WJET-AM up in the Fall 2011 ratings

Fall 2011 radio ratings released Tuesday show a diversification of listeners among Erie stations, with all but one of the subscribing Connoisseur Media stations losing shares.

Arbitron, the media measurement company, made only Connoisseur’s 12+ shares public today, as the other local stations do not subscribe to the service.

What we do know is that FM standard bearers WRTS (Star 104), WXBB (Bob FM), and WRKT (Rocket 101) all experienced their lowest shares in four books, with only WJET-AM recovering from a spring ratings dip. The final station in the cluster WFNN did not show once again.

Although it’s difficult to analyze trends when you are looking at less than half of the listening, it is easy to gather that beyond the trend to listen to sources off the dial, there are now more choices on the dial that are competing for time spent listening. Add to it the nearly non-existent promotional and advertising budgets, and your product will lose market share.

As we get more information on the lay of the land in radio, we will share in an appropriate manner.

You can see the rankers at AllAccess.com (registration required).

This huge move comes in the middle of a timeline of major changes to the landscape of the FM dial that began in late 2011 with the move-in of Family Life Network’s WCGM, with a Class A signal on 102.7 that moved from Clarendon to Wattsburg. They continue into the new year with the launch of First Channel Communications 92.7/Lawrence Park sometime in 2012. Finally, Family Life has a CP for Gannon WERG’s old 89.9 frequency, now permitted for Cambridge Springs, with a tower location in Edinboro.

Of course, with all but one of these new frequencies is the strong certainty of format. Rocket will be classic rock, and FLN will continue its light contemporary Christian and talk format. What we are  uncertain on but have a good hunch is the format for the 92.7 station. The lead format horse in that derby is a direct CHR/Top 40 competitor to Star 104.

We’ll keep listening for details on all these upcoming changes to a radio near you.

First, when is it?
The first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will take place on November 9, 2011 at 2 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time).

What’s it for?

From the FCC:

The purpose of the test is to assess the reliability and effectiveness of the EAS as a public alert mechanism. EAS Participants currently participate in state-level monthly tests and local-level weekly tests, but no top-down review of the entire system has ever been undertaken. The Commission, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will use the results of this nationwide test to assess the reliability and effectiveness of the EAS as a public alert mechanism, and will work together with EAS stakeholders to make improvements to the system as appropriate.

According to the NAB, the EAS system has never been tested on a national scale before, and officials want to make a go of it, see what works, what doesn’t, and create a baseline from where they can make improvements.

What else can you tell me?

The test will be conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The test will start at approximately 2 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) and will last approximately 60 seconds.

Then it’s back to Dr. Oz, the soaps, your Law and Order reruns, or your favorite 200 song playlist station.

Links:

• FCC: Emergency Alert System Nationwide Test
• National Alliance of State Broadcasters Association: NASBA Emergency Alert System
• FEMA: Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System

Joe Jonas with Ryan Seacrest

Seacrest will focus on all aspects of the entertainment industry, highlighting and interviewing top talent from the worlds of music, film and television.  In addition, listeners can visit www.RyanSeacrest.com to interact and connect with the show and get their daily entertainment and lifestyle news.  The site also features photos, videos and social networking.

Operations Manager for Connoisseur Media, Joe Lang said, “Star is committed to playing the best music everyday with the most recognizable personalities and there’s no bigger name than Ryan Seacrest to deliver all the pop culture news to Star 104.  He has his finger on the pulse of the music industry and will bring that insider information to Erie every weekday from 10 till 2.”

