from fmqb.com
April 27, 2004
On Friday and Monday, FMQB reported on dramatic increases for Stern in New York, L.A., Chicago and Boston. Now add Cleveland and Hartford to the list. Howard's usually No. 1 on Cleveland's WNCX in 18-34 and 25-54. But his current lightning rod status has him back at No. 1 12+, tied with WMJI's Lanigan & Malone. Stern tacked on 2.6 shares of 12+, 5.5 shares of 18-34, 2.1 of 25-54, and 9 shares of men 18-34. His men 18-34 audience in Cleveland is knocking on a 30 share.
While we haven't had a look at Hartford morning breakouts just yet, the story's likely to be the same. In fact, it looks like Stern carried WCCC from 9th 12+ in the fall (4.6) to third in the Winter (7.5). And those are total week numbers.
When they dropped his show from six stations at the end of February, Clear Channel expected a morning ratings exodus to follow. In San Diego, they got it. With Stern, KIOZ was No. 1 12+ in February with an 8.9. Without him, the station's morning drive ratings crashed to a 27th place 0.7 in March. The in-demo decline was even more spectacular: 12.7 to 0.7 in Men 18+, 20.6 to 0.8 in 18-34, and 10.1 to 1.0 in 25-54.
from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
August 6, 2003
Are you a "Fish" fanatic? A Brian and Joe junkie? A never-switch-the-dial devotee of WRMR?
Well, you'd better start responding to those Arbitron ratings surveys. Although those stations and shows made gains in the latest radio ratings and have extremely loyal followings, it was all the usual suspects winning again: WMJI, WNCX, WDOK and WENZ.
In the so-called "money demographic" - listeners ages 25 to 54, who prove most lucrative in attracting advertising dollars - oldies station WMJI FM/105.7 was No. 1 overall, followed by soft rock WDOK FM/102.1, country station WGAR FM/99.5, news/talk/sports station WTAM AM/1100, and classic rocker WNCX FM/98.5.
By the way, for the uninitiated, "The Fish" is WFHM FM/95.5, which plays contemporary Christian music. Brian Fowler and Joe Cronauer make up the morning duo at "Mix" WMVX FM/106.5. WRMR plays classic pops at 1420 AM. The latest ratings are for the spring and cover the 12 weeks between March 27 and June 18. They represent audience estimates for an average week. The summer ratings will be revealed in October.
In morning drive, radio's prime time, WNCX's Howard Stern, syndicated out of New York, was the most listened to in the 25-54 age demographic. Stern has a 12 share of the ratings. The top five are:
1. Howard Stern, WNCX (12.0). 2. John Lanigan and Jimmy Malone, WMJI (9.8). 3. Trapper Jack Elliot, WDOK (7.7). 4. Tom Joyner, syndicated out of Dallas on R&B station WZAK FM/93.1, and Jim Mantel of WGAR, tied with a 7.2.
Morning drive covers the 6 to 10 a.m. time slot, although several of the shows come on at 5 or 5:30.
Middays (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) were conquered once again by WDOK. Nancy Alden's show has been comfortably No. 1 in the 25-54 demo for several ratings books. WDOK was followed by WMJI, WGAR, WTAM and WMVX. Infinity Radio (a division of Viacom) owns WDOK; Clear Channel Communications owns the other four stations.
Afternoon drive time (3-7 p.m.) also has a perennial 800-pound gorilla dominating the ratings: Mike Trivisonno.
Triv's show on WTAM owns 25-54-year-olds. WTAM also featured Indians and Cavaliers games in the spring. Rounding out the top afternoon five were WDOK, WGAR, WMJI and smooth jazz station WNWV FM/107.3.
The top station in the 12-plus demographic, an estimate of everyone flipping on a radio, was WMJI. Hip-hop and R&B station WENZ FM/107.9 was No. 1 overall with the 18-34 demographic.
from the Canton Repository (Cleveland, Ohio)
January 27, 2003
Kiss FM 96.5, a top-40 Cleveland station with plenty of young attitude, has found a significant audience in the Canton area, according to the latest Arbitron radio ratings.
