Ratings: Get Those Excuses Ready
by Brian Maloney, January 29th, 2010 at 12:32am
If you think Democrats are going overboard spinning Scott Brown’s victory, you ain’t seen nothin’: radio programmers are masters at making excuses for bad ratings. And the fresh monthly release of Boston audience figures will most certainly test their skills.
That’s because for most local news-talkers, the final 2009 ratings period was generally a stinker. Yes, here come the excuses: our hosts were away for their extended vay-cays, etc. How’d that work out for Martha Coakley?
Another classic: we’ve recently changed our line-up and station logo and need at least a year to see how well it works!
Here are news-talk highlights for Arbitron’s Holiday 2009 ratings period (December 10 2009 to January 06 2010):
— WBZ-AM produced flat ratings, good for fourth place with 5.7 share of the overall (6 and older) audience. But it certainly no longer dominates the region. In terms of actual listeners (cume), WBZ takes seventh with 822,400.
Dan Rea, Martha Coakley and Curt Schilling have probably done more for WBZ in recent weeks than any marketing campaign could, so we’ll see if any election benefit shows up in the next trend.
— Sports WEEI continues to suffer after new competitor WBZ-FM carved away a chunk of its audience. But it did tick up a bit this month, to 3.8 from 3.6 share and ninth place overall (its remaining listeners are hard core and stick around longer).
Body count: 444,000, down from 462,000 last month and 642,600 in September, thirteenth place in cume.
— WRKO continues its long slide, falling to 3.6 from 4.0 last month and 5.5 in August. That means tenth place overall. Audience count: 347,800, down from 378,400 previously and 639,000 in August.
Next month, the white-hot Senate race should show up as a boost for January’s numbers. But the upcoming launch of a new Clear Channel talker will hit WRKO hard in the long run.
— It was another up month for upstart sports talker WBZ-FM, rising to 3.5 from 3.1. Tied for twelfth, cume audience: 687,500, more than 200,000 greater than WEEI! CBS is now busy looking to copy its success in other cities.
— WTKK-FM: the struggling FM talker didn’t get any good news this month, either, but with much of its lineup away, how hard did it really try? Falling to 2.6 share from 3.1 (tied for fifteenth place), there was also a cume loss of 50,000 from last month (to 371,900).
‘TKK did push the election hard and hosted a key debate, we’ll see if it enjoys a boost in the next ratings release.
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32 Comments Add your own
1. Cap'n Spackle | January 29th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
WTKK deserves to fall in the ratings after pushing both of their strongest-performing hosts out of the morning commute and part of the evening commute timeslots. As evidence to support my claim, here’s Dan Kennedy approving of the move.
Brian, what about listenership overall? Isn’t that down?
It seems as though most under-40s spend all of their time yapping on their cells or playing their ipods and no longer listen to the radio.
2. Karl from Malden | January 29th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
If TKK doesn’t get a boost in January from the Scott Brown party they threw everyday for 12 hours, Graham-McPhee, they should just fold up shop…maybe put on the night janitor at Greater Media and see what happens. I think it’s ironic that their weekend programming does better than their regular everyday lineup. That’s my one and a half cents…in this economy it’s tough to get the whole two cents.
3. JohnG | January 29th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Wait until RKO loses Rush to 1200 — it’s really the end for them — plus, I took TKK off my preset a while ago — dreadful, dreadful programming — what kind of contracts is management locked into?
4. Tim | January 29th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
don’t you think shifts in play by play for Sox from RKO to EEI, and Pats for WBZ-FM play a role in cume? You should be looking at aqh for M-F 6 A- 7 P for true audience on talk shows.
5. Marco | January 30th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
WTKK will try and ride the Brown victory to get themselves back up to a whopping 14th place in the ratings. They may have bought another 30 days of life support but sooner or later this weak suck of a station will have to close up shop and switch to another format.
6. jbenson2 | January 30th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
How about some information on the top stations in Boston?
7. Eddy Andleminn | January 30th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
“Now, I DID leave out, ahm, two key, pear-shaped and big-assed people in the public eye who could also wear the purple sweatpants, um… Ah-nold Schwarzeneggah and TKK Boston Talks’ own Rick Shay-Fah. Ya know, I mentioned Bill O’Reilly’s girdle, but what about Ah-nold Schwarzeneggah’s girdle? Have you seen this guy when he doesn’t wee-ah his girdle? Aah, it really is too BAD they couldn’t wee-ah thee-ah girdles externally so that those could be purple with the Fantom Gore-may Logo also. Now… I don’t know what’s happened to Rick Shay-Fah’s voice but he DOES sound like he’s swallowing some interesting objects or substances, tah say the least, ahm. I don’t wanna know what HE’S doing in the bedroom. I mean, have you heard his voice on that ad for the kah dealah-ship he voices over? I mean, not only is ANNOYING, it’s SCARY!