ABOUT RYAN SEACREST

With his thriving broadcasting career and multiple ventures, Ryan Seacrest is at the forefront of the media and entertainment industry. While hosting and producing multiple television and radio programs, building his Ryan Seacrest Productions banner (RSP) into a leading television production company, and managing myriad brand ventures, Seacrest is redefining what it means to be a successful Hollywood entrepreneur. Seacrest holds preeminent positions in broadcast television, nationally syndicated radio, local radio and cable as both a producer and on-air host. He is celebrated internationally as host of the top-rated primetime talent showcase “American Idol,” and hosts and produces E! News and its red carpet awards show coverage. He also executive produces and co-hosts “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” Seacrest has been nominated for an Emmy® award in the “Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program” category for his work on “American Idol,” and has also hosted the live network broadcast of the Emmy® awards show. On radio, Seacrest is host of On Air with Ryan Seacrest, his market-topping #1 nationally syndicated LA morning drive-time radio show for Clear Channel’s 102.7 KIIS-FM, as well as the nationally-syndicated American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest and On Air with Ryan Seacrest.

RSP recently produced the ABC hit show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” and also produces the highest-rated show on the E!, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” as well as “Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami,” which debuted on E! in 2009. Seacrest’s ever growing brand spans beyond media with his many entrepreneurial endeavors. He has extensive deals with brand heavyweights Proctor & Gamble, Coke and Microsoft, and recently announced a strategic marketing and technology alliance with Eventful, Inc.

Originally from Atlanta, GA, Seacrest’s professional career in broadcasting began at the age of 16 when he applied for an internship at one of Atlanta’s top radio stations, WSTR-STAR 94. While working at STAR 94 he finished high school and went on to attend the University of Georgia where he majored in Journalism. Seacrest currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Although many will mourn the loss of another airshift that could be local to syndicated content, I think it’s a good move for Star strategically to lock-up Ryan Seacrest now before the Lawrence Park station signs on. It’s a quality show that airs everywhere and beats voice-tracking middays. It also reflects Connoissour’s willingness to invest in the product on their cash cow, since the Seacrest show is not a cheap date.

Given American Idol’s numbers here and nationwide, Erie will love Ryan Seacrest on the radio.

Is AM radio dead in Erie?

The Spring 2011 radio Arbitron ratings came out Thursday and WRTS (Star 104) is number one, with almost 80% more total average audience than number two WXKC (Classy 100). Shocking? No, not really.

Where I find the real shock in the fact that even though Erie is surrounded by high-billing and highly-rated AM news and talk stations in the markets in a 120 mile radius, not one AM station this book was even able to string together two shares of total audience. The once-proud roster of AM radio stations in Erie has been relegated to the cellar of the semi-annual rankings.

Don’t get me wrong; I know that the few personnel that are actually behind these stations work hard to get a product on the air. But years of neglect on the billing and promotions sides of the ledger leaves potential listeners without the knowledge about or reasons to listen to those stations.

There is only one additional interesting news item in the Spring 12+ rankers available at AllAccess.com (registration required): another strong showing by WTWF (93.9 The Wolf) have reconfirmed the station as a clear winner in the Country format battle with WXTA/Country 98, with their biggest lead to date.

The Spring book is yet another indicator that the new First Channel/Lawrence Park station would be hard-pressed not to program a direct-assault on WRTS’s Top 40 format. For even if the new 92.7 got just one-third of Star’s 12+ share, that would still put them in 7th place.

It might take the Spring 2012 numbers to really make the radio ratings book interesting reading.

Craig Warvel and Frank Martin - courtesy of Chris Tarbell's JET website

One of the longest and most successful teams in Erie broadcasting history was Frank Martin and Craig Warvel, who were consistently top-rated in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The partnership began on WJET-AM in 1981 and would continue through the jump to FM and the top of the ratings heap in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They finally split upon the purchase of JET and Froggy by NextMedia and Frank went on to finish his career playing the great songs of his AM days on Froggy and Warvel became solidly ensconced as the undisputed morning drive leader on Star 104. Martin and Warvel were as familiar to the families of the 80’s and 90’s and Frank as a JET Good Guy was to the generation of the 60’s and 70’s.

We are grateful that Craig Warvel shared his thoughts and memories about working with Frank Martin, who passed away on Monday at the age of 85 here on Press and Tower.

