July Ratings

Yes, Fitz is syndicated weeknights now. KIOK-94.9 airs his weeknight show in Tri-Cities. And KNWR isn't all classical. It's NWPB, with Morning Edition and All Things Considered, classical middays and weeknights/early AMs. But they also air other NPR programs and jazz on weekends.
Yeah, I think of 98.9 as a revolving door of formats. Every few years either a current format is tweaked, or changed all together. I hope KNUC can surprise us when listeners get used to it, but otherwise, KWJZ's smooth jazz *was* the highest-ranked format on that channel in the past 25 years. Not sure how KEZX's AAA format did in the '80s ratings...anyone know?

crainbebo said:

Not sure how KEZX's AAA format did in the '80s ratings...anyone know?

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They were usually on the mid-lower end. KEZX never had a huge listenership, but probably the loyalest of any station in this area I can remember..

DavidEduardo said:

The sample target is around 1,400 meters.



KNWR is a PPM subscriber and is encoded. They obviously showed for the first time here because of the new Minimum Reporting Standards rule which says that just a single mention listening to a subscribed stations (FM, HD, Stream, Translator) will allow that station to "make the book". So a lot of the 0.1 share stations that are showing up nationally are there due to the new MRS criteria which, essentially, earns a "participation" award of 0.1 just for getting a single person's brief listening.

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But aren't there other stations in Seattle/Tacoma that PPM encode and still don't get that kind of treatment? Wow. I mean, it just can't feel good looking at these things and not seeing your station anywhere at all on the list. But freaking ELLENSBURG however.....

So theoretically, as the PPM panel rotates, so should the lowest rungs of the 6+ ladder. As I said earlier, All Jazz is popular out here as well as nationally. So going forward with these inclusions, it would seem like they would be a regularly reappearing thing. But not KNWR.

And yet somehow, that still smacks of a significantly less than 1,400 meter panel. I just can't see how one household can disrupt the ratings like that.

Regarding KNWR:

I spend a good deal of time on the weekends in beautiful Greenwater near Crystal Mountain. In that neck of the woods, you are still in King/Pierce County (the border cuts right before you hit “town limits”). That being said, KNWR provides the more superior coverage of the NPR stations out there...especially as one drives east toward the pass (which is only about 10 miles at that point)

I do know that several central/eastern Washington stations come in better than most Seattle stations (notably KPQ-FM and KNWR) out there, there are a few brave souls who live out there year-round, and a whole lotta city slickers hit up the eastern part of the counties during the warm months of July-September.

bobdavcav said:

I agree the KNWR appearance is probably the most surprising thing in this book. I am less surprised, though still a bit surprised that KNKX-HD2 showed up. I hope that station actually continues to do so, as there's no other option for fulltime jazz in the market. As for 98.9, it hasn't always been like that, I'd argue 17 years is a pretty good run for one format. By the time I was 12, 96.5 had been through 4 formats (country, all 80s, Classic Alternative, and now Jack.) KNUC needs one more flip in the next four years to be that unstable, but to say it hasn't been doing well historically is not accurate. In the same period I was just referencing with 96.5, 98.9 was Smooth Jazz the entire time.

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Bobby buddy baby, I done told you not to fall for that smooth jazz play - That was like SO long ago and in a diary method back some 20+ years ago so the point is MOOT. Hence the death of SJ NOT a PPM friendly format. Dang Bobby you need another cup of coffee er something. Everyone who's anyone who knows the market knows 98.9 is s a shit stick and will always be that unless MASSIVE amounts of money are spent on changing the perception in the public.

Interesting, seems like ratings were low in KEZX's AAA days as well. Niche format obviously. It seems like 98.9 has been a cursed frequency for decades, even before Smooth Jazz.

crainbebo said:

Interesting, seems like ratings were low in KEZX's AAA days as well. Niche format obviously. It seems like 98.9 has been a cursed frequency for decades, even before Smooth Jazz.

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I wouldn't say 98.9 was cursed any more than any other frequency. It's just that when you add KEZX, KWJZ and KLCK, a lot of niche formats dominated. So by default, 98.9 became that "whatever" station for most listeners tuning by.

DavidEduardo said:

Smooth Jazz was already dying due to the aging of the audience

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In addition, the music had really become stagnant.

Bongwater said:

I wouldn't say 98.9 was cursed any more than any other frequency. It's just that when you add KEZX, KWJZ and KLCK, a lot of niche formats dominated. So by default, 98.9 became that "whatever" station for most listeners tuning by.

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Funny, I knew a few rock heads who preferred 98.9 to 99.9 or 102.5. I have to agree that perhaps they needed to put some more money into the promotion of the station, plus perhaps including more currents into its 80's-00's rock mix, livening up the mix a bit more. What 98.9 had over 99.9 is less talk. What they had over 102.5 is a more current mix of music. But that's all moot. They did what they did. Maybe KNUC will succeed. I wish them luck.

boombox4 said:

Funny, I knew a few rock heads who preferred 98.9 to 99.9 or 102.5. I have to agree that perhaps they needed to put some more money into the promotion of the station, plus perhaps including more currents into its 80's-00's rock mix, livening up the mix a bit more. What 98.9 had over 99.9 is less talk. What they had over 102.5 is a more current mix of music. But that's all moot. They did what they did. Maybe KNUC will succeed. I wish them luck.

