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WHLD Profile

While reading the many informative, opinionated posts in the WHLD-Air America thread, it struck me: Just WHO is an Air America Radio listener? Who's the customer? With this in mind, I'd be very interested in readers' perceptions as to what kind of listener AAR and WHLD will attract.
 
No Profiling, Please

Niagara Independent Media should be applauded for bringing Air America Radio to WNY on WHLD. It will give talk radio listeners and citizens an alternative point of view, to say nothing of what it will do for this board. As to who's going to listen? Air America may draw from the same pool as NPR on WBFO and WNED. The average listener will likely be male, college educated and presumably a democrat. Hard to say. Let's give them a chance and see how they do. It should be an entertaining experience to listen to and equally entertaining to see if and how WBEN reacts to the competition.
 
Air America in the Rochester Market

> Niagara Independent Media should be applauded for bringing
> Air America Radio to WNY on WHLD. It will give talk radio
> listeners and citizens an alternative point of view, to say
> nothing of what it will do for this board. As to who's going
> to listen? Air America may draw from the same pool as NPR on
> WBFO and WNED. The average listener will likely be male,
> college educated and presumably a democrat. Hard to say.
> Let's give them a chance and see how they do. It should be
> an entertaining experience to listen to and equally
> entertaining to see if and how WBEN reacts to the
> competition.
>
I can’t speak for how Air America will do in the Buffalo market but I can tell you that here in Rochester AA has hardly made a dent in the ratings.

The station that carries Air America had less that a 1 share in the most recent book.(.09) The largest audience the station had in the 12+ category was more than a 1 share and that’s mostly because, in my opinion, people who normally listen to NPR tried sampling Air America, came away unimpressed, and went back to NPR. Again that’s just my opinion. It also doesn’t help that the station carrying Air America in Rochester has one of the worst signals on the AM dial.
<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
 
Re: Air America in the Rochester Market

> I can’t speak for how Air America will do in the Buffalo
> market but I can tell you that here in Rochester AA has
> hardly made a dent in the ratings.
>
> The station that carries Air America had less that a 1 share
> in the most recent book.(.09) The largest audience the
> station had in the 12+ category was more than a 1 share and
> that’s mostly because, in my opinion, people who normally
> listen to NPR tried sampling Air America, came away
> unimpressed, and went back to NPR. Again that’s just my
> opinion. It also doesn’t help that the station carrying Air
> America in Rochester has one of the worst signals on the AM
> dial.
>
Good points, Mark. I would describe Air America as typical talk radio -- pontificating hosts, cheap shots at the other side and style over substance -- except from a liberal rather than conservative perspective. If you want substance and a reasoned discussion, I think listeners of WNED-AM and WBFO will stick with NPR and such shows as "Morning Edition," "On Point" and the BBC News Hour.
 
Re: Air America in the Rochester Market

> I can’t speak for how Air America will do in the Buffalo
> market but I can tell you that here in Rochester AA has
> hardly made a dent in the ratings.

It seems to be doing no better or worse than the station did with the second tier conservatalk leftovers it ran before. It also seems to get absolutely ZERO promotion. You have to bump into the station on the dial to even know it is there.

I wonder if Entercom ever promotes WROC-AM on its other stations at all? I don't listen to local radio outside of the AM dial at all personally so I don't know.

Among my activist youth friends, they don't even know WROC-AM is on the air. Never heard of it, and a lot of them don't know a thing about AM anyway. If you actually promote it with them, they do get hooked, but usually only to one or two shows. There is a huge difference between an Al Franken and a Randi Rhodes listener.

The brightest potential WROC has is Stephanie Miller. She will attract and hold a Daily Show-loving audience. She is miles ahead of Springer, who she replaced locally. Randi Rhodes is best as a drivetime host, but they delay her so they can run the dreary Ed Schultz. Ick.

> The station that carries Air America had less that a 1 share
> in the most recent book.(.09) The largest audience the
> station had in the 12+ category was more than a 1 share and
> that’s mostly because, in my opinion, people who normally
> listen to NPR tried sampling Air America, came away
> unimpressed, and went back to NPR. Again that’s just my
> opinion. It also doesn’t help that the station carrying Air
> America in Rochester has one of the worst signals on the AM
> dial.

Outside of Bob Smith's show which I catch when I can't take Al Franken anymore, I fled WXXI-AM when Air America launched locally and never looked back. I was stuck with WXXI because I had no other option, unless I wanted to listen to the strangled cat noises on WHAM in the mid morning, or the recovering drug addict windbag in the afternoon. Sports talk is certainly not for me, and Don & Mike I grew out of. Younger audiences who actually discover AM, as well as more politically active liberals will park on 950 but Entercom has to actually spend some money to market it to them. They don't know it even exists.

