from the Washington Post
What a difference Howard Stern makes. Or more accurately, what a difference Howard Stern makes by not being on the local airwaves.
The morning shock jock's departure for satellite radio in January had a devastating impact on WJFK (106.7 FM), the local station that had carried his program, according to quarterly audience ratings compiled by Arbitron that were released yesterday.
Audiences deserted not only Stern's replacements in the morning, the Junkies, but also other programs that followed, including the stalwart afternoon team of Don Geronimo and Mike O'Meara. Sunup to sundown, WJFK lost roughly half its market share; it tumbled from an average of 3 percent of all local listeners to 1.6 percent during the ratings period, which covered January through March.
A similar sucking sound has been heard at other stations across the country that lost Stern's program. David Lee Roth -- Stern's replacement in New York and several other markets -- bombed so badly after less than three months on the air that he was replaced by the raunchy "Opie & Anthony" show (also heard on XM Satellite Radio) this week. Comedian Adam Carolla, who replaced Stern in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities, also has fared poorly.
The only consolation for WJFK, which is owned by CBS Radio, was that it wasn't worse. WJFK fell from fifth with Stern to ninth with the Junkies among 25- to 54-year-olds, the listeners most coveted by advertisers. By comparison, KLSX-FM in Los Angeles plummeted from No. 3 to No. 27 in the mornings with Carolla.
But the downward pull on the station was otherwise unmistakable. With the Junkies moving from middays to replace Stern, WJFK had to shuffle the rest of its lineup, bringing in two new midday shows and a syndicated evening talk show hosted by right-wing talker Jay Severin. All those moving pieces apparently hurt the "Don & Mike" show, whose audience share among adults 25-54 slipped 27 percent.
CBS's local chief, Michael Hughes, yesterday painted a silver lining on the ratings, saying that WJFK performed well, at least compared with other stations that lost Stern. "I would submit to you that the glass is more than half full," he said. "We anticipated taking a step backward. Replacing Howard Stern is a monumental feat, as we've seen in other markets. We feel we're off to a pretty good start."
The Junkies -- four local men who do a humorous show aimed at other guys -- lost about 40 percent of the adult (25-54) audience that Stern had. But the overall figure might mask some momentum. From a low ebb in January, the program began to pick up listeners in February and March, said Eric "E.B." Bickel, one of the Junkies. "We feel like we have a foundation that will grow," he said.
Stern's departure wasn't the only major change. It was an unusually tumultuous quarter, with Bonneville International Corp. shaking up the AM and FM dials by dropping music station Z104-FM and moving classical station WGMS and all-news WTOP AM-FM to new frequencies. The company also started WTWP AM-FM with The Washington Post (the station began March 30 and wasn't covered by these ratings).
Stations that made some major programming changes must wait to see whether those make much difference in future ratings periods. But the latest ratings offer a mixed verdict on whether the stations should have changed their programming.
WBIG (100.3 FM) improved its ratings with a format that it has since dropped. (In early April, the '60s oldies format was changed to add more '70s rock hits.) The station's "Murphy & Cash" morning program, now canceled, was a big winner during the quarter; its audience share increased nearly 50 percent, from 2.0 to 2.9.
WHUR (96.3 FM) -- which dropped its local morning show in March, amid listener protests, for a syndicated program starring comedian Steve Harvey -- was Washington's top-rated station for the quarter, moving up from third over perpetual rivals WMMJ (102.3 FM) and WPGC (95.5 FM). WHUR's decision to drop its "Real DC Morning Show" apparently is reflected by declining ratings. Although the station was the overall ratings winner, the morning program could manage no better than No. 6 among morning listen ers.
from The Washington Post
July 23, 2005
Longtime listeners of WHFS-FM (99.1) wailed when the pioneering alternative rock station dumped the Green Day and Foo Fighters tunes in January and began broadcasting Spanish-language pop music. For WHFS's mega-corporate owner, Infinity Broadcasting, however, the switch was all about defibrillating some flatlining ratings.
And that's exactly what Infinity has done. Now known as "El Zol" (officially, WLZL-FM), the station emerged as one of the big winners in the quarterly audience ratings compiled by radio researcher Arbitron Co.
El Zol's mix of lively DJs and upbeat music (salsa, merengue, reggaeton and other danceable tunes from the Caribbean and Latin America) helped the station finish a solid fifth in the Washington area among the young listeners (ages 18-34) Infinity is seeking. El Zol, which snagged a 5 percent slice of this youth market, according to Arbitron, still lags behind such music powerhouses as "urban" stations WPGC-FM (95.5) with 9.4 percent and WKYS-FM (93.9) with 8.0 percent, and "contemporary hits" Hot 99.5 (7.2 percent) among this age group.
But the real news is how far El Zol has come: The station is now attracting twice the share of young listeners as it did last fall, when it was still WHFS.
Lesson: Green Day, no. Juanes, sí.
