After a decade of dominance in New York ratings and then dropping out of the top spot in the summer, Lite went from flickering to bright in the latest fall Arbitron. WLTW is back on top with an overall 5.5 share of the market with Spanish formatted WSKQ almost a full share behind with a 4.6. Why the turn-around? That's easy. Before your Thanksgiving turkey was digested, a steady menu of Christmas music was launched on Lite, a proven formula every year for WLTW. Program Director Jim Ryan also told David Hinckley that in order to get an edge in Arbitron's new Personal People Meter (PPM) methodology, he intensified his music testing, "with so many stations overlapping on songs, there's always a danger of burnout. We wanted to avoid that." Uninterrupted music sets have an advantage when PPM is employed...
The two stations that were a factor in the decline of WLTW in the summer (WWFS Fresh and WCBS-FM which went back to oldies) were flat in the fall. Overall numbers had WCBS-FM with a 3.7 and Fresh with a 2.7. Now the trick for Lite is to stay on top without Christmas music but knowing why they slipped is invaluable knowledge. It was from burnout, a term I remember from the music testing we did back at WNBC in the mid-70s...
Don Imus wasn't on long enough to be a factor during this ratings period but the number he'll have to beat is 3.3 which is what Kuby & Curtis had in tying for 8th place in morning drive...
10 Timeline Memories:
- 1894] Pass the Kleenex: William Kennedy Laurie Dickson copyrights the first motion picture. The movie, filmed in February, 1893 at the Edison Studios in West Orange (NJ) features 47 images of a man sneezing. Strangely enough, no Oscar nominations were handed out...
- 1903] SOLD to the highest bidder: New York businessman Frank Farrell and Bill Devery buy the Baltimore Orioles franchise of the American League for $18,000 and move the team to upper Manhattan where the team finishes 4th as the Highlanders. In 1913 the team is renamed the Yankees...
- 1922] Birth of a station: KQV Pittsburgh is licensed and launched and I am proud to be one of the former program directors of the legendary station 51 years later...
- 1929] The eyes have it: The Seeing Eye is incorporated in Nashville (TN). The company's purpose is to train dogs to guide the sightless...
- 1937] Premiered on this date: LOOK Magazine. Within a month, LOOK becomes a bi-weekly until 1971. There have been attempts to resurrect the famous magazine but to no avail...1956] Abigail Van Buren's 'Dear Abby' first appears in newspapers...1959] "Rawhide" starring Clint Eastwood joins about 30 westerns during the '59-'60 TV season and here is Frankie Laine's great song that opened each show: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5SFnvLC83ew ...
- 1958] 'O' my: Future NBA Hall of Famer, Oscar Robertson drops 56 as Cincinnati beats Seton Hall 118-54...
- 1972] Bogus book: Billionaire and Bahama resident recluse Howard Hughes, says a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving is fake and also discloses that Clifford Irving is not even his real name...
- 1972] One big floating grill: The Queen Elizabeth ocean liner is destroyed by fire in Hong Kong Harbor as seen in this one-minute biopic of the great QE1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rxfjilzdb_g&feature=related ...
- 1989] Going to Hall: Carl Yastrzemski and Johnny Bench are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Once again voters have denied Jim Rice entrance. I hope he gets in next year...
- 2003] 'Happy Trails': Boston Globe sportswriter Will McDonough dies of a heart attack at 67...
Music Memories:
- 1979] The gift that keeps on giving: The benefit concert, 'A Gift Of Song' is held at the U.N. starring Olivia Newton-John, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, ABBA and Earth, Wind & Fire and here's a clip of all of them in action: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aXYmcnqbPgg&feature=related ...
Commentary:
From Paul Power: "George Denham from the 'Ed & George Show' on WATD-FM in Marshfield (MA) has been off the air since September and is quite ill in a local hospice. His on-air partner Ed has issued a plea for anyone who knows George to send cards or letters to the station so he can deliver them to Ed. The address is: WATD-FM, c/o George Denham, 130 Enterprise Drive, Marshfield, MA 02050." Thanks for the note Paul...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Dave Matthews (41), Joely Richardson (43), Crystal Gayle (57) and as some listeners at CBS-FM used to call it - "Donuts Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (http://youtube.com/watch?v=F5JNtxeJLQ4 , David Johansen a.k.a. Buster Poindexter (58) hey, when you're hot, you're hot, hot, hot: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sCPntCBMxic&feature=related , Jimmy Page (64), Susannah York (67), Joan Baez (67), Jimmy Boyd (69), Dick Enberg (73), Bart Starr (74) and Judith Krantz (80)...
Timeline Countdown: 3 Days until the NFL Divisional Playoffs, 11 days until the Conference championships, 16 down and 3 to go for the Patriots, 25 days until the Super Bowl and 36 days until pitchers and catchers report voluntarily...
