January 4, 2005
CITADEL has not restored HOWARD STERN's show to its stations in SYRACUSE, PROVIDENCE, NEW BEDFORD, GRAND RAPIDS, and HARRISBURG upon his return from vacation. OPIE AND ANTHONY tapes continue on WAQX (95X)/SYRACUSE, while afternoon host NIPSEY has moved to mornings at WQXA (105.7 THE X)/HARRISBURG.
STERN said on his MONDAY (1/3) show that CITADEL boss FARID SULEMAN ("a weird dude," according to STERN) is asking for payment of $200,000. from STERN for the host's mentioning SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO on his syndicated show. STERN said that he and his agent DON BUCHWALD were baffled by the move and said he would have understood if SULEMAN had asked to get out of the company's contract early. "Is this to teach me a lesson? Because it's clearly not working," STERN said about the CITADEL move, noting that "I was nothing but nice to (SULEMAN)" but professing not to care.
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 fmqb.com
March 8, 2001
Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling walked off The Howard Stern Show Monday (3/5) in what looks to be another contract dispute. "Quite frankly, that’s it. It’s over," The New York Post (3/6) quotes Stern as saying on-air. "I love Jackie, think he’s a great guy, but we’ve got to move forward." Martling previously left the show for six weeks in December of ’97, only to return with a new three-year deal on January 28, 1998. "Much to my chagrin, after 15 years, the man has walked out because - out of all of us - he’s the only guy who can’t figure out how to get a new contract without walking out," Stern added. [More info on the Jackie situation is here.]
In other Stern news, the Dallas Association for Decency is planning an anti-Stern campaign, asking advertisers of Stern’s DFW affiliate KYNG to pull their spots from the station. That obviously isn’t the feeling in Central Pennsylvania where Citadel Active Rock WQXA/Harrisburg has inked the King of All Media for another five years. [More info on the Dallas situation is here.]
Meanwhile, Stern has made the Forbes list of top moneymakers, coming in 29th with $30 million in earnings. Rush Limbaugh (27th) outranked him with $31 million in earnings. Also making the list was Paul Harvey (31st) with $29 million in earnings. [More info on the salary story is here.]
from the York Daily Record
October 31, 2000
--snips--
Warm 103 tops again: WARM-FM (103.3) won another ratings book, according to figures from the Arbitron Company.
For the period between June and September, Warm 103's adult contemporary format averaged an 8.1 rating throughout the day, up from 7.8 a year ago. WRKZ-FM (106.7), Cat Country 107, finished with the fifth-highest rating (6.0) and forced WYCR-FM (98.5), 98 YCR, down to sixth.
WQXA-FM (105.7), WGTY-FM (107.7), and WSOX-FM (96.1) filled out the rest of the top five.
In an email I received from Dan, he reports "Howard was first in this market"!
from the York Daily Record
August 22, 2000
WARM-FM, WYCR-FM and WSOX-FM finished one-two-three and WRKZ-FM beat WGTY-FM in the battle for country listeners, according to Spring 2000 Arbitron figures. WARM-FM (103.3), Warm 103, registered a 9.0 share and a 57 AQH, meaning in any 15-minute period it attracted about 9 percent of the listening audience, or roughly 5,700 listeners. Both numbers represent increases from a year ago, when WARM finished first with an 8.6/53.
WRKZ's win was Cat Country's first against WGTY, Country 108, in more than three years. WGTY slipped from third in the York-Adams market a year ago (8.1/50) and first this past winter (7.6/47) to sixth this spring (5.4/34). Cat Country finished fifth this time around with a 6.5/41.
"We got lucky," said Sam McGuire, program director at WRKZ. "Maybe people are beginning to notice the hard work we've been putting in, I don't know. But we'll ride this while we have it."
Howard Stern on WQXA-FM (105.7), The X, edged out Kelly West and Rick Sten on Warm 103 to win morning drive.
--snips--
from the York Daily Record
March 7, 2000
Don Imus' mix of political satire and national news may not have been a good fit with classic rock music. It's been just over a year since WEGK-FM (92.7), The Eagle, picked up Imus for its morning drive slot to compete against Howard Stern. The results so far: Not so good.
WEGK had hovered around 10th in the morning before Imus arrived. In the following months, his ratings went up and down like a yo-yo: Down to 19, up to 12, back down to 21. He finished 19th in the most recent quarter.
"His performance in the area has been really disappointing," said Dave Powers, program director at The Eagle.
He downplayed the Stern vs. Imus angle, noting that the two rivals attract different audiences. But he was reluctant to say much more.
Stern, who airs locally on WQXA-FM (105.7), The X, has consistently finished first or second in the York market over the past year. WTPA-FM (93.5), a Mechanicsburg station that is the Eagle's chief classic rock rival in the York-Harrisburg-Lancaster market, has stayed around seventh in the mornings.
Chris James, program director at WTPA, said Imus had no impact on the ratings in his second go-round in the market (WCMB-AM carried Imus for several years in the mid-1990s).
"Ten or 15 years ago, I might have put Imus on," James said. "But not Imus today, especially not for a classic rock format."
