Here’s another complaint that not only did WTKK air a Vay Cay Jay rerun yesterday, but once again didn’t label it as such, leaving listeners confused.
What does Vay Cay do with all of this time off, anyway?
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Boston Monthly Ratings Trend Released
It’s for the first month of the all-important Spring 2008 Arbitron Survey and includes listeners 12 and older.
Monthly trends are notoriously volatile, so take that into consideration as we analyze the data:
– WBZ fell from 6.9 (in the Winter 2008 Survey) to a 6.5 share but managed to tie WXKS-FM for first place! And with all of the huge local news we’ve had lately, I think that number might be considerably higher next month. Recent events have been tailor-made for WBZ’s news department.
– WRKO rose from a 3.8 to a 4.4, most likely because of the start of the Sox season.
– Perhaps most significantly, WTKK not only held the huge gains in the last book, but actually increased further, from 4.1 to 4.4. Yes, it tied WRKO. A big spring finish would convince skeptics that WTKK’s strong winter book wasn’t a fluke.
It’s pretty easy to break down without a lot of data: Imus is killing Finneran, Michael Graham is crushing Reese Hopkins and Howie’s “let’s do a crappy show to tick off Entercom management” strategy is helping Vay Cay win afternoons by a mile.
– WEEI was DOWN, from 5.3 to 4.7. Again, the monumentally stupid reasoning behind moving most Sox games to WRKO is undermining New England’s strongest radio branding identity. Brilliant, guys!
Know Thy Audience
While much has been made of Michele McPhee’s on-air delivery issues, she’s not the only one struggling to connect with her audience.
How about our favorite Fung Wah-riding hip hop producer from New Jersey with a bogus résumé? From a SaveWRKO reader:
Y’know, Reese has the potential to be a pretty good morning rock jock at Jam’n FM.
But why does he bring the hip hop crap to RKO? Whatever happened to adult sensibilities?
That’s it in a nutshell: he doesn’t fit the part, nor does he even try to connect with an audience in which he has almost nothing in common. Simply parroting a few “conservative” phrases isn’t going to fly.
What percentage of WRKO listeners like hip hop? Do we even need to take a survey in order to find out?
Or, the inverse: what percentage of WRKO listeners absolutely hate hip hop and would love to have a remote-controlled device that blows up booming subwoofers as they pass by on the street?
Reese Hopkins is living proof that sales departments have no business dictating station programming. That shift marked the beginning of the end for WRKO.
Home Heating Hell
Just had my thirsty home heating oil monster filled, it was exactly $700 for just over half of a tank. As fellow New Englanders know, this fuel is used all year, not just in the winter months.
Wonder how many basement-dwelling Boston-area radio talkers pulling in a cool million can relate to that? (Insert random joke about Hillary’s weight here)
Major Events Define Local Media
So far at least, it appears that no one was killed in today’s horrific T crash in Newton, which seems a minor miracle. Thank goodness for that.
In the local media biz, major news events can make or break one’s reputation. So how have they performed?
Boston TV affiliates actually pre-empted network programming (not common) to bring nonstop live coverage of the ongoing rescue efforts. WBZ-4 appeared to stick with it somewhat longer than WHDH-7 or WCVB-5.
On the radio, WRKO’s lack of an in-house newsroom really comes back to haunt it at times like these.
Over at WTKK, I’m told that Michele McPhee was all over it during her show, but I’m not sure what other live talk shows might have quickly shifted their focus to the emerging story.
Who took the opportunity to develop this as a topic and really shine?
ETM Plunges On Downgrade
WRKO/ WEEI owner Entercom’s shares are tumbling today after an analyst downgraded ETM to a “hold”. That’s Wall Street-speak for “get the hell out of there”.
Shares are currently down 93 cents to $9.76.
Especially ominous is the Stanford Group’s price target of just $9.00. Usually these are set well above the current price, not below.
Fired For Slamming Ted K
It happened in Pittsburgh, as the new Ted K taboo claims its first on-air victim. Who will be next, perhaps someone right here in New England?
Count Your Blessings
If a local media hack was suddenly plucked from his or her longtime TV station and given a plum job as the mayor’s communications secretary, how would Boston respond? Did I mention the cool $160,000 per annum salary?
Here, the backlash would be fast and furious, between a screaming Herald headline, a guaranteed Howie Carr column, talk radio outrage and even an eyebrow or two raised on Morrissey Boulevard.
But that’s not the case in the “nice” world of Seattle politics, where the scenario I’ve just laid out has in fact happened: longtime KING-5 political reporter Robert Mak has been hired by Mayor Greg Nickels for exactly that sum.
On that end of I-90, you’ll hear nary a word of protest from the Seattle media. They don’t handle the news like that and love to look down on Easterners who do.
Frankly, I’ll take bloody, Boston-style nastiness any day over the phony “niceness” of Seattle media and political life, where there is always a knife waiting to stab you in the back.
Here, most people let a person know upfront where they stand. There’s a certain honesty to that, it’s refreshing. For that, we should count our blessings.
Bring on those screaming headlines!
Sign Of The Apocalypse?
Read this one from the Track Gals and tell me what you think:
When last we left the gang at “Ernie’s Diner,” Dave Andelman of “The Phantom Gourmet” was admiring the “hot” waitress whilst his bro, Dan, cringed in disbelief!
Well the saga continues, and word is, things are gonna heat up in that diner’s kitchen!
Andelman says that he, Dan, and car czar Ernie Boch Jr., who plays the, er, fetching waitress in a series of ads for “Phantom” and the Boch auto dealerships, are going to “go to the next level” in a new installments of the TV spots.
“It is the most titillating yet disturbing campaign ever,” Andelman said.
Ah, yes.
In the new ads, which launch June 1 on “The Phantom Gourmet,” Dave calls the cross-dressed Ernie “a total cougar,” and tells Dan he has to date her/him.
We can only hope that, at some point, there is a full-on lip-lock! Do stay tuned . . .
As you may know, the Andelmans have a weekend show on WTKK, a programming move that surely must have originated with the station’s sales department.
Because stations are not interested in losing Boch advertising $$$, my guess is that you won’t be hearing much about this on local talk radio shows today.
Jello Biafra Attacks Savage, Limbaugh, Hannity
But it quickly becomes apparent his brain long ago turned to mush.