"The plan is working famously," said Michael Hughes, the Infinity executive who oversaw the station's relaunch and is now its general manager. "What we had projected, and what we saw, is now becoming a reality. There was a tremendous audience that wasn't being served" by smaller, less powerful Spanish-language stations in the area.
The demise of WHFS has also been a boon to its closest competitor, rock station DC101 (WWDC-FM). With no rock left on 99.1, listeners have been moving up the dial to 101.1 in droves. DC101 moved from fifth to second among listeners ages 18-34, with an 8.8 percent share, during the April-June period. It also tied for fifth (up from a tie for 17th) among all stations in radio's moneyed middle segment, 25- to 54-year-olds. DC101's "Elliot in the Morning" program has even become a contender for this older audience, finishing fifth overall in the morning time slot, just one-tenth of a rating point behind the soon-to-depart-to-satellite-radio Howard Stern, heard on WJFK-FM (106.7).
Other radio ratings notes:
* Urban adult-contemporary station WHUR-FM (96.3) was the area's most popular station among the advertiser-coveted 25-54 audience this spring, the first time in recent memory that it carried the top spot.
* The Nationals baseball games on its flagship station, Z104 (WWZZ-FM, 104.1) this spring haven't exactly been a home run. Yes, the station has improved its ratings slightly among the 25-54 crowd (baseball's prime audience) during evening hours, but the actual number of listeners hasn't grown very much. To wit: Z104 attracted a cumulative audience of 69,700 people per week during the 7-to-midnight shift this spring, compared with 59,900 last spring without the Nationals. Z104 carries the bulk of Nationals games; sister station WFED (1050), airs games on the AM band.
* Mix 107.3's shift to a broader variety of pop music -- a hot new format in the radio industry known as "Jack" -- hasn't yet lit up listeners since it began in April. Mix (WRQX-FM) actually lost audience share from the preceding quarter, dropping from 4.5 percent to 3.9 percent in the 25-54 segment. The decline hit Mix's morning man Jack Diamond, whose program dropped from fourth to ninth among adult listeners.
* The post-election blahs continued at WMAL-AM (630), the news-and-talk station that features conservative yakkers Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Graham. The station, owned by the Walt Disney Co., recorded some of its lowest numbers ever among adult listeners, finishing 20th among all stations. During election season last fall, WMAL was the region's 11th-rated station, but its audience is off 45 percent since then.
from The Washington Times
By Chris Baker, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Spanish-language WLZL-FM achieves boost in desired listeners
The "sun" has risen.
Ratings surged in the winter for WLZL-FM (99.1), the Spanish-language music station that replaced longtime rocker WHFS Jan. 12, according to data released yesterday by the Arbitron Inc. research service.
WLZL bills itself as "El Zol," an unconventional spelling of the Spanish word for sun.
From early January through late March, the station captured 2.2 percent of listeners 12 and older in the Washington area, or about 70 percent more than WHFS did during the similar period in 2004.
The number of WLZL listeners between 25 and 54 - the demographic many radio advertisers crave - was about 80 percent higher than the number WHFS drew during winter 2004, when 99.1 still played Good Charlotte, Foo Fighters and other rock acts.
"There was such a hole in this market for a station to serve [the Hispanic] community. I am amazed at how quickly the word spread," said Michael Hughes, a senior vice president at Infinity Broadcasting Corp., which owns WLZL and several other stations in the Washington area.
Ratings for WLZL have grown, but it still isn't a top-tier station.
It ranked 17th among listeners 12 and older, up two spots from a year earlier, when WHFS ranked 19th.
Spanish-language stations have had stronger debuts in other cities. During the fall, an Atlanta station vaulted into second place in the ratings after flipping its format to Spanish.
As usual, the top spots in the Washington area in the winter belonged to urban music stations WPGC-FM (95.5) and WMMJ-FM (102.3), all-news broadcaster WTOP (1500 AM and 107.7 FM) and urban outlets WHUR-FM (96.3) and WKYS-FM (93.9).
Among the urban stations, WPGC and WKYS target younger listeners, while WHUR and WMMJ are geared toward an older audience.
The most popular hosts weekday mornings, when most people listen to the radio, were WPGC's Donnie Simpson, WMMJ's Tom Joyner, WTOP's Mike Moss and Richard Day, WKYS' Russ Parr and WJFK's Howard Stern, who is slated to move to a subscription-only satellite radio service next year.
WLZL's numbers could rise further as more fans discover it, Mr. Hughes said.
This month, Infinity began its first campaign to promote WLZL, running ads that feature pop singer Marc Anthony, whose music is in heavy rotation on El Zol, on the local Univision and Telemundo TV stations.
WHFS, in the meantime, lives on in Baltimore.
Infinity changed the call letters of 105.7 FM, a Charm City talk station it owns, to WHFS and began playing rock music during the evenings and on weekends after outcry from fans of the original WHFS, a local institution since the 1960s.