Now, I WOULD include How-ee Kah as a Fantom Gore-may Purple Sweatpants candidate but I think he’s content to wear his Sansabelt Slacks as he’s hunched forward with his combover, mailing it in over at that Entah-Kom station on A.M., ahm.”
8. mojoe | January 30th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Hey “Eddy”, this shtick wasn’t funny the first 10 times.
9. piratetoby | January 30th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Eddy: There’s a group of men you might want to target your purple sweatpants- those men on the “down low”. Your boys sounded “curious” about these guy on the down low, but one of them seemed to know about the abundance on Addidas sweatsuits piled on the floor.
Don’t know about the down low, Eddy? Ask one of your boys. I don’t think you’ll like the answer, or the fact the “boys” are talking about this, rather than the never-ending bread basket and free soda refills at some Rte.1 eatery.
10. Stonecutter | January 31st, 2010 at 10:04 am
I’m shocked TKK only lost 50,000 listeners, I figured more would tune out, I guess that’s a win for them!
11. Cap'n Spackle | January 31st, 2010 at 10:14 pm
It was pretty funny… I caught about 5 mins. of the Guardian of the Gate’s show this afternoon and the man-sounding lady said that the best thing about the SOTU was hearing Obama finally able to blow his own horn for a change. Where do they find these people?
12. Ad Man | February 1st, 2010 at 8:02 am
Don’t sell yourself short Brian. The spin in your post is at least as good as anything the stations put out. You’ve done your agenda proud. Comparing the holiday period to August or September is like comparing apples and bicycles. On top of that, the presence of Patriots on BZ-FM when Sox are off EEI accounts for the cume difference. Are you going to trumpet EEI’s huge gains and BZ’s fall in April? Didn’t think so, doesn’t fit the narrative. Unfortunately, since this holiday period is the first with PPM in Boston, we won’t have a really meaningful comparison until next year.
13. Larry | February 1st, 2010 at 8:26 am
I heard Mark Simone on WABC say that the stations that played Christmas music 24/7 were #1 in the last ratings in NYC. It is probably the same in Boston. The only real audience shift was between the two sports talk stations. The news/ talk stations seem to have seasonal proportional declines. However it appears that none of these stations have built positive momentum from the programming changes.
14. AntiBrian | February 1st, 2010 at 2:32 pm
The other staion that benefited from holiday music was ZLX. WODS and WROR listeners who didn’t want to hear Christmas music moved to ZLX. I think this was one of theri best ratings period in years.
15. piratetoby | February 2nd, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Off topic and for Bea: Finally got the film, and watched “Laura” last night.
First off, right away I picked Lydecker as the murderer and I did not believe Laura was dead; however I did think she was complicit in the crime and maybe set up Lydecker. There I was wrong.
I just read a bit about film noir and realize why it so appeals to me. Years ago I studied German Expressionist art and was really drawn to it….unlike the light and colorful Impressionist artists, the Expressionists were dark and moody, flirting on the darker side of human experience. Garish colors and bold brushstrokes were used to create a “mood” for their painting- for their art. Preminger (among others) introduced the German Expressionist style into the crime films of the 1940’s. Filmmakers used “mise en scene” to create the “mood”. The shared themes included: madness, insanity, betrayal, jealousy. I hadn’t known the inspiration for film noir, and now I do.
Anyway, loved the film and what about that marble soaking tub? Was that not luxurious? I’m saving up for one of those things. Really!
16. Karl from Malden | February 2nd, 2010 at 2:44 pm
“Laura” is an awesome film, I could watch Noirs all day long. Pirate, you should watch the noir “The Dark Corner” where Clifton Webb plays almost a carbon copy of his Lydecker character…Lucille Ball provides solid support as well. My personal favorite noirs:
Out of the Past
The Big Sleep
Narrow Margin
Crossfire
Double Indemnity
Ministry of Fear
17. piratetoby | February 2nd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
I’ve seen both “The Big Sleep” and “Double Indemnity”.
My personal favs are:
“The Postman Always Rings Twice”
“Sunset Blvd”
“Maltese Falcon”
“Dial M for Murder” w/Grace Kelly- I don’t think that film is classified as noir, maybe just suspense/thriller? That’s another fav. of mine.