Kiss, whose call letters are WAKS, placed fifth in the Canton market’s overall ratings (ages 12 and older from 6 a.m. to midnight daily) and in second place among the 18-34 age group. Most surprising, Kiss, owned by Clear Channel, has increased its listenership with zero promotion in the Canton area.
Meanwhile, WZKL-FM 92.5, a local station with a similar music playlist to Kiss -- Jennifer Lopez, Pink, Eminem, Justin Timberlake, etc. -- has failed to find a solid toehold with listeners despite its new air personalities, a prominent billboard campaign and an overall sprucing up of its sound. In the overall ratings for the market, WZKL-- which calls itself Q-92 -- placed 13th.
Here is a look at the most-listened-to stations in the Canton Metro market in three key age categories, followed by a look at the top-rated morning shows. Each station’s call letters are followed by its percentage of the listening audience.
--snips--
MORNING DRIVE LISTENERS 12 AND OLDER 6-10 a.m. weekdays 1. WHBC-AM 20.1% 2. WHBC-FM 11.5% 3. WRQK-FM 7.1% 4. WQXK-FM 6.7% 5. WNCX-FM 6.3% 6. WKDD-FM 4.5% 7. WMJI-FM 3.9% 8. WONE-FM 3.2% 9. WAKS-FM 3% 10. WQMX-FM 2.9%
--snips--
from the NY Daily News
November 13, 2002
Ever wondered how many other people in America are actually listening to, say, Howard Stern at the same time you are?
Tony Sanders, who crunches national numbers for the trade publication Inside Radio, says it's around 1,490,000.
Standard radio ratings, designed for advertisers, use a figure called "cume," which is the cumulative number of persons who tune to a given show or station at some time during an average week.
That's obviously a much higher figure. The national weekly "cume" for Stern has been estimated by the trade mag Talkers at "8 million-plus."
By comparison, Rush Limbaugh is rated at 14.5 million-plus per week, Sean Hannity at 10 million-plus and Dr. Joy Browne and Imus at 5 million-plus.
The numbers of people listening to those hosts at any one time presumably are proportionate to Stern's numbers.
Stern's numbers also mean more than 10 times as many people are listening to him at any given time than are, say, watching cable news channels on television.
Sanders has also tracked Stern's ranking in all of his markets for summer 2002 - though this is just based on his share of the total audience. Like most hosts, Stern scores higher among his specific target audiences, which for him includes younger men.
Overall, Stern is No. 1 in New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Syracuse and York, Pa.
In other cities, it goes like this: Philadelphia, second; Washington, D.C., fourth; Los Angeles, seventh; Baltimore, 16th; Cleveland, second; Buffalo, fourth; Chicago, 10th; Dallas, 11th; Detroit, ninth; Hartford, sixth; Las Vegas, second; Boston, second; San Diego, third; Pittsburgh, third; Seattle, fourth; Rochester, seventh; Miami, fourth; San Francisco, fifth.
--snips--
from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
September 22, 2002
If you don't like the constant bar rage of yackety commercials, staticky traffic reports, predictable prattle and the same song being played 97,000 times on your radio station, blame Kevin Metheny.
As the director of programming for Clear Channel's nine Cleveland-area stations, Metheny has more control over what you hear on the air than anyone else in town.
Well, that is except for Jim Meltzer, Clear Channel's big cheese in Northeast Ohio, and the powers at Clear Channel corporate, which owns more than 1,200 stations (and counting), including some of Cleveland's best known and most profitable: WMJI, WGAR, WTAM, and WMMS.
And even though he is a talented, ratings-getting programmer with 30 successful years in broadcasting, including stints at MTV and VH1, Metheny will be forever known for his intense battles with radio bad-boy Howard Stern.
When Metheny was the program director at WNBC in New York in the early 1980s, Don Imus was the morning star and Stern was the renegade afternoon man.
Stern famously skewered Metheny in his book "Private Parts," in which Metheny was called "Pig Virus," and the subsequent motion picture, where the stinging sobriquet evolved into "Pig Vomit" because, Stern said, "he looks like a pig and makes you want to vomit."
