Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2008 > May > 02
Friday, May 2, 2008
5/2: Arbitron ratings— Regular Guys up, new morning shows have slow starts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Radio went through some headspinning changes earlier this year and the first ratings results are in.
Not surprisingly, in the period covering January 20 to April 2, the brand new morning shows took a hit while the Regular Guys came back with a vengeance on the new Rock 100.5. In other trends, Hot 107.9 (and the “A” team above) had its best book in years, the primary season fueled WGST-AM’s numbers, and Q100 on its new signal beat Star 94 in the overall 12-plus ratings for the first time ever.
Take note that typically, new shows lose listeners faster than they gain new ones in the short term so the shaky opening numbers for Dave FM’s Zakk Tyler, Star 94’s the Morning Mess and the Bull’s Cletus T. Judd can be discounted. The spring ratings book, occurring now, should be more indicative of how things are going and we’ll see those numbers in July.
Here are some notable trends. (Email me at rho@ajc.com if you want any other breakdowns or comparisons.)
-In the sports radio world, 680/the Fan continues to beat up 790/The Zone in mornings and the Zone’s new Afternoon Saloon was dwarfed by the Fan’s veteran Buck & Kincade, though the move of 2 Live Stews helped their mid-day numbers. (More specific breakdowns are available Monday.)
-Grown Folks 102.5 had another great book. Believe it or not, despite the weak signal, Steve Harvey tied Tom Joyner for third in mornings.
-And watch out for Hot 107.9: The A Team ranked 2nd among 18 to 34 year olds on Hot 107.9, driving the entire station to 4th overall, its best performance in years.
-The RIver continues to flow strongly despite the arrival of Rock 100.5, which didn’t do particularly well outside of the Regular Guys when playing rock music. For instance, mid-days, the River ranked 3rd while Rock 100.5 ranked 25th.
-Speaking of The Regular Guys, despite arriving partway through the quarter, the return of this male-oriented talk show made a strong impact, landing top 5 among 18 to 34 year olds and top 10 among 25 and 54 year olds.
-As a result, Project took a hit, with the new Giant Brian show ranked 19th among 25-54 (compared to 14th in the fall) and 13th among 18-34 (compared to 7th in the fall).
-And Dave FM didn’t take advantage of 99X’s departure. Its numbers were slightly down in mornings where Zakk Tyler debuted. But on the bright side, his numbers among 25 to 54 year olds were flat compared to the summer when the show was led by Holly Firfer and Orf.
-The presidential campaign is helping both WSB-AM and to a great effect,WGST-AM. Both stations saw numbers improve in the winter. It appears Rush Limbaugh especially helped the mid-day numbers for GST, which nearly doubled among 25 to 54 year olds from the fall and the station ranked 7th in that key demo from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Again, more specific breakdowns won’t be available until Monday.)
-Eagle 106.7’s departure is only reflected partly through the book but the new True Oldies and Imus appear to have done poorly across the board in the single month that was polled in March.
-Kicks 101.5 didn’t appear to be hurt or helped immediately by Eagle’s departure. And 94.9/The Bull doesn’t seem to have been helped either with numbers down in mornings where the new Cletus T. Judd show was first introduced. (The Bull ranked 14th in mornings in the fall, 18th in the winter.) Its mid-days were slightly down while afternoons were up.
-The Morning Mess had a tough opening quarter, as expected. It ranked 14th among all listeners, down from 7th last summer, the final full book with Steve & Vikki. Among 25 to 54 year olds, Star dropped to 13th from 6th in the summer. With 18 to 34 year olds, Star fell from 10th in the summer to 15th this past summer. The only bright spot: among teens, the show was 4th, same as Steve & Vikki last summer and the only demo the team was ahead of the Bert Show at Q100.
-Indeed, the Bert Show at Q100 survived the move to the stronger signal unscathed. Its ratings were up across all demographics, landing 5th overall and among 25 to 54 year olds and third among 18 to 34 year olds.
-But Star 94 should be thrilled by the strong performance of its afternoon show Cindy & Ray, which beat the new Johnny O over at Q100. The show ranked 5th among all listeners (up from 11th in the fall), 5th among 25 to 54 year olds (up form 9th in the fall) and a whopping third among 18 to 34 year olds (up from 9th). So if the Morning Mess fails to gain traction, Star has a great option for mornings.
