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April Chicago Radio Ratings

briancraig said:
Don't forget WGN, WMAQ and WBBM. Chicago had more signals that could be heard long distance in much of the United States than any other city.

Even in the 1970s, WLS was the top 40 at night for much of the rural Midwest and South. WMAQ's overnight country show with Fred Sanders was (along with WWL, WSM and WBAP) important to truck drivers even in the 1980s.

Franklyn MacCormack's all night WGN show is still talked about among the few fans today of easy listening/standards. Later Great Music From Chicago with Jay Andres continued that tradition on WGN until about 1981.

WBBM's Music Til Dawn was an important outlet for classical/semi classical in the 1960s and before WCFL went top 40, their overnight jazz show with Sid McCoy and Yvonne Daniels was probably the most important jazz program in the country.

And now people say Rockford has better radio than Chicago. What a change from the 1960s/1970s. I remember a Larry King show where he did a special about radio broadcasting and the guests all agreed that Chicago had the best radio of any market including New York and Los Angeles.
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I agree. I mentioned WLS and WCFL because many of us were kids during that era, and later grew into WIND, WGN, etc. Being in Genesee County, WMAQ was quite a bit stronger than WLS and WCFL in the Daytime, and I did listen to the AC format. One early memory I had of DXing in the Daytime was of sitting in the 1961 Olds, the last Delco tube car radio we had, and hearing WGN 720, CBL 740, and WJR 760 all playing the same Symphony Concert they used to broadcast on weekends.

I always remember my Uncle playing WIND on his car radio and hearing the instrumental of "Groovin'" by Booker T. and the MGs, and various vocal remakes suitable for MOR/AC like Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 "Scarborough Fair", and "Fool On The Hill". AC evolved over the next few years into "Chicken Rock", a watered down Top 40 format, with just the hard rock removed and a few mellower selections further down the Hot 100 in their place. Eventually, even WLS had some slight Dayparting while the kids were at school and the Moms were at home listening. When I was in school, if you got caught with transistor radio at school, at the very least the teacher confiscated it until the end of the day. Exceptions were NASA manned rocket launches and World Series broadcasts.
 
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For those (like me) who like a hard rocking, relatively metal friendly station - I-Rock 93.5 in the Quad Cities is terrific. The gold selection on the station is excellent by FM radio standards, certainly on par with Sirius XM Turbo and Sirius XM Lithium.

Hard to believe Townsquare owns that station, because in recent years, other Active Rock outlets owned by the company have gone pretty limp with their music.
 
Based on their printed music surveys, WIND was “heavier” than I would’ve expected for a gold based AC. In 1974, they list songs like Sweet Home Alabama and Takin’ Care of Business. BTO’s You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet was their number one of the year and Grand Funk’s Loco-Motion was number 2.

Guess the debate about how soft or heavy AC should be is not new.
 
briancraig said:
Based on their printed music surveys, WIND was “heavier” than I would’ve expected for a gold based AC. In 1974, they list songs like Sweet Home Alabama and Takin’ Care of Business. BTO’s You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet was their number one of the year and Grand Funk’s Loco-Motion was number 2.

Guess the debate about how soft or heavy AC should be is not new.
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WIND also emphasized alot of oldies. One year they had a Top 500 countdown of all time songs from 1955 thru whatever year in the 70s they played.
 
I remember passing the WIND 560 towers in Indiana in 1973 and hearing “We’re An American Band” and I know the ACs in Southeast Michigan didn’t play it. They did play “Bad Time” later. I remember the DJ on WXYZ 1270 saying that Grand Funk had mellowed out enough for their format, although it didn’t chart AC.
 
MarkW said:
I'll let it go if & when iHM delivers a decent product to the rock audience of Chicago. Not sure why you are so bothered by my criticism of a radio station.

Because so many corporate radio types are arrogant and stubborn, I suspect little meaningful change to the playlist will occur anytime soon.

Milwaukee, Rockford, South Bend, Kenosha / Waukegan, and Quad Cities all have outstanding hard rock stations. What does Chicago have? Rock 95.5, programmed by a guy who probably hates listening to rock music on his own time, unless it's something from 40+ years ago.

Remember the song snippets featured in the launch video? Talk about bait-and-switch...

Want to hear what a great contemporary hard rock station sounds like? Check out 104.9 The X in Rockford; they're one of my favorites these days. I've noticed the small & medium market stations often sound better than their major & large market counterparts from a music standpoint especially.
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Because your criticism is CONSTANT!

I have yet to hear a perfect station in any market.

