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Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Discussion pertaining to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, and Michiana
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MWmetalhead
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Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue Jul 27, 2021 6:52 pm

The monthly survey for the Grand Rapids market and the semi-annual surveys for Kalamazoo and Muskegon were released yesterday.

What's nice about these latest releases is Nielsen has loosened its rules for which stations get listed in the publicly published results!

That means out-of-market stations that subscribe to their home market book now get shown in the publicly published results for ALL markets where significant listening occurs. :8)

Some highlights:
- Thunder 107.3 reaches an ALL-TIME RECORD LOW, regardless of format, for 107.3 FM. A 1.0 share (!!!). I mean, how fucking terrible must a programming staff be at its job to manage only a 1.0 share, with Country, with a 50 kW signal in West-friggin'-Michigan?!?!
- ESPN 96.1 also laid a massive TURD and produced what was easily the worst result in the history of ESPN 96.1. I cannot say with 100% confidence that it was the worst share ever for 96.1 FM, but it's got to be in the bottom two or three.
- Decent gain for 94.5 WKLQ.
- 101.3 Big FM is finding its footing. Probably very old demos, but definitely making a major dent in 98.7 WFGR's numbers.
- WOOD Radio, post-Rush, shed two full shares.
- Real Oldies 1480 / 95.3 reached a new all-time high at a 1.7 share.
- 91.3 WCSG is #1 yet again for Grand Rapids!
- WVGR / WUOM is listed once again. Mid 4's overall. Very respectable.

Kalamazoo:
- Midwest Communications made a colossal mistake flipping 96.5 to low budget CHR/Pop. A 1.8 share for the brands inaugural book. What a disaster! WKFR crushed them to pieces.
- Big rebounds for WRKR and WKZO. Best book for RKR in quite some time.
- B93 slips from #2 to #3 overall thanks to the surging WRKR.
- WKLQ is a no-show in Kalamazoo. That's a little surprising; I figured former Z96.5 listeners might've discovered the station.
- WGRD, staticky signal and all, did OK. Mid 2's.
- Star 105.7 earned shockingly poor numbers. I cannot explain that one. The flip at 106.5 should've benefited Star. Has got to be a sampling issue.
- Jack at 106.5 earned numbers in line with what it was earning at 96.5.
- WCSG performs decently in Kalamazoo (I mean, the only have THREE signals that can be heard there) but not nearly as well as in Grand Rapids. Mid 3's to low 4's over the past several books.

Muskegon:
- WMRR, WMUS and WSNX are the leaders by a mile (no surprise)
- Surprisingly poor showings for all Cumulus stations. 98.3 WLCS reached an all time record low. 105.3 Hot FM is getting clobbered by WSNX, who has a five and a half share lead!
- Grand Rapids isn't the only place where Real Oldies has a cult following. AM 850 scored a 1.4.
- Despite having a much stronger signal in Muskegon than WGRD, WLAV was outperformed by WGRD in the Port City. WGRD had a 3.5 (which was actually a little bit below their average) whereas WLAV had a 2.1. In fairness, there really is nowhere else to hear newer rock on the FM dial in Muskegon, while there are plenty of classic rock options.
- Of the stations actually licensed to Grand Rapids, WGRD believe it or not is the strongest performer in Muskegon County.
- B93 usually is good for a 3.x share but this time only managed a 2.8 share.
- WLHT, as has been the case for years, barely registered. Does Milwaukee's WRIT routinely interfere with WLHT? I never understood why WLHT regularly earns such terrible numbers in Muskegon.


Results:
https://ratings.radio-online.com/content/arb127 (Grand Rapids)
https://ratings.radio-online.com/content/arb251 (Kalamazoo)
https://ratings.radio-online.com/content/arb566 (Muskegon)



ftballfan
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by ftballfan » Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:45 pm

Real Oldies' 1.4 in Muskegon is fairly remarkable as it's AM only (unless WGVU-FM HD2 is receivable in parts of the county).

Speaking of Real Oldies, WGVU should permanently keep Real Oldies on 95.3 in GR (I heard something about switching 95.3 back to a simulcast of 88.5 while going through the dial a few days ago)



bmw
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by bmw » Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:49 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 6:52 pm
- WOOD Radio, post-Rush, shed two full shares.
It is going to be interesting to see if that is a national trend. I occasionally tune into Clay and Buck, and I would say they're "just ok." They don't bring anywhere near the insight to the table that Rush did. Whenever there was a major news or political story that broke, people would tune into Rush just to hear HIS opinion. Clay and Buck don't have that draw, and honestly I don't think they ever will.



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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by Frosty » Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:50 pm

I don't think that's an "all-time low" for 107.3. It likely had next-to-nothing numbers prior to its transition to WODJ, when it was a sleepy Greenville country station.
Many years ago (1980s and '90s), WLHT/Lite 95.7 had very good numbers in Muskegon. So did WOOD-FM and WLAV.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue Jul 27, 2021 10:15 pm

I don't count that era for 107.3, as it likely didn't deliver a very usable signal to the G.R. area back then. Would've been considered an out of market station at the time, I suspect.

