Ratings!

[ftballfan]

Surprise, surprise:
1. Midwestern and MacDonald-Garber are back in the Nielsen subscriber fold!
2. WTCM-FM is NOT #1 (Big Country is the big winner, doubling their share over the last year and a half)

https://ratings.radio-online.com/content/arb335

[Milk]

Plus, Rock 105 has lost about 63% of their listeners in two years. I guess voicetracking your jocks from Detroit and Wisconsin is a bad idea.

[audiophile]

The loss of 93.5 simulcast is killing WTCM.

[Ben Zonia]

I wonder how the 95.1 translator will effect ratings for WGFN 98.1 and WWSS 95.3. We'll see how important the immediate Traverse City terrain hole really is to ratings.

[MWmetalhead]

The loss of 93.5 simulcast is killing WTCM.

I wouldn't draw that conclusion yet. WTCM-FM is only down about a share compared to normal. Their long-term average is near a 10 or 10.5 share. It's difficult to say how much softer Big Country's performance would've been had 93.5 remained Country.

Sister station WKLT just scored one of its best books in the history of the station and appears to have cleaned up at Rock 105/95.5's expense.

I'd say flipping 93.5 to Classic Rock was a smart move.

I cannot help but wonder if Nielsen (or at least radioonline.com) failed to combine the shares of 105.1 WGFM and 95.5 WGFE. They've made similar errors before.

Congratulations to Big Country for its outstanding performance!

106KHQ continues to wipe the floor clean with Z93. No surprise there.

[audiophile]

The only reason WMKC had a dramatic rise is because WTCM via 93.5 WBCM disappeared, leaving listeners with no choice from little traverse bay to Mackinaw City.

WKLT is more centrality located in the market, and WBCM simulcast is more duplicative than it was with WTCM. In fact WTCM and WBCM service contours only overlapped by 5 miles. 97.5 and 93.5 overlap by 26 miles.

Bonehead move and handed #1 to WMKC on a silver platter.

[tipo'mitt2]

Always impressed at WCBY's numbers, considering their weak 1kw AM signal and limited reach of the translator. Btw, they very recently added a second translator in Indian River (98.1 if my memory serves me)

[FakeAndyStuart]

DUDES! You know that the geography has changed.. Cadillac OUT (despite what it says on the top of the screen) - Cheboygan IN! That is probably as much responsible for WMKC's big number as anything else. Can't compare these numbers and be fair about it.

[1litemix]

I would put 105.1 back as the bear and change and 98.5 to the bear also That would be an awesome coverage area

[TC Talks]

I heard Chris Warren's golfing handicap is up this summer.

[ftballfan]

DUDES! You know that the geography has changed.. Cadillac OUT (despite what it says on the top of the screen) - Cheboygan IN! That is probably as much responsible for WMKC's big number as anything else. Can't compare these numbers and be fair about it.

Losing 93.5 hurt WTCM, but having their two most popular counties (Manistee and Wexford) removed from the market might hurt just about as much.

[Colonel Flagg]

Did any of Roy's derilect stations show up in the ratings?

:::: crickets::::

That's what I thought.

[northradiotruth]

This is all a joke. These outdated diaries are laughable. Wow, I wonder what WCBY did to more than double their ratings, considering it's a thousand-watt station that has been running the same programming for decades? Oh and look Big Country is now the number one station. And Real Rock, who has had voice trackers for most of its existence, suddenly loses 2/3rds of its audience. It's obvious they are spreading many more diaries in the Cheboygan county area. So anybody now with a strong signal north of Gaylord is going to be better. So I don't know what that proves except Northern Michigan needs to switch to the Portable People Meters or enjoy the fiction that is diary results.

[craigrussell100]

Hate to break the news to you, but PPM isnt coming Up North anytime soon. Its only in the "Top 50" markets to begin with, and the cost is disproportionate to what the stations make. Its an added 400-700K to add PPM to a market...per station group. I really doubt any stations that are billing 500-750 K a year are going to shell out to see that they realistically are 11th in the market. Diarys are here til Nielsen gets rid of them altogether...

[MWmetalhead]

There's some good insight above.

93.5, historically, contributed maybe 15% of the total WTCM-FM share. That was true even *before* the Cadillac area was added to the MSA. Big Country has always dominated WTCM-FM/WBCM-FM in the far northern reaches of the MSA.

WTCM-FM's share barely slipped from historical levels. KLT soared to what very well could be the one of the best ratings books (12+ AQH share wise) in the history of the brand. I doubt anyone at 314 E. Front St is unhappy with the results.

I completely agree that distribution of diaries and response rate likely produced some unusually skewed results this go 'round.