The result: The new WHFS soared to 10th place, capturing 3.1 percent of listeners 12 and older in Baltimore, up from 2.2 percent one year earlier.
Weekday evenings, it scored a 4.3 percent audience share, up from a 1.5 percent share.
Listeners were less enthused about the new sound at WWRC-AM (1260), which flipped from sports to a "progressive talk" format and added Al Franken, Ed Schultz and other liberal hosts to its lineup on Inauguration Day.
WWRC, although never a ratings winner, did not register at all during this year's winter ratings.
Other talkers fared better.
WMAL-AM (630), the home of syndicated talkers Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, moved up one spot to 10th place during the winter.
from the The Washington Times
January 20, 2005
Holiday-music season presented station with marketing opportunity.
Christmas came to WASH-FM (97.1) in November, when the soft-rock station made its annual switch to an all-holiday-music format in the month before the big holiday.
But Christmas came again yesterday when Arbitron Inc. released ratings that showed listenership for WASH surged during the holiday-music stunt.
The station rose to fifth place among listeners 12 and older during the period from Sept. 23 to Dec. 15. During the comparable period in 2003, WASH was in a three-way tie for eighth place with sister oldies station WBIG-FM (100.3) and news-and-talk station WMAL-AM (630).
"We treat Christmas as a marketing opportunity to bring people to the station," said Bill Hess, program director for WASH and WBIG. The station tries to lure listeners during the holidays and then keep them around the rest of the year with its regular mix of soft-rock artists such as Elton John and Rod Stewart, Mr. Hess said.
Other big gainers in the fall included news-and-talk station WMAL, which airs the syndicated Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity shows. WMAL ranked sixth in the fall, up from the three-way tie with WASH and WBIG for eighth-place tie in fall 2003.
Heavy interest in the presidential election helped WMAL's surge, said Chris J. Berry, the station's president and general manager.
"Everybody had the opportunity to cover the election, but not everyone could present it the way we did, with a lot of analysis," Mr. Berry said.
WHFS-FM (99.1), the rock station that flipped to a Spanish-language format last week, ranked 19th, the same spot it held in fall 2003.
Howard Stern, whose program is slated to move to satellite radio next year, tied with WASH's team of Loo Katz and Lori Brooks for ninth place during the morning drive. Among adults between ages 25 and 54, the group most advertisers try to reach, Mr. Stern fared better, ranking fifth.
The top morning show in both key demographics - listeners 12 and older and adults 25 to 54 - belonged to Mike Moss and Richard Day, the anchors at all-news station WTOP (1500 AM and 107.7 FM).
As usual, urban music stations WPGC-FM (95.5) and WMMJ-FM (102.3) and WTOP were the top three stations among listeners 12 and older overall.
The top three stations among adults 25 to 54 were WMMJ, WPGC and WASH.
from the Washington Post
October 21, 2004
If the summer Arbitron radio ratings tell us anything, it's this: WJFK is really going to miss Howard Stern come 2006, when he jumps to satellite radio.
Stern's summer of rage against President Bush, the Federal Communications Commission and radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications, which dropped him from its stations earlier this year, proved a ratings boon for the raunchy shock jock and his local station, according to the quarterly ratings report released yesterday.
Compared with last summer, Stern's morning show moved from sixth to fourth place among listeners age 25 to 54, or the "money demo," as radio executives are fond of calling it, since it's the demographic advertisers crave. Stern trailed No. 1-rated news powerhouse WTOP, which commanded 8 percent of those listeners.
Perennial Arbitron aces Tom Joyner of WMMJ and WPGC's Donnie Simpson remained comfortably in their top spots, placing second and third, respectively.
Stern moved to fourth place (from sixth) among listeners aged 18 to 34 and from ninth to the seventh spot among all listeners.
Stern announced earlier this month that he would leave his Viacom-syndicated program at the end of 2005 when his contract expires. He is signing on with Sirius Satellite Radio in response, he said, to stepped-up FCC efforts to censor him.
WTOP scored its highest summer number in station history among 25-to-54 listeners. The all-news station placed fourth, up from sixth last summer, trailing dominant urban radio stations WMMJ, WPGC and WHUR, which frequently occupy the top three spots.
WTOP Vice President Jim Farley credited the ratings success to the summer's political conventions -- the station sent a three-person team to both the Democratic and Republican infomercials -- as well as to cicadas and snakeheads. "We covered the things people were talking about," Farley said. "We made ourselves an information resource."
Oldies station WBIG, which last month fired half of its on-air staff, including nighttime DJ Jeff "Goldy" Gold and legend Johnny Dark, had a brutal summer. The station dropped six notches from last summer to 14th place among all listeners and from 10th to 13th in the coveted adult demographic.
The station has been shifting its playlist from the 1960s and early 1970s to more diverse music from the mid-'70s in hopes of drawing more of the valued 25-to-54-year-olds.