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KVRQ was probably the first actual non-niche format on 98.9. In my observation, listener perceptions are often slower to changes on frequencies they usually scan by or ignore (or completely bypass with preset buttons) Some people tune in, hear a few seconds of a song (some less than three) and if it doesn't instantly sound familiar. Or a REALLY hook-filled catchy tune. Or interesting talk, they'll keep scanning. Over time, the frequency they skip because it wasn't playing what they initially liked becomes subconsciously programmed into their minds AS something TO skip over. (Like The Golf Channel.) So when that station changes format, it's often completely overlooked for months before the new format is accidentally discovered or heard elsewhere. And some probably still think 98.9 is playing Joni Mitchell, Boney James, Adele and Metallica. That's why advertising and promotion are nothing to ignore these days with every other electronic distraction going on.

Listeners are often no more democratic than the program directors.

And one of the biggest misconceptions of the radio industry is ordinary people tune in and actually "sample" a station for at least 15 whole minutes before deciding to stay or go. Maybe under organized test and research conditions as well as people favorable to that, but not in real life and totally free will. I know, I've seen how people (especially younger people) do it in my car when I'm driving. A few still have "favorite" stations, but the rest are usually "shotgun DJs", zapping through the band (or whatever audio source available. Or their own USB/CDs) to find something they like. And never once have those radio-surfing people (and there are many) ever stayed on one frequency for an entire 15 minutes.

I'm not really sure if I can chalk it up to an ADD or ADHD thing either because this kind of radio surfing actually existed when I was a teenager in the '80s as well. Maybe all that has been going on this whole time before we had call letters for it ("A-D-H-D....The station that....Oh look! PIZZA!....") But if someone did that on a PPM panel, I'm sure there would be a problem.

Bongwater said:

That's why advertising and promotion are nothing to ignore these days with every other electronic distraction going on.

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Marketing & promotion are more targeted than general advertising when trying to reach an audience for a radio format. So in this case, the radio station does remotes at all area country concerts and festivals. You'll see those listed at their web site. They'll do social media all day promoting the remote, and then it'll be the topic of conversation the next morning. Buying a TV ad or a highway billboard won't be as effective as the direct contact the station will have with potential P1s at a concert or festival. Unless that TV ad airs during the broadcast of a format based event, such as this past week's CMA Fest on ABC.

As far as the rock format on 98.9, I completely agree. I had one Access driver a couple months back who still misses the rock format, since there's no real current rock station in the market in afternoons. No KISW doesn't count since they only play like four songs an hour.

DavidEduardo said:

The closest I ever saw to what you suggest was a contest by a new station... they distributed postcards via a supermarket chain asking listeners to "spend a half hour" with them, write down the songs, and mail the card. Some of the cards got cash prizes, so they were simply offering an incentive to listening, but also providing both proof of listening and emphasizing to new listeners the kind of songs they played. The contest worked very well, and the combination of "write down", "tell us what time" and forced listening was a powerful approximation of survey methodology. The station came out #1 in 18-49 women in one book.

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That actually is a great idea. You get listeners locked in for at least a proven 30min period, a potential co-op/ad contract with the supermarket chain, and listeners in a database who could be potential music research candidates. All for the price of some printed post cards? Now that's effective promotion!

Goi said:

Bobby buddy baby, I done told you not to fall for that smooth jazz play - That was like SO long ago and in a diary method back some 20+ years ago so the point is MOOT. Hence the death of SJ NOT a PPM friendly format. Dang Bobby you need another cup of coffee er something. Everyone who's anyone who knows the market knows 98.9 is s a shit stick and will always be that unless MASSIVE amounts of money are spent on changing the perception in the public.

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That's a pretty clear display of inside thinking. Listeners barely know what frequency their favorite station is on, so I doubt there are many who are sitting there saying, "wow, over the last 8 years 98.9 was Jazz, then Click, then Rock, now The Bull." That's not how people consume this medium.

By the way, KWJZ flipped 8 years ago, not 20.

TheBigA said:

In addition, the music had really become stagnant.

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The last gasps of Smooth Jazz can be described as such:

Motown vocal
Instrumental cover of AC song
Hall & Oates vocal
Instrumental cover of Motown song
Doobie Brothers or Michael McDonald solo vocal (bonus points for a Michael McDonald Motown cover)
Gato Barbieri's cover of Europa (or similar "signature" SJ track of which there's a handful)
Sting vocal
Instrumental cover of Motown song
Steely Dan vocal

During the heyday of the format it sounded kind of hip, but at the end it just sounded old.

The Sirius XM Watercolors channel has done a decent job of keeping the genre going without leaning too heavily on vocals. As someone who actually used to like the format, I got to the point where I couldn't listen to most Smooth Jazz FMs. I mean, I like Hall & Oates and Motown, but the list was so tight I got burned out on the repetition and I could figure the categories out after about a day of listening.