Ratings are out . EEEEEEOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Do people flock away after a bloodbath? You bet they do.
Don't ask what the 18-49 or 25-54 numbers were. The words "what 18-49s" or "25-54 what?" come to mind.
| 4.4 | 594,200 - mid-Nov. to early Dec. |
| 2.8 | 441,000 Dec. Holiday Book - mid to late Dec. - | News/Talk | Cumulus |
#12 - 3 month average. Down from #4
These are what are termed "The Beauty Contest Winners." From a sales viewpoint, they mean nothing. From a listeners viewpoint, they show a trend. Lots of lost older listeners and the station of already hurting for younger numbers. So, who's left? 55-60 year old listeners. Pretty narrow.
**
They didn't get the memo, yet ... KKSF-FM (oldies) is tied for #12 with a cume average of 864,000 in late Dec. KGO - 441,000. Down in one month from 621,000 a month earlier.
KNIBBER - #14
| 2.8 | 656,800 Dec. Holiday Book - mid to late Dec - Sports/Talk Cumulus |
| 2.2 | 252,100 | Talk | Cumulus #20 - mid to late Dec. - Conservative talk |
| 6.0 | 1,082,400 | News | CBS Radio | #2 (Behind KOIT, #1) |
**
| 5.9 | 803,900 | News/Talk | Northern California Public Broadcasting #3 |
Can you check KSCO's ratings and if they improved? What about newstalk 910?
ReplyDeleteThere are none.
DeleteThe 910 and 960 numbers do not reflect the changes made, but as the old KNEW-910 (now, 960) and KKGN-960 (now KNEW) The changes happened in the beginning of January and are not affected by this particular "Holiday" book.
Wow! Just WOW! :D
ReplyDeleteWhat about the 60 other radio stations? Why the obsession with these 4-5 stations? What about Movin? Wild? And doesnt one need permission to reprint these?
ReplyDelete6+ is just a beauty contest and can be published anywhere...
DeleteCan you check KSCO's ratings and if they improved? What about newstalk 910?
ReplyDeleteKSCO is a Santa Cruz station with a bad signal. Doesn't show up in either SF or SJ ratings. Newstalk 910 had just a .4 rating. This was before they added ex-KGO hosts to their lineup. But again...lousy signal.
I'm listening to John Rothmann right now and am thinking that 2012 is an election year and there is no one on the air in SF with as much knowledge as John. He really needs a regular slot on the radio.
ReplyDeleteAre you listening Newstalk 910?
I hope they are listening! It would be great to have him back on air.
DeleteIt doesn't surprise me that KQED is the top rated station. This area has more folks with advanced degrees, so the level of intelligence and curiosity is definitely higher than in most other parts of this country.
ReplyDeleteListen to the quality of some of their shows and you'll understand why. Michael Krasny sounds so very well informed and well read and has an even handed, complete and scholarly approach to his topics, unlike many of the corporate sell-out bloviating wind bags such as Limbaugh and Hannity.
"Fresh Air' with Terry Gross is just that; a fresh one hour approach to interviews that go in depth and talk about people and issues, rather than the cross-cultural nonsense and trashy gossip that other shows engage in.
"All Things Considered" is one of the best national shows on the radio, and gives you a solid overview of the day's activities.
The big diffference between KQED and the other stations is that when listening to KQED, you're not getting constantly interupted by an annoying stream of obnoxious, loud commercials, and you actually get some valuable information.
"The World," which is a co/production of NPR and the BBC is also terrific, and is "market Place" with Kai Risdal. And of course the News Ho's available.
KCBS does as good a job as they can given their commercial limitations, but the other stations in the market, unless you want music are not really worth spending a lot of time listening to.
I get absolutely no important sports ews out of KNBR, with the exception of when they have good guests on the maroning show or on Ralph and Tom. Murphy does a good job in the morning in his interviews, but Ralph asks these long-winded questions that contain curly-ques and personal comments that are irrelevant, and he's constantly interrupting his guests with annoying comments.
Sports leader? NOT!
'THE Game' is trying to compete with KNBR, but unfortunately they're going the typical corporate route of young, unknown and cheap, and the only sports team they carry (the A's) holds very little interest for local fans anymore.
KCBS gives you quick updates and pertinent late breaking information, but they are limited by their time constraints. KGO is trying to compete with KCBS in all-news but has a ways to go. There are solid reporters and anchors on both KGO and KCBS however, and that's encouraging.
As for music, LIVE 105 is superior, Alice isn't bad, and the jazz station
(KCSM) is still very good. But so much of the contemporary music of today that seems popular (rap, hip-hop and techno- pop is crap that is not worth taking the time to listen to.
Bravo KQED! I will continue to support you, send money to you to help[ keep your programming strong, and hope that more inquisitive bay area residents spend their valuable time (when stuck in their cars in traffic) getting updated and informed. If only our commercials stations could do half of what they used to do before the 1996 communications act gutted the industry and allowed
a small band of greedy mega-companies to ruin the profession!
KQED is NOT the top rated station. KOIT-FM is, followed by KCBS at #2, followed one-tenth of a point behind at #3 -- KQED.
Deletelistening to KQED = intelligence?
Deleteit is so easy to be intelligent these days. LOL
Cumulus, I'm sure, are not surprised by these numbers. But they cut tons of payroll, so in their minds they came out ahead. It will be interesting to what transpires in the next few months.
ReplyDeleteI won't be tuning in to find out. Our local college radio has better new segments.
Cumulus doesn't care about listeners. They care about $$$$$$$$, as they should. The only listeners they like are those 25-54, 18-49, 25-49. 18-24, 18-34. This doesn't effect KGO very much.