NPR has gotten so inside-the-beltway and dull to me, particularly Diane Rehm (she isn't even trying anymore) and Talk of the Nation, I couldn't go back there even if 950 flipped to something else. Thank you XM.

I'm not worried as much about the signal for WROC. I don't know how many listeners they could expect in Wyoming County anyway. I don't think any turnkey operation is destined to come close to WHAM, but there is no reason this station couldn't be doing at least what WHTK is doing, if they got off their butts and promoted it and programmed it properly.
 
Re: Air America in the Rochester Market

> Good points, Mark. I would describe Air America as typical
> talk radio -- pontificating hosts, cheap shots at the other
> side and style over substance -- except from a liberal
> rather than conservative perspective. If you want substance
> and a reasoned discussion, I think listeners of WNED-AM and
> WBFO will stick with NPR and such shows as "Morning
> Edition," "On Point" and the BBC News Hour.

The key there is the BBC. I don't bother with NPR for substance on many issues anymore. I head straight to the BBC World Service. I have been a Newshour fan since the show started (much to the drumbeat of 'you're wrecking the BBC' when Newshour replaced Newsreel).

Air America talk, like most commercial talk, is supposed to be entertaining. It's not news. You do get some substance with Randi Rhodes, sometimes to extremes when she starts deep-reading articles and papers to listeners. Stephanie Miller's show is much, much lighter.
 
Re: Air America in the Rochester Market

IMHO what will make or break WHLD/AA are two things: Localism and promotion. I suspect a lot potential AA listeners already get the programming via XM or streaming, so local programming may be key to getting these folks to push the AM button. Perhaps something in conjunction with the Niagara Falls Reporter?

I know WHLD has a fine signal in the Falls...how is the signal in the rest of the metro?
 
> While reading the many informative, opinionated posts in the
> WHLD-Air America thread, it struck me: Just WHO is an Air
> America Radio listener? Who's the customer? With this in
> mind, I'd be very interested in readers' perceptions as to
> what kind of listener AAR and WHLD will attract.
>

I can tell you I do check out air america here in phoenix from time to time. It is refreshing to have the "other" point of view in town heard. Many times its all rah rah rah for bush but its nice to have the opposing point of view as well.
 
Re: No Profiling, Please

No, the average listener will likely be a disenfranchised ultra-liberal who's one dime short of Pacifica and can't tell the difference between good and bad talk radio.

> Niagara Independent Media should be applauded for bringing
> Air America Radio to WNY on WHLD. It will give talk radio
> listeners and citizens an alternative point of view, to say
> nothing of what it will do for this board. As to who's going
> to listen? Air America may draw from the same pool as NPR on
> WBFO and WNED. The average listener will likely be male,
> college educated and presumably a democrat. Hard to say.
> Let's give them a chance and see how they do. It should be
> an entertaining experience to listen to and equally
> entertaining to see if and how WBEN reacts to the
> competition.
 
WHLD Signal Coverage, Reference

> I know WHLD has a fine signal in the Falls...how is the
> signal in the rest of the metro?

WHLD diplexes its signal from the WNED-AM site in Lakeview-Hamburg, shooting a good daytime signal into Niagara Falls, its city of license, as well as Lackawanna, Buffalo, the Tonawandas and Grand Island. A few friends and I spent a few hours driving around, checking out the day and night signal, using a standard car radio. (In reality, we were helping a friend shop for a new SUV.)WHLD has a north-dominant signal that protects 1280 WHTK, Rochester, on the first adjacency and co-channel 1270 WXYT, a 50kW in Detroit, just a hop, skip and a jump down Lake Erie.

The WHLD day pattern covers the city and eastern suburbs, what some engineeers call the Transit road corridor, quite well.

Transit road, NY rt 78 (as folklore has it, named because surveyors set their transit reference to the road) runs nearly perfect north-south from West Seneca in the south all the way north to Lockport. It slices through the highly populated suburbs of Lancaster, Depew, Cheektowaga, Amherst, East Amherst and south Lockport.

The WHLD night pattern is restrictive and does NOT cover the Transit road corridor. A lot of important suburban diaries will be lost because of this deficiency.

I spend a lot of time in the Walden avenue area. WHLD puts an adequate daytime signal into this part of Erie county, but at night the signal disappears to the east, beginning at a point as far west as the intersection of Harlem road (another north-south artery) and Walden avenue. This does not encouraging because many Arbitron diaries are placed in the "Transit road corridor" and eastern suburbs.