It’s funny to see Vincent Price’s character in Laura…..way before he was typecast as “Vincent Price”.
18. Bea in Biloxi | February 2nd, 2010 at 3:43 pm
PT and Karl, Double Indemnity is just such a
great watch along with The Big Sleep.
There is a hotel I sometimes go to in Ogunquit
Me. that has a marble soak tub. You are so
right. There is so much joy watching these
films from the 30’s, 40’s, and a tad of the 50’s.
So glad you got to watch “Laura” Thanx for
letting me know.
19. medic | February 2nd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Hi Bea, pirate and Karl. I knew you’d like Laura also pirate. Just a great movie. Don’t forget Hichcock’s VERTIGO and South by Southwest. Hollywood can’t make movies as they used to do. There is another Jimmy Stewart movie, that I can’t remember, must be old age setting in. I wanna say Rear Window, but I don’t think that’s it.
20. Bea in Biloxi | February 2nd, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Medic, I have found that Rear Window is such a
fascinating film because you never ever see it
all for it’s total worth on just one peek. I have
watched it several times and each time I see
something different to ponder. These films are
pure genius. The black and whites of old Cuba
are also so,so entertaining.
21. piratetoby | February 2nd, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Ok, now you’ve both piqued my curiosity. I’ve yet to see “Rear Window”, so that’s next on my list.
Medic- yeah, “Vertigo” is a great one, too. Kim Novak, she was one cool cat in her day. Probably still is. I think she’s alive? I’ll have to look that up.
Bea, your welcome. Your thanks didn’t escape me. What was that website you mentioned for movies? JD.com?
22. Dr. Quincy, M.E. | February 2nd, 2010 at 8:45 pm
“A Thousand Clowns” (1965) Jason Robards, Martin Balsam
23. Karl from Malden | February 2nd, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Hitchcock has too many to mention, but please please don’t forget “Strangers on a Train,” and “Shadow of A Doubt” which was Hitchcock’s personal favorite of his movies. The original 1952 version of “The Narrow Margin” is low budget noir at its best…oh, and definitely check out Val Lewton’s 1943 classic The Seventh Victim, one of the creepiest coolest movies ever!
I’m being such a dork…sorry.
24. iTunes Listener | February 3rd, 2010 at 8:12 am
WEEI is going to loose more shares if they continue to operate on a weak signal. FM music stations have really sucked for the last few years because of ether a station has Kiss or alt rock redundant like formats on most of the stations. I don’t know what station WEEI could go on the FM band, but theres a lot to choose from for frequency (or an existing station.)
Boston’s AM stations have sucked for ages too for whatever reason. I’m too young to have an experience with old Boston AM stations, but I don’t think they came even close to any larger markets’s AM waves.
We don’t have a lot of Class A stations (other than WBZ), and WRKO is just a joke with their nighttime signal (again an age old issue.)
With the radio groups struggling to survive, I’d never expect them to upgrade the “hamster” powered sticks to a Class A powered station/stick. Some of the tx equipment are about a few decades old and they are still in operation. That tells you right there how dated the radio business is today.
25. Bea in Biloxi | February 3rd, 2010 at 8:37 am
PT, JR.com is the website. If you like Kim
Novak watch “Bell, Book and Candle”. Her
cat’s name is Piwackit. It is an interesting
watch. She is just wonderful.
Doc, “A Thousand Clowns” was also quite good.
Gas Light is another one to watch. A thrill a
minute with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.
26. raccoonradio | February 3rd, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Even before Sports Hub 98.5 went on there was speculation of WEEI moving to FM, perhaps putting all ESPN on 850 in process, but no movement yet. Entercom owns Mike 93.7 (antenna in Peabody) which covers a lot of area and does well with no-jock variety hits format. 97.7 out of Great Blue Hill/Milton simulcasts their WAAF 107.3 and rumors were that they could blow up one of both of those stations and put WEEI there, or move Mike there and put WEEI on 93.7
WEEI’s night signal is bad in many places. At my workplace I need a mini fm transmitter to hear Sox games (if they were on 93.7 it would come in very clearly). WRKO also limited by a direction night signal. Howie Carr tells his listeners to tune to WCRN 830 to hear his show after dark if WRKO fades. I don’t know RKO would ever move to one of those FM freqs but WEEI could.
