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Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
I saw the ad below on a Facebook page dedicated to Buffalo Broadcasting. It seems totally idiotic to me, based not only on the signal of the station but also the size of the market. It's a claim that can't possibly be true. And they offer no numbers or sources to back it up..
Yet it was printed in a newspaper as if it was. Can any radio station make any claim it wants without having to prove it? Is that where we are now?
In that case, Pride FM could reasonably claim they're the #1 station in Canada, even though I've never met a single person who's ever listened to them - or even knows they exist!
- paterson1
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
Well looking at the Buffalo Arbitron ratings for July they are the number one oldies station in Buffalo because they are the ONLY oldies station in Buffalo. They come in at #13 overall with a 2.9 share. There is another station WWWS which is something called a rhythmic oldies format with a 1.0 share, and #16 in the market.
A lot of stations don't use the term "oldies" anymore, but opt for classic hits or something similar. Also I noticed that WECK seems to be on three different frequencies, so maybe who knows? They might be referring to a small demographic but you are right, it should be somewhere in the fine print in the ad, and there doesn't look to be any fine print.
I recall being in Detroit in 1976 and CKLW was claiming to be the number one radio station in Detroit on two or three billboards that were along the expressway. I guess cancon couldn't have been hurting them all that much, and I would assume it was valid because if it weren't the lawsuits would have been flying. FM radio was starting to become a serious threat in '76 in many US markets and it wasn't too long after around '77 that CKLW lost the number one position.
- RadioActive
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
Maybe they're #1 in Buffalo as one of the few oldies stations (what about WHTT?) but the biggest oldies station in the U.S.?
That's one even Pinocchio wouldn't tell.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
See there's the thing. WHTT is way ahead in the ratings but they or at least Arbitron classify them as Classic Hits and not oldies. Oldies for whatever reason is not used nearly as much as it was about 10-15 years ago. Maybe programmers felt the term was making the station sound like they were skewing even older than they intended? Or possibly people equate oldies with 50's-60's gold and not so much from 70's and 80's.. Could be that almost all of the stations that still use the "oldies" name are AM. Who knows?
- kevjo
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
paterson1 wrote:
See there's the thing. WHTT is way ahead in the ratings but they or at least Arbitron classify them as Classic Hits and not oldies. Oldies for whatever reason is not used nearly as much as it was about 10-15 years ago. Maybe programmers felt the term was making the station sound like they were skewing even older than they intended? Or possibly people equate oldies with 50's-60's gold and not so much from 70's and 80's.. Could be that almost all of the stations that still use the "oldies" name are AM. Who knows?
Yes, I believe most people tend to associate the term "oldies" with an era prior to the mid-70's which most gold-formatted stations have mostly moved away from. Since most stations are going with "classic hits" while there appears to be only one station in the market branded as oldies they can rightfully call themselves the number one oldies station. It's all about semantics.
On the other hand, some brands are automatically accompanied by such a slogan. Listen to Virgin in any market and they're that city's number one hit music station. The other thing to keep in mind is most listeners are not aware of actual ratings numbers so if a station says they're number one it must be so.
- geo
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
AM-740 gets many calls to its "Face the Music" trivia program (2:00 to 3 p.m. Thurs & Fridays) from the GBA (Greater Buffalo Area)
- paterson1
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
AM 740 Face the Music Trivia program is pretty good. Ben Mercer and Norm Edwards do a great job and have an easy rapport with the callers, they keep it light and fun. I think AM 740 is a great station that is still mostly music oriented and pretty much full service. Even they don't use the term oldies but rather The Best of the Best.
Interesting here in Kitchener/Waterloo, 105.3 Virgin Radio's sell line is KW's New Number One Hit Music Station.
The Beat 91.5 has the sell line #1 Hit Music Station, and they really are, since they have higher numbers and share in KW Central Market. 105.3 has a much stronger signal and larger coverage area but The Beat came out on top last fall full coverage as well. As you say Kevjo, it is semantics since, technically Virgin is the newer of the two stations with the "hit music" format.
- Lee Marshall
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
#1 at 12:30 AM. That's pretty late in the night/early in the morning. But hey!!! If the 'president' lies umpteen 1,000's of times then surely the loyal subjects can chip in with a whopper or 2? 
I mean really!!! Was CKFH really the 2nd greatest radio station in the world? Probably.
- geo
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
they have higher numbers and share in KW Central Market
KW Central Market used to be a butcher shop, opposite KCI
- paterson1
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
Hahaha! Good one geo. Central Market is still there, still a busy place. One of the few independent grocers in town. The owner does a lot of community sponsorships and goodwill. Changed the name to Central Fresh Market about 15 years ago, and still a KW institution.
- darcyh
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
In Kitchener / Waterloo, CKWR used to call themselves " Waterloo Region's # 1 community station" maybe they still do. I think they are the only community station in KW.
- Chrisphen
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
When it comes to muleshit onanism, pour one out for 680 News, the Official station of the Vancouver Olympics.
- kevjo
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
#1 at 12:30 AM. That's pretty late in the night/early in the morning. But hey!!! If the 'president' lies umpteen 1,000's of times then surely the loyal subjects can chip in with a whopper or 2?
I mean really!!! Was CKFH really the 2nd greatest radio station in the world? Probably.
That was one of the cleverest anti-slogan slogans. "We're #2 because everybody else is #1". The BS around rankings has been around a long time but at least CKFH was trying to have some fun with it.
- RadioActive
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Re: Buffalo Radio Station's Ratings Claim Is Beyond Belief
The Buffalo News' Alan Pergament takes up the WECK claim that it's #1 in the U.S.
Scroll down to the second story in this think piece to see how the owner of the station justifies the outrageous claim.
A beef about WECK
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