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Latest Radio Ratings

I know WCHI's struggles are going to be brought up again but jeez has B96 suffered a fall from grace or what? I remember when it was a consistent top 5.
 
CBS Radio and then Entercom / Audacy have not done a great job programming B96. I think mornings have been a big problem spot for that station, and I also think the advent of 104.3 Jams may have cannibalized B96 to a small extent.

The crappy ratings of the very poorly programmed Rock 95.5 should surprise no one.

US 99.5 and 107.5 WGCI are on the rebound but still underachieving relative to long-term history.
 
Love the fact that Feder is still on the radio beat. A really, really cool thing in 2021. He's a great writer.

Supposing 96.3 were to shift formats, I wonder what viable format holes there are in that market beyond Active Rock.
 
Saladressing said:
Love the fact that Feder is still on the radio beat. A really, really cool thing in 2021. He's a great writer.

Supposing 96.3 were to shift formats, I wonder what viable format holes there are in that market beyond Active Rock.
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Oh wow, now that's a thought. I'm 25 years old. B96 has been B96 my entire life. That said, the station has shifted over time. It started as Top 40 Hip Hop, then it moved to Top 40 Dance, and now it's a strict Top 40. I think their ratings started to fall when they moved away from the dance music. They should bring that back (imo).
 
pattywells said:
Oh wow, now that's a thought. I'm 25 years old. B96 has been B96 my entire life. That said, the station has shifted over time. It started as Top 40 Hip Hop, then it moved to Top 40 Dance, and now it's a strict Top 40. I think their ratings started to fall when they moved away from the dance music. They should bring that back (imo).
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The issue here is that the market is not growing in non-Hispanic whites. Hispanics have grown immensely, and that makes rhythmic CHR all the more impactful.
 
B96 has done OK with Top-40 in the last decade. Problem is now WKSC is beating them with much of the same exact music. They must have stronger talent or are able to connect to the audience better.

A decade ago, 2 CHRs in a market was becoming a popular thing. Nowdays it’s not working anymore. The format itself is struggling.

Active Rock? You’re going to want to try WIIL or WRXQ.

It’s been tried multiple times over the years. Rock 103.5 did it, but their strength was Mancow. 94.7 tried it, ended up going Oldies. 101.1 leaned heavily toward Active when it was being programmed from St. Louis prior to FM News. Ratings toward the end were about the same as WCHI is now. Not good. Their strength at that point was the morning show, which is now doing quite well on WDRV.

Billing means a lot more than ratings however. Stations can have garbage ratings and still do just fine with billing. This is often the case with Sports stations. Milwaukee has a bunch of them. They have zeros in the ratings however there are advertisers that WANT to be associated with the hosts, teams and the stations themselves. Therefore no need for high ratings to bill. Some companies don’t even subscribe to Nielsen because they are able to sell ads without it
 
I'm in my mid-30s, meaning that I'm old enough to remember B96 during its dance period during much of the 1990s (the best that station ever sounded) as well as its transition from dance/rhythmic to hip hop/rhythmic. IMO, B96 went downhill when they phased out dance but even during the "Hits and Hip Hop" years. they had better ratings than they do now. WGCI is another one I'm not used to floundering around in the ratings. Throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s, WGCI was always in the top 3 alongside WGN-AM. Of course, much of the listeners back then are now V103 listeners today. US99 is on the upswing now that Big 95.5 is no more (Chicago could not support 2 country stations!). I'm not a big rock fan but 95.5 needs to pick a lane on where they want to go. Based on what I read on what they play, it's very inconsistent (Bryan Adams AND Disturbed on the same station?) Do they want to be resurrection of 97.7 the Loop or classic Q101, or compete directly with 94.7 WLS or 97.1 the Drive? I miss the days when Chicago radio was actually great regardless of what genre the listener was into.

