This from a recent teevee industry newsletter:
COMPETITIVE INFO: Inside Radio is reporting that many radio listeners have aged beyond the popular A/25-54 demo. In fact, more than half (57%) of the news/talk/information format’s audience is aged 55 or older, according to Arbitron’s 2010 edition of Radio Today, which is based on the fall 2009 diary and October- November-December PPM survey periods. About one-third of AC (34%) and country (33%) listeners are in the same boat. According to Radio Today, 14 of the 16 leading formats experienced an increase in the composition of their audience aged 45+ between fall ’08 and fall ’09. Meanwhile, the teen proportion of nearly all of the formats favoring younger audiences decreased notably in one year. [emphases ours]
(H/T: BR)
KOPB in Portland gets a 6-7 share but KUOW is half that in Seattle. Better programs?
PORTLAND RADIO LISTENERSHIP
Top market share, ages 6 and up*
Nov. 12 to Dec. 9
1.) K103 (soft rock, 103.3) 11.9%
2.) KOPB (public radio news, 91.5) 6.3%
3.) KLTH (oldies, 106.7) 5.9%
4.) Z100 (Top 40, 100.3)) 5.0%
5.) KGON (classic rock, 92.3) 5.0%
Posted by: Coiler | February 15, 2011 at 08:25 PM
I prefer KOPB..the shows are not as esoteric and there is a wider variety.They actually play classical music sometimes, too.
Posted by: sparky | February 15, 2011 at 08:47 PM
Ages SIX and up? Doesn't that seem a little young?
Also, there are several hate talkers down there. How are their stations doing? Are they still there? Not in the top five?
Portland is a much smaller city Is it possible to compare it to Seattle?
Not arguing but curious.
Posted by: joanie | February 15, 2011 at 09:19 PM
Portland is not much smaller than Seattle - such an ignorant statement ! (Populations - Portland 550K, Seattle 600K & Seattle Metro 2.5K , Portland Metro 2.0K)
There are hate talkers on the left down there just like up here. There is Michael Savage and Neal Boortz who are called hate talkers by the right - because they make the left look bad. :(
Posted by: KS | February 15, 2011 at 10:11 PM
correction - There is Michael Savage and Neal Boortz who are called hate talkers by the left because they make the left look bad and uncover the truth that the State-run media does not want to report.
Posted by: KS | February 15, 2011 at 10:13 PM
Think before you post, you'll avoid having to correct so much.
Interesting population numbers: Portland and Seattle are very close yet statewide WA has well over 6 million while Oregon has well over 3 million. The land mass is about the same. Where are all the people?
Posted by: joanie | February 15, 2011 at 10:48 PM
Maybe Justin Bieber will get a national talk radio show and save the industry.
I had to look up the spelling of his name.
Really... It's true. I'm old.
Posted by: Rat_Bastard | February 16, 2011 at 08:31 AM
Looks like you got what you've wanted. Frank Shier is gone from weeknights, replaced by Jon Curley who debuts tonight
Posted by: JimF | February 16, 2011 at 09:28 AM
BREAKING:
According to the KIRO website (www.mynw.com):
The John Curley Show premieres tonight at 7pm.
RIP: Frank Shiers 2002-2011
Posted by: Dick | February 16, 2011 at 09:30 AM
A step in the right direction.
Posted by: AprilMayJune | February 16, 2011 at 09:32 AM
Beat you by 2 minutes.
Posted by: JimF | February 16, 2011 at 09:33 AM
Don't think Shiers even had a chance to say good bye to listeners... (yeah, I know..."what listeners?")
Posted by: JimF | February 16, 2011 at 09:35 AM
I would have to think this is a major step down for Curley....
Rick kid from East Coast lands the Evening News Gig...get fired....out of work for a couple of years...runs for Sammamish Council...becomes underwater on his $2.2M house...fills in for $300 per show at KIRO....lands the night show for $500 per show contract.
Talk about a career in reverse. Then again the economy does suck.
Posted by: Dick | February 16, 2011 at 09:43 AM
Frank Shiers was absolutely insufferable, pious boor and lout who thought that "disrespected" was not a word and stated so on the air. An embarrassment to major market radio. You always got a sense with Shiers that here was a guy who somehow escaped from his rightful place in small city radio (Brmerton or Yakima would be appropriate) and had pulled a fast one on a major market management team. Good riddance to you Frank.
Posted by: Tommy008 | February 16, 2011 at 09:58 AM
I could never listen to Frank in any way, shape or form...
But he did seem a decent guy who just wanted to host a show so badly, it was hard to get past his desperation.
