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WLS AM ratings back in the day......

B

Billkex

Guest
What kind of ratings did WLS 890 pull in back in their heyday (1960s, 1970s, etc.)
It would be interesting to see what the %'s were for Chicago radio stations 40-50 years ago.

Is there any data that can be found?
 
Billkex said:
What kind of ratings did WLS 890 pull in back in their heyday (1960s, 1970s, etc.)
It would be interesting to see what the %'s were for Chicago radio stations 40-50 years ago.

Is there any data that can be found?
Click to expand...

I don't have the numbers, but David Eduardo might. I know that in the early 60s Dick Biondi's 9-midnight show had very large numbers. I
think when Art Roberts had that slot later on he had very good numbers too.

In the 70s Larry Lujack had excellent ratings in the morning. I think only Wally Phillips on WGN was higher and occasionally Lujack surpassed
him. Hopefully somebody has the actual ratings.
 
radioman148 said:
I don't have the numbers, but David Eduardo might. I know that in the early 60s Dick Biondi's 9-midnight show had very large numbers. I
think when Art Roberts had that slot later on he had very good numbers too.

In the 70s Larry Lujack had excellent ratings in the morning. I think only Wally Phillips on WGN was higher and occasionally Lujack surpassed
him. Hopefully somebody has the actual ratings.
Click to expand...


He might, but it is hard to say which topics he will reply to, through he mainly posts on the current radio ratings.
 
radioman148 said:
I don't have the numbers, but David Eduardo might. I know that in the early 60s Dick Biondi's 9-midnight show had very large numbers. I
think when Art Roberts had that slot later on he had very good numbers too.

In the 70s Larry Lujack had excellent ratings in the morning. I think only Wally Phillips on WGN was higher and occasionally Lujack surpassed
him. Hopefully somebody has the actual ratings.
Click to expand...

Per the WLS tribute site "Art Roberts, who also interviewed the Fab Four, racked up with an incredible 62% audience share at night "

I've never heard of any surviving Pulse or Hooper ratings, but it would not surprise me that the station had huge number.

It was even #1 in a 1963 local survey I saw from Traverse City, MI.
 
David, owing to its position in the Midwest, did WLS have more total nocturnal listeners than WABC did?
 
Kemosabe said:
David, owing to its position in the Midwest, did WLS have more total nocturnal listeners than WABC did?
Click to expand...

I won't speak for David, but based on personal experience WLS covered more of the deep south and west than WABC did. WLS also had more listeners in the central and Rocky Mountain parts of Canada. WLS could be heard often on the west coast at night in the 60s, 70s, & early 80s. WABC usually could not be heard in the far west because of KOB. Chicago's midwest location made this possible. Whether the greater listening area at night translated to more actual people listening to WLS during skywave hours, I'm not sure.
 
Kemosabe said:
David, owing to its position in the Midwest, did WLS have more total nocturnal listeners than WABC did?
Click to expand...

No way of knowing today. Most ratings from that period were Pulse and Hooper, and have not survived.

And back then, the ratings were for the core metro, not the surrounding far suburban areas and not at all for small markets or rural areas.

But the population density in the NYC area was much greater. And NYC was by itself a much bigger market. So likely it was WABC that won the night ratings, with KOMA in there as a significant contender. KOMA, in fact, actually had ads that mentioned shows and movie openings as far away as Ruidoso, NM, Lamar, CO, and Sidney, MT. It had an absolutely huge night audience but not large base market to build upon.
 
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KOMA indeed was a monster at night through the great plains, Canada, and the Rocky Mountain west. We could hear it pretty well in the Chicago area. WKBW was basically invisible to us.
 
radioman148 said:
I won't speak for David, but based on personal experience WLS covered more of the deep south and west than WABC did. WLS also had more listeners in the central and Rocky Mountain parts of Canada. WLS could be heard often on the west coast at night in the 60s, 70s, & early 80s. WABC usually could not be heard in the far west because of KOB. Chicago's midwest location made this possible. Whether the greater listening area at night translated to more actual people listening to WLS during skywave hours, I'm not sure.
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That is good as you can speak for yourself, and David is very capable of speaking for himself. Just like I am capable of speaking for myself. And as he said there is no way of knowing this today, adjust like with old tv programs and let of them weren't eft , were they were recorded over, and there is only a handful son shows that remain today.
 
Here are the earliest Chicago ARBs I have:

Fall 1970

WGN—12.9
WLS—11.8
WAIT—8.3
WCFL—8.2
WBBM-7.7

The odd things about these numbers is that a daytimer is number 3 and has better ratings than WMAQ or WIND.
 
Where I grew up, it was only possible on the best radios to hear WLS 890 when WFDF 910 was on the air until 12:30 AM. There was a place where you could hear WLS 890 and WOKY 920 in the Daytime, at a receiving location in a null a few miles away, on a Delco car radio. The three towers for WFDF were located at the SW corner of Bristol Rd. and Howe Rd. in Burton, MI from 1941 until 2006, when they moved to an 8 tower 50/25 U4 facility just North of Carleton, MI. Right across the street, off Bristol Rd., was/is a Subdivision called Radio Acres. The street in the Subdivision was/is ironically named "Ellis Park Drive", where the WFDF signal was well over 1 volt/meter Day and Night, and WLS could never be heard while WFDF was on the air.