Warvel began working with Frank as the morning news anchor in 1981, when he was hired out of his hometown of Corning, NY. Frank was already a nearly thirty-year fixture on the station, and used to flying solo. He said, “I’m sure it took some getting used to working as a team, but as time passed he enjoyed having a young, crazy person to do some of the stunts that he used to have to do.”

“I guess I was fortunate to work with somebody who was there at the beginning of Top 40 radio.” Martin worked through all of the various changes in technology through the years. When he started, they had reel-to-reel wires along with their turntables and transcriptions. Then came tape and carts and CD’s and finally, digital. “Frank acclimated himself through all of that. I figured that if Frank can adjust, then I can too,” said Warvel.

Frank Martin, WLEU 1948 - courtesy of Chris Tarbell's JET website

Craig shared with us that Frank got his start at a real professional broadcasting school, and in the early 50’s was working for WLEU/1450, which was a union shop (they actually had those back then!). They went on strike, and Frank looking to provide for his family went to work for Myron Jones at JET in 1953.

Warvel explained that Martin’s greatest strength was his consistency; he never got too “hot or cold”, he was just a very pleasant man. “Frank was very private man, for the most part kept to himself. But together we shared that world of the studio for many years.”

Craig remembered, “The funniest memory that is indelible in my brain is when the American Gladiators TV show, which had been created in Erie, had a road show which came to the Tullio Arena. So there are the Gladiators and these really huge muscular men and women. And then there’s me and Frank, who were to compete in the joust at the beginning of the show. We climb up on the pedestals with our pads and helmets on and start lightly poking at each other with our jousting sticks. The crowd was getting bored and started booing, ready for us to leave. I gave Frank a little poke just a bit hard, then he blasted me. So then I hit him hard back and knocked him off of the pedestal. I can just see him falling backwards onto the mats with his arms flailing! For a few weeks after that, he was complaining about back pain, saying he had it since the jousting incident. I encouraged him to get it checked out, and it turned out that he needed multiple bypass heart surgery. I guess heart pain can mimic back pain, so for a long time we joked that I saved his life by knocking him off that platform jousting!”

Along with that consistency Craig noted that Frank never changed, he really didn’t look different at retirement than through the years, he was “always plugging away.”

As to Frank’s medical issues, Warvel had no indication he was sick. “His passing really comes as a shock. My heart goes out to Frank’s sweetheart of a wife. His home and family were the most important things to him…Frank lived for his wife.”

And our condolences go out to Craig and all who worked with and were friends with a very private man who yet was a companion to thousands of Erieites everyday, and especially to his beloved family.

Editor’s note: much appreciation to the late Chris Tarbell and his WJET history webpage, from where the photos originated.

Craig Warvel and Frank Martin celebrating WJET's 42nd anniversary of broadcasting (courtesy Chris Tarbell's JET website)

Messages of sympathy and support are streaming in from across the country at the news that the most well-known personality in eighty years of Erie radio history, Frank Martin died Monday of lung cancer at the age of 85.

Martin was such a fixture on AM drive radio in Erie that Mayor Lou Tullio gave him the title of “Morning Mayor” and it stuck for decades on end. He is best known as handing wake up duties on WJET 1400, where legend has it that at one point in the 1960′s, over 60% of all radios turned on in the morning were tuned to Frank Martin. He made the transition to FM in the mid-1980′s and eventually went back to playing hits from his hey day on oldies Froggy 94.7.

Frank Martin retired on July 4th, 2003 leaving his mark in the memories of countless Erie radio listeners and everyone in the broadcast community for the past 50 years. Recording of his broadcasts reside in The Paley Center for Media in New York City.

I had the privilege of working with him at WJET-AM in 1983-84, I don’t think I ever shook that star-struck composure as the legend I knew from childhood took over the “air chair” from my little occasional overnight shift. He was a total professional whose audience was top priority.

I’m sure many more folks will weigh in on condolences and memories. Meanwhile we exclaim gratitude for our friend on the other side of the radio, the Morning Mayor Frank Martin.