I agree with what has already been said about the sorry state of the once-mighty B96. It's hard to believe that that B96's current PD and MD are the same ones that were running the station during its 90s dance heyday. They also dropped the mix shows altogether. While the last few years of mixes weren't as good as the days of Bad Boy Bill, Julian Jumpin Perez, Bobby D, and the rest of the DJs from the 90s/00s, it's still weird that B96 doesn't feature any mix show content. I also find it a bit weird that sister station classic hip hop 104.3 Jams would have a negative effect on B96 as the latter is classified as a "Mainstream CHR/Pop" station rather than a "Rhythmic CHR" station (B96 hasn't been labeled rhythmic since 2012). Maybe because some people still think of B96 as a rhythmic CHR station considering its historical success as one? Of course, claiming Top 40 heritage can only go so far. WLS 890 "The Big 89/MusicRadio" was once Top 40 royalty decades ago too and they have been a talk radio station longer than they had been a Top 40 station. Part of my thinks its time to B96's ownership to pull the plug and try something new.

If B96 were to flip, what valuable format is there out there? Active Rock is too niche and is not "female-friendly" as radio advertisers tend to target women more than men. Plus, it has been tried many times as Jeremy mentioned earlier. One scenario I could see happen is that 96.3 would flip into a simulcast of 670 the Score like how 105.9 simulcasts 780 WBBM AM and the "WBBM" FM call letters are moved to 105.9 to be more consistent with the AM brand (that always confused me after 105.9 dropped the Fresh FM format). Since current-based music is struggling ratings-wise as younger people tend to hear new music on streaming sites (YouTube, Spotify, etc.), maybe the ownership could own the "dance" side of rhythmic as 104.3 Jams has classic hip hop/R&B covered and competitor 94.7 WLS has 80s-based rock/pop covered. 96.3 now switches to dance-pop from the 1990s (during B96's Killer Bee/Party Radio days), 2000s (such as the stuff heard on defunct Energy 92.7/92.5), and 2010s (Lady Gaga, David Guetta, and so on). At the same time 104.3 Jams would be retooled to be more urban not to conflict too much with 96.3. Both stations now have a larger, broader playlist instead of a tight 200-300 song playlist (My main beef with 104.3 Jams is that they are so repetitive) Of course, any form of dance pop have no chance of actually happening but I can dream, can I? The 670 Score simulcast I mentioned earlier is more likely to happen. Good thing for online radio stations and iPods!

Finally, what is the ethnic/racial breakdown on CHR listeners in Chicago and how it has changed over the years? I read several articles of R&R and other old music/radio magazines on worldradiohistory.com and learned that in 1990, B96 had roughly a 60/40 white (or non-ethnic)/non-white (ethnic) listening base (in comparison now-defunct Z95, [WLS-FM], had around 95% white audience) B96's Hispanic audience was nearly 30% and by 1995 it grew to 35% and B96's overall audience was 55% white and 45% non-white. The black audience was around 10% as many black listeners were loyal to WGCI. I also read an article that B96's Hispanic audience was around 40% in 2000 and the white and non-white listeners were about split 50/50. I assume that B96's current audience is mostly white nowadays. Ethnic populations have changed in the past 30 years. This doesn't help 95.5 Rock either as most blacks, Hispanics, etc. don't listen to rock. Maybe B96 goes back as Rhythmic? Of course, both pop and rhythmic music was different 20-30 years ago than it is now.
 
disman00911 said:
I'm in my mid-30s, meaning that I'm old enough to remember B96 during its dance period during much of the 1990s (the best that station ever sounded) as well as its transition from dance/rhythmic to hip hop/rhythmic. IMO, B96 went downhill when they phased out dance but even during the "Hits and Hip Hop" years. they had better ratings than they do now. WGCI is another one I'm not used to floundering around in the ratings. Throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s, WGCI was always in the top 3 alongside WGN-AM. Of course, much of the listeners back then are now V103 listeners today. US99 is on the upswing now that Big 95.5 is no more (Chicago could not support 2 country stations!). I'm not a big rock fan but 95.5 needs to pick a lane on where they want to go. Based on what I read on what they play, it's very inconsistent (Bryan Adams AND Disturbed on the same station?) Do they want to be resurrection of 97.7 the Loop or classic Q101, or compete directly with 94.7 WLS or 97.1 the Drive? I miss the days when Chicago radio was actually great regardless of what genre the listener was into.

