Old Haunts

Checking out old haunts. WUMB was my radio home for an ever so brief moment. Looking at the website....

Nothing much has changed

Looking at the ratings...

Nov 2016    AQH   Share   Daily Cume   Weekly Cume    Cume Rtg      TSL

WUMBFtlr  800        0.2      15,500            49,200                1.1                 1:45

Nothing much has changed

As long as the University supports them they will keep hobbling along. If that support were to fall away, the end would be swift and painful. The audience is just too small to support the station. By comparison, WERS has four times the share and almost four times the cume rating.

There is a critical mass when it comes to fundraising for public radio. The size of the Core Audience is the determining factor and the amount of time they spend with the radio station. Audigraphics made it easy to measure the size of the core, how often they tuned in and the duration of each occasion. Benchmarks for the core were about ten occasions a week with each occasion lasting about an hour. With an Average Quarter Hour Audience of 800 in the Boston Market and the audience turning over 19 times a day (62 times a week) it does not appear that WUMB has the numbers to support itself.

I was hired in 2010 to help turn things around. I didn't get a chance and that was disappointing. The lack of change since then is equally disappointing.  

Marijuana Radio in Denver

Pot-Branded Station Lights Up Denver

Talk about core loyalty!

Smokin' 94.1 is all about the pot smoker's lifestyle

Will this work? Will they be able to build a large enough audience to entice advertisers?

Significant Programming for a Significant Audience

Many successful public radio stations thrive on core loyalty. If you're not sure what that is...There's a publication that was the product of Audience 98 called "Public Service - Public Support." The report is long, but it is worth reading. All of the findings can be distilled into two key concepts.

Public service begets public support. 

Public support focuses public service. 

Successful stations actively pursued significant programming for a significant audience. The public radio audience was further defined as being highly educated and engaged Baby Boomers.  Because the programming appealed to a the values and lifestyle of the targeted audience, those listeners spent more time with the station and became loyal. The growth in listenership was astounding.

Targeted Lifestyle

The new pro pot station in Denver, Smokin' 94.1 promised to be a musical lifestyle format. The music will be classic rock. A similar format idea was part of radio in the late Sixties and early Seventies. These stations featured Album Oriented Rock before the music was codified into a format and corporatized. Many of the stations self identified as being underground and programmed to those who were part of the counter-culture. The stations failed to generate enough advertising to support themselves. There were only so many head-shops, record stores, concert venues and sub sandwich shops in the market.

A quick look at their website revealed nothing about advertisers. A good match might be donut shops, salty snacks and places that can satisfy the munchies.

They're playing hits, but other musical choices might include Quicksilver Messenger Service's, Fresh Air and Bob Marley's Kaya.