The best thing about this for us Dori fans who never listened to Frank's show is that hopefully, we will never have to hear Frank filling in for Dori.
Curley is a big improvement, though I don't think I'll be listening to him much either as long as John Gibson stays on KTTH evenings.
Posted by: Rat_Bastard | February 16, 2011 at 10:16 AM
i remember the time i tricked frank into exposing himself as a stone blatherwatch junkie while protesting , like Monson, that he never looked at us. I sent an email on the his kiro show email service to him reaming about some sort of ignorance he had just shown. i used another handle than Tommy008. Then i posted here under Tommy008 how id just flamed Frank on his KIRO EMAILER. WITHIN MINUTES Frank shouted that he knew it was Tommy008 from Blatherwatch who had just emailed him under an assumed name.
Posted by: Tommy008 | February 16, 2011 at 10:31 AM
Frank Shiers
$500 per show X 5 days a week=$2,500 per week.
If he gets paid vacation that's 52 weeks X $2,500= $130,000 per year.
As a lowly community newspaper editor, that sounds pretty good to me.
Posted by: Erictheeditor | February 16, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Regarding the original post, there's a much simpler explanation for KOPB's higher numbers: there's no other station in Portland splitting its Morning Edition and ATC drive time numbers, whereas KUOW has KPLU running the same shows.
On another comment, WA has a much larger population than OR because most of OR's population is concentrated in the Willamette Valley, and Bend is the only city of any size east of the Cascades. WA has a half-million people each in Clark County (Vancouver) and Spokane County, plus Tri-Cities and Yakima, that OR has no equivalent for. (Not that Seattleites would ever acknowledge those cities...) Most of eastern OR is quite beautiful but unarable and unpopulated mountains or desert.
Posted by: Pete | February 16, 2011 at 12:31 PM
I don't know where y'all get these "per show" figures, but that's not the way it works. On-air talent sign yearly contracts, and believe me, there's no way Frank Shiers was in 6 figures. Maybe $75,000--and that's a high estimate.
Posted by: Radio Queen | February 16, 2011 at 04:19 PM
Thanks, Radio Queen for enlightening me. $75,000 sounds good to me, too.
Not as good as $130,000, of course.
It would be interesting to see a post on how much Seattle on-air talent makes and how much they used to make.
Posted by: Erictheeditor | February 16, 2011 at 05:25 PM
How do we know John Curley is underwater on a 2.2m house?
I feel a little bad for Shiers, because I think towards the end he was trying to be more agreeable, take more from Ron and Don and less from Dori. He would banter with that crackly voiced board op and try to relate to the "kids", would screech less about "Obamacare" and such. Unforunately, John Curley is a more natural fit for that kind of radio. And that's ultiamtely the thing about Shiers, he's OK at everything, great at nothing.
Someone else said it right, he'd have far more success in a small town where "OK" has a tendency to look like "anmazing". I bet they'd give him the keys to the city in Pe Ell or Lacrosse.
Posted by: Andrew | February 16, 2011 at 08:52 PM
I'm sorry people, but no one can argue that JOHN CURLEY is a great replacement for Frank Shiers. I have never understood how it was Curley was employed in broadcasting at all. He is extremely annoying to watch and listen to... guess that "auction" biz wasn't working out too good for JC was it?
Posted by: dot | February 16, 2011 at 09:05 PM
I listened to the show at 7:35 pm tonight and I could not tell which one of the persons speaking was Curley. They were discussing teachers pay, etc and there was 1) no attempt to explain who was the other voice on the radio (producer? co-host?), 2) no attempt to explain who was who, 3) and it was quite obvious that they had no calls to take because they kept talking to each other over and over.
Curley was good for TV, I suppose. But radio is a totally different beast. I just don't know if Curley is a person to ask tough questions to news makers. You have to give callers a reason to call the show and---yes, I admit, it's only the first night--I am not hearing any reason why I should listen to this guy for more than 30 seconds.
Posted by: JimF | February 16, 2011 at 09:22 PM
John Curley replaced Dave Ross for a while with Nicole Brodeur. Sorry, he was hopeless. Petty, whiny, unbearable to listen to. And he was domineering.
I won't even give him a try. I bet Shiers outshines Curley. Remember, you heard it here first I agree that Shiers would do okay in a smaller more right-leaning town; Curley wouldn't make it anywhere.
Posted by: joanie | February 16, 2011 at 09:41 PM
I think everyone here who hates Curley also hates Ron and Don even though they get great ratings. I'll make ya a deal: Ron, Don and Curley all get fired on the same day.
Posted by: VoiceOfReeaaaasson | February 17, 2011 at 12:14 AM