I agree with what has already been said about the sorry state of the once-mighty B96. It's hard to believe that that B96's current PD and MD are the same ones that were running the station during its 90s dance heyday. They also dropped the mix shows altogether. While the last few years of mixes weren't as good as the days of Bad Boy Bill, Julian Jumpin Perez, Bobby D, and the rest of the DJs from the 90s/00s, it's still weird that B96 doesn't feature any mix show content. I also find it a bit weird that sister station classic hip hop 104.3 Jams would have a negative effect on B96 as the latter is classified as a "Mainstream CHR/Pop" station rather than a "Rhythmic CHR" station (B96 hasn't been labeled rhythmic since 2012). Maybe because some people still think of B96 as a rhythmic CHR station considering its historical success as one? Of course, claiming Top 40 heritage can only go so far. WLS 890 "The Big 89/MusicRadio" was once Top 40 royalty decades ago too and they have been a talk radio station longer than they had been a Top 40 station. Part of my thinks its time to B96's ownership to pull the plug and try something new.

If B96 were to flip, what valuable format is there out there? Active Rock is too niche and is not "female-friendly" as radio advertisers tend to target women more than men. Plus, it has been tried many times as Jeremy mentioned earlier. One scenario I could see happen is that 96.3 would flip into a simulcast of 670 the Score like how 105.9 simulcasts 780 WBBM AM and the "WBBM" FM call letters are moved to 105.9 to be more consistent with the AM brand (that always confused me after 105.9 dropped the Fresh FM format). Since current-based music is struggling ratings-wise as younger people tend to hear new music on streaming sites (YouTube, Spotify, etc.), maybe the ownership could own the "dance" side of rhythmic as 104.3 Jams has classic hip hop/R&B covered and competitor 94.7 WLS has 80s-based rock/pop covered. 96.3 now switches to dance-pop from the 1990s (during B96's Killer Bee/Party Radio days), 2000s (such as the stuff heard on defunct Energy 92.7/92.5), and 2010s (Lady Gaga, David Guetta, and so on). At the same time 104.3 Jams would be retooled to be more urban not to conflict too much with 96.3. Both stations now have a larger, broader playlist instead of a tight 200-300 song playlist (My main beef with 104.3 Jams is that they are so repetitive) Of course, any form of dance pop have no chance of actually happening but I can dream, can I? The 670 Score simulcast I mentioned earlier is more likely to happen. Good thing for online radio stations and iPods!

Finally, what is the ethnic/racial breakdown on CHR listeners in Chicago and how it has changed over the years? I read several articles of R&R and other old music/radio magazines on worldradiohistory.com and learned that in 1990, B96 had roughly a 60/40 white (or non-ethnic)/non-white (ethnic) listening base (in comparison now-defunct Z95, [WLS-FM], had around 95% white audience) B96's Hispanic audience was nearly 30% and by 1995 it grew to 35% and B96's overall audience was 55% white and 45% non-white. The black audience was around 10% as many black listeners were loyal to WGCI. I also read an article that B96's Hispanic audience was around 40% in 2000 and the white and non-white listeners were about split 50/50. I assume that B96's current audience is mostly white nowadays. Ethnic populations have changed in the past 30 years. This doesn't help 95.5 Rock either as most blacks, Hispanics, etc. don't listen to rock. Maybe B96 goes back as Rhythmic? Of course, both pop and rhythmic music was different 20-30 years ago than it is now.
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The question on race/ethnicity is an excellent question. I don't have an answer. Hopefully someone else does! Maybe I can do some googling, too.

On that note, it is nice to hear WVIV/93.5 is still on the air with Spanish Top 40. Their ratings are very low, and they don't have very many likes on social media platforms. But, I do know some who have it as a preset in the cars, and there is some listenership. I wonder if the future of music on the radio is a more ethnic-urban sound? Remember when 95.5 did Spanish Top 40 for like a month? I'm surprised that didn't last.

