While these 6plus beauty contest ratings are not the numbers-reflection that the ad buyers use to dictate their purchase, they have a direct impact on the overall ratings and they do provide a general trend as to what station is performing; what station is trending; what station is flatlining; what station is moving up and what outlet is going the way of a downward spiral.
KCBS went from a paltry 7.0 to an embarrassing 6.1. That's pretty bad, even more bad considering KCBS is basically a monopoly.
While KQED had a rough month, on the other side of the FM spectrum, KOIT rejoiced.
For KGO Radio, no wonder the staff and dreck patrol Cumulus bosses were crying into their coffee. KGO fell from an awful 1.1 (in March) to an abysmal 0.9! Yikes. KGO also dropped to an historic worst ever 23rd overall most popular (or more accurately, least popular) radio station in the Bay Area.
KGO has a lot to overcome here. Maybe the first thing they should do is to make sure the current EP of the "Mark Thompson Show" should stop his habit of eavesdropping on various talk hosts and instead, concentrate on keeping guests in tact and fulfilling his real position as the house snitch.
The sample size is so small that the movement of a point up or down isn't statistically significant. The long term trend is what matters. That trend shows KGO and KCBS fading away. KGO costs too much compared to how few $$$ it brings in. I'd say the staff and hosts at KGO are living on borrowed time. KCBS can be salvaged.
ReplyDeleteHave to wonder if these lousy KGO 0.9 ratings are even accurate; likely much lower. Proof? Kgo recently had 20 minutes of dead air at 9:00 p.m. before anyone even noticed...Or maybe the dead air was mistaken for Rothmann gathering himself for his nightly stories on Dwight D. Eisenhower.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn’t just dead air, it was automation failure. There’s no one in the studio at that hour. Engineering would most likely work remotely to bring it back online.
DeleteNo surprise with KGO, I stopped listening about 10 years ago right after the mass firings. Have not listened since. Cumulus has no one to blame but themselves. Their failure is richly deserved.
ReplyDeleteKGO needs something with an edge, something unpredictable, like the olden days when it was golden. It's not to be found there now.
ReplyDeleteI used to also think that, but adding sizzle to buggy whips, 45 RPM records or 8-track tapes still won't ever bring them back. It has become primarily a technology problem, and AM is just too damn difficult to listen to. If you took away KCBS or KNBR's FM simulcast and relegated them to only their (50 kilowatt) signals, they too would have a 1.0 (or lower) share. And until we're all ordered to turn off our LED lights and computers and routers (which of course will never happen), AM will continue to die. Though you have to admit 100 years was a pretty good run for amplitude modulation.
DeleteYou mean to tell me that blaming everything on the Republicans and the FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! while making excuses for everything and anything liberal hasn't drawn ratings for KGO??
ReplyDeleteShocked! Shocked I say!
860AM The Answer's FM station is now playing Indian music.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the very bottom stations have almost no ratings. Where does this put Bloomberg 960? Are they even less than the bottom?
ReplyDeleteAlso, KSFO, with no more Rush has twice the rating as KGO does and KSFO is just awful now.
DeleteHow are the ratings collected? Nielsen recruits a sample of listeners to wear personal people meters (PPM's) all the time, and then plug them into a charger at night so the data is transmitted to a mother ship somewhere for analysis. That leads to two problems: the broadcasters and agencies that pay for the ratings aren't willing to pay enough to have a truly representative number of participants, and most people aren't willing to wear a pager-like device all the time for the tiny amount of compensation they're offered for all their effort. Older, wealthier people are least likely to consider it worth their time and effort, and young people are least likely to follow through reliably, which is why the ratings themselves have questionable reliability and sharp swings. I mean, does anyone really think KQED actually lost 1.3% of its audience between March and April? Or KCBS really lost 0.9%? Or for that matter, KOIT gained 0.8% and KISQ 1.3% almost overnight? No, the reality is those numbers are statistically flaky.
DeleteKBAY 94.5 has just flipped format to country.
ReplyDeleteTo CASH IN on the sale of Legendary KRTY country whos days are numbered.
"Follow a leader"
Maybe KGO should flip to music. Can't go much lower.
"Nikki Medoro karaoke" for those lonely guys that tune into her program. Boost or Bust !
I recently tuned into KCBS for the first time in a long time. It sound like (very bad) college radio. Miscues, mispronunciations, dead air, and a general feeling that nobody knew what they were doing. And there were more ads than there was news. I quickly tuned out.
ReplyDeleteAt least KBAY made the right move to go All Country. That move paid off, handsomely!!
