WPTF/WPTK

[ncscradiogeek]

Here is what I have been thinking after sammpling both 850 and 680. Curtis should have put the current schedule on 680 instead of the weaker signal. Granted he does not have Rush but with the current line-up of LuMaye, Bortz, Clark Howard and Brad and Brit he has a good chance to succeed. I am just afraid putting it on 850 is going to hurt him in the long run, as 850's signal starts to fade a bit in the outlying areas like Johnston county. Any thoughts?

 

[goatboy]

If the two stations ever cume 70,000 COMBINED, it will be a friggin' miracle

 

[surfdude]

I know it doesn't reflect the format adjustments made during March, but the March combined cume for 850/680 is 92,000.
So, that's where they're starting.

They need to clearly make 680 News and 850 Talk. Right now it's a hodgepodge. Ramsey on a News station??

 

[B Lewis]

I agree with surfdude! 680 needs to be solid news and 850 should be a talk format.

 

[amos]

i know this is off the subject, but could someone explain how to "read" cume numbers?

if their march combined cume is 92,000 does that mean 92,000 different people tuned in during march? or that an average 92,000 people were listening at one moment?

sorry for thread hi-jacking. also, sorry for such a dumb question.

my reasons for asking is this: my internet station had an estimated cume of 50,832. (that was may 2003, the last time live365 stations were included). i know my station had a maximum simultaneious listener cap of 1300 at that time, so i figure the 50k number is the total of people for the entire month. how do you compare the two different cume figures?

my figures: http://www11.brinkster.com/wava/arbitron.htm they describe their methodology as Cume Persons is an estimate of the total number of unique listeners who had one or more listening sessions lasting five minutes or longer during the reported time period. This estimate is derived using an algorithm that takes into account unique media player GUIDs, unique IP addresses and other variables during the reported time period.


is that 92,000 number an average for the number of persons tuned in at any one time?

-amos

 

[stafferman]

Unless they do all-news, they're doomed for failure

Curtis has realized they're in some serious trouble with these AM's they have. Nobody wants to buy them, regardless of what the history of the station's are. That history doesn't matter jack with today's technology, Non-Rush AM Talk just won't be listened to unless it's 100% local.

They need to do some serious news and forget the mediocre talk programming

 

[surfdude]

The Cume number, 92,000 for example, is the number of different people who tune in a week.
Some of those 92,000 listen a lot, some very little. That's where the TSL (Time Spent Listening) comes in to play to compute the station's Share (percentage of listening).

 

[amos]

surfdude, i'm a bit lost... why isn't it called a weekly cume? is the march combined cume actually just one week in march? which week?

i'm not disagreeing, i'm just confused.

so if i take my cume and divide by 4 (actually 4.333) that's a comparable comparison? 11.7k? is that an apples to apples comparison?

 

[surfdude]

It's the average weekly cume for the month of March. It's possible to get weekly ratings, even daily or hourly figures, but its very expensive, and not a large enough sample to be even close to accurate.

 

[amos]

ahh thanks!

so my little net station actually cumes as well as some of the bottom stations in a medium/smaller market. nice!

back then (may 2003) when the ratings were published 257k TTLH, and i'm currently at 355k. so, my cume is probably (extrapolating) around 71k. so my weekly cume would be ~ 16k.

thanks!

 

[jefflaurence]

There was a kid in Denton, Texas that had a better cume for his Live365 internet station he was running out of his bedroom than THREE full time AMs in Dallas COMBINED! This is the example of leveled playing fields, and niche programming winning with a new medium. Two of those station he beat are high power multi- tower (read: expensive to run) stations..and one was a 50kw. I was the imaging voice for WKIX-AM ..and this is the first I found out of the call letter/format change!

I'll stay with KIX-FM I hope!

