New York listeners don't go for Jack

Jack is in freefall.

WCBS-FM (101.1 FM), which flipped from oldies to the multi-era hits format called Jack in early June, saw its ratings drop 50 percent with listeners 12 and older in the Arbitron summer ratings book, which was released yesterday.

The Infinity-owned station had posted a 3 share with listeners 12 and older in the spring book, which only included two weeks of Jack programming. The summer rating is a 1.5.

"I don't think the Infinity folks understand the medium in which they are working," says Robert Unmacht, a media consultant and founder of iN3 Partners in Nashville who used to live in New York. "There's no human connection with people. If (former WCBS jock) Cousin Brucie showed up at a store, people would go out to the store to see him because he made that connection. Jack isn't capable of doing that."

Jack doesn't have on-air personalities, and does not provide news, traffic or weather reports.

Infinity executives have said they have no fixed ratings goal for the station, which may help them explain the precipitous drop. With listeners 25 to 54, Jack dropped from a 3.1 share in the spring to a 1.9.

Each share point represents a percentage of radios in use of the 15.3 million available listeners in the New York metro area, which includes Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties. Ratings can be affected by where diaries are distributed and who chooses to respond.

In the 6 to 10 a.m. weekday period, Howard Stern's long farewell to terrestrial radio on WXRK (92.3 FM) was tied for the lead with Infinity sister station WINS (1010 AM) for listeners 12 and older. Each station posted a 6.8 share.

The summer ratings period ended Sept. 21, which would include coverage of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and ensuing events. In short, bad news is good news for an all-news radio station.

Stern, who moves to Sirius satellite radio in January, also won the morning race with listeners 18 to 34 with a 10.7 share. However, right behind him was Clear Channel-owned WHTZ (100.3, Z100) with a 10.6 share for Elvis Duran and the Morning Zoo.

In the overall ratings, WLTW (106.7 FM) was tops with listeners 12 and older. The Clear Channel-owned Adult Contemporary outlet posted a 5.8 share, with Emmis-owned urban AC station WRKS (98.7 FM) close behind with a 5.5 rating.

In the ongoing tussle between Emmis urban format WQHT (97.1 FM, Hot 97) and Clear Channel WWPR (105.1 FM, Power 105), Power 105 was third with listeners 12 and older with a 4.6 share, while Hot 97 was fourth in that list with a 4.5. But Hot 97 led listeners 18-34 with a 9.8 share to Power 105's 9.6.

This tilt is worth keeping an eye on, especially with the recent exit of Power 105 program director Michael Saunders amid payola allegations.

Emmis also had more good news in this book. WRKS was the top station with listeners 25 to 54, posting a 6.4 share to WLTW's 6.2. This is due in part to the dominance in the 3 to 7 p.m. slot of syndicated host Michael Baisden's "Love Lust and Lies," which posted a 7.4 share.

Emmis smooth jazz outlet WQCD (101.9 FM) posted a 3 share with listeners 12 and older after some format tweaking.

WCAA (105.9 FM) posted a 2.6 share in its first full book of its all-reggaeton "La Kalle" format. The rating is up from a 2.1 in the spring.

WNEW (102.7 FM), the Infinity-owned dance classic outlet, seems to have found more of an audience, posting a 3.2 share with listeners 25 to 54. Its ratings with listeners 12 and older increased from 2.0 to 2.3.

The fall ratings book, which along with the spring numbers is used to set station ad rates, will be released Jan. 10. The fall ratings period runs from Sept. 22 to Dec. 14.