

http://www.radio-locator.com/info/W287BT-FX 150 watts at 264' AAT

 

[ArtSpooner]

One of the reasons that I started this topic was that I had the honor of being an Arbitron diarist last week. It occurs to me that I live in the Worcester area (West Boylston) but I listen to Boston stations...........mainly 93.7, 103.3, and 105.7. Which market did my entries count for.........Boston or Worcester?

I have a radio on most of the time, but very rarely, especially with WEEI now on 93.7 rather than 1440, do I hear any ads for Worcester businesses. How does that work? Was I counted as a listener in Boston or Worcester. There are a lot of statewide businesses (Dunkin Donuts, Papa Gino's et al) that I hear ads for and can patronize.

This is starting to give me a headache. Could it be that I've unwittingly uncovered the reason that Worcester is basically an irrelevant city?

 

[radio zombie]

Could it be that I've unwittingly uncovered the reason that Worcester is basically an irrelevant city?

I assume you mean "irrelevant" in the broadcast sense? Or do you really mean that Worcester itself is irrelevant?
If so, that's a rather harsh statement, isn't it?

 

[ArtSpooner]

Harsh, but unfortunately, true. I know, I live here.

Could it be that I've unwittingly uncovered the reason that Worcester is basically an irrelevant city?

I assume you mean "irrelevant" in the broadcast sense? Or do you really mean that Worcester itself is irrelevant?
If so, that's a rather harsh statement, isn't it?

Harsh, but unfortunately, true. I know. I live here.

 

[fmradio1]

The way it was explained to me awhile back, Worcester is an embedded market within the Boston ADI. It gets its own book/ratings based on it's traditional borders, but it's data is included with Boston's for overall numbers. I don't know how that would work as Worcester is a diary market and Boston uses the PPM. The stations Clear Channel owns in Worcester, WTAG and WSRS, do count toward the company's overall totals in Boston (therefore CC owns three FM's and 3 AM's in the metro.) Considering that there is a lot of Boston listening within Worcester County, particularly the eastern parts, it makes sense.