The results of the latest radio surveys(spring / Montreal) were released yesterday. Marc-André Lemieux of La Presse quickly got his hands on them, which enabled him to write a text summarizing the overall picture of Montreal radio early yesterday afternoon.
The main points? Paul Arcand delivered a titanic performance in his last career poll, 98.5 FM and ICI Première alone have over 41 market shares, Rythme FM and CKOI are the two best-performing music stations, Énergie and WKND had a poor poll, and BPM Sports is growing.
The sports talk station, which had as much market share as Radio Circulation just a few months ago, now has almost triple that.
BPM Sports is the fastest-growing station in the (Montreal) industry. After going through tougher times, good news at 91.9! All this despite a difficult season for the Habs, the true vector of Montreal’s sports media…
Thanks for this BIG Poll!!!
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To say thank you, comment and share this post for a chance to win the BIG Package of the summer including several tickets to sporting events, restaurants and much more! ⚽🍔🏀 pic.twitter.com/iORS4MRZYI– BPM Sports (@BPMSportsRadio) June 5, 2024
BPM Sports is and always will be a niche radio, a specialized media. It’s unthinkable to imagine the small sports station competing with the big boys (98.5 FM, ICI Première, Rythme FM and others).
When considering whether or not a station is doing well, it’s imperative to segment the general public(Adults 2+). The successes or failures of BPM Sports can be analyzed in the Men 25-54 niche. And in this niche, the station has almost doubled its market share.
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Program ratings
Some people in the Montreal radio community sent me an interesting document in which we could evaluate the performance of each radio program broadcast in the greater Montreal area.
Here are the ratings for each of the four daytime shows broadcast on 91,9 Montréal:
– Le Club du matin: 2.1 market share (H 25-54). This represents an increase of some 50% over last spring’s survey.
– Van Houtte en direct: 2.2 market share (H 25-54). The figures for Maxime Van Houtte, who attacks the microphone alone for two hours every morning, are only slightly lower than those for Ben Roger and Gilbert Delorme during the same period last year.
– Laraque and Gonzalez: Georges and Gonzo blew it, as the saying goes. They achieved a market share of 9.2, the highest the station has seen since 2019. Reuniting the legendary duo was an excellent decision on the part of BPM Sports management.
Gonzo’s absence, linked to Tony Marinaro’s presence, then to Gonzo’s return… it also clearly had the effect of an (unprovoked) buzz for the lunchtime show.
– Le Retour des sportifs: Almost 6 market share. Martin Lemay, who was at the helm of the station’s most listened-to program last year, saw a slight increase.
In short, Georges and Gonzo are the station’s most listened-to shows, Martin Lemay is doing well on the comeback, the morning show is on the rise, but we’re still a long way from the lip-smacking cut, and Max Van Houtte is doing well for a guy on his own (or almost) for two hours.
Remember that on Québec 100,9 (BPM Sports), Max Van Houtte had the biggest market share…
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On the Web
The four daytime shows have also been broadcast on YouTube for the past few months. Laraque et Gonzalez is – once again – the most popular among the station’s listeners, ahead of Le Retour des sportifs, Le Club du matin and Van Houtte en direct.
It should be noted that listeners who watch or listen to the programs on YouTube are not among those surveyed by Numeris. There could be as many as 30,000 of them logging on to the station’s YouTube account, and that wouldn’t move the needle used in traditional surveys…
Which are still done via a number of pagers carried by volunteers!
The next grid
Exactly one month ago, I gave you the scoop on the BPM Sports summer schedule (which goes into effect next week).
What about the regular fall schedule?
We’re going for consistency, according to what I’ve been told. Finally!
Will Tony Marinaro have his own show, as Georges has said four or five times on air over the past two weeks?
From what I understand, the only time slot that could move is the one between 9:00 and noon. And it’s precisely from 10:00 a.m. to noon that Tony used to take to the airwaves on TSN 690.
But there’s (really) nothing confirmed to that effect. Tony would certainly be up for the challenge, but he already has a column in the noon show, a late-afternoon column on TVA Sports, a podcast every weeknight and another twice a week in the afternoon. He earns a good living.
Will BPM Sports be able to convince him ($$$) to give up one or two regular assignments to pilot his own show? No one has the answer yet. Except perhaps the president of RNC Media…