"The transitions that we've made will set us up nicely for the fall," WBIG program director Bill Hess said yesterday.
All-sports radio WTEM experienced a seismic shift in its audience of adult males. The station shot from 11th to sixth place, likely helped by the return of Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs.
WMAL, with its all-talk format, had one of the biggest growth spurts of all stations among adult males, vaulting from 19th place last summer to a tie for seventh in that group.
from The Washington Times
October 21, 2004
The all-news station (1500 AM and 107.7 FM) drew more summertime listeners than any of its competitors during the important morning drive period, Arbitron Inc. reported yesterday.
WTOP also scored the highest summer ratings in its history among adult listeners.
The novelty of the cicadas - the insects emerged from the earth in the spring after 17 years to mate and die - was one key to the station's success, said Jim Farley, its vice president of news and programming.
WTOP declared itself Washington's "Cicada Station" and provided hourly updates on the bugs during the late spring and early summer. It also had WJLA-TV (Channel 7) weatherman Doug Hill answer listeners' questions during the mornings and afternoons.
"We swarmed that story," Mr. Farley said.
WTOP also provided heavy coverage of the District's lead-in-the-water crisis and the return of the snakehead fish.
In addition, it sent three members of its on-air team - political analyst Mark Plotkin and reporters Dave McConnell and Mitch Miller - to the Democratic and Republican conventions, more than any TV or radio station in the Washington area.
WTOP ranked first in morning drive among all listeners, followed by urban music stations WMMJ-FM (102.3), WPGC-FM (95.5) and WKYS-FM (93.9); classical music station WGMS-FM (103.5); urban station WHUR-FM (96.3); talk stations WJFK-FM (106.7) and WMAL-AM (630); country station WMZQ-FM (98.7) and adult pop station WRQX-FM (107.3).
Morning drive is the most important time period in radio because it draws the most listeners.
WJFK, the station that carries Howard Stern's syndicated program, moved to seventh place during morning drive from ninth place last summer.
Among listeners between 25 and 54, the group most radio advertisers target, WJFK rose from fifth to third place in the morning.
Mr. Stern - a frequent target of the Federal Communications Commission's crackdown on programming it deems indecent - announced plans this month to move his show from the broadcast airwaves to subscription-based satellite radio in 2006.
WWDC-FM (101.1) - whose morning host, Elliot Segal, is another frequent FCC target - dropped to 12th place among all listeners during mornings from seventh place in summer 2003.
Among listeners 25 to 54, WWDC dropped from seventh to eighth place during mornings.
WBIG-FM (100.3), the oldies station that laid off much of its on-air staff this month, slipped to 14th place among all listeners from ninth place during summer 2003.
The top 10 stations overall were WPGC, WMMJ, WTOP, WGMS, WHUR, WKYS, jazz station WJZW-FM (105.9), WMZQ, soft rock station WASH-FM (97.1) and pop station WIHT-FM (99.5).
The top 10 stations among listeners 25 to 54 were WMMJ, WPGC, WHUR, WTOP, WKYS, WJFK, WASH, WRQX, WJZW and WMZQ.
from The Washington Post
July 24, 2004
This is what can be gleaned from the quarterly ratings report released by Arbitron yesterday:
Women like easy listening in the office; one quarter of decreased ratings means nothing among the popular urban radio stations; and bad traffic means great ratings if you happen to be in the news business.
With a pack of urban stations crowding the top five spots among 25- to 54-year-old listeners, including a big jump for drive-time hosts Tom Joyner (whose syndicated show is on WMMJ) and Donnie Simpson (at WPGC), the only alternative is the station at No. 3 -- WTOP, which continues to increase its healthy share of the local adult audience.
Ronald Reagan's funeral. The ongoing violence in Iraq. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The presidential campaign. A strong news cycle meant good news again for WTOP, which is about to go all-out with a three-person team at the political conventions. The station increased its ratings share from 5.3 to 5.5 among those 25 to 54, and from 5.9 to 6.4 among all listeners. Another news station, WMAL, also benefited, moving up from 11th to seventh among overall listeners.
But Jim Farley, WTOP's vice president of news and programming, attributes his station's continued strength not to big stories but rather to big gridlock.
"Our competitors have always said that when we get a great book, that was because of this story or that story, but there's always something," he says. "We took a big spike toward the end of this book for the Reagan funeral. Not because of the news . . . but because everyone in town wanted to know about the traffic."
The top-of-the-chart tango that generally takes place among the urban stations was won by WMMJ when it comes to listeners in the 25-to-54 audience (7.6 rating), followed by WGPC (6.6). Among all listeners, the two stations flip-flopped, with WPGC clocking a 6.9, followed narrowly by WMMJ's 6.8. For both stations, those numbers reflected significant increases from the winter ratings.
