Greensboro Rating March 2024 - A CHR Success Story

WKZL had their worst ratings since 1972 at some point last year; now they've trended up 2.5-3.5-3.7-4.3 to finish in 7th place. Meanwhile Hits 100.3 is the third-to-last station listed. I think we know where all the listeners went.

WKZL is #7 while iHeart's Top 40 station, WMKS Hits 100.3 is #13. Ouch. I don't think in this era, Greensboro will continue to have two Top 40 outlets for long.

Also note that in a Southern market, Greensboro's two Country stations are tied for #9. Isn't that odd, considering in nearby Charlotte, its two country outlets are #1 and #2. Why is Country so popular in Charlotte and not so popular in Greensboro?

I have to agree that the performance of country in the Triad is surprising. Here in Greenville/Spartanburg, two country stations rule the top three, and we just saw two take first and second place in Charlotte. In what way is the Triad so different? Are WSMW and WMAG so strong that they pull potential country listeners?

WPTI is another weak link in iHeart’s Triad stable. However, its sister station in the triangle, WTKK (which is a carbon copy), is routinely top 3, and always top 5…in a much more liberal market.

The Triad is another one of those markets that shouldn’t have two CHR’s. CHR was launched on 105.7 (before moving to 100.3) when CHR was in its last boom cycle in the early 2010s. It’s done decently at times, and beaten WKZL, but I’m not sure if the market can sustain both anymore. Too bad they moved Real Rock off of the 100.3 signal. I would have left rock on 100.3 and moved Hits to 94.5, placing the weak (and very poor demographic attracting) WPTI talk format on 105.7 instead.

WFDD had a rough period last year, but they’ve recovered and been getting some respectable numbers.

101tm said:

I have to agree that the performance of country in the Triad is surprising.

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I'm very surprised too. Back in the late 1980s and 1990s WTQR was so far ahead of the second-place station in total listeners that the second place station couldn't even see its dust. Two things were going to survive the Apocalypse: cockroaches and WTQR.

In 2006 a station that was known as Oldies 93 became the first station with a full market signal to successfully go up against WTQR. Most of the time, 93.1 the Wolf has finished ahead of WTQR in total listeners.

Edit: WTQR did have competition during much of the 1980s so it may not have been that far ahead.

I can also remember when WTQR was #1 in every ratings period. I can even remember when it was automated country, I guess in the late 1970s or early 80s. It used billboards with Willie Nelson's face.

This was when cars were first getting FM radios and WTQR hadn't added live personalities yet. Its ratings were so good, I guess management asked, why pay DJs? They're more for personality country stations you find on AM. Switch to FM and just hear the songs and the commercials. It may have had a voice telling us the song titles and artists, but that's it.

DToTheJ said:

WKZL had their worst ratings since 1972 at some point last year; now they've trended up 2.5-3.5-3.7-4.3 to finish in 7th place. Meanwhile Hits 100.3 is the third-to-last station listed. I think we know where all the listeners went.

Greensboro/Winston-Salem - RadioInsight

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point (Market #47) Population: 1,341,700 Black: 320,300 – Hispanic: 137,500 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons 6+, Mon-Sun 6AM-Mid All ratings are Copyright © 2005-2022 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen radio...

radioinsight.com

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Quite a few differences between the two stations.

WKZL has noticeably shorter stopsets compared to WMKS.
WKZL tends to favor adult/mainstream records (they historically have, but got away from that until recently), WMKS leans Rhythm.
WKZL spins their records less than WMKS. 3 powers at around 13x/day vs. 5 powers around 18x/day - the other rotations also spin less, so WKZL has more recurrents & golds (their playlist is about 40% current vs. 60% current on WMKS)

I would say, 'KZL got back to their 'sound'. They definitely made changes after that bottoming out last year, and those changes are resonating with their audience.