Chicago radio ratings: The Drive stays on top

But a Santa ratings wave is coming to 93.9 Lite FM

In the final ratings period for 2022 not impacted by holiday music (in other words, before Lite 93.9 FM dominates the ratings and demos for the next two months), Hubbard’s classic rocker The Drive (WDRV-FM) topped the ratings charts, despite a month-to-month drop. Lying in wait to take over the top spot soon is iHeartMedia Gold AC 93.9 Lite FM who switched to Christmas music Tuesday, was second. 

The next ratings period will have at least two weeks of WLIT’s Christmas music format in the tally as since they’re in second place, expect them to finish first in the overall (6+) ratings. 

Finishing third was iHeartMedia Adult R&B V103 (WVAZ) with its strongest overall rating since May. Fourth place belongs to Audacy all-news WBBM-AM, and fifth was TelevisaUnivision’s WOJO and their Que Buena 105.1 Mexican Regional format. Rounding out the top ten were WXRT, WBEZ, WLS-FM, WTMX, and a three-way tie for tenth featuring WGN-AM, WUSN, and WPPN.

One big winner was Audacy classic hip-hop/R&B WBMX who surged to fourteenth place after several on-air changes, and sister station The Score remains the city’s top sports talker in fifteenth place. If you add the numbers earned via streaming, WSCR would actually be in the top ten in ninth place. Nielsen separates the streaming numbers from those earned on terrestrial radio as even though both carry the same broadcast, the commercials are different. 

In demos, WOJO dominated by sweeping all three main categories scoring their seventh consecutive victory in the key 25-54 demos, their tenth straight victory in the adult 18-34 demo, and returned to the top spot in adults 18-49. WOJO’s return to the top spot in 18-34 ousted classic hits WLS-FM but did finish second ahead of The Drive and iHeartMedia’s WKSC, who placed fourth. The Drive was the highest-rated English-language station in all key demos.