 

[amos]

Jeff,

which live365 station are you talking about? i've known most of the top tier broadcasters there for the last few years. my station, which is currently #2 in TTLH on Live365, had monthly cume numbers of 50k in may 2003. however, i haven't seen any cume data since then. i can only extrapolate based on what i saw then. at that time i had 250k TTLH, and arbitron measurecast estimated my cume to be 50k. currently i have 365k TTLH, so i estimate that my cume is at least as high as 50k, probably closer to 80k.

but the cume numbers for internet radio are monthly, and the "monthly cume" for broadcast radio is actually weekly. i haven't really understood this ever. so last week after this discussion started, i decided to write the source: arbitron. here is how they responded

The Measurecast cume estimates were, as the legend indicates, for the month.....but don't divide by four to get an equivalent weekly cume....while I can't speak for the individual station you cite, it is possible that the bulk of the monthly cume listeners accumulated in the first week, and only a small amount of incremental first time listeners being added in each succeeding week.

The broadcast radio audience estimates are the average weekly cume for the month -- in essence the average of 4 different weekly cume estimates in the survey month.

that makes it pretty much impossible to know what the actual comparison numbers are. but you can estimate. again, if my extrapolation is correct and my "monthly cume" numbers are between 50 and 80k, then i was incorrect in dividing by 4 to get the weekly numbers. maybe my weekly cume is closer to 40 to 60k. this puts me in the range of a station like KFLC, a 50kw spanish talk outlet in the metroplex.

as you can see, this is using a LOT of estimates and extrapolation. i wish there was a better way.

one thing that is concrete: live365 is now paying it's pro stations @ $2.00 CPM for inserted ads. it looks like i'll finally be able to monetize my station.

 

[robbie roundhouse]

Curtis has realized they're in some serious trouble with these AM's they have. Nobody wants to buy them, regardless of what the history of the station's are. That history doesn't matter jack with today's technology, Non-Rush AM Talk just won't be listened to unless it's 100% local.

I think old man Curtis will be six feet under before the company ever sells 680. That company is just a little backwards in it's approach to radio. They never put up a billboard or ran an ad for 96 Rock. Why are they shocked it failed? Why not move the Pulse to 96.9? There just doesn't seem to be a lot of thought put into what they do.

 

[knowsdown]

Oh Don Curtis DOES think about it, but his thoughts are scrambled and dated. After all, he is the one that has noted that AM is going to make a comeback....as IF. He wasted a perfectly good FM Talk station because he wouldn't promote it or put any cash into except for the bandaids that he would authorize just to keep the crumbling infrastructure up and running. That crappy old and deteriorating building in Burlington barely makes fire code. My condolences for anyone left working there. I'm betting that soon Brad & Britt will be required to wear hard hats to work there....and that Curtis will mandate that they buy 'em themselves!

 

[carolinaradio]

I question that they know what they're doing. I can't for the life of me figure out why they keep 102.9 as classic hits when The Pulse is getting almost a 3 and a half share on those two rimshots. The 102.9 signal would probably help Pulse's numbers quite significantly. Put classic hits or something else on 102.3/102.5.

 

[surfdude]

WKIX-FM 102.9 is owned by McClatchey Broadcasting. Curtis had to spin it off when they moved 102.3 into Johnson County.
KIX has over a 3 share, and a decent cume, not bad for a stand alone Class A.

 

[w00t]

Isn't McClatchey his son-in-law?

It's essentially CMG's station.

 

[carolinaradio]

Hard to believe they'd get rid of a signal like 102.9 for one like 102.3.
Yet another strange decision.

w00t: actually, not - it appears that McClatchey is operating and providing facilities for it (I thought maybe he owned it and was LMA'ing to CMG): http://mcclatcheybc.com/

 

[turkeydance]

since you brought up Brad&Britt....
today, for 20 minutes, they took no calls
during a segment where they gave the number.
1. maybe the cue disconnected.
2. or calls didn't pass screen.
3. or zilch for a call-in talker.

 

[knowsdown]

It was most likely equipment failure of some sort. There were days there that the PHONES didn't work for a 100,000 watt TALK station and B&B had to carry it all themselves/ My hard hat is off to them!