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Chicago Radio Ratings Released 12-27-22
- Thread starter Dr Wayne
- Start date
Nielsen (and Arbitron before them) defines counties to be part of a market based on the percentage of listening to stations within a particular market. So were the two counties mentioned to be predominant "Chicago" listeners, the counties would be added.
Prior to the PPM, Chicago had a group of counties that were not in the MSA but part of an expanded Total Survey Area. There are no TSAs for Metered markets now, so those counties are orphans of the new system. Diary markets can still have TSA areas.
Kenosha County seems kinda odd in the Chicago market. There is a heavy amount of Milwaukee listening there (It's within the Milwaukee TV market). WXSS Milwaukee's morning show for example takes large amounts of calls from there. However, WDRV also preforms extremely well because WWDV puts it's strongest signal there, since it was originally licensed to that area. I believe Nielsen attempted to remove it from the Chicago market about 5 years ago but there was an uproar.
Also KRZ is a heritage CHR. Hot 97 is not.
It looks like loosing Eric Ferguson hasn't really done that much damage to WTMX ratings
Call it the total listening area, if you like. I'm not talking ratings (or dollars), but where you can hear or not hear the stations. Actually, you can hear Chicago FMs about 10 miles from Michigan's lakeshore on I-94, but the 50 kW AMs go on forever. Which, to bring us back to the start of this diversion, is a plus for WBBM.
But, I think the point is that the added coverage is not accompanied by added significant listenership.... in none of those peripheral markets is there significant or any listening to 670, 720, 770 or 890 for example. Each of those will show up occasionally with tiny shares in Rockford, Bloomington and even Peoria but none has consistent listening outside of the Chicago area.
There is a difference between "hearing" and actual listening.
I think adding NASCAR will give WLS a tiny boost in Rockford. They love their NASCAR out there. WLUV is now VCY as of recently. It's longtime owner passed on at 98. It was a long running NASCAR affiliate. Survived as a standalone for a long time, likely in very small part because of NASCAR and the Rockford Speedway. The FM was sold to Cumulus decades back.
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So, is WLS going to send sellers to Rockford to run Rockford-focused ads during NASCAR broadcasts? I really doubt it, because that represents minimal potential revenue.
I imagine NASCAR, or the local promoter of the forthcoming Chicago street race, is paying $$$ to WLS for this.
Not only that, Rockford clients can buy Rockford radio stations for about 10% of what WLS would charge.
In WLS' case, anything is good. Most of their weekend programming is brokered. You take racing off, listeners will revolt. Very passionate fans. Ask anybody who runs NASCAR on a station. That's potential listeners who might not otherwise listen to WLS. Many of them are Conservative. Not just in Rockford, but also neighboring more rural areas within the Chicago market. That audience, since many NASCAR fans tend to be Conservative could potentially stay tuned.
B97 out here in New Orleans (where I live) isn't that great either but they tend to bring in some local music during the Saints and Mardi Gras season which is nice and refreshing because of their local PM drive. But lets be honest here, New Orleans is quite unique with its history.
I noticed WLMG, B97 and Bayou 95.7 tend to play songs for Mardi Gras that are unique to the market. They have for years. Something that could only work in New Orleans.
Unlike Kankakee and LaSalle counties in Illinois, Kenosha county straddles two metros. There's definitely an interest in both markets. It's very common for people to live in Kenosha county and commute to Illinois for work. On the flip side, it's also common for people to live in Kenosha county and commute to the Milwaukee area for work. It's one of those places where people will have Chicago radio station presets on FM 1 in their cars, and Milwaukee presets on FM 2.
Chicago is the larger market, and therefore draws more people to it. I think that's the reasoning to include it in the Chicago market.