I was a fan of WAAF (Boston) back in the day, but there were still things that bothered me. I was also a fan of Lazer 103 and 93 QFM in Milwaukee back in the day, yet neither was perfect... There was a rocker out of Grand Rapids that I liked too, still not perfect.

Here in Chicago, We've had The Blaze, Rock 103.5, 94.7 the Zone and while I enjoyed all of them, they still had faults.

I'm ok with Rock 95.5. I have issued my criticisms in multiple posts and the 95.5 thread. So yea, they're not perfect either. Shit, even my sister whom I took to the airport for her flight back to Orlando even made fun of Conrad Cooper... Her words... "He sounds like a doosh..."

But we get it, you hate the station... Move on. These stations need to hit a broader target than just a bunch of rockers, so they need to cater/adjust the playlist accordingly, even if you and I think it's a train wreck sometimes.
 
It isn't just me who hates 95.5's playlist. Have you seen the ratings? Whatever thesis on which the station was built is a failed one. You could not be more wrong about the station needing to appeal to more than just rockers, in my opinion, unless you mean more than just diehard rockers.

When this station ultimately fails and makes a return to Spanish language programming, we will hear that "rock simply doesn't work in Chicago." The inept crew at 95.5 is committing long-term damage to the perception of rock radio's viability locally!

There is little doubt in my mind that their PD will fail to take the steps necessary to fix the station.
 
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MarkW said:
When this station ultimately fails and makes a return to Spanish language programming, we will hear that "rock simply doesn't work in Chicago." The inept crew at 95.5 is committing long-term damage to the perception of rock radio's viability locally!
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The Spanish language field is pretty crowded already, so that move is very unlikely unless iHeart feels they need an Hispanic targeted station in every major market... something they have not shown even in recent years.
 
Their recent move in Boston suggests to me they may make a renewed push at attempting such programming in major markets. Time will tell. I could very well be reading too much into that.

You are absolutely correct that the field is crowded in Chicago, but some of those formats aren't found on the best of signals. Don't get me wrong - I vividly remember the ho hum ratings 95.5 received in its final several years of programming various Spanish language music formats.
 
MarkW said:
Want to hear what a great contemporary hard rock station sounds like? Check out 104.9 The X in Rockford; they're one of my favorites these days.
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That's why they are down to their lowest share in about a decade in the Fall book. They are 9th out of 11 commercial stations, including 4 rather dreadful AMs.
 
MarkW said:
When this station ultimately fails and makes a return to Spanish language programming, we will hear that "rock simply doesn't work in Chicago." The inept crew at 95.5 is committing long-term damage to the perception of rock radio's viability locally!
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Tell me about rock radio's viability in NYC. When you talk about rock music on the radio, it's usually a problem of changing demographics. We were having that conversation about WBOS in Boston. They're sort of doing the same thing, branding it "the next generation of classic rock." They're getting similar low ratings.
 
MarkW said:
Their recent move in Boston suggests to me they may make a renewed push at attempting such programming in major markets. Time will tell. I could very well be reading too much into that.
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Bad signal, unable to compete with anything else = Last Resort. I don't see a rash of Spanish language stations being added to the portfolio.
MarkW said:
You are absolutely correct that the field is crowded in Chicago, but some of those formats aren't found on the best of signals. Don't get me wrong - I vividly remember the ho hum ratings 95.5 received in its final several years of programming various Spanish language music formats.
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They only had one Spanish language format... they just kept adjusting it trying to find a formula that would compete with SBS and Univision.

The Spanish language signals all have city grade contours over the Chicago HDHA zone. It really does not matter what they cover outside of that.
 
I seem to remember 95.5 alternating between Spanish AC, Spanish CHR, and Regional Mexican, not necessarily in that order.

Rockford is a small market and can be prone to sampling issues. That latest book could be an aberration. I also have no idea how the station sounded last fall; I only began listening in recent weeks. Mid-West Family generally does a pretty good job with its Active Rock brands. Is the station a perfect fit for that market? I have no idea. All I know is I came away with a positive first impression when I first listened online.
 
Next generation classic rock is basically a modern spin on "classic rock that really rocks." Such stations historically have underperformed standard fare classic rock stations in the same market.
 
MarkW said:
Next generation classic rock is basically a modern spin on "classic rock that really rocks." Such stations historically have underperformed standard fare classic rock stations in the same market.
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It's kind of what Townsquare is doing with WBUF in Buffalo too. They seem to be trying to find a "Mix" style format for rock.
 
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