-Smooth jazz stations nationwide have been taking a dive in the past year or two. Atlanta is no exception. Smooth Jazz 107.5 had its worst ratings in nearly three years., ranking 14th overall.
-In its debut, Classic Country 96.7 just barely showed up in the ratings, ranking 28th.
The top 5 stations in terms of “cume,” or number of different listeners per week:
1- WSB-AM 847,000 (in fall of 2005: (813,300)
2- V-103 837,500 (in fall of 2005: 739,400)
3- 97.1/The River 565,400 (didn’t exist in 2005)
4- 95.5/The Beat 564,900 (in fall of 2005: 496,600)
5- Kiss 104.1 506,800 (in fall of 2005: 400,900)
For those who keep track of ownership, four of those stations are Cox Radio, with B98.5 ranked 7th. Q100’s cume of 432,100 is a huge increase from 251,400 in fall of 2005. And Grown Folks with the talk format has more than doubled its cume from fall of 2005, from 187,100 to 397,800. The Fan has seen its cume grow from 159,400 to 194,500 while the Zone’s cume was flat at about 130K. WGKA-AM saw its cume jump from 64,700 to 90,200 over just over two years. And as the black population grew, virtually all stations targeting blacks saw major increases in cume. Hot 107.9 had a cume of 381,000 in fall of 2005 and 491,300 in winter of 2008.)
The top 5 stations in terms of “time spent listening”
1- El Patron 12 hours, 15 minutes per week (didn’t exist in 2005)
2- La Raza 102.3 10 hours, 30 minutes (same as fall of 2005)
3- WAOK-AM 9 hours (11 hours, 45 minutes in fall of 2005)
4- V-103 8 hours, 45 minutes (9 hours in fall 2005)
5- Kiss 104.1 8 hours, 15 minutes (8 hours in fall 2005)
(Worst? 95.5/The Beat at 4 hours compared to four hours 15 minutes in fall 2005)
Here’s the top 10 morning shows 25-54, 1/10-4/2/08
Rank, show, station (fall rank)
1- Frank & Wanda, V-103 (1) Down slightly
2- Scott Slade, WSB-AM (2) Trending upward
3- Tom Joyner, Kiss 104.1 (3-tie) Down
4- Steve Harvey, Grown Folks 102.5 (3-tie) Up
5- Bert Show, Q100 (5) Up
6- Kelly & Alpha, B98.5 (6-tie) flat
7- Lexie Kaye, 97.1/The River (8) up
8- Yolanda Adams, Praise 97.5 (6t)
9- Cadillac Jack & Kristen//Cadillac & Dallas, Kicks 101.5 (9-tie)
10- The Regular Guys, Rock 100.5 (new)
Here are the top 10 morning shows ages 18 to 34
Rank, show, station (fall rank)
1- Frank & Wanda, V-103 (1) a bit of a falloff
2- The “A” Team, Hot 107.9 (3) a huge increase
3- Bert Show, Q100 (2) up, just not as strongly as Hot
4- Regular Guys, Rock 100.5 (new) Note—they were not on air the entire quarter
5- Scott Slade, WSB-AM (6)
6- Murph Dawg & CJ, 95.5/The Beat (11) Best book since they started a year ago
7- Steve Harvey, Grown Folks 102.5 (8) Flat
8- Yolanda Adams, Praise 97.5 (17t) A bit fluky in terms of strength
9- Los Patrones De La Manana, 105.3/El Patron (9)
10- Kelly & Alpha, B98.5 (12) Numbers held flat from the fall so they didn’t benefit from Steve & Vikki’s absence but will certainly be hurt when S&V take over their jobs July 1.
Permalink | Comments (48) | Post your comment |
5/2: Wachs quotes on Southside
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Regular Guys called me this morning so co-host Larry Wachs could complain that my story on “Southside” Steve didn’t include a quote from him but had one from Eric Von Haessler.
So here’s what Larry had to say about why Southside does so many appearances, some of it serious, some of it facetious:
I think he’s deeply in debt and he needs the money. [Seriously,] I think he’s a very hard working man. His breezy attitude and devil-may-care lifestyle is a false front of a very deeply committed individual who entertains Atlanta. Steve is the ambassador of goodwill.
*Actually, it takes money off our plates. He hogs the spotlight. We’re a little jealous. If I’m nice, he’ll give me some crumbs.”
There’s little difference between Southside Steve and Hugh Hefner. All differences are cosmetic.
I don’t see him ever slowing down. If he slows down, he’ll be fired.