I'm from Kenosha. From my experience most people listen to Milwaukee radio and WWDV is played in businesses all over town because of it's strong signal. 103.7, 100.7 and 99.1 are among the ones I hear most frequently. They are among the strongest Milwaukee market signals, although 100.7 was and still is technically a Racine-Kenosha station. I would have to see the breakdowns to confirm any of this, but I'm guessing if Kenosha County was shown alone in a ratings book, those signals would be Top 5
Back in the 70s and 80s before this was part of the Chicago radio market, the highest rated station here by far was 100.7 WRKR. Had a Top-40 format at the time. You can ask anybody of that age if they remember WRKR and their face will light up. I've tried it. It's amazing how much of an impact radio used to have on people.
Back in the 70s and 80s before this was part of the Chicago radio market, the highest rated station here by far was 100.7 WRKR. Had a Top-40 format at the time. You can ask anybody of that age if they remember WRKR and their face will light up. I've tried it. It's amazing how much of an impact radio used to have on people.
As I recall, Pat Martin/Patrick Lopeman was the Manager of WRKR 100.7 for a while, before it became WHBT-FM, and was simulcasting with AM 1460 WHBT Racine, called "Heartbeat".
They moved 100.7 to the closest they could to Milwaukee under the old 73.213 rules and still put a 70 dBu contour over Racine and be 125 miles from 100.7 in Elkhart, IN as I recall, so they could be 50000 watts from 500 feet.
Pat Martin's first radio exposure was as a Teenage Guest Disk Jockey" on WLS in 1965.
I drove around the Racine and Kenosha areas a few years ago. Lots of people still had VHF Area Specials to get 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11 from Chicago, and 4, 6, 10, and 12 from Milwaukee. Some probably still do, though the Physical Channel VHFs are now few.
They moved 100.7 to the closest they could to Milwaukee under the old 73.213 rules and still put a 70 dBu contour over Racine and be 125 miles from 100.7 in Elkhart, IN as I recall, so they could be 50000 watts from 500 feet.
Pat Martin's first radio exposure was as a Teenage Guest Disk Jockey" on WLS in 1965.
REELRADIO - The Pat Martin Collection!
www.reelradio.com
I drove around the Racine and Kenosha areas a few years ago. Lots of people still had VHF Area Specials to get 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11 from Chicago, and 4, 6, 10, and 12 from Milwaukee. Some probably still do, though the Physical Channel VHFs are now few.
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I'm seeing fewer OTA TV antennas. People have been streaming more. Since the repack, Chicago reception has been very bad. TV reception in general has been a mess. DirecTV, Dish and AT&T do not carry any Chicago stations. Spectrum still carries 2, 5, 7 and 32 in both Kenosha and Racine. They blackout 32 during certain programming.
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I live in Kenosha and work in Waukegan. Between HD sidebands and Milwaukee translators dropped on Chicago frequencies, what should be, and traditionally were, perfectly usable Chicago signals have become largely unlistenable in Kenosha.
HD has trashed the band with the power increases. Particularly on first adjacents. And now the translators are making it worse. I noticed 101.1 was an absolute mess awhile back on the northside from a translator. That used to be one of the best signals around here except when WIXX would come in.
95.1 had an old Harris unit from the 80s that used to wipe out the lower end of the band with harmonics. They patched it up over the years, but at some point last year it was having harmonics up to 100.3. I told their corporate engineer and they completely replaced the transmitter, finally. Took months. It was very problematic for them over the years.
I heard a story at one point in the 80s, 96.9 was putting harmonics onto 96.3. CBS' engineer called 96.9's engineer in the middle of the night and told him to get out there and fix it or he would be reporting it to the FCC in the morning. They used to take this stuff seriously.
95.1 had an old Harris unit from the 80s that used to wipe out the lower end of the band with harmonics. They patched it up over the years, but at some point last year it was having harmonics up to 100.3. I told their corporate engineer and they completely replaced the transmitter, finally. Took months. It was very problematic for them over the years.
I heard a story at one point in the 80s, 96.9 was putting harmonics onto 96.3. CBS' engineer called 96.9's engineer in the middle of the night and told him to get out there and fix it or he would be reporting it to the FCC in the morning. They used to take this stuff seriously.
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