I think you're on-point with B96 simulcasting The Score. I could see that as a huge success.
 
disman00911 said:
Finally, what is the ethnic/racial breakdown on CHR listeners in Chicago and how it has changed over the years? I read several articles of R&R and other old music/radio magazines on worldradiohistory.com and learned that in 1990, B96 had roughly a 60/40 white (or non-ethnic)/non-white (ethnic) listening base (in comparison now-defunct Z95, [WLS-FM], had around 95% white audience) B96's Hispanic audience was nearly 30% and by 1995 it grew to 35% and B96's overall audience was 55% white and 45% non-white. The black audience was around 10% as many black listeners were loyal to WGCI. I also read an article that B96's Hispanic audience was around 40% in 2000 and the white and non-white listeners were about split 50/50. I assume that B96's current audience is mostly white nowadays. Ethnic populations have changed in the past 30 years. This doesn't help 95.5 Rock either as most blacks, Hispanics, etc. don't listen to rock. Maybe B96 goes back as Rhythmic? Of course, both pop and rhythmic music was different 20-30 years ago than it is now.
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First, please don't use the term "non-white" to include Hispanics. Hispanics can be of any race or combination; most are considered to be racially "white" per the Census. Remember, the Census does not consider "Hispanic" to be a race... it is a culture defined by present or family heritage of speaking Spanish or coming from a country where Spanish is the primary language; it's a very ambiguous term.

The proper term is "non-Hispanic whites" for those who are not Black or Hispanic. Nielsen does not break out Asians, so that is anyone's guess.

In any case, I went back to pre-pandemic books and averaged both WKSC and WBBM-FM over multiple months.

WKSC based on AQH listening is 18% Black, 30% Hispanic and 52% non-Hispanic white
WBBM FM is 9% Black, 41% Hispanic and 50% non-Hispanic white.

When looking at weekly cume...
WKSC is 13% Black, 31% Hispanic and 56% non-Hispanic white.
WBBM is 14% Black, 37% Hispanic and 49% non-Hispanic white.

Obviously, the Blacks that listen to WKSC listen for longer than the WBBM Black listeners do, and the WBBM Black listeners tend not to spend as much time with them. I can't speculate as to the reasons for that.

Another clarification: while most Hispanics in the US don't listen to rock, throughout Latin America English-language rock is very popular. The issue here is that most of the popularity is among middle and upper class Latin Americans, and that group is not a significant part of the immigrants from Latin America.
 
pattywells said:
On that note, it is nice to hear WVIV/93.5 is still on the air with Spanish Top 40. Their ratings are very low, and they don't have very many likes on social media platforms. But, I do know some who have it as a preset in the cars, and there is some listenership. I wonder if the future of music on the radio is a more ethnic-urban sound? Remember when 95.5 did Spanish Top 40 for like a month? I'm surprised that didn't last.
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First, WVIV is not CHR... it is the Hispanic equivalent of Urban, based on reggaetón and rhythmic music.

It does as well in 18-49 as WUSN, WXRT, WBBM (AM), WLS-FM and WSCR-AM. And that is not bad for what is a Class A FM. In 18-34, it averages around 12th, which is certainly good for the small signal.
 
My 18 year old niece who is of Puerto Rican decent, non Spanish speaking and her boyfriend who is of Mexican decent and bilingual went on a weekend vacation in the western suburbs a couple weeks back. They asked me what a good station was, I suggested 93.5.

His family, like most Mexican families I have come across regularly listen to WOJO as a family. As a family as in when traveling in the car together. They listen to other music on their own. I know another guy who immigrated here from Mexico City. He rarely listened to WOJO except when he was with his family, often while driving. Usually he preferred English AC stations and when it had Spanish Talk, WIND. This seems like a common occurance. David could explain this more than me

My niece is more into Rock-Alternative and Hot AC.

They both liked WVIV. My niece’s boyfriend was not a fan of the Spanglish the airstaff occasionally used but they both liked the music.

B96 has been Hispanic-friendly for a long time. So none of that surprises me.
 
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JeremyAndrews said:
His family, like most Mexican families I have come across regularly listen to WOJO as a family. As a family as in when traveling in the car together. They listen to other music on their own. I know another guy who immigrated here from Mexico City. He rarely listened to WOJO except when he was with his family, often while driving. Usually he preferred English AC stations and when it had Spanish Talk, WIND. This seems like a common occurance. David could explain this more than me
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Regional Mexican (a term not used in Mexico) is the country music of that nation. Rural migrants arrive in the US predominantly preferring that music. Even many of the lowest income classes from the bigger cities like that music. Over a third of all listening in Mexico city is to that format.

