Rumba: no ratings, but ad money?

[Roger Kolakowski]

We also might consider that although Arbitron is all we have, the process is
flawed and favors rabid radio affectionados. In addition note that ratings
bottom out around .4 ...I believe that the percentage of error also equates
to around .4 or .5 rating points last time I looked at it. So you could be a
.4 and not be rated (or be rated a .8), or be a 0 and be rated a .4.

BTW "rabid radio affectionados" translates well in Portuguese.

Please don't use my post to start an Arbitron debate, they are trying to
adjust things to get better accuracy, but for the AM band...they better
hurry.

Roger (former mostly non-rated AM Station salesperson)
WA1KAT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Nelson" <raccoonradio@mail.com>
To: "BostonRadio Mailing List"
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 2:48 PM
Subject: Rumba: no ratings, but ad money?


> It was noted that in the latest 12 plus ratings, Rumba 1200 y 1430 didn't
show up at all.
> But maybe they still could make a few bucks despite that?
>
> It may sound weird that stations which don't show up in the ratings still
make money
> but supposedly formats like (all-syndicated) sports, religion, and
> maybe even ethnic supposedly bill well despite lackluster ratings or
> none at all. If anything these are low budget operations and somehow
> they find the money from advertising.
>
> Why is WWZN still doing sports if it doesn't show up in the ratings?
> (Is Paul Allen enjoying wasting his money, or do they actually rake in
> a few bucks from running Sporting News Radio?) WTTT has never shown in
> the ratings with its conservative talk format but Salem Comm.
> apparently hasn't had a problem with that. Just run those national
> spots for "rich, chocolate Ovaltine" and Tanya Roberts inviting you to
> "get out of Dodge--stir up some romantic passion in the most
> exciting city on Earth. Las Vegas is calling!"
>
> You've heard those ads too, eh? ...constantly.
>
> I get the feeling Clr Chnl didn't have any sales managers working for
> WKOX/WXKS exclusively (as prog talk); they were probably shared with other
stations
> in the cluster, and maybe they didn't make an effort to sell local
> advertising. (It's also possible that the company made so much money
> with Jamn 94.5 and Kiss 108, that they could run the 2 AMs as a
> break-even or even lose-money proposition with AAR and now with Rumba.
> Whether they have sales people dedicated to those 2 AMs now, I don't
> know, but some AM stations can at least break even with specialty
> formats like this.
>
> Again, had CC put on local hosts, waited for the signal of 1200
> to improve (should be done in a few months), promoted the station,
> and perhaps had some sales people go out there to sell spots,
> it could still be prog talk today. Do you get the feeling that CC
> was just running AAR as a placeholder format: if it works, great,
> if not then change format or even try to sell the 2 stations--
> but didn't quite make any effort to promote the station OR
> sell ads for it? (Or maybe they were trying to stave off the
> Fairness Doctrine coming back...)
>
> Just turn on the "computer in a closet" while we concentrate
> on the FMs...
>
> By the way I gotta laugh. Go to the Clear Channel site and type in
> WXKS under station search. Apparently WXKS runs "nostalgia" with a
> logo saying "Boston's Original Hits".
>
> A format they abandoned on Oct 4, 2004...nice they updated the site.
>
> As for WKOX, type in those calls and you get the Rumba logo...
> and the format "Progressive Talk". Seriously...
>
>
>