Re: Demographics Rules?

[Bill Piacentini <billpi@ll.mit.edu>]

>At 07:18 AM 5/4/99 -0400, Bill Piacentini wrote:
>>WPLM-FM is breaking the demographic "mold" and also taking listeners away
>>from WBZ. The demos Mark L. disclosed [in a separate email] are not
>>necessarily the current May '99 truth about WPLM-FM's audience.
>>[snip] If somebody called to ask what station(s)
>>does [one] listen[s] to, [one] would still have difficulty remembering call
>>letters, frequencies, etc. and probably mention WBZ [WHDH, WNAC, WCOP,
WMEX]before she would remember WPLM-FM! 
At 02:56 PM 5/4/99 -0400, Steve Ordinetz wrote:
>I find it hard to believe that WPLM is taking significant listeners away
>from WBZ, no more than WMJX is taking listeners away from WZLX.  WBZ is
>news/talk, WPLM is MOR.  While they may be seeking the same demo, it's a
>bit of a stretch to believe that someone is tuning to an automated MOR
>station for late-breaking news/weather/sports/traffic.  If WPLM's recall
>rate is so bad that their listeners think they're listening to a talk
>station on a different band, they have a severe marketing problem!
Bill Piacentini rebuts:
All recall rates are bad. I'm not saying that people think they're
listening to WBZ when it's Classic Hits from Classic Artists. What I am
saying is if you were to ask a non-Radio Junkie to list station call
letters you would get WBZ (and some WHDH, WNAC?, WCOP,WMEX's) more often
than any other calls.  OTOH,when given a prepared list one would get a
different response.
A lot of people leave the radio tuned to the same station all day long.
WPLM-FM does have News, albeit AM PM drive 5-minute vignettes from Metro
Networks, and palatable music that can be listened to through the "work
day." I know people that have left 'BZ on because they hate the "music" and
"talk" alternatives. These same people love WPLM-FM. I've always thought
WODS could have become a great Music/News station given the in-house
facility and reputation.
I guess nobody wants to go against "Conventional Wisdom."

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