RE: Arbitrends(tm) Available

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Thu, 15 Nov 2001 21:37:05 -0500, "Paul Hopfgarten" <hopfgapr@sprynet.com> said:

> BOS and XRV combined at 2.4.......AAA is dead-dead-dead.....

People have been claiming that for several years, and I still see no
evidence to back it up.  You don't need a gigantic audience to make a
good profit with those demographics.  (And for 'XRV's ratings you
should look in the Portsmouth and Manchester books where they had a
2.6 an a 2.2, respectively.  It certainly sounds like they're selling
the time, too.  There's a reason why in the Archives we assign them to
the Merrimack Valley market.)  I don't know why Greater sticks it out
with 'BOS, but they can certainly afford to.

With the exceptions of WCLZ and a station in LA I can't recall, I
don't know of any AAA station defecting from the format in the last
five years.  Meanwhile, in Denver-Boulder, Clear Channel's KBCO pulled
a 5.6 last book, and in Seattle-Tacoma, Entercom's KMTT had a 2.7.
(In Chicago, Infinity's WXRT trended at 1.7, down from 2.6 a few books
ago.)

Philadelphia's WXPN pulls in a couple million a year in listener and
corporate support; Western North Carolina's WNCW Spindale (serving
Charlotte, N.C., Greenville, S.C., and Knoxville, Tenn.) seems to be
doing comparably well although I can't find any precise figures.

-GAWollman