Ratings 4/1-4/28

[Terry]

KBYU-FM ratings more than doubled?!!! Seems unlikely to me.

[CAwasinNJ]

You beat me to starting the topic.


Big gains this month for both KSL and KBYU, with KBYU setting a record high. Methinks the two could very well be related. The connection being to Conference. Anyone agree?

The Arrow was also noticeably up this month and paired with FM100.3 gave Bonneville the top 3 spots. I'm sure that makes them very happy. KODJ lost quite a bit, maybe to Arrow?

KNRS is inching lower after those sky high numbers late last year and early this year. They're still above their previous normal though. KUER is also falling off but at a faster pace. I'm definitely interested at where they end up bottoming out.

The Wave, after dropping off late last year has been steadily improving.

Kool continues to do well. It was on the surprisingly potent 103.9 translator for this ratings period so I'm looking forward to seeing the impact removing it will have next month. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a change, but how much I really have no idea.

KSOP(AM) actually fell off the map this month. Over the past year they've been slowly riding off into the sunset. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Their ratings have sometimes been volatile, but they just haven't bounced back yet from this one.

I mentioned last month that X96's stream suddenly appeared with a very significant number and I was suspicious. This month I'm even more suspicious since they completely disappeared. Either there was a mistake somewhere or someone was playing with the system.

[David]

I've wondered if the ratings for KSOP-AM have been dropping steadily because listeners are migrating to the 104.3 HD2 channel. But I don't recall ever seeing the HD2 channel show up in the ratings, so apparently there are other factors for the decline in the numbers for KSOP-AM.

[kenglish]

When an AM station has an HD2 simulcast, do they measure the ratings separately, or are the numbers combined, like when they have a translator?

Also, has there been any research on reasons why people don't listen to an AM station, beyond programming reasons?
For instance, do they never listen to ANY AM at all? If so, is it due to a lack of stations, or maybe terrible interference problems? Do they not even have an AM radio at all?
Is the problem "just because it's AM", or something else?

[drpepper]

CA when I saw X96's stream, I remembered the posts we made in the previous month's thread. i wasn't as suspicious at the time, but I am definitely curious now how one goes from <DELETED>. Something seems off. KBER had a nice gain, ZHT is trending down for the 4th month in a row. looking at last 4 months, they have slid by a slightly larger amount than Power has gained over the past 4 months. power was steady the 2 months prior to this last period.
KEGAs ratings are like air slowly leaking from a Baloon. How much longer until the Eagle has landed or is moved to a new ffreq?

[CAwasinNJ]

I have no record of KSOP-HD2 ever showing up in the ratings. According to Nielsen, the only simulcast combines KSOP-AM with KSOP-AM-HD. No mention of the FM-HD2 or a stream. It's possible that the FM-HD2 could be using the same encoding as the AM or AM-HD but I don't think it's supposed to work that way. It's also possible that there's no encoding at all on the FM-HD2 but that would be extremely weird and I doubt it. Any simulcasts at all (HD/sister station/translator/stream/etc) have to be reported by the station to Nielsen and it's their responsibility to do it. It's all laid out at www1.arbitron.com/sip/tlo.do

The "conventional wisdom" of why listeners aren't going to AM is the fidelity issue, both the lack of frequency response and the susceptibility of the signal to interference. The solution was to move to FM which mostly solves both problems. I agree that both of those are issues, but I think there's also a chicken and egg problem. There seems to be a perception that AM is a vast wasteland with a few oases of good content that are well known. Today that's somewhat true, unfortunately. The problem is getting a listener to scan the AM dial when going in they figure they aren't going to find anything worthwhile anyway. I suspect listeners are more likely to hit scan on the FM side than the AM side.

In some good news, that encoding stuff I was talking about above made me think about the X96 stream problem. There was no mention of the X96 stream in the Total Line Reporting files for Jan, Feb and March. The stream was added to the totals for "KXRK-FM" in April, so for the most recent ratings the stream was included in the main number. That doesn't quite explain the lack of reporting in Jan and Feb but it does explain where the numbers might have gone this month. To deepen the mystery even further, if you add last months stream to last month's OTA numbers it was a huge bump up that more than disappeared this month. Very weird. (And please remember, no specific numbers.)

[fmdj1]

I'd be surprised if KSOP is encoding their HD2. Nielsen will give stations the encoding equipment for FMs and AMs for free, but they charge a hefty annual fee for HDs and streams. A station has to be really interested in those to encode them, such as when they are simulcasting on a translator or selling a stream separate from over-the-air.

[CAwasinNJ]

May 21, 2021 21:51:20 GMT -6 fmdj1 said:

I'd be surprised if KSOP is encoding their HD2. Nielsen will give stations the encoding equipment for FMs and AMs for free, but they charge a hefty annual fee for HDs and streams. A station has to be really interested in those to encode them, such as when they are simulcasting on a translator or selling a stream separate from over-the-air.

That's interesting. There seems to be some disagreement in online discussions about that. Is it possible that there are package deals for large stations groups that include encoders for all their output points, but those deals aren't available for smaller operators? In looking around it also seems that it's possible to buy a third party encoder and that just seems bizarre to me.


One definite thing I was able to find was the Nielsen encoding policy.

www.arbitron.com/downloads/2013_October_Encoding_Bulletin.html

It's pretty much common sense about who can use the same watermark codes and who can't.

[fmdj1]

May 23, 2021 2:37:10 GMT -6 CAwasinNJ said:

That's interesting. There seems to be some disagreement in online discussions about that. Is it possible that there are package deals for large stations groups that include encoders for all their output points, but those deals aren't available for smaller operators?

That's quite possible. I'm only relaying what the Nielsen rep told me. I haven't been in a situation for the stations I've worked for that are part of a larger organization to say whether it may be different there.

May 23, 2021 2:37:10 GMT -6 CAwasinNJ said:

In looking around it also seems that it's possible to buy a third party encoder and that just seems bizarre to me.

I wonder how that would even work. That just seems really strange.

May 23, 2021 2:37:10 GMT -6 CAwasinNJ said:

One definite thing I was able to find was the Nielsen encoding policy.

www.arbitron.com/downloads/2013_October_Encoding_Bulletin.html

It's pretty much common sense about who can use the same watermark codes and who can't.

Thanks. Not surprisingly, they make the rules and we all just get to follow them or pay the price

[CAwasinNJ]

May 24, 2021 10:26:11 GMT -6 fmdj1 said:

That's quite possible. I'm only relaying what the Nielsen rep told me. I haven't been in a situation for the stations I've worked for that are part of a larger organization to say whether it may be different there.

That makes complete sense. (And hopefully it goes without saying that I completely believe you. ) It would be terrible customer service for a Nielsen rep to say something like "if you were 20 times bigger than you are I could get you this better deal."

The practical upshot is that KSOP is probably in that same boat. I'm hoping christopherjohn will stop by and let us know if he's willing and able to give some inside information. If not, that's completely fine too. I never want to put anybody in a position where they will get in trouble for saying something they aren't supposed to.

[henry]

we all just get to follow them and pay the price

For subscribers, that's technically an "and" (instead of an "or").