Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2007 > October > 24
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
10/25: Satellite radio listening stats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are a lot of satellite radio fans who post on this blog. So this is for you!
For the first time, Arbitron has released national ratings for Sirius and XM satellite radio and its individual channels.
In the spring, Sirius drew an estimated 6,595,000 listeners in a given week while XM had 10,332,900. That reflects XM’s larger subscriber base though it’s a bigger gap than I would have anticipated.
Not surprisingly, Howard Stern is the king of all satellite radio, bringing in 1,225,100 listeners a week. That’s a small fraction of the 10 million-plus listeners he commanded on free FM radio back in the day. But it’s still an impressive figure given the modest size of the Sirius audience.
Here are the top 10 non-music stations for Sirius in terms of cume with average no. of listeners at a given moment in parentheticals
1- Howard 100 (the primary Stern channel) 1.225 million (96,700)
2- Howard 101 (Bubba, Scott Ferrall, west coast Howard feed) 502,000 (30,700)
3- Blue Collar Comedy (Foxworthy, Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, et. al) 311,200 (6,400) Notably, that’s by far the most popular of the four comedy channels on Sirius
4- Sirius NASCAR 177,600 (8,600)
5- ESPN Radio 147,100 (5,300)
- Fox News 133,300 (4,000) Yes, Fox beats CNN even on the radio! 7. Sirius NFL Radio 112,100 (4,300) 8. CNN 84,200 (2,100) 9. Sirius Left 59,100 (3,000) 10. Sirius Patriot (conservative talk) 46,800 (1,700)
NPR’s two stations only cumed 82,600 total nationwide, not even a quarter of what WABE-FM draws locally. Playboy Channel gets 1,400 listeners at any one time with a total of 51,200 a week.
The top 10 XM non-music stations
1- Fox News 485,400 (15,500)
2- XM Comedy 422,200 (9,300)
3- ESPN Radio 262,600 (9,100)
4- The Virus (Opie & Anthony) 216,800 (20,800)
5- CNN 211,800 (5,200)
6- Laugh USA 174,700 (3,000) 7. Radio Classics 155,700 (5,800) 8. Talk Radio (Glenn Beck, Dave Ramsey, et al) 154,800 (8,700) 9. America Right 132,400 (5,000) 10. Oprah & Friends 115,800 (3,200). Air America comes in at No. 11 at 109,600 with 7,200 listeners at any one time.
The top 10 music stations on Sirius based on avg. listeners at any particular moment (total week listeners in parentheticals) Sorry, I changed the rankings in midstream but this seems to make more sense than ranking by cume and I didn’t feel like starting all over again above.
1- New Country 20,400 (455,900)
2- Sirius Hits (top 40) 17,700 (653,200)
3- Octane (active rock) 17,600 (357,600) This station, which is kind of like Project 9-6-1, does far better than Alt Nation, the alternative rock station.
4- The Pulse (pop music, 90s and today) 14,300 (405,000)
5- Big 80s 12,300 (450,000) I love this station! 6. Sirius Gold (40s, 50s and early 60s) 12,100 (295,800) 7. Hair Nation (80s hair metal) 12,000 (337,700) Wow! Ratt lives on! 8. 60s Vibrations 10,700 (322,100) 9. Classic Vinyl (60s/70s rock) 10,400 (325,400) 10. The Roadhouse (classic country) 10,000 (239,800)
’70s was the least popular decade channel (8,600). The Elvis Channel (4,600) did only slightly worse than 80s alternative First Wave (4,200), one of my personal favs.
The top 10 music stations on XM
1- The Blend (soft rock) 27,100 (548,000)
2- Flight 26 (modern adult hits) 25,100 (713,700)
3- Willie’s Place (traditional country) 24,900 (437,000)
4- Top Tracks (early classic rock) 22,900 (607,900)
5- Top 20 at 20 (top 40) 21,800 (1,055,300)
6- The 60s on 6 21,700 (619,600) 7- Watercolors (smooth jazz) 19,500 (364,400) 8- The Heart (love songs/soft pop) 19,100 (489,200) 9- HIghway 16 (new country) 18,600 (554,100) 10- Escape (beautiful music) 18,000 (268,600)
The 90s channel (6400) was by far the weakest decades channel. 90s alternative Lucy (11,300) beat new alternative Ethel (5,900) and classic alternative Fred (3,600). XM seems to skew a bit older than Sirius based on the lister base. I mean, beautiful music in the top 10????
