There’s only on word for the ratings fall suffered by radio station The Buzz in August…argggh!
Five short months ago the local alt rocker was kicking butt and taking names in adults 25 to 54 weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a 7.4 share of listeners. In August – during its bitter falling out with music fest Kanrocksas – it plunged from No. 3 in the marketplace with a 6.1 share to No. 9 with a 3.9 share. Ouch!
It gets worse.
In Men 25-54 in that same period, The Buzz fell from a 6.3 share to 3.9 for 10th place. Its morning drive show dropped from 4th to 15th from a 6.2 share in men 25-54 to to 2.9.
Things could be worse…
Vaunted afternoon drive show the Church of Lazlo slipped
, but only to 6th with a 4.4 share (down from a 6.2 in July).
If defenders of The Buzz had their say, they’d note in listeners 18 to 49, The Buzz only went from 2nd to 6th, from a 6.6 to a 4.6 share.
That said, the station was up in the 8s in that demo not long ago and maintained a strong grip on second and third place over the course of the past 12 months.
How bad is it?
"For one book you don’t get freaked out," says one observer. "You go, ‘Oh, #%@$, but you don’t freak out."
The flip side of that rationalization:
The Buzz has to hope it’s an aberration (as opposed to bad karma for doing Kanrocksas dirty), but in the PPM metered ratings era – unlike the diary days past – dramatic aberrations such as these just don’t happen often.
Stay tuned….
Love the music, hate the talk
The buzz has lost me with all the politics talk. I wish Lazlo would just shut the hell up and play music. He is a douche. I would rather listen to my Ipod that have to hear him and slimfast talk about dumb shit.
I thought the guy at the pulpit – Church of Lazlo – was supposed to do a lot of talking.
That said, you make a good point; politics can make poor bedfellows.
Well to me politics belongs on NPR only and not on music based stations. No matter what the station will come off as being behind some political leader and talk about a possible ratings killer.
I had never seen Homer in the Edvard Munch Painting
Pretty funny.
🙂
My Article
I hope you all enjoyed my article on The Buzz. I was going to write a follow up article on how great Funny 102 is doing but the Rock/ Buzz sales combo has been killing my Fox revenues. I thought this would be a good opportunity to diss them a bit. Besides, Funny 102 has dropped to 19th with adults 25-54 and there’s not that much to write about.