-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Chicago Radio Ratings
- Thread starter Dr Wayne
- Start date
Why are WRME's format and ownership suddenly "N/A"? Has either changed since the last book? Is the station trying to go incognito?
Here is Feder's take!
https://www.robertfeder.com/2019/03...adio-ratings-wbbm-newsradio-still-leads-pack/
https://www.robertfeder.com/2019/03...adio-ratings-wbbm-newsradio-still-leads-pack/
Rob Feder reports them at a 2.6. Down from a 2.8 and good for a tie for 18th place. No post-holiday bounce. Fatigue setting in for "the little station that could"?
In 18-49 in February, the station was 5th in the market. In 25-54, it was 4th.
Obviously a very, very good move. Revenue was up last year to its highest point in the last 5 or 6 years.
I was gonna post something about how that hasn't really worked out well for them, but last time I complained about the noise they play, it derailed the thread.
About the same IIRC, and still behind WLS. So this experiment failed.
WBMX is well ahead in 25-54 and 18-49.
WLS increased due to not having to split the classic hits audience with a second station.
WLS-FM is still not in the "must buy" top 5 stations, while WBMX is.
I think that other stations that were playing Real Oldies and *Classic* Classic Rock and had yanked them from playlists have reconsidered, and entered some back in. People don't have to "Turn Turn Turn" to 87.75 to hear their music as much.
To rhyme like the late great Ernie Durham, the "CPAP Saps don't like the Rap Crap" you want to "Keep On Pushing" to them. Verstehen sie?
To rhyme like the late great Ernie Durham, the "CPAP Saps don't like the Rap Crap" you want to "Keep On Pushing" to them. Verstehen sie?
Last edited:
At the end of the day though, their ratings are roughly the same are they not? I seem to recall K-Hits in the 3 range, which looking at the link above, they're in a 3 - 3.5 range now. I mean, it's not some huge jump. I know you like to dig in to the numbers and sub-categories, but the overall difference isn't much to the lay person.
They seem to be close together if you look at the "free and worthless" 12+ numbers Nielsen releases tp the media press.
However, the success of a station is in delivering the listeners advertisers want to send their messages to. That is never 12+. It is specific ages and characteristics, almost entirely within the 18 to 54 age ranges.
So we usually look at 18-49 or 25-54 or sometimes 18-34 and subsets of this. And we pay most attention to the 6 AM-7 PM numbers, not the 6 AM to Midnight ones.
So at radio stations, it is unlikely that 12+ is among the ratings tables that management looks at first. In fact, they may not look at them at all.
And in the ages that matter, WBMX is well ahead of WLS-FM.
Pretty crass behavior by Nielsen. What would happen if the "media press" were made aware that they were being fed worthless data and just stopped running it, either in print or on the web? Would the industry just continue chugging along without the free publicity such numbers occasionally get stations in the mainstream media, or the speculative chit-chat those cynically released BS stats create in forums like this. Some posters might never come here at all if it weren't for the posting and discussion of the "beauty pageant" ratings, so I suppose you could say they serve as clickbait, in a way. So why continue to denigrate them -- and by association those who read and comment on them -- since they help the ads on this very site reach more eyeballs?
It's not completely worthless if all you're trying to do is follow the horserace and not actually deal with sales demos.
Then let me ask this question (and I'm not asking this in jerky fashion, just a "why")... What is the point of the ratings linked above other than for chest beating purposes?
I get what you're saying with all the points you're making, but to me as a listener, is really irrelvant with me. I get that those in the business may dissect them and go over every detail in everyone of those sub-categories/subsets.
It's a "beauty contest". Nearly everyone loves lists, and we like to see the winners and losers. So this information is provided as kind of an overview, mostly for the non-radio folks who want to see how "their" station did.
But this is a radio board, and the reality inside the business is that those overview numbers are not of any real value except for, as you say, bragging rights.
But keep in mind that a station that does really well overall but which has all its listeners over age 55 will not be around long. So the underlying data is what makes or breaks stations... and is also why stations that seem to be doing OK change their format or music mix or morning show...
The data is not worthless. It is just not actionable at the programming, management or sales level.
To a listener and the general public, it still valuable information for those who want to see how the different stations in their home town are doing. And for those of us with no access to some markets, we can still see how different stations overall are doing in those places. But at our own stations in our own market we do not pay much, if any, attention to 12+ because we have really useful data "inside the book".
Last edited:
I agree with this POV and will keep in mind for future postings.
Here is a question for you then. The over 55 group seems to be highly discriminated against in the radio universe for God knows how long. Why? I'm not 55 (and still a ways away), but I think what a 55 y/o liked several generations ago isn't the same as a 55 y/o likes now. Meaning, the demo has evolved. As such, this opens up more potential format options, one of them a classic rocker or even more modern Adult Contemporary type formats. This isn't the day where 55+ listen to chamber music anymore.
And most in that age range have actual money to spend in bigger things and in larger quantities on products and services than the 18 - 34 group that lives on vape options, social things and alchohol while still living in their 55+ parents basement living well beyond their credit limits.- Status