WHLD would best make its mark catering to Buffalo, Tonwanda, North Tonawanda, Grand Island and Niagara Falls, communities that are covered by the station's generous daytime signal and restricted nighttime signal. I hope the links will help readers, especially those outside of Buffalo, to better understand the RF issues.

-9-
 
Details on WHLD's New Schedule

> No, the average listener will likely be a disenfranchised
> ultra-liberal who's one dime short of Pacifica and can't
> tell the difference between good and bad talk radio.

Except for one thing, and that is that the new WHLD LMA management is apparently KEEPING Pacifica's "Democracy Now" on the station, along with other left-leaning programming of a similar ilk...

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.wnymedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=943>http://www.wnymedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=943</a>

"The station will feature Air America Radio with Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, and Laura Flanders; Pacifica programming including Democracy Now, Flashpoints, and Free Speech Radio News; as well as local programming promoting a diverse and spirited dialog on important issues facing our community."

Oh, and they're doing a local PM drive show, too, with similar programming:

"Niagara Independent Media has also hired Joe Schmidbauer and Grady Hawkins of the long running Alt Press to host the PM drive time segment. Schmidbauer and Hawkins have independently produced their local talk show for the last five years on various stations. Niagara Independent Media is in negotiations with other on-air talent who will join their team in the coming months."

It appears they're basically adding AAR's Franken and Rhodes to a mix of programming similar to the patchwork of left-leaning programming that's already been brokered on the station in the past couple of years.

It also doesn't appear they're interested in Jones' Stephanie Miller, a Lockport native, or certainly for that matter Miller's Jones stablemate, Ed Schultz. The programming appears more ideologically-based than any major market commercial liberal talker out there now.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Re: No Profiling, Please

> No, the average listener will likely be a disenfranchised
> ultra-liberal who's one dime short of Pacifica and can't
> tell the difference between good and bad talk radio.

There are only nine Pacifica listeners in western NY. They are all being wiretapped. :)

I'm a liberal and even I can't deal with Pacifica.
 
Re: Details on WHLD's New Schedule

> It appears they're basically adding AAR's Franken and Rhodes
> to a mix of programming similar to the patchwork of
> left-leaning programming that's already been brokered on the
> station in the past couple of years.

Franken is the "star" but he's almost as moderate politically as Ed Schultz so if left-leaning was the goal, they could do better than Franken. Randi Rhodes is a radio professional, and she knows how to put together a radio show, so ratings-wise, she has a better shot.

> It also doesn't appear they're interested in Jones'
> Stephanie Miller, a Lockport native, or certainly for that
> matter Miller's Jones stablemate, Ed Schultz. The
> programming appears more ideologically-based than any major
> market commercial liberal talker out there now.

Miller's morning show is gold for libtalk IMHO. It's funny and entertaining. They should listen to a demo.

I am not convinced of the ideology-driven program model theory you are presenting. Are they carrying Mike Malloy? He's the furthest to the left of all AAR weekday shows. That theory falls apart if they aren't choosing him. What about Majority Report? It's tailor made for stations that follow the Democracy Now formula.

It sounds more like they want ratings and Franken brings a known name and Rhodes brings a professional radio show to the table.
 
Well, THIS Has All Changed, Now!

> I am not convinced of the ideology-driven program model
> theory you are presenting. Are they carrying Mike Malloy?
> He's the furthest to the left of all AAR weekday shows.
> That theory falls apart if they aren't choosing him. What
> about Majority Report? It's tailor made for stations that
> follow the Democracy Now formula.

Obviously, this was written before the WWKB flip...which would explain why Ms. Miller and other non-AAR shows weren't in the mix for WHLD.

My whole point was the fact that the non-AAR programming sounds like it is VERY ideologically driven. The local programming seems to be aimed at the "true believers" who listened to the left-leaning programming that's already been brokered on WHLD. The afternoon drive show is a full-week extension for a one day a week specialty show. The programming is being funded by or supported by local labor unions and activist groups, it would appear.

They haven't announced their ENTIRE schedule yet, so "Majority Report" and Malloy could well show up at night.

In contrast, Entercom's new WWKB format has the Jones-syndicated talkers, WOR's Lionel and not a single Pacifica show on the schedule. And it's being run, unlike Citadel-owned-but-LMA'ed WHLD, not as an adjunct of unions and activists.

> It sounds more like they want ratings and Franken brings a
> known name and Rhodes brings a professional radio show to
> the table.

Nearly the entire announced schedule outside of those two shows sounds like a 5-day a week in-house radio station for activists. The only saving grace may be the fact that the GM/morning show host is a commercial news radio veteran.

Who knows, they may surprise us yet...but Franken and Rhodes seem to be the only "mainstream" shows on the station.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
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