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WXKS-AM 1200 Loses Large Share Of Its Cume

L

Laurence Glavin

Guest
Of course, WXKS-AM's ratings have been abysmal since it made its debut in April...now about 15% of its cume must have gone on an extended vacation in August, according to the latest Arbitron PPMs just out. WRKO-AM and WTKKK-FM persist in running in a dead heat.
 
How long has it been since an AM other than WBZ, WEEI, or WRKO made the top ten in Boston? I can dimly remember the days when WEEI had a significant audience as Newsradio 590 AM, while WHDH at 850 ruled the market. But anybody else? WILD, maybe, back in the seventies?
 
Gee, maybe if there was actual promotion for Rush Radio more people would listen. It's a good station with a good line-up and they have nationally known hosts; the signal itself has improved from its Air America days (it NEVER came in during those days) but is still weak compared to 680, 850, 1030, and even 1510. Without my Terk antenna, I'd have a hard time picking 1200 clearly at night here in Stoneham. I know, because the signal is basically junk on my other radios and in my car. But back to my main point, I have not seen any billboards anywhere promoting the station. I don't think most people even realize it exists. If they did, more people would be listening simply because of Rush Limbaugh alone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he always did solid numbers on WRKO. I guess the advertising budgets just do not exist at most of these stations anymore, and what a Catch 22 that is. Without promotion, almost nobody is going to know you're there. BTW, if anybody has seen advertising for Rush Radio, let us know, though it's obviously not enough.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
Of course, WXKS-AM's ratings have been abysmal since it made its debut in April...now about 15% of its cume must have gone on an extended vacation in August, according to the latest Arbitron PPMs just out.
Click to expand...

And wasn't this during the period of having it's best signal (daytime) on the longest it is all year long? (July and) August should have been best chance to bring in new cumers.
 
I'd like to see the FCC reassign the spectrum for TV channels 5 and 6 to FM broadcast and have a filing window for AM-to-FM conversions in the new spectrum as first priority. Canada is already slowing abandoning the AM band and switching to FM, why not us? Sure, I'll miss the propagation, but AM is losing an audience as time goes on. The Japanese radios already tune down to like 75 MHz anyway, so it would be easy to sell radios with the extended FM band. That's my $0.02 for the month.
 
They just started running ads. They had a tree hugger and the saying, "Whiny liberals hate
this radio station" and Rush asking how the hope and change is working out, etc. 15 sec
quick hit spots.

http://www.rushradio1200.com/pages/commercials/index.html?_show

I think Clear Channel did a couple quick billboards when it first came out.
The signal does very well here in Beverly days, and fairly well nights.

Isn't an important book coming out? Summer may not be as important.

So, low ratings, low cume? Sounds like it's _almost_ as bad as it was when it was progressive
talk :)
 
raccoonradio said:
They just started running ads. They had a tree hugger and the saying, "Whiny liberals hate
this radio station" and Rush asking how the hope and change is working out, etc. 15 sec
quick hit spots.

http://www.rushradio1200.com/pages/commercials/index.html?_show

I think Clear Channel did a couple quick billboards when it first came out.
The signal does very well here in Beverly days, and fairly well nights.

Isn't an important book coming out? Summer may not be as important.

So, low ratings, low cume? Sounds like it's _almost_ as bad as it was when it was progressive
talk :)
Click to expand...

Wait, you mean besides the fact progressive talk generally wasn't all that entertaining with a few exceptions, crappy signals kill formats? You've got the cream of the crop talent on this station and almost a half year of time to build an audience and they haven't come.
 
One could argue that 1200 actually did better with progressive talk, getting 0.6 rating even though the transmitter was in Framingham with only 1 kw at night, compared to 0.7 from Newton with 50 kw day and night with all the heavy-hitters as programming.
 
I'm fairly sure that during most 0f 2004, an election year, WXKS-AM 1430 achieved a diary-based rating of over 1.0 and maybe close to 2.0 while airing some Air America product (Marc Maron in the morning, Al Franken, plus Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz from what was then Jones. In fact, some pointed out that WXKS-AM 1430 was getting about the same ratings as when it was "Music of Your (not my) Life", so that "lib talk" really couldn't improve the station's performance.
 
