Re: [neradio] That old Dupe rule

["Martin J. Waters" <mwaters@wesleyan.edu>]

>Joe Ross wrote:
>OK, it was smaller than the AM audience, but it wasn't "extremely" small,
>and it was growing.  I remember a newspaper or magazine article in the
>early 1960s which said that FM was expanding faster than television.

	Maybe we're arguing over the definition of extremely. But, the
Hooper survey I referred to before accounts for 98.8 percent of the
audience. In the overall periods of the day rated (and note what they are:
7a-11p weekdays and 10a-11p weekends), the only FM station is WRKO-FM, with
a 1.0 share. So, even if all the other 1.2 unaccounted for were listening
to FM, that would be 2.2 for FM.
	BTW, the correct numbers are: WEEI, 27.5; WHDH, 17.3; WRKO, 13.9;
WMEX, 9.9; WBZ, 9.7, and then the next tier, led by WEZE at 5.3. The
weekday morning (7a-noon) ratings are a little different. WBZ, in
particular, scored a little better (12.3).
	Comments have been made at the big 68/wrko site that WEEI's numbers
in that book were inflated because the Arab-Isreali war took place during
the ratings period and more people were looking for news and information. I
have no idea if that is borne out by other ratings books just before and
after this time period.
	As for WRKO-FM, Shel Swartz already posted about that: The
non-duplication rule either was about to go into effect, to be phased in by
percentages and phased in from larger markets on down, or just had begun to
go into effect. The owners knew it was coming and had to begin to program
separately. It so happened that WRKO found a winning format. But I think my
other original point also stands: Most of the co-owned FMs only started
true separate programming when the FCC required it.
	And WRKO (AM) went to top 40 not because their Boston FM showed a
little life, but because the old AM format was failing, was expensive, and
skewed much too old. Meanwhile, the then-new Drake format (I believe KHJ
flipped in '65 or '66) was showing amazing success in other markets. This
Hooper book underlines  that. You made a drastic format change, basically
dumping your entire previous audience. You had a strike that disrupted
things in the early going. And you still scored a 14 after just three
months, beating both the established top-40 stations.

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