Chicago PPM secrets revealed

In addition to the last-ever diary book released in Chicago yesterday, Arbitron’s pre-currency Portable People Meter results were also released, and according to Tom Taylor of Radio-Info and Dave Martin’s blog, they show the following: – WGN continued to rank first among 12+, followed by WDRV-FM (The Drive), WBBM-AM, Ht AC outlet WTMX-FM, and Country station WUSN-FM. – Ranking from […]

Chicago radio’s Winter book results

The winter books are here, and according to Arbitron (click here to see daypart info): WINNERS: WGN-AM: This could be the beginning of a long reign for longtime leader WGN-AM on top of the radio hill in Chicago, as the station fended off WGCI to remain numero uno in Chicago’s Winter Arbitron book, and is expected to remain number one […]

The Fall Arbitron books, Part II

Wondering how the recently-released Fall Arbs fared demographically? Well, here you go, courtesy of All Access (As a bonus, you get San Diego numbers in the article, too!): – Urban contemporary WGCI-FM swept the adults 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 categories by finishing first. -Thanks to Christmas music, WLIT soared back into the top ten in key 18-49 and 25-54 demos. […]

Harvey, Dahl big winners in book

The Fall Arbitron book released yesterday didn’t really provide much surprises (even with WLIT’s annual surge due to Christmas music), but a couple of new arrivals shook up Chicago’s already competitive morning-drive race: – Steve Harvey’s syndicated show on Clear Channel’s WGCI-FM finished third overall and topped all FM morning drive shows in 12+. The controversy regarding “Crazy” Howard McGee’s […]

The Fall Arbitron books

Here are your radio Fall Arbs (+12) for: Chicago Quick analysis: Tribune’s WGN is first, but stumbled. Clear Channel’s Urban Contemporary WGCI is back in second place, while sister Urban AC WVAZ fell from fifth place to eighth (they announced a huge schedule change today – more on that later, so watch the blog.) CC’s WLIT surged to fifth place*, […]

Layoff lane

Cuts at Clear Channel Chicago and 65 layoffs at Oxygen, which was taken over by NBC Universal over the weekend. Among the cuts at CC Chicago: Armando Rivera, a mixer-turned-assistant program director and music director at WVAZ (V103); WGCI’s nighttime jock Victor “The Diz” Blackful; and overnighter Alexx Dupri at Top 40 WKSC-FM. The cuts at Clear Channel mirror those […]

WGCI drops to 5th in first fall Arbitrend

Usually don’t report on trends, but WGCI is continuing to pay for dropping Howard McGee and replacing it with Steve Harvey’s morning show. It was a bad trend for Clear Channel, with just two of its stations showing an increase and WLIT bottoming out to an all-time low. The station recently flipped to Christmas music. But the unlikely winner was […]

Delilah out at the Lite

Syndicated radio personality Delilah is out at WLIT-FM after seven years at the station. Her last show was on Monday. Her replacement is John Symons, late of WILV-FM and its predecessor, WNND-FM. He is bringing his Love Notes show to the station beginning on Thursday. Love Notes originated on WNND in 1997. Symons will host Love Notes live Monday through […]

WCKG backs out of Christmas format

WCKG planned to switch to Christmas music at 7 p.m. tonight. That is, until WLIT launched its all-Christmas format at 8:30 this morning. Speculation centered on two Christmas formats competing for listenership. But late this afternoon, WCKG abandoned that plan at the last minute. Instead, they are running Dahl clips, as they have been doing all week long, until at […]

It’s AC for CKG

Robert Feder is reporting that WCKG is expected to flip to an Adult Contemporary format, which could occur anytime between 7 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday. The format would target women 25-54, and would put it in direct competition with WLIT-FM. WLIT is expected to flip to Christmas music sometime in the next few weeks. Last year, WLIT flipped […]

Whoopi’s out; Forman’s in

Clear Channel-owned WLIT-FM (The Lite) in Chicago has axed Whoopi Goldberg’s poorly-rated syndicated morning show and has reinstated Melissa Forman as morning personality. Since August 2006, when Melissa Forman was replaced by Whoopi, the morning drive ratings dropped like a rock. Among adults 25-54, the daypart went from 11th place with Forman to 19th place with Goldberg. Forman was let […]

WGN-AM sweeps Chicago summer book

A clean sweep of every major daypart kept WGN on top of the ratings in Arbitron’s summer book. WGN’s dominance started with Spike O’Dell in the mornings and went through John Williams and Cubs baseball in the afternoon. Other news of note: Mornings: – WGCI paid dearly for replacing top-rated (in 18-34) Howard McGee with syndicated Steve Harvey, with WVAZ’s […]

Radio rating trend

First trend for Chicago stations – WGN a dominant number one (thanks to the Cubs), with WGCI (and WLIT) performing like the White Sox…

Presenting the Spring 2007 Arbitron book

For Chicago and Milwaukee. Random thoughts: -WGCI-FM, WVAZ, and WPWX all are down from last book. The Howard McGee debacle at WGCI certainly won’t help them as they might not see No.1 for a very long time. – WBBM-FM got pummeled by WKSC-FM (Kiss), falling out of the top 10 and recording their worst numbers since 1982. Time for some […]