Many higher income, better educated listeners of Mexican origin or heritage will consider that music to be low class and despicable... sort of the way some people thought of country music in the US in the past. While some Americans thought only "poor white trash" listened to country, in Mexico only "nacos" listen to "grupera" music (the real name for Regional Mexican).

But people from the big cities are as likely to enjoy other kinds of music, including Mexican standards, pop, pop oldies and many kinds of English language music ranging from dance and CHR to AC.

And it's not just Mexico. The first station I owned, in Ecuador, was Top 40. About half the music was in Spanish and the rest was made of hits from the US, France and Italy. The station was #1 in upper income, #3 in middle income and 5th in low income. My second station played tropical "cumbia" music which is the equivalent in Northern South America of Regional Mexican in Mexico. It was #1 in lower income, #2 in middle income and 6th in upper income.
JeremyAndrews said:
They both liked WVIV. My niece’s boyfriend was not a fan of the Spanglish the airstaff occasionally used but they both liked the music.
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Talent that tries to use both languages unless it is very natural comes across as fake and forced. At home, and even when texting with my daughters (one in Ecuador and one in Guatemala) we bounce around in both languages depending on what is most appropriate for the subject. We'll often switch back and forth in a single sentence, or sometimes go all 100% in one or the other. But we don't force it... it just sale así.
 
David, thank you for your insight and breaking down B96 and Kiss FM's audiences. I'm well aware that Hispanics come in different races/colors/ethnicities. I was trying to figure out how racially or ethnically diverse the CHR/pop audience have become in the past 30+ years. I know you mentioned that Nielsen doesn't count how many Asians are radio listeners but what about markets that have a significant Asian population like San Francisco or Los Angeles? There's also the multiracial factor that I didn't mention earlier.

Anyways, I assume that over the years Mainstream CHR has become more "rhythmic" whereas Rhythmic CHR has become more "urban". Is rock music even a factor on CHR radio like it used to be in decades past? I'm more used to how radio was in the 1990s and 2000s. In my younger days, B96 rarely played rock crossover hits (as they leaned heavily towards rap/R&B and previously dance) hits while Kiss FM 103.5 (and the unrelated Kiss FM 92.7/92.5 before it) played some of the big rock hits but didn't overly rely on them. While Kiss FM was always CHR/pop when they first launched in 2001, they had a slight rhythmic-lean on their song playlist likely to keep up with B96's then-rhythmic heavy approach as the latter was still in the Top 5 ratings-wise. Kiss FM would slowly catch up to B96 overtime. If I had thought back then that Kiss FM would overtake B96 as the Top 40 leader in Chicago in the decades that follow, you'd think that I was crazy. They must be doing something right.
 
disman00911 said:
David, thank you for your insight and breaking down B96 and Kiss FM's audiences. I'm well aware that Hispanics come in different races/colors/ethnicities. I was trying to figure out how racially or ethnically diverse the CHR/pop audience have become in the past 30+ years. I know you mentioned that Nielsen doesn't count how many Asians are radio listeners but what about markets that have a significant Asian population like San Francisco or Los Angeles? There's also the multiracial factor that I didn't mention earlier.
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Arbitron, before it was Nielsen, did a special book in San Francisco for Asian listening, commissioned by several station broadcasting in a variety of languages there. I never saw the results, and it was not repeated.

Conclusion: the audience was smaller than thought, and highly fragmented by the natural divisions of age, language and time in the US.

The big issue in that area is whether recruiting would have to be done in multiple languages. That could be very expensive, given that there are a number of significant ones that would each need native speakers: Korean, Mandarin, Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog and maybe even Japanese, Cambodian and several ethnic languages as well as those of India.

Arbitron used to have "Caribbean Spanish" (which is an artificial construct if I have ever seen one) and "Mexican Spanish" phone staff for diary placement and follow ups, and even that was cumbersome due to the wide variety of national versions of Spanish and even regional ones in Mexico. If you think about Asian languages, the issue is even more complicated and hard to do within a tightly budgeted survey system.

The main issue, though, is that the Asian language stations, just like ones in Farsi, Russian and others elsewhere in the US, don't get large audiences and don't sell by ratings but by loyalty.
 
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