Worcesters book is out

[radioman1818]

The Worcester ratings book is out. No surprise SRS is twice what the next highest station is.

What really surprised me is WCRN with a .8. A New Hampshire and a RI and a Springfield station tied with them.

That’s bad! All the Boston talk stations blew them away

HOW CAN THEY GO ON! Can you even guess what their ratings would have been if the Ice storm had hit in this book? They were off the air for 3 days!

Who is to blame for the mess over their?

 

[BRNout]

WCRN's programming department doesn't seem to understand that, with a talk format, you need to build an audience through habit and loyalty. For all of the beatings that we give Greater Media, at least they understood/understand this concept with WTKK and were patient with it back in the beginning (remember those dismal ratings?). As for WCRN. they are constantly toying with the schedule and the hosts to the extent that listeners can't get used to the station and give up trying to sample it. Not to mention the last-gasp style infomercials and crap that brackets all of the legitimate shows. You'll never, EVER, build a successful talk station this way.

You need to program hosts/shows that will cater to your P1 audience and have the patience to let it build. That takes time in this format. WCRN's management is too impatient and constantly kills off what little audience they have with their constant programming tweaks. An old deaf man could do a better job of programming with his cane tied behind his back.

 

[DavidZ]

WCRN's programming department doesn't seem to understand that, with a talk format, you need to build an audience through habit and loyalty. For all of the beatings that we give Greater Media, at least they understood/understand this concept with WTKK and were patient with it back in the beginning (remember those dismal ratings?). As for WCRN. they are constantly toying with the schedule and the hosts to the extent that listeners can't get used to the station and give up trying to sample it. Not to mention the last-gasp style infomercials and crap that brackets all of the legitimate shows. You'll never, EVER, build a successful talk station this way.

You need to program hosts/shows that will cater to your P1 audience and have the patience to let it build. That takes time in this format. WCRN's management is too impatient and constantly kills off what little audience they have with their constant programming tweaks. An old deaf man could do a better job of programming with his cane tied behind his back.

And speaking of WCRN constantly toying with their schedule, it wouldn’t be as bad trying to find your favorite show if they had an informative and updated website.

The changed their daily schedule again this week with the addition of a new local hour from 5 – 6 a.m. and Money Matters from 9 – 11 a.m. However, you wouldn’t know from looking at their schedule on the website (http://www.wcrnradio.com/html/talk-schedule.htm). And I caught the last break before the 3 p.m. news yesterday and Laura Ingraham was back on in that slot.

BTW, who wrote that weekend schedule? It looks like it was written by a 3rd grade student.

Speaking of the new “Wake Up Worcester” hosted by Hank Stolz at 5, for the most part, it is just more of the same of what he was previously doing when he had a full 4 hour show in afternoon drive. And he is constantly promoting his own website for Wake Up Worcester (http://www.wakeupworcester.com/hanktest/) with only a cursory mention of WCRN’s website.

Although the AM band is a shadow of its past, WCRN with a 50,000 watt signal should easily have 4 times their current rating of 0.8 in the Worcester market.

 

[The Original]

I do business with some local ad agencies. I walked into one the other day, and a guy was joking about the new WCRN ratings. He suggested they now change their "Info-on-the-8's" to "Info-on-the-Zero-Point-Eights." BRNout is correct. Even with consistently good programming, it typically takes years to build a successful talk station. The December 12th ice storm proved to me that WCRN is sliding down the road of disaster. Local events like that really separate the "Radio MEN" from the "Radio BOYS." It would have been a great way for the Carberry Kids to establish the station as a TRUE competitor. 'TAG, even with its minimal news staff, was right on top of the situation and received lots of free publicity in local newspapers for its efforts. I'm wondering if the Worcester market is just too tough for the Carberrys. Maybe it's time to return to the Broadway Show Tunes format.