Unless things change quickly, don't be surprised if Imus is gone by summer.
--snips--
from the York Daily Record
Less than a year and a half after launching, WSOX-FM (96.1) completed its climb to the top of the local ratings heap. For the three- month period that ended in September, WSOX registered its first first-place overall finish. It slipped past the traditional top- rated stations, WARM- FM (103.3), WGTY-FM (107.7), WYCR-FM (98.5), and WQXA-FM (105.7).
WSOX was solid throughout the day, finishing no lower than third in any time period. WQXA and Howard Stern returned to first in the mornings, after slipping a notch or two in the past few ratings periods. WYCR and WQXA ran one-two at night, signaling the strength of young audiences after 7 p.m.
One other note: WSBA, which has since switched up its weekday lineup, fell to 10th overall with Ralph Lockwood in the morning and Curt Hart and Gary Sutton in after noon drive. Lock wood was still holding his own, finishing tied for sixth in the morning. But the station went from sixth place in its midday programming (Rush Limbaugh) to 22nd with the now-defunct "SportsTalk."
No wonder the station wanted to try something new.
--snips--
from the York Daily Record
TUNED IN
Dan Fink
February 9, 1999
Tom Thies, WSOX station president and general manager, said the numbers look even better for the station's target demographic groups. The station's oldies format aims to attract older listeners in two age groups: 25-54 and 35-64. Advertisers covet those groups because they spend more on consumer goods than other groups.
According to WSOX's numbers for the entire market, Oldies 96.1 tied with WRVV-FM (97.3), The River, among 25-54 year-olds, with Warm 103 and The X right behind. In the older age group, WSOX leads by itself, ahead of Warm 103, WROZ-FM (101.3), The Rose, and WRVV.
"We thought at this point we might be in the top three," Thies said. "So I guess we went beyond our own expectations."
Recent exposure in movies and commercials has given mid-1960s music and the oldies format a boost, Thies said.
Oldies 96.1's gain seems to have come at the expense of WQXA-FM (105.7), The X, which dropped out of the top five for the first time in more than a year. The X goes more for 18-34 year-olds, based on the audience for Howard Stern's morning show.
WRKZ-FM (106.7), Cat Country, ranked fifth, with The X following in sixth place.
-- TV ratings snipped --
Dan Fink reports on radio and television for the Daily Record.
The latest radio numbers are out and WARM-FM (103.5), Warm 103, is still on top.
The Arbitron Co. released ratings for spring 1998. It measures average listenership each day in the York metro market, which includes 384,100 listeners in the York, Lancaster, Harrisburg and Gettysburg area. The survey covers the time period 6 a.m. and midnight for people 12 and older.
According to the ratings, Warm 103 earned a 10.4 quarter-hour share. That means in any 15-minute period during the week, an average of 10.4 percent of the listening audience, about 40,000 listeners, are tuned to the adult contemporary station.
WGTY-FM (107.7), Country 108, in Gettysburg, came in second with an 8.9 share. WQXA-FM (105.7), The X, was third at 7.9, followed by WYCR-FM (98.5), 98 YCR, at 7.4 and WRKZ-FM (106.7), Z-107, at 5.4.
"It looks pretty much the same," said John Martin, general sales manager at Country 108. "I know we're still the No. 2 station in the market. I know we're still the No. 1 country station. I know Howard Stern is doing well. There's not too much new here this time."
Stern's strength continues to hold in the key morning drive slot. According to Nancy Tulli, The X's general manager, Warm 103 and The X are tied for listeners 12 and older during morning drive, each with a 10.1 share. But look at listeners 18-49, and they make up 57 percent of the market, and The X pulls ahead, 15.3 share to Warm 103's 11 share.
Tulli also said the station saw increases for that 18-49 group in the midday and afternoon drive.
"When you see growth across the board like that, that says you're doing a lot of things right it's not just Howard Stern," she said.
New format coming: WSOX-FM (96.1) will be announcing its new programming today. (Station officials were going to do it Monday; they decided to push it back a day.)
The national trend is toward non-music stations. According to the July issue of American Demographics magazine, that's the fastest growing format in U.S. radio.
But WSOX has been taking calls since Friday asking listeners to vote for the kind of music they'd like to hear.
Country and adult contemporary are the most popular formats nationally, and they're strong in York County, too.
But Tulli wouldn't be surprised if WSOX went with some kind of rock format.
"Rock is stronger in York than it is nationally, always has been," she said.
Nominate "heroes": The West Manchester Mall is airing ads on local media asking listeners to nominate "unsung heroes." The mall wants to honor "13 everyday people who have made a difference in the lives of others," according to a news release.
Entries may be submitted through the stations or by visiting the mall's customer-service booth.
Listen for the ads on WARM-FM, WQXA-FM, WRKZ-FM, WYCR-FM, WROZ-FM and WEGK-FM and on WPMT-TV (Ch. 43), Fox 43.
Winners will be announced Aug. 22 at the mall and their portraits will be displayed outside the new Regal Cinemas.
Dan Fink reports on radio and television for the Daily Record.
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