WTTT

[raccoonradio]

I was on the Free Republic messageboard and the name of talk host Hugh Hewitt came up. He's on WTTT 1150 locally. I don't really listen to WTTT, partly because their signal is on the weak side, and also because I already have choices like WRKO,
WTKK, and WBZ, etc.

They have all syndie conservatalk: Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis
Praeger, Michael Medved, Hewitt, Dr. Laura, Michael Reagan. Once or twice I may dip into one of these shows while driving but that's usually during a commercial break when Howie's on 'RKO, etc. And I go back to Howie.

Well, I've talked about the no-show that WKOXKS had in the last ratings book. Gotta admit that WTTT is also doing their impression of the Invisible Man.
Is it due to weak signal or the "other choices" around? Quality of shows?
Or do they subscribe to the ratings service? Sister station WEZE 590 does
show up, if barely, in the ratings ("Christian Talk") so at least we know
they subscribe.

And keep in mind that the numbers I see online are 12 +. For all I know
WTTT may show up in the 25-54 but I'm not an industry pro who has access to
those!

But I'm guessing that even though they didn't show up in the last 12 + book,
WTTT, like 1200/1430, must have at least some income from advertising
their all-syndicated lineup. Maybe they're breaking even at least...

 

[ajhenderson]

> They have all syndie conservatalk: Bill Bennett, Mike
> Gallagher, Dennis
> Praeger, Michael Medved, Hewitt, Dr. Laura, Michael Reagan.
> Once or twice I may dip into one of these shows while
> driving but that's usually during a commercial break when
> Howie's on 'RKO, etc. And I go back to Howie.

The only shows that get any kind of #s for Salem stations are already taken. Laura Ingraham on WTKK, as is Hannity who's on a few Salem stations. Savage, of course, is taken by WRKO. Basically, they're left with a wall-to-wall borefest of no-name shows. They don't need ratings; SRN's ad reps use their mkt#9 presence to charge more for spots.

 

[JustinT]

> I was on the Free Republic messageboard and the name of talk
> host Hugh Hewitt came up. He's on WTTT 1150 locally. I don't
> really listen to WTTT, partly because their signal is on the
> weak side, and also because I already have choices like
> WRKO,
> WTKK, and WBZ, etc.
>
> They have all syndie conservatalk: Bill Bennett, Mike
> Gallagher, Dennis
> Praeger, Michael Medved, Hewitt, Dr. Laura, Michael Reagan.
> Once or twice I may dip into one of these shows while
> driving but that's usually during a commercial break when
> Howie's on 'RKO, etc. And I go back to Howie.
>
> Well, I've talked about the no-show that WKOXKS had in the
> last ratings book. Gotta admit that WTTT is also doing their
> impression of the Invisible Man.
> Is it due to weak signal or the "other choices" around?
> Quality of shows?
> Or do they subscribe to the ratings service? Sister station
> WEZE 590 does
> show up, if barely, in the ratings ("Christian Talk") so at
> least we know
> they subscribe.

I believe that you will recieve ratings whether you subscribe to Arbitron or not. Although the 1150 signal is no WBZ, it is far better than the horrific 1200/1430 simulcasting. WEZE has a really good signal, for 5000 watts. I'd think that if Salem really cared about the format, they would but it on 590. However, it's 590 that's pulling in the money for Salem's Boston cluster.

Additionally, it's hard to find a more liberal market than Boston. In some recent posts on the Chicago board, it appears that their version of 1150 WTTT (News Talk 560 WIND) recently aired a syndicated show that was anti-liberal, anti-gay, anti-abortion, and perhaps above all, anti-Catholic. When Catholics are the vast majority of Christians around Boston, they obviously aren't going to be tuning in to hear from Catholics who have left the Church. Salem's target demographic just doesn't exist around here.

> And keep in mind that the numbers I see online are 12 +. For
> all I know
> WTTT may show up in the 25-54 but I'm not an industry pro
> who has access to
> those!
>
> But I'm guessing that even though they didn't show up in the
> last 12 + book,
> WTTT, like 1200/1430, must have at least some income from
> advertising
> their all-syndicated lineup. Maybe they're breaking even at
> least...