For more stats, check this out. Tom Taylor of radio-info.com first posted this info.
I’ve been unable to extract local figures from Arbitron or the respective satellite companies, but if you extrapolate 1.5 percent of listening to Atlanta (based on our population vs. the entire U.S.), those numbers get mighty small. Atlanta, under this estimation, has about 250,000 satellite radio subscribers. That’s about how many people listen to 99X or WGST-AM in a typical week and would rank satellite radio at No. 20 overall in listening if you aggregate all 200-plus stations. And given that Stern wasn’t ever in Atlanta, the percentage of those 1.2 million listeners from here is probably fewer than 18,000 listeners while a station such as XM’s the Blend draws maybe 8,400 listeners from Atlanta.
10/24: 99X’s 15th anniversary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Exactly 15 years ago on October 24, 1992, top 40 station Power 99 became 99X. Leslie Fram and Sean Demery were on air back then helping with the transition. And amazingly, they’re still on air.
Five years ago, the station held a low-key 10th year anniversary celebration. Mid-day jock Steve Craig played songs during the now defunct Retroplex from the original 1992 playlist and the Morning X team of Steve, Leslie & Jimmy reminisced. This time around, there will be no acknowledgment of this milestone on the air at all, according to Fram, the program director who has been at the station since its inception.
That’s just as well. With 285,000 listeners a week over the summer, 99X brings in about half the ratings from its peak and “time spent listening” ranks just 28th, among the worst in town. It lags way behind Project 9-6-1, an active rock station with 18 to 34 year olds. And for all listeners, it’s fourth among four rock stations behind Project, the River and Dave FM. Bottom line: the alternative rock format is not nearly as popular as it used to be and the station has struggled to adjust to the competition and crummy circumstances. (Revenue hasn’t dropped off as quickly as ratings but the trendline can’t be good for the sales folks.)
This isn’t to say 99X’s first decade wasn’t notable. It was. Back in the fall of 1992, management saw top 40 going through serious Color Me Badd-level doldrums and the Nirvana-driven grunge era was capturing the imaginations of Gen X. So they dropped Power 99 and created 99X.
The station gradually built buzz around town. By 1994, it had became a true phenomenon, eventually becoming one of the most revered and popular alternative rock stations in the country. Leslie Fram was canonized as a brilliant programmer and a “voice of reason” on 99X’s buzz-worthy Morning X morning show. The station possessed a fine lineup of great jocks and a lock on the hot music of the era.
When Chris Williams was program director in the early 2000 period, he was the mastermind behind making the station edgier to appeal to a younger male audience, incorporating more Korn-like music (which was becoming more popular at the time) and moving Fred Toucher to co-helm the morning show. Females fled, many to sister station Q100. Plenty of younger males opted for hip-hop. After Williams was let go, the station around 2004 veered to a middle ground, eventually calling itself “Everything Alternative.” It couldn’t quite let go of its heritage but still wanted to draw younger listeners.
Unfortunately, this path hasn’t worked well as former fans continued to go elsewhere. The station changed ownership last year and has attempted to tap its past glory of the 1990s by bringing back Sean Demery and creating the “New Morning X.”. So far, the show has not gained much traction. It ranked 20th among 25-54, 14th among 18 to 34 year olds and 20th overall.
If you want to hear part of the 1992 transition, here’s an audio clip available online.. Among the acts on air at the time were Toad the Wet Sprocket, Depeche Mode, U2, Love & Rockets, INXS, Nirvana and the Cure. Unfortunately, this doesn’t include the six-hour talk show that preceded the actual change that morning.
How do you feel about the station as it enters its 16th year?