In the morning drive-time slot -- radio's most lucrative hours -- WMMJ (with Joyner) jumped from a 5.9 share in the adult category to an 8.0, and WPGC (with Simpson) improved from 5.2 to 6.8.
The top five were rounded out by WKYS and WJFK. The latter's afternoon team of Don Geronimo and Mike O'Meara -- who've toned down their naughty show since the FCC began its recent crackdown on such subject matter -- were tops among adults in their afternoon time slot, going from a 6.0 to a 7.5.
Howard Stern wasn't as lucky. Up last quarter despite massive FCC fines and the loss of six stations, which drew on-air tirades from him, Stern had a small decline in the spring, going from 5.5 in the 25-to-54 age group to a 5.4 and a fourth-place finish in the morning sweeps, down from third in the winter period.
A winner for the quarter was WASH-FM, which bills itself as an "at-work" radio station. Ranked 12th among 25- to 54-year-old listeners last spring, the station moved up to sixth place and a 4.9 market share, and it leads the pack in attracting women listeners at work.
For WTOP, the ratings were more good news. Earlier in the week, it learned that its team of Mike Moss and Richard Day is a finalist for a National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Radio Award in the category of "major market personality of the year" -- an unusual honor for an all-news station. Winners will be announced in October.
from the Washington Post
April 28, 2004
All this talk about indecency on the airwaves hasn't been completely bad news for Howard Stern. The radio shock jock, who rants regularly about an increasingly vigilant Federal Communications Commission, is getting some of his best Arbitron ratings ever.
In Los Angeles, Stern's morning show finished No. 1 among adult listeners for the first time since 1995, according to the latest ratings. He also finished first in New York, where he got his best numbers in four years.
The trend continues locally, judging from the winter ratings, which were released for this market yesterday.
Stern's show on WJFK-FM placed third among the advertiser-coveted 25-to-54 crowd, his best finish in more than a year. Among listeners 18 to 34 years old, Stern is up 40 percent from the fall, when the last Arbitron ratings were released.
Stern's latest troubles began in February when Clear Channel Communications announced it was dropping him from its six stations after the radio host used sexually explicit language and graphically discussed a pornographic video during his show.
The suspension followed Clear Channel's firing of another shock jock, Todd Clem, aka Bubba the Love Sponge.
"When stuff like this makes it to the mainstream news media, people who haven't heard Stern for a while tune in to hear what he's going to say next," Joe Howard, associate editor of the trade publication Radio and Records, said yesterday.
An FCC spokesman would only say that the commission "would never comment on any ratings of any show for any reason."
In March, the commission fined Clear Channel $247,500 for indecency violations for another of its radio bad boys, Elliot Segal. Segal, who is locally produced, also has seen an upswing in his ratings.
His "Elliot in the Morning Show" on WWDC-FM jumped from 11th to ninth place with 25-to-54-year-olds, and he increased his 18-to-34 audience by about 20 percent. Segal's is the No. 3 morning show with the younger crowd, behind FM music stations WPGC and WKYS.
All-news WTOP-AM claimed first place in morning drive time for the second consecutive ratings period and for the third time in the last four quarters.
"We're thrilled because in New York and Los Angeles, Stern shot to number one in the mornings," said Jim Farley, WTOP's vice president of news and programming. "I was bracing for something like that. We held him off."
Farley added that his station's numbers were boosted by another hard winter as listeners turned to it for school and government closings.
WMMJ-FM notched its third ratings win in a row among listeners ages 25 to 54.
WPGC-FM, usually right on its heels, plummeted to fifth place.
WHUR-FM jumped to second place for the first time in more than a year.
WPGC's morning show with Donnie Simpson nose-dived from second to fifth place among adults but is still tops with younger listeners.
Overall, WPGC is the top station among all listeners throughout the day, but most radio advertisers target the 25-to-54 market because that's where the money is.
from DCRTV
March 30, 2004
D&M Take A Dive, TOP Flies High, ERQ & POC Top Baltimore - 3/30 - WJFK-FM's Don and Mike (right) continue to sink in the latest Arbitrends. Down to 14th place (from last spring's 3rd) in PM drive among all listeners. And, they plunge to a 6th place tie (from last spring's 2nd) among the age 25-54 crowd. WTOP's AM team of Mike and Richard and PM team of Shawn and Diane continue to dominate the DC radio kingdom among age 12+ers and 25-54ers. Over at WMAL, Andy and Grandy rank a lowly 15th among 25-54ers in mornings. Here are the overall age 12+ numbers.
Full week: 1) WMMJ, 2) WPGC-FM and WTOP, 4) WGMS, 5) WKYS, 6) WHUR and WASH, 8) WJZW, 9) WMAL, 10) WMZQ, 11) WBIG and WRQX, 13) WIHT, 14) WWDC, 15) WJFK-FM, 16) WARW, 17) WBZS/WBPS, 18) WWZZ/WWVZ, 19) WTEM, 20) WAVA and WHFS.
