Dec. 23, 2020 BOSTON RADIO UPDATE Clark Smidt www.broadcastideas.com

With visions of sugar plums, the BOSTON November 2020 Radio Update from November 5 – December 4.  Other Northeast Markets will follow. Holiday survey runs December 5-January 1, 2021. 

BOSTON. Market #10    6+ Population 4,376,900   Spanish 12%  Urban 8.15%  49% of stations subscribe.  

CLUSTER SHARES - High & Low Months Underlined. The iHeart lead over Beasley Sept-Dec 11.7-12.4-15.0-13.9. iHeart is 5.4 ahead of their December ’19 showing, Beasley is off 2.7 from last year. ETM trails iHeart 18.3-21.3-21.0-19.3 and the ETM cluster is down 3.3 from a year ago. Non-Comms now show WBUR slipping behind WGBH by 0.5. Sports: WBZ/FM holds 5th, 5.4-6.8-6.2-6.1 while WEEI/FM is 2.6-2.8-3.0-2.7, again tied for 12th.

BOSTON CLUSTER SHARES:

                  Mar '19    Apr     May    June    July     Aug    Sept    Oct    Nov   Dec ‘20

1.  iHeart         33.0      35.5    35.0     35.9     35.2    34.0     33.5    35.3    35.7   34.8

2.  Beasley       23.9      21.5    22.2     21.9     22.8    21.4    21.8    22.9    20.7  20.9

3. Entercom    13.9      12.8    12.0     13.6    15.1    15.8    15.2    14.0    14.7   15.5

BOSTON STATIONS:

Gainers: +1.8 A/C WMJX, +1.1 A/C WSRS, +1.0 News/Talk WGBH, +0.6 Classic Hits WROR, +0.4 Classic Rock WZLX.        

Dippers: -0.8 Talk WRKO-AM, -0.6 Hot A/C WWBX, -0.5 Adult Alternative WXRV, -0.4 CHR WXKS/FM (down to #7).

CHANGES FOR ALL OF TOP 20 BOSTON STATIONS as Holiday music usually creates a reindeer shake. Christmas A/Cs did well in Boston/Worcester; shares for the Holiday format doubled in Detroit and Los Angeles. This month, all four major News/Talkers were in the Top 10. WZLX, WBZ/FM, WXRV & WEEI/FM held their ranks. Ten, 50,000 watt FMs are within a share point in rankers 11-20. Ties at #12, 20, 23, 26, 30, 3 no-shows at bottom #34, same order #23-34.

TOP 10:  Oct/Nov/Dec ‘20 Share/Cume Rank – calls/format/owner/share trends, local color & December 2019 comps.

1/2-2/3-1/2 WROR-FM Classic Hits Beasley 7.2-6.9-7.5. Retakes lead, with 80s music, #2 cume 773-823k. YrAgo #1, 8.1. 

7/3-7/3-2/1 WMJX-FM A/C Entercom 5.1-5.5-7.3. Jumps to #2, 776-847k top cume. Holiday music works YrAgo #2, 8.0.

6/4-3/4-3/4 WZLX-FM Classic Rock iHeart 5.9-6.7-7.1. Comes back strong, easier field, cume 597-578k. YrAgo #4, 5.5.

1/8-1/8-4/6 WBZ-AM News/Talk iHeart 7.2-7.0-6.8. Slips to 4th! iHeart has #3-4-6-7. 453-478k cume. YrAgo #6, 4.8.

4/5-5/5-5/5 WBZ-FM Sports Beasley 6.8-6.2-6.1. Moves back into Top 5, lead over WEEI/FM 4.0-3.2-3.4. YrAgo #7, 4.6.

5/18-4/19-6/18 WRKO-AM Talk iHeart 6.0-6.6-5.8. Slips into 6th. Nice year! Cume dips 392-309-285k. YrAgo #12, 3.2.

3/1-6/1-7/3 WXKS-FM CHR iHeart 7.0-6.0-5.6. Cume now #3, 874-879-805k. Never was at #7, ouch. YrAgo #3, 6.5.

11/17-9/16-8/13 WGBH-FM News/Talk WGBH Found. 3.3-3.5-4.5. Nice jump, full share. Cume 347k. YrAgo #11 at 3.3.

9/15-8/9-9/10 WBUR-FM News/Talk Boston U. 3.5-4.3-4.0. Falls behind WGBH. Cume dips 407-388k. YrAgo #8, 3.9.

8/6-9/7-10/8  WKLB-FM Country Beasley 4.7-3.5-3.5. Cume off 518-482-429k. Leads Bull 2.9-2.5-1.2-1.4. YrAgo #9, 3.7.

Shares up in just 7 of the Top 20 stations. December share movement was +/- 1.8. Boston’s Top 10 entry shares for July/December: 3.2-3.4-3.1-3.1-3.5-3.5. Top 20 entry increased to a tie at 1.5, July/December: 1.5-1.5-1.3-1.3-1.3-1.5. 