DeleteLower expenses and fewer spots mean more SweetJack spots and more money for Cumulus. That simple.
End of story. The more
The numbers don't lie and neither did the former listeners of KGO when we said we were mad and weren't going to take it anymore.
ReplyDeleteAnd to Jana's comment at 6:14PM -- I agree. I'd rather listen to kids learn to do radio than KGO continue to screw up what they had.
Here's the link for all of the stations: http://www.radio-info.com/markets/san-francisco
ReplyDeleteKSCO isn't even listed -- I think it's considered Monterey maybe? Rich, do you know why it isn't included in the list of stations?
It's not even in the San Jose book. It's in its own market - Monterey / Salinas / Santa Cruz. The station either has no ratings in its own market (no numbers whatsover -- same for KOMY) OR, it is a market that ONLY shows Arbitron subscriber numbers -- a popular thing to do. This way, stations that DON'T buy the latest Arbitron (in this case, every quarter,) don't get listed to steal regional ad dollars that subscribing stations SHOULD get.
DeleteThat's Arbitron's theory and it is a diary market, not a PPM market.
I know of a "nearby" market that was number one in the market (San Luis Obispo) and because stations voted not to include non-subscribers to the survey, the station in question was knocked down to #20 in the market. The subscribers got tired of the non-subscriber getting the credit for being the top station and not paying for the ratings, so, they knocked the non-subscribers out of the lineup.
After all, since those ratings books are AWFULLY EXPENSIVE, why should a station rip the numbers off a trade publication and show what the "horse race" numbers are to local advertisers? The overall numbers, from a sales viewpoint, meaning nothing, actually. It comes down to the "sellable demos" in the 25-54 age cells, or 18-34, 18-49 or 25-49.
So, one or the other. More than likely ... a lot of both. The station has never had any ratings, signified by a 0.0 . This time, it's listed as "-" which means below no listeners (not enough to qualify for a rating) or subscribers got tired of them showing numbers around for free. I'd say both.
KSCO and its sister, KOMY, are listed --- at the bottom of the ranking list. These numbers are for the total overall demographics of 12+ and from 6 a.m. to midnight. They are "true" but useless when put into selling ads because no one cares about young kids, or older than 55 for sales purposes.
DeleteTo anonymous #3...ABSOLUTELY!!! This is an election year, its election season, we need JOHN ROTHMANN on 5 days a week! Can John be that expensive?!
ReplyDeleteYes. Yes he can be.
DeleteHe's not doing this out of need, so, after his years, he's still worth a lot -- not in rebuilding a radio station will all but Len Tillum around him.
Even at half pay from KGOne.
Remember -- it's still mostly syndicated Clear Channel.
5:42 pm what a condescending, over-wrought missive on the state of radio in the Bay Area. What you failed to mention is KQED offers very little local programming outside of Krasny. In fact most of the programming is from NPR, or old-canned shows. Fresh Air is rarely close to fresh, more often it's Putrified Air. Often times the shows are as current as a Seinfeld episode, often they are 10-15 years old. The point is KQED is valid, but hardly the intellectual panacea that you portray here. I think it's hip in certain circles to leave your radio on KQED all day long, whether you actually listen to it or not is an afterthought.
ReplyDeleteKGO's ratings are destined to plummet even further now that Gary from Oakland has made his first call to Newstalk 910. Now, if only Sheldon from Oakland would call, everything would once again be right in the world.
ReplyDeleteRadio 910 did a good thing today, they held John Rothmann later into the 7-8 slot, so that John could continue with his incisive analysis of the President's speech. Maybe 910 realizes what a prize they have in John. I hope so. Sign the man! Maybe he doesn't actually need the money, but like Jim Gabbert, he has pride and cares about radio and us. Show your support by "liking" "former listeners of KGO" at Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI was interested in hearing some local reaction to the SOTU - KGO used to be great for that. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I really enjoy hearing other people's opinions about things like this and not having a live outlet was kind of brutal.
ReplyDeleteCumulus's new KGO may have to abandon the News & Information format and step back to Newstalk & hire back the "retired" or even the fired. This will be interesting to see as time moves on.
ReplyDeleteAt least KQED is taking the time to look more closely at the issues rather than glossing them over and simplifying them. And KQED does have hourly news updates, so you can keep up with local breaking news.
ReplyDeleteNone of the other stations with the exception of KGO and KCBS really get into the local news that heavily.
And I wouldn't characterize shows like "All things Considered,"
or "the News Hours" as "old canned shows." They deal with current an significant issues and usually feature voices of many of the important news makers of the day.
I've been living and listening to the radio in Northern California for over 50 years so I don't think my view is either "condescending or overwrought" as you put it. It's just the opinion of someone who cares about local radio and is sad to see its recent and rapid decline.
And I'll say it again...thank goodness for KQED! I don't listen to it because it's 'hip' but because it's timely, interesting, and I like to stay informed of what's happening.
Heard today on the Finch Files on KGO: "people love sandwiches." Wow. Wonder how many times that will air?
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for John Rothmann full time!! As far as Cumulus goes, just disgust.
ReplyDeleteLow ratings for KGO?
ReplyDeleteThat can only mean one thing.
Ronn Owens will spend more time on reality TV.
If you heard any of his program today, it was pretty weak. Rambled all over. Had a topic that he continued through 2 hours, interrupted by short talks with politicians. Very strange program today and he seemed totally detached from the whole thing, like he was just filling time. I didn't hear the first hour and was not paying full attention to the 2nd and 3rd hour, but he kept talking about whether it was worth it to have the Navy seals rescue some aid workers in Somalia (I think if was Somalia). Nobody agreed with him, but he stated his opinion over and over and over and over and over
Delete