So in the outlying areas in the nulls generally to the South of the local Top 40 stations, the signal of choice was WCFL 1000, which was much stronger than WLS. As I measured with a real FI meter, the WCFL skywave signal maxed out around 10 mV/m. Due to the 190 degree WLS tower, the vertical radiation characteristic was less than WCFL's various circa 180 degree towers, and the IDF was much higher in the near maximum 80 degree azimuth direction. I never saw any ratings which included WCFL though.
 
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briancraig said:
Here are the earliest Chicago ARBs I have:

Fall 1970

WGN—12.9
WLS—11.8
WAIT—8.3
WCFL—8.2
WBBM-7.7

The odd things about these numbers is that a daytimer is number 3 and has better ratings than WMAQ or WIND.
Click to expand...

WAIT played "The Worlds most beautiful music" (their description). At that time FM hadn't yet made major inroads. Lots of people in their 40s or 50s had WAIT on all day.
 
My informal survey of my high school peer group in a small town in Western Ohio was that WLS won the night. I seemed to be the only person who knew of WABC's existence, though arguably WABC had a better signal due to WLS's skywave/groundwave cancellation issue. We had a booming signal from CKLW during the daytime, and top 40 from WMEE in Fort Wayne, both of which we lost at night. If you only had AM in the car, it was WOWO or WLS at night
 
gr8oldies said:
My informal survey of my high school peer group in a small town in Western Ohio was that WLS won the night. I seemed to be the only person who knew of WABC's existence, though arguably WABC had a better signal due to WLS's skywave/groundwave cancellation issue. We had a booming signal from CKLW during the daytime, and top 40 from WMEE in Fort Wayne, both of which we lost at night. If you only had AM in the car, it was WOWO or WLS at night
Click to expand...

FWIW....Where I was in southeast Iowa, we were almost totally dependent on skywave for AM radio at night. KAAY had the best top-40 signal and was probably the clear winner in the dorms. KOMA a reasonably close second....and probably #1 among those with good radios. WABC and XERF with Wolfman Jack were also in the nighttime mix.

WLS had a good following during the day, but suffered from signal cancellation issues at night.
 
cyberdad said:
FWIW....Where I was in southeast Iowa, we were almost totally dependent on skywave for AM radio at night. KAAY had the best top-40 signal and was probably the clear winner in the dorms. KOMA a reasonably close second....and probably #1 among those with good radios. WABC and XERF with Wolfman Jack were also in the nighttime mix.

WLS had a good following during the day, but suffered from signal cancellation issues at night.
Click to expand...

I take it you couldn’t hear much, if any WCFL at night in Iowa. Where I went to college in De Kalb WCFL sounded like they were a thousand miles away at night.
 
I've mentioned my experience with WLS when I lived in Quincy, IL and commuted to Hannibal, MO. Cross that bridge during the day from Quincy into MO and it was like you had just re-connected the radio to the antenna.

I should have mentioned that at home in Ohio, youthful FM radios were tuned to WPTH, Fort Wayne carrying TM Stereo Rock after 1974. I listened a lot to WLBC-FM, Muncie IN, with Drake-Chenault's "Solid Gold".



cyberdad said:
FWIW....Where I was in southeast Iowa, we were almost totally dependent on skywave for AM radio at night. KAAY had the best top-40 signal and was probably the clear winner in the dorms. KOMA a reasonably close second....and probably #1 among those with good radios. WABC and XERF with Wolfman Jack were also in the nighttime mix.

WLS had a good following during the day, but suffered from signal cancellation issues at night.
Click to expand...
 
radioman148 said:
I take it you couldn’t hear much, if any WCFL at night in Iowa. Where I went to college in De Kalb WCFL sounded like they were a thousand miles away at night.
Click to expand...
At night, WCFL was present, but with lots of fades and distortion. XEOY was almost always underneath. And then there was the matter of loads of splatter from CBW. So the bottom line is that WCFL was mostly unlistenable. That said, once in a (very great) while, conditions would be just right, and you might be able to catch an hour or two of Dick Biondi without getting a headache.

The day signal also made it to my location. But weak, and with the now-defunct WCAZ providing the splatter from 990. There was no shortage of WCFL fans on campus, but they all waited until they went home to listen.
 
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radioman148 said:
I take it you couldn’t hear much, if any WCFL at night in Iowa. Where I went to college in De Kalb WCFL sounded like they were a thousand miles away at night.
Click to expand...

You could definitely hear WCFL nightly at my college location, but the signal was very fade prone. XEOY was underneath 90% of the time. CBW splattered all over the channe. So the bottom line is that WCFL was mostly unlistenable. That said, once in a (very great) while conditions would be just right, and you might be able to catch an hour or two of Dick Biondi without getting a headache.

The day signal also made it to my location. But weak, and with the now-defunct WCAZ providing the splatter from 990.
 
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