AM drive: 1) WTOP, 2) WMMJ, 3) WPGC-FM, 4) WKYS, 5) WRQX, 6) WMAL, 7) WGMS, 8) WWDC, 9) WASH, 10) WMZQ, 11) WHUR, 12) WJFK-FM, 13) WBIG and WJZW, 15) WIHT, 16) WARW, 17) WAVA, 18)WBZS/WBPS, 19) WWZZ/WWVZ, 20) WOL and WFRE and WTEM.
--snips--
Baltimore, full week, age 12+: 1) WERQ and WPOC, 3) WLIF, 4) WBAL-AM, 5) WWIN-FM, 6) WQSR, 7) WWMX, 8) WSMJ, 9) WIYY, 10) WCAO, 11) WHFS, 12) WCBM and WZBA, 14) WXYV, 15) WWLG, 16) WRBS.
--snips--
from the Washington Post
October 15, 2003
Look out, donkeys, the Junkies are on your tail.
Less than one year into their morning drive-time stint on WHFS-FM, the "Junkies in the Morning" (formerly known as "the Sports Junkies") are gaining popularity in the young adult audience that generally has been the domain of WJFK-FM's "Howard Stern Show" and WWDC-FM's "Elliot in the Morning."
In summer radio ratings compiled by radio-rater Arbitron Inc., the Junkies found themselves tied for fourth place with Stern, with a 5.6 rating among 18-to-34-year-old listeners for their time slot and closing in on Elliot's show on DC-101, which drew 8 percent of those listeners. Last summer, Stern commanded that audience with 11.6 percent; Elliot followed with 9.7. And WHFS-FM -- which took the Junkies from their evening slot over at WJFK and put them on the air last October -- was pulling in a lowly 2.1.
Urban-music stations WKYS-FM and WPGC-FM continue to lead the time slot in the young adult category, clocking in at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. And although John-Paul "J.P." Flaim says he and the three longtime friends who make up the Junkies would "love to be Number 1," there's no question who their primary rivals are.
"We're happy that we've closed the gap on our main competition, Howard and Elliot," Flaim says. "We want to catch those donkeys. They're within our reach now."
For those who are not listeners, "donkey" is one of the Junkies' favorite terms, one that can, occasionally, be used with affection. Mostly, though, it means, as Flaim puts it, "an idiot."
In this case it means the two guys who most closely target the same listeners as the Junkies: predominantly young white males. Guys like themselves.
All born in 1970, Flaim and childhood buddies Eric Bickel, Jason Bishop and John Auville grew up together in Bowie, and their show essentially sounds like four good buddies sitting around talking "guy talk" -- which means everything from the Redskins' offensive-line woes to how annoyed Bishop was last night when his wife went out to dinner and stuck him with a screaming 2-month-old during the Red Sox-Yankees playoff game. The change from their WJFK name of "The Sports Junkies" reflects the fact that the Junkies don't focus on sports exclusively, though it is certainly one of their more favored subjects.
"The thing that separates our show from most shows is the natural chemistry the four of us have," Flaim says. "We're like longtime buddies hanging out at a bar, but with a microphone between us."
In radio's most lucrative audience, 25-to-54-year-old listeners, the summer showing by urban-music WMMJ-FM seems to indicate that its fall from first to third in the spring quarter was a fluke. WMMJ is back on top with 8.1 percent of those listeners throughout the broadcast day and 8.2 percent (up from 6.2) in the crucial morning drive-time period of 6 to 10 a.m. The loser is all-news WTOP (1500 AM/107.7 FM), which spiked to first place in the spring in both categories (fueled by heavy news interest generated by the war in Iraq) but fell to No. 6 in the adult listener category and No. 2 in the morning. WPGC-FM continued to be No. 1 among listeners 12 and older.
Rush Limbaugh, who announced last week that he's battling an addiction to painkillers and will take a leave of absence from his talk show to try to kick the habit, also saw his winter-spring Washington honeymoon come to an end. After rising from 17th last fall to eighth this spring among 25-to-54-year-old listeners in the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. time slot (the show airs from noon to 3 p.m. on WMAL-AM), Limbaugh was back at No. 17.
"We saw significant growth in this day part last spring because of the impact and the follow-up to the war in Iraq," says WMAL President Chris Berry, who adds he was not surprised by the changes. "Summer books don't have as much news listening because people are out and on vacation."
from DCRTV
October 14, 2003
Morning drive, age 12+: WMMJ and WTOP 1st, WPGC-FM 3rd, WKYS 4th, WGMS 5th, WRQX 6th, WMAL and DC101 7th, WJFK-FM and WMZQ 9th. In the age 25-54 demo: WMMJ 1st, WTOP 2nd, WPGC-FM 3rd, WKYS 4th, WRQX 5th, WJFK-FM 6th, DC101 7th, WHUR 8th, WMZQ 9th, WJZW 10th.
