Who Listens to WOWO Radio in 2018?

As a member of the WOWO radio advertising sales team, I have some insider information to share with you.

As a member of the Fort Wayne, Indiana community for the past 20 years, I have some insight to share with you.

As a marketing professional who has worked for other media companies, including those that competed with WOWO, I have some perspective to share with you.

As a Baby Boomer who grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where WOWO radio is located, I also have some history to share with you.

At the conclusion of this article, you will have a greater understanding of WOWO, Fort Wayne, and if we should talk about your business using WOWO to invite people to become your customers.

Twice a year, Fort Wayne radio stations receive the results of an independent ratings survey that tells us who listens and when they listen.  Not in any scary, meta-data manner, but in demographic and geographic terms.  June 29th, I received the results of the Spring 2018 rating survey.

I was not surprised by the data.  I look for a couple of things such as the total number of listeners each week.  When a business advertises with a radio station, there is a finite number of people that will hear their ads.  Same is true with any advertising medium.

So I want to know how many total listeners WOWO has and once again, WOWO is listed as the radio station heard in Fort Wayne that has the largest number of listeners.  Over 99,000 every week just in the 6 counties that include Allen County, where Fort Wayne is, and the 5 Indiana counties that are adjacent to Allen.  That includes, Adams, Wells, Huntington, Whitley and Dekalb Counties in Indiana.

WOWO has listeners beyond those counties including the Indiana counties of Grant, Wabash, Kosciusko, Noble, Lagrange, Steuben, and several Ohio counties. The listeners in those counties are not included in the survey, but they are there.  We know this because of the advertisers and listeners tell us.

The rating survey also tells me that 95% of WOWO’s radio listeners are grown-ups, age 25 and older.

Again WOWO leads the pack, we have nearly 30,000 more grown-ups listening every week compared to the next most popular station that has less than 70,000 listeners aged 25 and older.

Charly Butcher and the Fort Wayne Morning News Team have nearly 50,000 weekly grown-ups listening to WOWO.

So does Glenn Beck, whose 3 hour national talk show comes on at 9am.

Rush Limbaugh’s 3 hour national talk show has over 60,000 weekly listeners on WOWO between noon and 3pm and local WOWO Talk Show host Pat Miller has nearly 55,000 listeners every week between 3 and 6 in the afternoon.

There is no other radio station in Fort Wayne that has this massive number of listeners week after week, of grown-ups.  Remember it’s the grown-ups that have the money, not the 13 year olds.

Why is WOWO so popular?

WOWO is a legacy radio station in Fort Wayne.  When I was a kid, WOWO played music and the disc jockeys were allowed to be personalities.  Bob Sievers, the legendary morning show host would tell me if school was delayed, but hundreds of farmers all across Indiana, Ohio and Michigan also listened to hear the farm reports.

In the evening, I listened to Ron Gregory when I was supposed to be doing my homework and enjoyed his wry sense of humor and puns.

But the WOWO of today is different.  Now over 90 years on the air, mostly on 1190am, WOWO has been broadcasting a news and talk format for a couple of decades.

Politically, Northeast Indiana, or “WOWO-Land” as it is called to include the entire tri-state area leans conservative.  With the line-up of conservative talk show hosts like our own Pat Miller along with national radio personalities, Glenn, Rush and Sean Hannity and Buck Sexton at night, WOWO has a strong format that attracts grown-up listeners.

We are not totally a conservative part of the country.  Our mayor is serving his 3rd term as a member of the Democratic Party and  his predecessor also from the Democratic Party served as mayor for two terms.  The City and County Councils however lean Republican.

Our Fort Wayne Morning News with Charly Butcher, isn’t really a talk show, more of a news program with interview segments lasting 3 minutes or less, because it’s jam packed with 4 newscasts, 6 traffic and weather reports, 2 sports updates and 2 farm reports every hour!  Interview segments with our Mayor and other city and county officials, state government leaders including the Governor and our Congressmen and Senators are featured live each week along with what ever else is timely and appropriate.  And yes, just like when I was listening as a kid, WOWO still has school delays and closings in the morning when the weather is bad.

95% of WOWO listener tune in weekdays between 5 in the morning and 6 at night.  I call in WOWO Primetime.  70% listen on the weekends.

There are other stations in Fort Wayne that are targeting the same age demographic as WOWO, but they have half as many or even a third as many weekly listeners.

There are also other stations that have a news or talk format, but again their total number of listeners is a tiny fraction of the weekly listeners that WOWO has according to the latest radio survey I’m looking at.

By the way, this dominance of WOWO is not new, it’s been consistent during the 15 plus years I have worked for WOWO and before when I worked for the other radio station companies in Fort Wayne.

All this information is good and great and wonderful, but how does WOWO perform for business that advertise with us?

I’m impressed and that’s not a bunch of hype.  Because of all that I have already mentioned, there are certain characteristics and options that I have with WOWO that are not available anywhere else in Fort Wayne that have created phenomenal results for advertisers that partner with us.   Nothing is 100%, but compared to other stations I have worked for since 1986, I don’t have to cross my fingers and hope for the best when I have a true advertising partner who takes my guidance, coaching and follows that plan we create together.

Not every business that I talk to however qualifies to work with me.  Want to know if you qualify?  Hit me up, and let’s connect.