In the film, Paul Giamatti played program director Kenny Rushton, the quintessential uptight, obsessive micro-manager. (The oily character was actually a screenplay composite of Stern's run-ins with Metheny and former general managers John Hughes and Randy Bongarten.) In his book, Stern wrote of Metheny, "I wanted to kill that creep, but I later realized that he was just a pawn in this whole game. The NBC brass was putting heavy pressure on him to get me in line and he was just doing his job."
Just doing your job is one way to survive in radio, especially if you are doing the bidding of upper management.
Just doing his job in Cleveland has meant carrying out Clear Channel's dirty work of slashing budgets and people, pulling the plug on longtime Cleveland voices, including Danny Wright, Scott Howitt, Denny Sanders, Bob McKay, John Webster and Ed Richards.
Consolidation has meant the six Cleveland stations, once scattered about the city, now share a single, giant office in Independence. John Lanigan and Jimmy Malone on "Majic" are just a sheet of plaster board away from Brian and Joe on "Mix," who are just down the hall from the blustery Mike Trivisonno of WTAM. It's like a food court of radio, with McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell.
Critics charge that Clear Channel is dulling down radio, creating a generic army of clones. It owns so many stations in so many cities, and has such a wealth of syndicated programming that it can plug them in anywhere, making Cleveland sound like Chicago sound like Dallas.
As boring and predictable as mainstream radio often sounds, behind the scenes it is a most tumultuous time. The lifting of regulatory restrictions led to a frenzy of acquisitions while technology was exploding with Internet and satellite radio. Consolidation has meant the few own many (21 Cleveland-area stations are owned by four companies).
Metheny does not consider this bad.
"The consolidation of ownership is still far less than it is in the automobile business, the television business or the newspaper business," says Metheny. "Where's the competition in the newspaper business? There's the same number of radio stations available to people in Cleveland, but, damn, I love that afternoon newspaper."
In the modern model, DJs from California and New York do morning drive in Cleveland; one program director handles five, 10 or dozens of stations. Instead of independent warriors, the stations are cogs in a corporate cluster. WMJI does not want to kick WMMS's butt, WMVX doesn't want to obliterate WGAR - because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. The money all goes into the same bank account.
Metheny is defensive about the Clear Channel model and mission.
"It's human nature to view the good old days as superior to the here and now," he says. "People railed in protest when radio stations stopped offering live, in-studio orchestras. Change is painful. Some of us are no more enamored with it than the detractors. You can ride the bus, or get under it."
That would make a nice T-shirt slogan for people chewed up and spit out by Clear Channel: "Ride the Bus, or Get Under It!"
Radio brat
Metheny, 48, is a very bright, funny guy, capable of speaking for hours on myriad topics. And like all radio-lifers, he can't name a city without dropping a few call-letters, names of DJs and ghosts of formats past.
His father was a DJ, programmer, general manager and owner, who moved the family to each new opportunity, but Metheny is mostly from Oklahoma City.
That's where Pat O'Day discovered him in 1972. Metheny was working weekends on WKY. O'Day, who founded Concerts West, was in town promoting a Three Dog Night show. "I heard him driving back from the concert," recalls O'Day. "I could tell this was an extraordinary talent."
O'Day hired him to work at the station he was running in Seattle, KJR. But he had to wait two months while Metheny finished high school. Only 18, he became Kevin O'Brien, one of the "KJR All-Stars," and was a hit in the 6-9 evening slot. "His impact was immediate and enormous," says O'Day.
Since Seattle, Metheny's radio travel voucher has been stamped in New Orleans, San Diego, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Dallas, Savannah, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Jacksonville and, finally, Cleveland.
In the early '80s, when a few AM stations were still clinging to the notion that they could make money playing Top 40 music, one of the few dinosaurs left was 66 WNBC in New York, flagship station of NBC, the company that invented radio networks.
Its young program director was only 26 when he came to town to try to build a station around morning man Don Imus. It was a dream job.
But the dream became a minefield of nightmares. First he had to deal with Imus' now well-documented bouts with vodka and cocaine.
