Detroit Radio Ratings: March 2023

[pjc1961]

Covering the survey period from Thu. 3/2/2023 thru Wed. 3/29/2023, age 6+ overall:

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Detroit - RadioInsight

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings Detroit (Market #14) Population: 3,891,900 Black: 845,600 – Hispanic: 178,600 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons 6+, Mon-Sun 6AM-Mid All ratings are Copyright © 2005-2023 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen radio audience estimates and data are...

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Top 5+ demo rankings analysis for ages 25-54, 18-34 + 18-49 will be available via AllAccess.com on Thu. 4/20/2023.

 

[Gregg.]

Wow, WKQI is #1 by a sizable margin over #2 WCSX. In many other markets, Top 40 stations are struggling.

Why is Top 40 such a draw in Detroit? In Chicago, WKSC, also owned by iHeart, is #13. In Tampa, WFLZ is #14 . In Washington, WIHT is #10. (Admittedly, Chicago and Tampa are markets with two Top 40 stations.)

WKQI may be the only #1 Top 40 station in a large market.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Wow, WKQI is #1 by a sizable margin over #2 WCSX. In many other markets, Top 40 stations are struggling.

But it averages #2 in 18-34 and 25-49 and 25-54 women, so it does not do as well as CHR does in other large markets.

Why is Top 40 such a draw in Detroit? In Chicago, WKSC, also owned by iHeart, is #13. In Tampa, WFLZ is #14 . In Washington, WIHT is #10. (Admittedly, Chicago and Tampa are markets with two Top 40 stations.)

WFLZ averages in #2 in 18-34 Women, and 3rd in 18-49 Women. Hardly doing poorly in its target.
WKSC is 3rd in 18-34 Women on average and same with 25-49 Women.
WIHT is the one that does not do as well with young adult women, but is still averaging 4th in the key young female demos.

WKQI may be the only #1 Top 40 station in a large market.

Yet you have KIIS in LA #1 in Women 18-34 and Women 18-49 and it is even 2nd in Women 25-54. That is their target, and they win big.

Agencies don't even look at 6+ and 12+.

 

[101tm]

Is WDZH showing some signs of life? I still have a feeling it's a placeholder for WWJ Newsradio 98.7, but perhaps WDZH is billing enough to justify keeping its revenue as well as WWJ's coming in. With Audacy having more and more, almost most of their all-news stations on FM though, it still seems inevitable.

 

[pjc1961]

Top 5+ demo rankings analysis for ages 25-54, 18-34 + 18-49:

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25-54: 1. WKQI 2. WRIF 3. WXYT-FM 4T. WYCD 4T. WMXD (up from #7) 6. WNIC
18-34: 1. WKQI 2. WRIF 3T. WCSX 3T. WJLB (up from #10) 5. WXYT-FM (up from #8) 7T. WNIC 7T. WMGC
18-49: 1. WKQI 2. WRIF 3. WXYT-FM 4T. WYCD 4T. WJLB (up from #9) 6T. WMXD 6T. WCSX 8. WNIC (down from #5)

 

[MarkW]

A big win for Channel 9-5-5 for sure! It's been many years since they've swept the board across all three of those categories (I am unsure if they've ever done so before). Often, 101 WRIF is #1 across all three of those categories.

WYCD is gaining steam and 105.1 The Bounce finally seems to be sagging after several consecutive years of impressive numbers.

How long before Cumulus ditches Dave Corey as Director of FM Programming? The performance of WDVD has been so-so (but not terrible) under his watch, and it seems all the air has completely escaped the New Country 93-1 balloon. Both stations have a sterile, unengaging sound to them. I cannot stomach 93.1 for more than 10 minutes. I'll listen to the Windsor country stations before that one.

I noted the positive tweaks WYCD made to its playlist several months back, and those changes seem to have brought about meaningful AQH share gains.

 

[tall_guy1]

Wow, WKQI is #1 by a sizable margin over #2 WCSX. In many other markets, Top 40 stations are struggling.

Why is Top 40 such a draw in Detroit? In Chicago, WKSC, also owned by iHeart, is #13. In Tampa, WFLZ is #14 . In Washington, WIHT is #10. (Admittedly, Chicago and Tampa are markets with two Top 40 stations.)

WKQI may be the only #1 Top 40 station in a large market.

