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Charlotte Ratings April 2026

C

CLTRadio

radioinsight.com

Charlotte

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings Charlotte/Gastonia/Rock Hill (Market #20) Population: 2,620,000 Black: 602,500 – Hispanic: 316,700 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons 6+, Mon-Sun 6AM-Mid All ratings are Copyright © 2005-2024 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen radio audience...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

WFAE is tied for #1 with WLKO, benefiting from it being an election year.

Radio One doesn’t have any stations in the top 10. WBT is highest at #12.

WNKS is Beasley’s highest rated station at #4. Can’t remember the last time I saw that. I’m sure it’s partially because of Mix losing half of their coverage area.

WKKT is winning the country battle at #3, with WSOC at #8. Graham B and Sarah Lee have swapped places, with Graham in AMD and Sarah now in middays on 96.9.

The Radio Insight page above hasn’t published the updated ratings yet. I don’t know why they can’t post on time like all the other sites, but maybe it’ll be updated by the time you’re reading this.
 
what has caused WOSF to drop from 8.3 (6+ 11/25) to 7.0 to 7.5 to 7.7 to 6.1 to 3.9 to 4.3 (6+ 4/26)?
i do realize 6+ is unimportant, but these overall numbers are just way down for them. are they more consistent in their target demographic?
 
amos1001 said:
what has caused WOSF to drop from 8.3 (6+ 11/25) to 7.0 to 7.5 to 7.7 to 6.1 to 3.9 to 4.3 (6+ 4/26)?
i do realize 6+ is unimportant, but these overall numbers are just way down for them. are they more consistent in their target demographic?
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Urban AC is down across the country which is part of it. Poor new music product and getting away from core sound. The other part is panel changes. Both Urban ACs were way down last month, losing over 3 shares combined. When you see wide swings in a format’s share it’s usually a panel issue.
 
I'm surprised WEND doesn't do as well with young people. Do fans of newer rock just not listen to the radio? Apparently younger people like older rock.

And WKQC doesn't do as well with older listeners, when its songs are old?
 
vchimpanzee said:
I'm surprised WEND doesn't do as well with young people. Do fans of newer rock just not listen to the radio? Apparently younger people like older rock.

And WKQC doesn't do as well with older listeners, when its songs are old?
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WEND doesn’t have many currents in rotation. Most of their playlist is 90s and early 2000s.Their core audience is millennials and younger Gen X.

Most of WKQC’s listeners are over 50, so they’re not always going to show up in the money demo, which only goes to 54. Sometimes you have younger people who are in the car with their parents or work somewhere that plays an older skewing station and that’ll skew the numbers.

If you look at the 6+ numbers, you’ll see some stations near the top that underperform in the major demos, and that usually means that their audience is older. An example is WBAV. WOSF is top 5 in two of the major demos, while WBAV is top 5 in none, yet WBAV has a higher 6+ share. That shows that WBAV does better with older listeners.
 
There sure are a lot of rock stations not playing new songs. The Planet used to, but WROQ changed format so The Planet had to be the classic rocker, sort of like WVBZ in Greensboro (where there still is a traditional classic rocker). The Planet can be picked up in Charlotte.
 
vchimpanzee said:
There sure are a lot of rock stations not playing new songs. The Planet used to, but WROQ changed format so The Planet had to be the classic rocker, sort of like WVBZ in Greensboro (where there still is a traditional classic rocker). The Planet can be picked up in Charlotte.
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You also have to think about millennials and others who grew up listening to WEND, WNKS, WPEG, etc have aged out of the 18-34 demo. A lot of stations have held onto their same audience, but that audience is in the 25-54 demo now. The teens and younger people who used to drive those stations, are either not listening to the radio or have different choices. It's a similar story to older stations like WKQC, WBAV, WRFX, etc. They're keeping their core audience, but that audience is aging out of the 25-54 demo on the top end.
 
G
CLTRadio said:

Radio Ratings Roundup, April 2026, Part IV | Research Director, Inc.