TOP 10: Oct/Nov/Dec ‘20 Share/Cume Rank – calls/format/owner/share trends, local color & December 2019 comps.

9/11-11/15-11/12 WXRV-FM Adult Alternative Northeast 3.5-3.3-2.8. Cycle going down. Wide tune list. YrAgo #16, 2.5.

13/19-12/17-12/17 WEEI-FM Sports Entercom 2.8-3.0-2.7. Challenging times. Cume 305-318-287k. YrAgo #7 at a 4.6.

12/10-14/11-12/9 WBGB-FM Adult Hits Entercom 3.1-2.7-2.7. Cume up 378-389k, share stuck. As WODS YrAgo #18, 1.8

19/14-15/13-14/11 WJMN-FM Rhythmic CHR iHeart 1.8-2.3-2.5. Share gains, cume dips 365-349k. Help? YrAgo #17, 2.0.

13/7-12/6-15/7 WWBX-FM Hot A/C Entercom 2.8-3.0-2.4. Format in tight fight. Share slips, cume is #7. YrAgo #10, 3.5.

15/16-15/18-16/19 WBWL-FM Country iHeart 2.2-2.3-2.1. Cume 360-316-280k, WKLB leads 2.5-1.2-1.4. YrAgo #15, 2.6.

18/12-18/14-17/14 WBQT-FM Rhythm A/C Beasley. 2.0-2.0-2.0. Cume 362k. Needs a fix with WBOS. YrAgo #14, 2.9. 16/9-17/10-18/15 WBOS-FM Classic Rock Beasley 2.1-2.1-1.8. Slippin’ into darkness. Cume 397-351k. YrAgo #13, 3.1.

16/13-19/12-19/16 WXLO-FM Hot A/C Cumulus 2.1-1.9-1.6. Cume 365-369-305k share/TSL is dropping. YrAgo #18, 1.8.

21/22-20/21 WCRB-FM Classical WGBH Found 1.3-1.2-1.5. Up but still boring. Cume 187-182-173k. YrAgo #18 at 1.8.

27/24-20/23 WSRS A/C Rock iHeart 0.5-0.4-1.5. Holiday music gain. Cume 131-182k, #1 Worcester 8.0. YrAgo #23, 1.2.

20/20-22/23 WKAF Hot A/C iHeart 1.1-1.3-1.0. Cume 218-201-165k. DOA, was a 3 share. It’s time. YrAgo #21 at 1.3.

21/21-23/22 WGIR-FM Rock iHeart 1.1-1.2-0.9. 183-185-167k cume, #1 at 9.3 in Manchester, NH.

23/23-23/24 WERS-FM Variety Emerson 1.1-1.1-0.9. Cume 148-140-116k.

24/26-25/25 WCTK Country Hall 0.8-0.7-0.8, 113-94-93k Boston cume but #2 in Providence in November at 8.8.

25/25-26/26 WHJY Rock iHeart 0.9-0.8-0.6 Boston cume 114-104-88k and #1 in Providence November 2020 at 12.1. 

25/29-26/27 WXKS-AM Talk iHeart 0.5-0.6-0.5, 50-52-59k cume. iHeart shuffles mostly syndicated talk.

27/30-28/30 WUMB-FM Folk UMass 0.4-0.4-0.4, 42-41-35k cume. 0.4 is the new constant. Many great signals, here.

27/28-29/29 WHEB Rock iHeart 0.3-0.4-0.3. 54k cume in Boston. #1 Portsmouth, NH.

30/27-30/28 WSNE Hot A/C iHeart 0.3-0.3-0.2, 76-80-58k cume in Boston, #7 Providence at 3.8 share.

31/33-30/32 WEEI/FM Stream Sports Entercom 0.1-0.2-0.2. 22-30k cume.

31/32-30/33 WVEI Sports Entercom 0.1-0.2-0.2. Boston cume 26-29k.  Providence #9, 2.6.

33/31-33/31 WWFX Classic Hits Cumulus Worcester. 0.1-0.1-0.1. Boston cume 34-30k

33/33-34/35 WEEI-AM Sports Entercom. 0.0-0.1-0.0. 19.5k cume drops to 8000, in Dec. Wasted 50,000 watts at 850.

34/36 WCOD Hot A/C iHeart. 0.1-0.0-0.0. Cape Cod. Boston 19k-7900k cume.

34/34 WRCA-AM Bloomberg Business Beasley 0.1-0.0-0.0. 5k-8700 cume.

The days are getting longer, the vaccine is being released and here’s another edition of “Home for the Holidays.”

Broadcast Companionship and Trusted Information Remains Essential.

Local Radio proves accessibility, value, reach, frequency & immediate benefits for advertisers.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, SAFETY FIRST AND TO A MUCH BETTER 2021.

CLARK SMIDT, Broadcast Advisor (978) 502-6633  www.Broadcastideas.com [email protected]     

Broadcast Branding, Presentation and Strategic Connections for Radio, TV & Station Tower Value