Chicago PPM Report: Immigration blitzes and ICE protests sends listeners to news and talk stations

The Drive tops overall ratings while Kiss 103.5 FM is first in 25-54s

With the continuing ICE enforcement and National Guard drama in Chicago, listeners tuned in to the city’s news, talk, and information stations in increasing numbers during the month of September in PPMs released earlier this week. 

Operation Midway Blitz was fanned across the nation’s third-largest radio and TV market in recent weeks with raids stretching from West Chicago to East Chicago (in Indiana) and points in-between. The ICE facility in west suburban Broadview has been the epicenter of madness, with protests, violent clashes with agents, and tear gas deployed. The media hasn’t been immune, as ICE agents attacked several reporters, including one throwing a canister unprovoked into the car of a CBS Chicago news reporter. A raid last week in Chicago’s South Shore community generated outrage from residents, politicans, and human rights activists. 

Moreover, there’s been ugly back-and-forth dialogue between President Trump on one side and Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker on the other over whether the National Guard should be deployed to Chicago. A judge Thursday announced a temporary restraining order against the government sending troops to Chicago, but some have already been deployed to the area. 

With all of this going on, Chicago’s radio listeners are increasingly tuning in to news outlets with Audacy’s WBBM NewsRadio being the main beneficiary as the all-news station moved up to a tie for third place with WLS-FM in the recent PPMs. Nexstar’s WGN-AM’s also benefited, moving into the top five at fifth place with Hubbard’s Hot AC 101.9 The Mix (WTMX), up 16 percent in share from August, with their best positioning in years. Chicago Public Media’s WBEZ was also up, finishing in 13th place and finishing fifth in the 25-54 demo with its best numbers since February.

Even Cumulus’ WLS-AM showed an increase in audience. Despite finishing 26th overall, the Conservative Talk station scored its best numbers in months, and had the highest-rated stream among all Chicago stations with a 0.7 share. As we are now in the October ratings period and the rhetoric has ratcheted up even more, we may see another increase among all four stations. 

In other news, Hubbard’s The Drive finished first in the overall September PPMs, holding off seven other stations who were within a share point for the lead, knocking iHeartMedia’s AC 93.9 The Lite to second place (don’t worry, WLIT will be back on top real soon as Christmas is just around the corner.) In the important 25-54 demo, The Drive tied for seventh while WLIT didn’t finish in the top ten at all. However, iHeartMedia made up for that with Top 40 Kiss FM (WKSC) finishing first, ahead of WTMX and TelevisaUnivision’s Regional Mexican WOJO-FM. 

For the first time in years, Audacy Classic Hip-Hop/R&B 104.3 Jams (WBMX) passed iHeartMedia’s Contemporary Hip-Hop/R&B WGCI with  the former finishing 17th and latter 18th overall. In the 18-49 and 25-54 demos, 104.3 Jams scored its best ratings in a year placing fourth and sixth respectively ahead of WGCI, which also fell hard in the 18-34s. Listeners preferring 1990s and 2000s Hip-Hop and R&B tunes to today’s music in the same genre? Given the quality, nobody should be surprised. 

What goes up must come down, and iHeartMedia’s Rock 95.5 (WCHI) came down hard in the September PPMs with the station giving back all of its tremendous gains from August as the rock station fell from fourth to seventeenth in the 18-34 demo and dropped from fourth to a tie in fifteenth with sister station V103. Overall, Rock 95.5 slipped 16 percent and fell into a tie in fifteenth with Q101 (WKQX.)

And speaking of V103, the Adult R&B station recently launched a rare TV commercial campaign and it may have worked: WVAZ moved up in the overall PPMs into a tie in ninth with WOJO with an eleven percent ratings increase. However, the station still ranked low in the 25-54 demo, finishing in a tie with Audacy’s WUSN, as the country station finished tenth behind WVAZ overall.