ReplyDeleteIt has? I assume that was sarcasm, unless you think KBAY going from a 1.5 to a 0.9 qualifies as paying off handsomely. Note that KRTY itself dropped from a 2.9 to a 2.4, which was probably some of their listeners sampling the new KBAY. Nobody will really be able to draw any meaningful conclusions till after June 1st, when KRTY's sale to EMF closes and the religious programming starts. Then KBAY will have the country audience all to itself and we'll really be able to see how successful their format change really was.
DeleteHow is it possible the Game has such bad ratings It has the Warriors Point 9? my goodness
ReplyDeleteSunday early evening I hear news anchor Eric Thomas report that the LA Kings beat the A's 4-1. I didn't know a hockey team could beat a baseball team. So embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteI’m pretty sure some of his guests are no longer in tact.
ReplyDeleteTerrestrial radio is dead nationwide...especially news/talk radio...and nowhere is it "deader" than in the Bay Area. WHy here? Because we're all pretty tech-savvy, and now use our desktops/laptops/pads/smartphones to tune in to other sources of "talk." We dont' want "talk"...we want to see video. And when the sh*t hits the fan, we know to go to our devises to tune in to CNN or Fox News to see live video--from the scene--and not merely to hear some local guy/gal talking on the radio, followed by phone calls from fellow Bay Area residents thousands of miles away from the scene ("this is awful"..."thought and prayers go out to the family.")
ReplyDeleteI don't want to see video. I prefer radio. I just want to listen while I focus on other things. I may be in the minority, but I love newstalk radio. I listen to KGO all day long until after John Rothmann goes off the air. I'm not interested in national talk shows, I want to hear local hosts. I think it's a shame that so few people appreciate local newstalk radio nowadays.
DeleteWhile I don't disagree with your assessment, I think what is lost in going to your laptop/pad/smartphone to check out a national news source is the sense of community. Firstly, what affects people is not just national/international topics but local topics and events as well. And even if a national/international topic or event, being able to listen and participate in what other people in your area have to say is a very different experience, and perhaps it dates me (not perhaps, I know it does :) ), but I think not having that experience available is a loss. You feel as though you are part of something, rather than just consuming what others are presenting from thousands of miles away.
DeleteGreg B, exactly. Being able to participate in the discussion is what makes newstalk radio different from just straight-up news. This is why I continue to listen to KGO, and I will listen as long as it exists. I feel like the KGO hosts are personal friends of mine. They keep me company all day, every day, and they also keep me very informed about what's happening locally and in the world.
Delete"personal friends" like john rothman, pat thurston and others who tells me to go see all of their "long time friends" like steve moskovitz, kevin lions,greg o donnell, pacifc coast termites, (got rodents?) YIKES.
DeleteThose of you who prefer this "community radio" concept....must be old. I (I'm 34 years old) agree w/the OP: When stuff happens, I want to SEE it...with my own eyes. I don't want to hear someone describe what happened or is happening. And I certainly don't want to hear someone from Berkeley...or the Haight...or Walnut Creek...or Fremont express their views about something happening in Mariupol...or San Jose. Besides...all of the callers are White people, so the discussion that you get on the radio is pretty skewed "White."
ReplyDeleteThe problem's not the race of the callers, it's that KGO has become incredibly superficial. When it was #1, the hosts were smart, informative and entertaining, the news people knew how to craft their reports to inform without much fluff, and the producers knew how to pick good callers and minimize airing airheads and blowhards. That talent is virtually all gone now. They also knew that they had to keep the number of ad minutes to a tolerable level. KCBS has also lost the zen of newsradio and become a shadow of its former quality. Only the non-commercial NPR stations (KQED, KALW and, if you can receive it, KXJZ from Sacto) are delivering substantive news and information without the nonsense and heavy ad loads (if you can tolerate the occasional fundraising drives). They aren't for everyone, but that form of broadcasting, done well, can draw better pictures with words than the best CNN video.
DeleteYeah, people just hate talkin about politics. right, right, right... Brace yourself, you don't speak for everyone. KGO has a mix of white, latino, black, indian, middle eastern callers on the air every day.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Merkel and Thompson still here
ReplyDeleteit is amazing what the corporations did to kgo
ReplyDeleteonce a giant...now in the trashbin
It's because each new , successive owner leveraged so much to purchase it, the past glory days can't be repeated.
ReplyDeleteKGO would do better if they truly valued callers who stick to the topic they told the producer, start talking immediately once qued, and only about that topic, speak in a manner that is clear and understandable to the listeners, and are calling from a land line or otherwise good clear phone hookup. Instead what I'm hearing is callers who don't stick to the topic, phone connections that make it sound like the caller is underwater, and callers with such heavy accents and vocal inflections as to be nearly incomprehensible. Hopefully most folks who call in will get a chance, butwhen there are two callers on hold, and one is much better able to communicate their point succinctly and clearly, put them on first.
ReplyDelete