I'd guess that they are being supported by national advertising, and by the religion on Family 590.

I wonder if Salem could do better with perhaps a satellite CCM format on 1150? Praise 1260 was a flop in the late-90's, but it didn't really get a chance; I think that it lasted maybe 6 months? With rumors that the satellite, non-profit K-Love network is going to broaden it's base in New England, this is an option that they may want to consider if they ever want a chance in that format. Perhaps they could bump WTTT to 950 WROL and then create "1150 The Fish". I'd bet someone would listen.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

> I believe that you will recieve ratings whether you
> subscribe to Arbitron or not. Although the 1150 signal is no
> WBZ, it is far better than the horrific 1200/1430
> simulcasting.

I don't think that's necessarily true in the daytime. WTTT's diectional signal doesn't cover WKOX's area west of Route 128 well at all, and it also doesn't cover the North Shore (and the South Shore, coming over the harbor) as well as WXKS-AM's day signal, which is also stronger in downtown Boston and throughout Boston's neighborhoods in the daytime.

Both WXKS-AM and WTTT have 5 kW in the daytime, WXKS-AM non-directional in the daytime, and WTTT directionalized toward Boston, but their transmitter in Lexington is more than twice as far away from downtown as Everett.

The only places where WTTT would beat WXKS-AM's day signal is the immediate west suburbs within Route 128 (Lexington, Belmont, Watertown, Waltham, Newton, Needham, Dedham, etc...), and WXKS-AM's day signal is still adequate in those areas.

Of course, at night WTTT blows away the WXKS-WKOX night signals in metro Boston. Unlike WXKS-AM, at least it's directionalized toward the city and the urban metro at night. (WKOX also is, but it's too far away from Boston for their low nighttime power).

Still, even at night WXKS-AM gets the North Shore where WTTT doesn't, and WKOX still gets the metro-west beyond Route 128 where WTTT at night is nulled, but as we all well know, neither "Progressive Talk" station is listenable throughout most of Boston at night.

 

[Retro]

> I wonder if Salem could do better with perhaps a satellite
> CCM format on 1150? Praise 1260 was a flop in the late-90's,
> but it didn't really get a chance; I think that it lasted
> maybe 6 months?

I do not think that Salem was really all that interested in having 2 radio stations at the time though. When they were sold WBNW, it was mentioned that it was already in the plan for it to be sold to them anyway, but it got bumped up a year because they decided to suddenly sell the station sooner.

This made them prematurely have 2 radio stations in my oppinion, so they put what they could on 1260 until they sold it to Disney.

 

[JustinT]

> > I wonder if Salem could do better with perhaps a satellite
>
> > CCM format on 1150? Praise 1260 was a flop in the
> late-90's,
> > but it didn't really get a chance; I think that it lasted
> > maybe 6 months?
>
> I do not think that Salem was really all that interested in
> having 2 radio stations at the time though. When they were
> sold WBNW, it was mentioned that it was already in the plan
> for it to be sold to them anyway, but it got bumped up a
> year because they decided to suddenly sell the station
> sooner.

I think that it was ARS that had a clause to buy 590, and they ended up selling or trading the rights in that clause to Salem.

But Salem did put a format, and I believe, DJs, on Praise 1260. Once the sale from Back Bay closed (and WEZE relocated to 590), the new 1260 format took a while to get started, but then, after about 6 months, when the sale to Hibernia was announced, Salem quickly canned WPZE and replaced it with a simulcast of 590 until it was transferred to Hibernia.

I guess the question really is, could CCM work?
>
> This made them prematurely have 2 radio stations in my
> oppinion, so they put what they could on 1260 until they
> sold it to Disney.

Just a nitpick: Salem sold WPZE to Hibernia Broadcasting, a group that LMAd all of their stations to Disney. They took their time changing the calls (2 years!) and then Hibernia sold itself to ABC/Disney around 2000.