Unsure why it is struggling elsewhere.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Unsure why it is struggling elsewhere.

Define "struggling".

Again, radio is not the same as politics and spórts where there is just one winner. In radio, you are going to often bill about the same if you are in the top 5 music station positions, and in many markets even 6th to 10th is not that much lower than the 4th or 5th ranked station.

 

[CassChopper96]

What CHR stations are struggling? B96 went back to its original format recently

 

[tall_guy1]

Define "struggling".

Again, radio is not the same as politics and spórts where there is just one winner. In radio, you are going to often bill about the same if you are in the top 5 music station positions, and in many markets even 6th to 10th is not that much lower than the 4th or 5th ranked station.

Not doing as well, underperforming. Though there has been an upswing somewhat lately.

 

[MarkW]

WSNX in Grand Rapids just posted what I believe is its worst beauty pageant share in many years. I only remember them being as low as mid 3s one other time in the past 25 years. There were a few different examples of unusual movement in the G.R. market in the March book, so it is possible that will prove to be a fluke. Time will tell.

WFLZ and WPOI in Tampa, G105 in Raleigh, WZFT in Baltimore, Kiss 103.7 in Milwaukee, WAKS in Cleveland, WKZL in Greensboro, WHQC in Charlotte, and 107.5 The River in Nashville are among the stations performing well below their long-term averages.

 

[DOB]

Channel 955 is seeing the benefits of incorporating a market station heritage collection of older gold material going back the last 20 years.
I've not looked at anything but I can imagine they like Bedrock as a great 'gold' for them.
That also would explain 1051 being down....iheart probably has a nice list of Detroit golf for 979 too.
That morning show Mojo on 955 does very well, so it's heritage and they are keeping it fresh and familiar.
Playing those throwbacks of the last 20 years is really helping the CHRs who are doing it right. Obviously it's still early in regards to how sustainable it is but that's been thought before only see it progress further in ratings improve.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Not doing as well, underperforming. Though there has been an upswing somewhat lately.

Under-performing in what? Ratings? Target demo? Revenue?

I had a station that barely showed in the ratings years ago, but it was "over-performing" for the cluster.

Let me explain: it was my 5th FM in the market, and my second FM that did not simulcast an AM. It was the second FM to go on the air in the whole country. It ran paid embassy programs (France, Italy, USA, Germany, Spain, Etc.) in the daytime hours, and classical at the 2-hour lunch break and after 6 PM. It billed very profitably.

So it was not under-performing. It was doing as well as I expected my 6th format in the market could do. And it allowed me to have a total of 5 FMs in total in the market. A "win" on all fronts.

 

[tall_guy1]

Under-performing in what? Ratings? Target demo? Revenue?

I had a station that barely showed in the ratings years ago, but it was "over-performing" for the cluster.

Let me explain: it was my 5th FM in the market, and my second FM that did not simulcast an AM. It was the second FM to go on the air in the whole country. It ran paid embassy programs (France, Italy, USA, Germany, Spain, Etc.) in the daytime hours, and classical at the 2-hour lunch break and after 6 PM. It billed very profitably.

So it was not under-performing. It was doing as well as I expected my 6th format in the market could do. And it allowed me to have a total of 5 FMs in total in the market. A "win" on all fronts.

That is interesting. Usually those types of stations are non profit, but it sounds like it did pretty well. I actually should clarify that CHR ratings have been going up (Ross on Radio wrote a year or two ago about a "slump.")

 

[CassChopper96]

WSNX in Grand Rapids just posted what I believe is its worst beauty pageant share in many years. I only remember them being as low as mid 3s one other time in the past 25 years. There were a few different examples of unusual movement in the G.R. market in the March book, so it is possible that will prove to be a fluke. Time will tell.

WFLZ and WPOI in Tampa, G105 in Raleigh, WZFT in Baltimore, Kiss 103.7 in Milwaukee, WAKS in Cleveland, WKZL in Greensboro, WHQC in Charlotte, and 107.5 The River in Nashville are among the stations performing well below their long-term averages.

WZFT was always far behind Mix 106.5 in Baltimore but yeah your right many CHR’s don’t get the numbers they used to

 

[DavidEduardo]

I actually should clarify that CHR ratings have been going up...

Some are, some are not. It is unusual to find any 100% situation in radio.

 

[CassChopper96]

CHR does really well in New England