--snips--
Baltimore's numbers have again been embargoed.....
from DCRTV
August 19, 2003
--snips--
In AM drive: WTOP was 1st, WPGC-FM 2nd, WMMJ 3rd, WKYS 4th, WJFK-FM 5th, WMAL 6th, WGMS and WMZQ 7th, WWDC 9th, and WBIG and WRQX 10th.
--snips--
Baltimore's radio ratings have again been embargoed.....
from the Washington Post
April 24, 2003
With its mix of old and new R&B music, WMMJ-FM ("Magic 102.3") usually contends for the title of most popular radio station in the Washington area. But during the most recent quarterly rating period, there wasn't much contending: WMMJ ran away from the pack.
The station, which features nationally syndicated morning man Tom Joyner, scored a clean sweep, finishing first among adult listeners (ages 25 to 54) in the morning, afternoon, evening and late night, according to figures released yesterday by radio-rater Arbitron Inc. "Magic" was, in fact, the market leader around the clock all week among all listeners (ages 12 and up).
But it wasn't just the fact of the station's leadership that impressed rival radio station types; it was also the margin. Morning till night, all week long, the station averaged 21 percent more adult listeners than its closest rival, WPGC-FM.
Michele Williams-Dressekie, the general manager of WMMJ and three other local stations owned by Radio One of Lanham, said there was no magic to the big win. "The best I can tell is that it must be because we're playing what people want to hear," she said, citing contemporary vocalists such as Heather Headley and Kelly Price. She added: "Magic has consistently been consistent. We've freshened up [the playlist] some, but we are what we are: an adult contemporary urban station."
WMMJ and WPGC, along with WHUR-FM and WKYS-FM (also owned by Radio One), are the Big Four of "urban" music in Washington, typically hovering near the top of every Arbitron ranking.
Although blacks make up only 26 percent of the Washington area's radio audience, they tend to be extremely loyal listeners ("Magic's" audience is about 90 percent black, according to Williams-Dressekie). The non-black D.C. area audience, although sizable, is typically scattered among two dozen competing stations.
The area's only all-news radio outlet, WTOP, finished third, apparently helped by interest in the buildup to the war in Iraq (the war itself didn't begin until near the end of the January-to-March rating period).
Jim Farley, WTOP's vice president of news and programming, said the station's audience totals were its highest ever for a winter period, although down slightly from the fall quarter, when "everyone was glued to us" for coverage of the sniper story.
Conservative talkers Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity also seemed to benefit from the war clouds; ratings for their syndicated daily shows on WMAL-AM shot up 43 percent and 44 percent, respectively, compared with their fall totals.
However, WMAL's locally produced morning talk show continued to struggle. The drive-time program with Andy Parks, Bill Press and Jane Norris dropped from 12th to 15th among adult listeners. "We're still in a shakedown period," WMAL President Chris Berry said of the morning show. "We're going to be making some adjustments and tweaks," although he wouldn't say what.
Bill O'Reilly's syndicated afternoon talk show on WJFK-FM didn't benefit from the prewar buildup. His ratings were down 16 percent, dropping him from 10th overall to 14th.
The big story in morning drive time -- radio's most lucrative advertising period -- may be the intensifying competition for younger listeners. The often raunchy "Hot Morning Mess" with Mark Kaye and Kris Gamble on Top 40 WIHT-FM ("Hot 99.5") nearly doubled its audience of 18-to-34-year-olds, rising from 11th to sixth in that category. Over on WHFS-FM, "The Sports Junkies" also improved dramatically, tying WMMJ's Joyner for the seventh spot, up from 10th.
from DCRTV
April 23, 2003
MMJ Tops DC Radio Ratings - 4/23 - Winter Arbitrons for DC. While TOP was down a bit from the sniper coverage of fall, the beginning of Iraq war was good for the news station. Rush and Sean Hannity are on an upswing at MAL, but still some work needed for the morning show and Chris Core. MMJ sees a huge jump in PM drive. Don and Mike do well on JFK-FM, but still got beat by MMJ and TOP. JFK posts overall losses from fall and the previous winter book. And a solid performance for ARW, plus a nice uptick for the Junks on HFS. And now the numbers.
Full week, age 12+: 1. urban adult WMMJ, 2. urban WPGC-FM, 3. news WTOP, 4. classical WGMS and urban WKYS, 6. urban adult WHUR, 7. news talk WMAL, 8. hot adult contemporary WRQX, 9. smooth jazz WJZW and adult contemporary WASH, 11. rhythmic contemporary WIHT, 12. oldies WBIG, 13. country WMZQ, 14. hot talk WJFK-FM, 15. classic rock WARW, 16. rock WWDC, 17. Spanish contemporary WBZS/WBPS, 18. hot adult contemporary WWZZ/WWVZ, 19. sports talk WTEM, 20. religious talk WAVA and alternative rock WHFS.