And RKO could lose Rush as early as April, we hear with debut of WXKS 1200–if Clear Channel pulls him
27. iTunes Listener | February 3rd, 2010 at 2:59 pm
“Dammit! Who forgot to feed the hamsters at the transmitter?” - Howie Carr in December when around 4:00pm one day the tx crapped out for like 4-5 minutes.
Did WMKK’s tx move to Peabody recently? I thought they broadcasted from some transmitter in Lawrence. Putting WEEI on 93.7 wherever it is would give better coverage in the metro north/north shore/s NH - a stronger listener base than around Boston.
I do remember the WEEI signal would start to fade once you hit Methuen, then it goes downhill north - even during the day. I can’t get the signal really well in my area - that’s Boston radio for you.
And I hate to say this, the Internet listenership will continue to grow to the point it probably won’t matter anymore about the aging radio stations. There are BlackBerry apps, iPhone/iPod touch apps and desktop apps - so many options to get the same stations you would have gotten on your Walkman - just better clarity and you can listen to it anywhere where there’s internet coverage.
And Howie is right about the WiFi [WiMax] coming into the cars to avoid the whole switching stations during the sunset. There’s now mobile routers/wifi points that can be installed in the cars now to use the internet and to listen to the online radio. I had seen one in my Crutchfield catalog the other day. It’s coming…
28. piratetoby | February 3rd, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Sorry to stray from ratings…..
Kim Novak is indeed still alive, lives in Oregon w/her veternarian husband. Her last film was in 1991, although her scenes were cut by the director as she was difficult and unprofessional. The director? Mike Figgis. Someone here, the Dr. maybe? noted Figgis played keyboards for Brian Ferry way back in the day.
I read the plot of the “Seventh Victim” and YES, it does sound creepy. It’s tough to get- a brief search had it included in a boxed set with other 1930 horrors (including the original “Cat People”). I vaguely remember seeing the original “Cat People” after seeing the remake and finding it disappointing. The movie was such a let down, that I smashed my car in the parking lot of the cinema.
Such a long time ago……my foggy years. There’s been a few times when I start watching a movie, thinking I’ve never seen it, and realize I’ve seen it before. Must’ve been the cloud of smoke surrounding me the first time….
Speaking of creepy, one of my favs is “Rebecca”. The maid, who adored Rebecca was one creepy servant. Not noir, but a great classic film.
I must admit, it’s a pleasure to chat about something other than politics for a bit. I need a break before it starts all over with the race to outseat Deval……and just when that is over, the race will start for Brown’s seat.
29. Karl from Malden | February 3rd, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Seventh Victim is a great, little film. Some other noirs worth checking out:
1. The Sniper
2. Crime Wave
3. The Killing (old school Kubrick)
4. The House on 92nd Street
5. The Big Clock (remade shittily as No Way Out with Kevin Costner)
And yes it’s nice to break from politics a little, any time music or movies come up, I’m in.
30. raccoonradio | February 4th, 2010 at 3:33 am
I think WMKK has been in Peabody for about 13-14 yrs. You can see it from both Rt 128 and Rt 1. I think that you can move a transmitter two towns away (in most cases); they are lic. to Lawrence so Larwrence, Middleton, Peabody
Many years ago 680 and 93.7 were sister stations. Later got re-united
From WMKK profile at bostonradio.org: “ARS quickly began working to move 93.7 closer to the center of the Boston market. In the summer of 1995, WEGQ began building a new 152-meter (498-foot) guyed tower at 100 Lakeland Park Drive in Peabody, easily visible from US 1 and the I-95/MA 128 interchange. “Eagle” signed on from the new tower in early 1996, with 34 kW at 179 m (587 ft) and a much-improved signal into downtown Boston and the South Shore.”
31. iTunes Listener | February 4th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Ahh, ok racoonradio, that makes some sense now. It is a very powerful station. Even if the format was to go off the air for WEEI, maybe that would the best fit for an FM counterpart.
I think the other problem for WEEI is the talent, especially with letting go one of their talents just recently. You can put the signal on a better stick and still get sucky ratings.
32. Jimmy Z | February 10th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
RKO or TKK should have put Greg Jackson from “Pundit Review” (Sunday nights) on…the only true consevative in Boston Radio a long time ago and they wouldn’t be hurting in the ratings.
PR is boring now that Jackson is gone and Kevin? always talks only about how great Republicans and the military is…BORING!!!!
These so called radion “experts” that run these stations have no clue what the customer wants.
Talk radio listeners don’t want liberal phonies like Severin, Carr, Tommy Taxes or Feinberg…they want hard core thoughtful conservatives like Greg Jackson.
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