"Imus at the time was not a practicing alcoholic-drug addict," says Metheny. "He had perfected it."
Imus did not respond to interview requests.
WNBC went in search of an afternoon man to match Imus' morning ratings, and they found an outrageous talent at "DC 101" in Washington, D.C.
Howard Stern was rocking and shocking Washington with his unique style of gross-out jokes, sex talk, lesbian games and weather reports delivered by God.
NBC hired him but wanted to rein in his references to semen, menstruation, defecation and masturbation. They failed.
"The contract was very clear regarding the number of songs per hour, newscasts, traffic reports, the time constraints imposed by NABET [the engineer's union], the personnel we would and would not hire from Washington, and NBC's standards and practices," says Metheny. Pretty much from the moment he got there, he broke all of those things."
Stern became No. 1 in the afternoon and Metheny became Pig Virus.
"The two of us spent the year in psycho-emotional-physical misery," says Metheny. "But then I finally had this enormous epiphany. I realized this guy's talent and what he has to say is far more important than doing the traffic on time. I was clearly wrong."
Inquiries to Stern were referred to his agent, who did not return phone messages.
As for being lambasted in a best seller and movie, Metheny bends over backward to be gracious.
"It is based on a book that is based on Howard's recollections. I don't blame him. It was done to keep with his rebellious, nonestablishment persona." Metheny also puts great stock in the Hollywood disclaimer, "Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental."
Stern still gives Metheny headaches. His syndicated morning show on WNCX is No. 1 in Cleveland, beating all of Metheny's stations.
Solid footing
After you've survived Stern and Imus in the pressure cooker of the nation's No. 1 radio market, how hard could it be to ride herd on Lanigan and Trivisonno in the 24th market?
Your initiation is essentially indifference.
"If you're a John Lanigan or a Mike Trivisonno, you don't invest a lot of capital in the new programmer, because we usually last about 45 minutes," says Metheny. "But for all the grief we take for being the evil empire and all the cookie-cutter criticism, we certainly do a lot of care and feeding and protecting of creative personalities."
Much of the successful momentum of Clear Channel's stations was already in place when Metheny hit town, and the company enjoys a cozy monopoly on Cleveland sports, broadcasting the Browns, Indians and Cavs. But one tarnished former gem still remains: WMMS.
Once Cleveland's dominant monster, soundtrack of a generation and one of the best known FM stations in America, WMMS has been floundering for years, especially inept at installing a permanent and successful morning show.
In hopes of resuscitating 'MMS, Clear Channel moved the Browns games there this season from WMJI. Revenue goes to the Browns Radio Network, but Metheny hopes the games will bring new listeners to the station who might stick around during the week. But there's only so much you can do. Former music powerhouses all over the country are limping along or switching formats. They're under the bus.
"People want WMMS to be relevant again," says Metheny. "I don't think we can blow it up and reinvent it too many more times."
As for Metheny's position in the Clear Channel universe, ask his boss.
"He's the smartest person I've ever worked with," says Jim Meltzer, regional vice president for 26 Clear Channel stations. Meltzer first brought Metheny to Cleveland in June 1998 as operations director at WTAM when they both worked for Jacor, later absorbed into Clear Channel.
"He's the only person in the company who yells at me and gets away with it," adds Meltzer. "He knows how to manage up."
Although he's been described as a screamer, desk pounder and thrower of telephones, he's found a way to survive. After all of the multiple moves, Metheny, who is married with two young daughters, says he's happy in Cleveland, and has rebuffed job offers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to stay here.
He was just promoted to regional vice president of programming, adding another 17 stations to his watch.
"I still think I have a better idea than most about getting ratings," he says.
from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
September 22, 2002
In Cleveland, the company owns WMJI FM/105.7 (oldies), WTAM AM/1100 (news/sports/talk), WMMS FM/100.7 (hard rock), WGAR FM/99.5 (country), WAKS FM/96.5 (current hits) and WMVX FM/106.5 (old and new rock). Its Akron stations are WTOU AM/1350 (sports), WHLO AM/640 (news-talk) and WKDD FM/98.1 (rock).
