Any thoughts or observations? Nielsen Audio Ratings
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Chicago Radio Ratings
- Thread starter CassChopper96
- Start date
Here is Robert Feder's take on the ratings
Looking at the WJR Detroit Ratings vs. WLS Chicago Ratings, I really think the WLS signal in the Northern Chicago suburbs is really hurting it. The WJR signal is 2-3 times the signal in Detroit's Northern suburbs as WLS has in its Northern suburbs. They both have similar formats. I don't think it's just because Rush Limbaugh passed away or that the format is not considered "mainstream". I talked to Glen Clark about that shortly before he sadly passed away, and he wrote about the WLS signal problems a number of years ago, going back to the WLS vs. WCFL days. David talks about signals below 10 mv/m not being enough. I think its higher than 20 mV/m now in many electrically noisy situations, and this is where WLS comes up short, in those areas.
The ITU has stated that a usable signal is now 15 mV/m. I've always thought that, because so much of European AM radio is government owned, the high figure was decided on because stations love to ask their governments for more money for bigger transmitters and more locations.
But recent drives through Los Angleles have made me believe that the ITU is right.
Under that standard, very few AM stations in the top 100 markets cover even half the market day and night.
Those pesky Europeans are right: 50 kw is low power, 250 kw is medium power and only over 500 kw on AM is really a regional facility.
WLS should've moved their transmitter further north years ago when they had the chance as you previously mentioned.
About a month before he passed away, Glen and I discussed the Addison site he was involved in testing in the 1970s, and WLS had applied for, on the phone, but WDLS 900 Wisconsin Dells, WI overlap couldn't be resolved. It would take a DA Day operation unless it was removed, how deep a null depending on TL. Magnum Communications has an FM translator for WDLS, and they would have to keep the AM for that. No place for an FM drop in allotment to move to in that area either, it's all jammed up.
The WLS TL was about 4-5 miles South of the WMVP site for quite a few years, shared with WENR, before they moved to the Mokena/Tinley Park border. There's no place to put a tower, and the FAA would likely not allow them to put up towers at the site tall enough to not sacrifice full efficiency facilities. The lot dimensions would probably not allow a tower in the right direction to protect WDLS, at the WMVP site, and the 110 kHz diplex situation is tight like WSCR/WBBM.
WENR/WLS Site, 1930s.
WLS Application for TL change to Addison, 1970s.
The WLS TL was about 4-5 miles South of the WMVP site for quite a few years, shared with WENR, before they moved to the Mokena/Tinley Park border. There's no place to put a tower, and the FAA would likely not allow them to put up towers at the site tall enough to not sacrifice full efficiency facilities. The lot dimensions would probably not allow a tower in the right direction to protect WDLS, at the WMVP site, and the 110 kHz diplex situation is tight like WSCR/WBBM.
WENR/WLS Site, 1930s.
WLS Application for TL change to Addison, 1970s.
Last edited:
Evanston Zip Code 60201 is 13.85 mV/m. So basically anything North of the Chicago City Limit is below 15 mV/m. So if the ITU and David's assertions are correct, those areas don't receive sufficient service. Also, they are in general more affluent than the areas South of Chicago. Although even though these Chicago suburbs have a significant "WCPT" and NPR type audience, the more affluent also tend to listen to WLS, in the areas North of Chicago.
Again, to preface, 95.5 has it's issues. My biggest is train wreck playlists among a few other things.
But I'll be honest, as a male (last time I checked), WDRV and WXRT are either NOT presets at all, or if they are, they're on the FM2 section of my vehicle. I can count the number of times I've listened to either of them, over the past few decades, on one hand.
WBMX does much better in the younger Demo's though. Which is probably why they flipped it
I still maintain my opinion that one of the issues with the station is they don't play any new tracks, and the current gold-based playlist gets boring quickly.
The move from one cornfield to another came in 1938. What, I wonder, were the Prairie Farmer owners thinking? Better coverage for WLS downstate? (I'm making a presumption that WLS was the leader in the decision and WENR went along for the ride.)
The story I had heard years ago was that the owners of WLS, Prairie Farmer at the time, had a dispute with Du Page and Cook counties so the transmitting site was built in Will county.
The story I heard was similar. The tower site is just barely outside Cook County. The ground radials extend to a few feet of the Cook County Line. In the least case, that is perhaps only a slight exaggeration. Certainly within a few hundred feet of the County Line, if that.
I know of a County in Michigan that tried to prevent anyone from building a new tower in the whole County. Two located just outside the County, one at least where the tower property line is the County Line. Of course, the State of Michigan was able to put up a new 500 foot tower in the County, and of course, the cell phone companies were able to get approved.
Last edited:
Although I don’t see it happening anytime soon, Cumulus could always flip one of their monster FM signals to the WLS AM programming and solve all the signal issues in the northern suburbs. In my opinion, that would be a waste of a good FM signal from atop the Willis Tower. But, Cumulus does always have that option in their back pocket, unlike WGN which is stuck on AM with Nextstar not owning any FM stations in Chicago (or anywhere else for that matter).
WLS's programming appeals to 65-to-dead, a demographic that's used to listening to AM. It's not going to pick up significantly more listeners (or advertisers) by going to FM. Sports talk benefits from moving to FM, general-interest or political talk doesn't.
That was already done back in the early '90s on 94.7 FM, and it went to pot in about 5 years due to there being better opportunities for that powerful frequency.
It is right over the county line, so within 100 feet, tops. The front door of the transmitter building is 225 feet from the county line.
- Status