Similarly, I wouldn't count the WCXT era when discussing 105.3's history in the Grand Rapids market.

In the last 20 years, I am unable to remember WLHT ever cracking a 2 share in Muskegon County. Healthier ratings in the pre-Star 108 / Z108 era certainly seems plausible.

I do remember WLAV pulling 4's and the occasional 5 share out of Muskegon County.



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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by 48125er » Wed Jul 28, 2021 2:00 am

When was the last time, WBFX beat 98.7 that’s what I wanna know.

NOBODY is listening to 107.3, 96.1 or 106.1/1340, I think more people listen tO 102.9, 89.7, 89.3 and maybe even WTKG 1230 than those 3 combined.



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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by weathernut » Wed Jul 28, 2021 1:52 pm

Muskegon thoughts.
WLCS 98.3, I believe lost a majority of their listeners when Rick Hickman retired and they move on from John during their morning show and replaced him with Bob and Tom. For sure not their audience! It also has not helped since that translator in Allendale moved in on the same frequency. Many of their listeners would commute to the Grand Rapids area and I believe that many of them found a different preset since they could only listen to about Nunica.
Milwaukee stations do interfere with Grand Rapids stations during the summer especially 105.7 WAPL will come in quite frequently.
B 93 does get interfered with often with the B 93 out of Wisconsin, north of the Russell Rd exit inland and quite frequently near Pere Marquette on the big lake.
WGRD actually has a real strong signal in Muskegon County. The only station that interferes with them even once in a great while would be Chicago. WLAV actually gets interfered with more from the WDRV than WGRD does with K-Love despite LAV’s stick being closer🤷‍♂️



espy82
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by espy82 » Wed Jul 28, 2021 5:33 pm

If ESPN had a .7 share, how many actual listeners were there? Are they subsidized by a parent company?
Hard to believe any local station is making any money with businesses struggling so much.



ftballfan
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by ftballfan » Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:05 pm

espy82 wrote:
Wed Jul 28, 2021 5:33 pm
If ESPN had a .7 share, how many actual listeners were there? Are they subsidized by a parent company?
Hard to believe any local station is making any money with businesses struggling so much.
I think even Regional Mexican would get higher than a 0.7 share on 96.1!



jesusjenny
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by jesusjenny » Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:37 pm

After this book, I cannot imagine they will move Real Oldies off the FM. Just having that signal alone gives them a much bigger reach - even if a small signal, it is FM.

Real oldies beat TNR by almost a share. LOL



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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by radionut » Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:53 pm

jesusjenny wrote:
Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:37 pm
After this book, I cannot imagine they will move Real Oldies off the FM. Just having that signal alone gives them a much bigger reach - even if a small signal, it is FM.

Real oldies beat TNR by almost a share. LOL
I wouldn't be so sure of this. Long term plan has been to put WGVU-FM on 95.3. Let's revisit this statement by the weekend.



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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by option1 » Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:05 am

MW you’re being a bit harsh with 96.5 out of K-Zoo. Although we all know its not going to end well, you have to give them a couple books at least to see if they can get some traction. It’s a 2 book market. Those diaries have been going to the same households for decades. 1.8 is more than likely not a good representative number of the people who are checking them out at this point. Once more people find them and put them as #2 on their pre-set behind KFR their numbers will go up. Realistically, it’s a 3-4 share radio station.

Of coarse, everyone except Midwest knew that a watered down KFR would eventually fail miserably especially when you factor in no promotional budget and giving listeners absolutely no reason to make the switch. A rhythmic CHR was the correct move in this instance. Actually a rhythmic CHR is a no-brainer if you are going to take on a heritage ratings monster in the CHR format like KFR.

Note to Midwest. You’ve waited years and watched KFR dominate the market before you woke up and realized maybe we should take them on. Then you put on a station matching them song for song? Who the fuc* is actually getting paid to make these decisions?



jesusjenny
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by jesusjenny » Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:52 am

radionut wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:53 pm
jesusjenny wrote:
Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:37 pm
After this book, I cannot imagine they will move Real Oldies off the FM. Just having that signal alone gives them a much bigger reach - even if a small signal, it is FM.

Real oldies beat TNR by almost a share. LOL
I wouldn't be so sure of this. Long term plan has been to put WGVU-FM on 95.3. Let's revisit this statement by the weekend.
Could be. That's what they've been saying. This has probably been their biggest book ever - would be kind of mind blowing to take it off - but time will tell I suppose.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:00 pm

WGRD sounds so incredibly stale & boring.

I'm somewhat surprised it performs as well as it does. Take away the morning show and the station is basically crap.



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Re: Nielsen #'s for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon

Post by Realist » Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:45 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:00 pm
WGRD sounds so incredibly stale & boring.

I'm somewhat surprised it performs as well as it does. Take away the morning show and the station is basically crap.
You haven’t listened to FBHW lately. Borefest now that they added the chick about a year ago



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