Emmis Communications' decision to switch its news/talk station, WIBC, from AM 1070 to FM 93.1 pays off big. The latest Aribtron ratings puts the station up five positions in Indianapolis' 25 station market from 8th to 3rd place. The station's audience share jumped from 3.9 to 7.1. Cumulus' WFMS-FM with a country format placed first in this market with a 10.3 audience share. Clear Channel's WFBQ-FM and its classic rock format garnered second place with a 7.5 audience share. WIBC's nearest news/talk competitor in the Indianapolis market is Entercom's WXNT-AM. It finished 18th with just a 1.3 audience share. WTLC-AM lost 5 positions from a year ago, falling from 15th to 19th with a 1.2 audience share. Indianapolis' 25 station market is ranked 40th in the nation.
Hat tip to Indiana Daily Insight.
I was down in Indy for a deposition, my normal NPR station was doing the fund raising thing, and so I found my self listening to WIBC. I was pleasantly surprised. The shows I listened to were pretty good.
ReplyDeleteCertainly I liked it better than whatever that afternoon drive-time talk show they had before: content-free with lots of pauses for self-congratulatory laughter.
Long-term, I guess I'm not terribly happy about WIBC changing to all-sports; but I'm not sure how well founded my disapproval is; and short-term (i.e. yesterday), I liked the change.
Agreed, Doug. Their morning line-up just completely blows away the competition. It's hard to figure out why an advertiser would even waste any money advertising on stations like WXNT and some of the other cellar dwellers given the tiny audience share they receive.
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