I live right ON WXKS (AM)'s NIF contour--something like 13.5 mV/m. IIRC, the day signal here is about 19 mV/m. Neither the day signal nor the night signal is anything like overpowering here, but both are usually adequate. However, one evening within the last two weeks, I had to wonder whether WXKS might be running from its auxiliary transmitter, which is a 10-kW unit. I could hear another station (most likely WTLA, but maybe CFGO) underneath WXKS. I don't try to listen very often, but that is the only time I can recall hearing an interfering signal under WXKS since it moved to Newton and began running 50 kW.

WRCA, which shares the WXKS site, runs 17 kW-N with a pattern that is not too different from WXKS's night pattern. I believe that WRCA has a lower NIF than WXKS (8.<something> mV/m, IIRC). Yet I always hear another station under WRCA at night. Not loud enough to really be annoying, but quite noticeable nevertheless. The big difference is that the co-channel nighttime interference to WXKS comes from a number of stations (although one of the major ones, WAGE, is currently dark), whereas I believe there is really only one co-channel interferer to WRCA--WWRV.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
I'm fairly sure that during most 0f 2004, an election year, WXKS-AM 1430 achieved a diary-based rating of over 1.0 and maybe close to 2.0 while airing some Air America product (Marc Maron in the morning, Al Franken, plus Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz from what was then Jones. In fact, some pointed out that WXKS-AM 1430 was getting about the same ratings as when it was "Music of Your (not my) Life", so that "lib talk" really couldn't improve the station's performance.
Click to expand...

WXKS-1430 changed from Music of Your Life in Oct 2005... at which time they had a range from somewhat over a point in the ratings to just under a point during the period 2003 to 2005. After the change to lib-talk, ratings tanked to always under a point; usually hovering slightly over half a point.
 
RedWingCJS278 said:
BTW, if anybody has seen advertising for Rush Radio, let us know, though it's obviously not enough.
Click to expand...

There was a big billboard for it a few months ago along the Mass. Pike eastbound in Allston, just about a mile past the WGBH palace, but it has been taken down.
 
About the timing of the switch from "Music of Your (not my) Life" to progressive talk on AM 1430 and AM 1200...I know that the latter format was in play during the election when George W. Bush was trying to achieve election in his own right VS John Kerry, that is 2004. I know this for certain because on election day 2004, Al Franken did his Air America show from the Marlow Hotel in Cambridge, and he had staff people monitoring exit polling during the noon-to-3:00 pm. He ended the show encouraged by what he heard at that time. But I have two other sources to back up my assertion that AM 1430 and AM 1200 were progressive talk by 2004:

http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/20441

http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/53964
 
from: http://www.minutemancomm.com/past.html
November 2004
11/2 Air America's Al Franken live at the Hotel Marlowe (12-3pm) [john]





Laurence Glavin said:
About the timing of the switch from "Music of Your (not my) Life" to progressive talk on AM 1430 and AM 1200...I know that the latter format was in play during the election when George W. Bush was trying to achieve election in his own right VS John Kerry, that is 2004. I know this for certain because on election day 2004, Al Franken did his Air America show from the Marlow Hotel in Cambridge, and he had staff people monitoring exit polling during the noon-to-3:00 pm. He ended the show encouraged by what he heard at that time. But I have two other sources to back up my assertion that AM 1430 and AM 1200 were progressive talk by 2004:

http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/20441

http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/53964
Click to expand...
 
I can tell you that 1200 and 1430 went to prog talk around Oct 4, 2004. This was when they were
running the stunt with things like excerpts from Franken book, "Rockin in a Free World" etc.
The format ended in Dec of 2006

Franken was all set for big Kerry win and did show from here.

from dKosopedia:

>>October 4: WKOX and WXKS (Greater Boston area) begin simulcasting progressive talk
http://dkosopedia.com/wiki/Progressive_radio_timeline
 
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