Full week, age 25-54: 1. WMMJ, 2. WPGC-FM, 3. WHUR and WTOP, 5. WRQX, 6. WKYS, 7. WASH, 8. WJFK-FM, 9. WARW, 10. WJZW and WGMS, 12. WMZQ and WBIG, 14. WMAL, 15. WWDC, 16. WWZZ, 17. WIHT, 18. WTEM, 19. WPGC-AM and WBZS.
Morning drive, age 12+: 1. WMMJ, 2. WTOP, 3. WPGC-FM, 4. WKYS, 5. WRQX, 6. WMAL, 7. WJFK-FM, 8. WGMS, 9. WHUR, 10. WBIG.
Morning drive, age 25-54: 1. WMMJ, 2. WTOP, 3. WPGC-FM, 4. WRQX, 5. WJFK-FM and WKYS, 7. WASH, 8. WHUR, 9. WWDC, 10. WMZQ and WBIG.
Afternoon drive, age 12+: 1. WPGC-FM, 2. WTOP, 3. WMMJ, 4. WMAL, 5. WJFK-FM, 6. WKYS, 7. WGMS, 8. WJZW and WIHT, 10. WHUR.
Afternoon drive, age 25-54: 1. WMMJ, 2. WTOP, 3. WJFK-FM, 4. WPGC-FM, 5. WHUR, 6. WMAL, 7. WRQX, 8. WKYS, 9. WJZW, 10. WASH. More at R&R.....
from DCRTV
January 13, 2003
PGC-FM Tops Fall Radio Numbers - 1/13 - The fall Arbitrons for DC are out on 1/13. The overall age 12+ numbers: (1) urban WPGC-FM, (2) adult urban WMMJ and all-news WTOP, (4) urban WKYS, (5) classical WGMS and adult urban WHUR, (7) adult contemporary WASH (Clear Channel got one of its eight stations in the top 10), (8) smooth jazz WJZW, (9) news talk WMAL, (10) hot talk WJFK-FM and hot adult contemporary WRQX, (12) oldies WBIG, (13) rocker DC101, (14) contemporary WIHT, (15) country WMZQ and classic rock WARW, (17) modern adult contemporary WWZZ/WWVZ, (18) sports talk WTEM, (19) alternative rock WHFS, and (20) Spanish contemporary WBZS/WBPS.
JFK-FM saw its PM drive numbers climb since Don and Mike returned to PM drive late last summer. Among the overall age 12+ demo, old 106.7 jumped from Opie and Anthony's anemic 18th to 6th. Plus, with D&M's help, JFK-FM went from 9th to 1st for men18+, 10th to 1st for men 18-44, 6th to 1st for men 18-49, and from 8th to 1st for men 25-54.
WTOP took 1st among both 12+ers and 25-54ers in both AM and PM drive. Among the latter demo in AM drive, JFK-FM (Stern) was 2nd, MMJ (Joyner) 3rd, PGC-FM (Simpson) 4th, RQX (Diamond) 5th, KYS (Parr) 6th, DC101 (Elliot) 7th, WASH (Brady) 8th, HUR (Monds) 9th, JZW (Santos) 10th. WMZQ's Ben and Brian kicked-off in 16th place, down from last spring's 8th for Murphy and Cash.
Rush Limbaugh held steady at 17th on MAL in middays among 25-54ers, with JFK-FM dropping from 1st to 10th with D&M leaving the slot. More demographic breakdowns are in our News Archive. Baltimore and Fredericksburg numbers later.....
from the DCRTV News Archive
January 13, 2003
Fall Arbitron Demo Breakdowns
Some more numbers from the fall 2002 Arbitron radio ratings for the DC market.
--snips--
Mon-Fri, 6 AM-10 AM, age 12+: 1) WTOP, 2) WMMJ, 3) WPGC-FM, 4) WJFK-FM, 5) WMAL and WKYS, 7) WRQX, 8) WWDC, 9) WASH, 10) WGMS, 11) WJZW and WBIG, 13) WHUR, 14) WIHT, 15) WMZQ and WWZZ/WWVZ, 17) WARW, 18) WOL, 19) WBZS/WBPS and WHFS.
--snips--
Mon-Fri, 6 AM-10 AM, age 25-54: 1) WTOP, 2) WJFK-FM, 3) WMMJ, 4) WPGC-FM, 5) WRQX, 6) WKYS, 7) WWDC, 8) WASH, 9) WHUR, 10) WJZW, 11) WBIG, 12) WMAL, 13) WGMS and WARW, 15) WWZZ/WWVZ, 16) WMZQ, 17) WBZS/WBPS, 18) WAVA and WHFS, 20) WTEM.
More Washington, DC Ratings and Updates are available here.
Back to ratings.
This page © 2001-2006 by The Complete Howard Stern Links!