Welcome back to our final installment of our monthly series – how the ratings turn. We bid a fond farewell to the APRIL book. We had some careless,
researchdirectorinc.com researchdirectorinc.com

25-54: 1. WEND 2. WPEG 3T. WLKO & WOSF 5T. WRFX & WKKT 10. WKQC
18-34: 1. WNKS 2. WRFX 3. WPEG 4T. WLKO & WOSF 6. WKQC 11. WHQC
18-49: 1. WNKS 2. WRFX 3. WPEG 4T. WFAE & WEND 7. WHQC 8T. WLKO, WKQC & WBAV
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Glad to see WHQC making it in some of the demos. I really enjoy their gold heavy music mix. And they finally have a listenable morning show too. Once Mix 99.3/100.9 goes away, I think they might get a bigger boost than ‘NKS with the gold lean.
 
101tm said:
G

Glad to see WHQC making it in some of the demos. I really enjoy their gold heavy music mix. And they finally have a listenable morning show too. Once Mix 99.3/100.9 goes away, I think they might get a bigger boost than ‘NKS with the gold lean.
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I don’t listen to NKS or HQC. I can’t get into today’s pop music.

My presets in my car are BAV, PEG, SOC, KKT, RFX and KQC in that order.
 
CLTRadio said:
I don’t listen to NKS or HQC. I can’t get into today’s pop music.

My presets in my car are BAV, PEG, SOC, KKT, RFX and KQC in that order.
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I’m not really in to much of today’s pop music either, which is why I prefer WHQC. It’s more adult oriented and plays more older stuff. I don’t find WNKS’s newer skewing playlist appealing.

When I’m in CLT I switch between LKO, KQC, HQC, LNK/MXG (for now), END, or FAE.
 
101tm said:
I’m not really in to much of today’s pop music either, which is why I prefer WHQC. It’s more adult oriented and plays more older stuff. I don’t find WNKS’s newer skewing playlist appealing.

When I’m in CLT I switch between LKO, KQC, HQC, LNK/MXG (for now), END, or FAE.
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I liked LKO better when they were more rock based. They’ve added a lot of pop in recent years which I’m not a fan of.

If I had more presets I’d add END. I used to listen to them a lot in the late 90s and early 2000s. Then the format shifted in a strange direction and I stopped listening for a while. It’s sounding a lot better the last few years.

I’d probably add Streetz too. I like their music mix better than PEG’s a lot of time, but I can’t pick them up clearly in Gaston County.

I looked at the playlists for NKS and HQC and don’t know a lot of those songs. I know more on HQC, but I don’t like most of them. I usually stick to Hip Hop/R&B, country and rock.
 
CLTRadio said:
I’d probably add Streetz too. I like their music mix better than PEG’s a lot of time, but I can’t pick them up clearly in Gaston County.
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It's on 1370, which is licensed to Gastonia. I remember seeing their studio outside Eastridge Mall.

Wait, they moved it to Pineville. Transmitter probably moved too. But it would have a daytime signal.
 
The Lake pretty much uses the same song rotation as Steve FM in Columbia uses. They are within a song of each other all the time. The Lake in the upstate of SC is more rock leaning.
 
vchimpanzee said:
It's on 1370, which is licensed to Gastonia. I remember seeing their studio outside Eastridge Mall.

Wait, they moved it to Pineville. Transmitter probably moved too. But it would have a daytime signal.
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Streetz studios are on Clanton Rd right off of I-77. 103.3 broadcasts from a tower right behind the station. I’m not sure where 1370 broadcasts from, but I know they had to move a couple of years ago because that site was being redeveloped. I’m not listening to a music station on AM.
 
CrazeeCarroll2 said:
The Lake pretty much uses the same song rotation as Steve FM in Columbia uses. They are within a song of each other all the time. The Lake in the upstate of SC is more rock leaning.
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It’s “Premium Choice” or whatever iHeart calls it these days. It’s a national playlist. Not locally programmed. I know there are stations in Ohio and other markets that use the same playlist.
 


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