Last year, the six Cleveland stations had combined gross revenue of $59.5 million, according to estimates by Duncan's American Radio.
The biggest moneymaker in town is WMJI, pulling in $16.8 million last year. "Majic remains the 900-pound, cash-flow gorilla," says Kevin Metheny. His take on other Clear Channel stations and personalities:
WMJI's morning show. " 'Lanigan and Malone' is a rarity, a locally focused, freewheeling show that's kind of the town-crier record of the day."
WTAM's morning show with Bill Wills and Casey Coleman. "We have not spent a dime marketing that show. But it has risen in just four years." Mike Trivisonno's afternoon show is "extremely compelling radio. He's dumb like a fox."
WMMS's new morning team of Tom Megalis and Rick Eberhart. "I'm rooting for the new WMMS morning show to give Howard [Stern] a sound whoopin.' That would be good for WMMS and good for 'Lanigan and Malone.' "
- Clint O'Connor
from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
August 2, 2002
It's not No. 1 in mornings, middays or afternoons, but WTAM AM/1100 posted such big numbers for evening Indians games that it took the No. 1. spot in the latest Arbitron ratings.
The news-talk station benefited from the Tribe's strong start in the recently released spring book (for the period March 28 through June 19), before the team started fading and began its dismantling process. WTAM was No. 1 among listeners 12 and older (12-plus in ratings lingo), an estimated gauge of everyone turning on a radio.
But the numbers did not shake up Cleveland's radio standings. The top five stations in the 12-plus category were the same top five from the winter book, in a slightly different order:
1. WTAM 2. WDOK FM/102.1 (soft rock) 3. WMJI FM/105.7 (oldies) 4. WGAR FM/99.5 (country) 5. WZAK FM/93.1 (R&B)
With the exception of WTAM, the other four stations all dropped slightly in their ratings' shares.
Morning drive time (6 a.m.-10 a.m.), radio's prime-time, was dominated once again by Howard Stern on WNCX FM/98.5. Stern's sex-obsessed New York-based syndicated show took the top morning slot in 12-plus (with a 10.2 share), as well as winning the other two major demographic categories: 25- to 54-year-olds and 18- to 34-year-olds.
The top five morning shows (12-plus):
1. Howard Stern 2. John Lanigan and Jimmy Malone on WMJI 3. Trapper Jack Elliot and Co. on WDOK 4. Jim Mantell and Co. on WGAR 5. Bill Wills and Casey Coleman on WTAM
Middays (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) in 12-plus were once again won by WDOK's Nancy Alden. The soft rock station beat out WTAM, WMJI, WGAR and smooth jazz station WNWV FM/107.3, which came in fifth.
WDOK also continued to score strong numbers among female listeners in all of the major categories.
As for afternoon drive time (3 - 7 p.m.), most folks in the 12-plus category preferred to head home with Opie and Anthony on the hard-rocking Xtreme Radio (WXTM FM/92.3). The station shot from fourth to first place, just beating perennial top-finisher Mike Trivisonno on WTAM. WDOK was third, while WENZ and WMJI tied for fourth.
Opie and Anthony, the two Howard Stern wannabes, are syndicated, like Stern, out of New York. That means Cleveland's two most important time periods, mornings and afternoons, are ruled by New Yorkers.
Christian station "The Fish" (WFHM FM/95.5), continues to attract new listeners, especially women, but its new morning team of Robin Swoboda and Dan Deely was just introduced at the beginning of the ratings period. The duo got a boost from TV ads, but their impact has yet to be gauged.
WENZ FM/107.9 barely edged out WXTM as the most popular station among younger listeners (18-34). The hip-hop and R&B station took first place with an 11.3 ratings share, while WXTM had an 11.2. WMMS took third place (up from seventh), KISS (WAKS FM/96.5), the modern hits station, was fourth, and Mix 106 (WMVX FM/106.5), which plays a mix of old and new rock, was fifth.
--snips--
July 26, 2002
Howard announced today that for the first time The Howard Stern Show is #1 for two ratings periods in a row!
More Cleveland Ratings and Updates are available here.
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