June 2026 Orlando 6+ Recap

[vw86]

Nothing earth shattering this month

Top 5:

Magic stays at # 1 for a an eighth ratings period in a row, down 9.3 to 9.0
WMMO makes a nice climb 6.5 (6.9 with stream) to 7.9 from 4th to 2nd, with a new Single Line Reporting status per Nielsen
Sunny holds at #3 and wobbles up 7.1 to 7.2
Real Radio 104.1 enters the Top 5 at #4 with a nice climb from 5.1 to 6.7
Star 94.5 drops from #2 to #5 and is down 7.2 to 6.6

The rest:

XL1067 falls to 6th, down 6.2 to 5.7
K92 is technically down 5.0 (5.5 with stream) to 5.3 as they also gain Single Line Reporting status
102 Jamz has another nice showing, holding at 4.4
Mix 105.1 is down again, trending, 4.4 to 3.8 to 3.6
Hits 96.5 is down 4.4 to 3.4
Both AM talkers have a combined share of only 2.1 (WDBO is down to a 1.5 and WFLF holds at a whopping 0.6)
Kaliente drops all the way to a 1.1 (from a 1.7) and gets beaten again by the WPYO Stream, which is down 1.9 to 1.4
A ghost from the past shows up this month with WLOQ making the coveted 0.1 showing for the first time in quite a while!

Orlando

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings Orlando (Market #29) Population: 2,223,400 Hispanic: 809,900 - Black: 362,500 Average Quarter Hour Share for

radioinsight.com

 

[FrankF]

>> A ghost from the past shows up this month with WLOQ making the coveted 0.1 showing for the first time in quite a while! <<

Funny how some of us still remember the original 103.1 WLOQ. In reality it's 107.7 WMGF HD2.
The actual WLOQ call letters are currently on a K-Love station out of Oil City, PA.
Looking just above that 0.1 at 0.3 is 810 WRSO which I have not seen in the ratings in quite a while.
Nielsen is showing their name as Fox Sports Radio 810 & 97.9.
I haven't been listening enough to hear if they still air that sweeper that says they're on 97.9 in Kissimmee.
Fox Sports Radio hasn't been on 97.9 since around December of 2024.
What's been on that translator since around December of 2024 is Retro 97.9, fed via WRUM HD-3 which is also at a 0.3, and has recently re-added English songs back into the mix again.
Guess they learned their lesson.

 

[vw86]

Ha, small world about the Oil City station! Before the K-Love flip they were WKQW and our only real competition when I worked for the Northwest PA Forever cluster. My first PD was their final PD before the K-Love sale.

 

[vw86]

I also noticed, thanks to the new graphs and charts, that Orlando has an 18 share for unsubscribed stations. Z88.3 famously doesn't encode for PPM, Cumulus isn't in the market and I doubt Party has more than a 3 or 4 share.

Does anyone else not subscribe? Or would a lot of this be folks listening to Tampa and/or any Daytona Beach stations that may encode.

 

[FrankF]

Does anyone else not subscribe? Or would a lot of this be folks listening to Tampa and/or any Daytona Beach stations that may encode.

There are still a few signals from out of town markets that can be heard here depending on where you live.
There are also several college, religious and ethnic stations on AM & FM here that also do not subscribe.
I'd be willing to bet a nice chunk of that 18 share belongs to WPOZ though.
Enough to place them in the top 7, 6+.
I'm only basing that on the ratings they had when they did subscribe.

 

[davideduardo]

I also noticed, thanks to the new graphs and charts, that Orlando has an 18 share for unsubscribed stations. Z88.3 famously doesn't encode for PPM, Cumulus isn't in the market and I doubt Party has more than a 3 or 4 share.

Does anyone else not subscribe? Or would a lot of this be folks listening to Tampa and/or any Daytona Beach stations that may encode.

The Tampa stations with a big enough signal to be heard in the Orlando market do en code because Tampa is a PPM market.

 

[CentralFL]

I also noticed, thanks to the new graphs and charts, that Orlando has an 18 share for unsubscribed stations. Z88.3 famously doesn't encode for PPM, Cumulus isn't in the market and I doubt Party has more than a 3 or 4 share.

Does anyone else not subscribe? Or would a lot of this be folks listening to Tampa and/or any Daytona Beach stations that may encode.

WPCV 97.5 has got to be up there in the ratings amongst the non-subscribers. Their signal is strong in most of the Orlando market.

 

[vw86]

The Tampa stations with a big enough signal to be heard in the Orlando market do en code because Tampa is a PPM market.

Yeah, I worded that poorly. I know Tampa encodes. It would be if any of the Daytona area stations do.

I'd be willing to bet a nice chunk of that 18 share belongs to WPOZ though.
Enough to place them in the top 7, 6+.
I'm only basing that on the ratings they had when they did subscribe.

The word is that WPOZ stopped encoding for PPM altogether when they stopped subscribing. I know @DJ Mo knows more about it than me since the same engineer also pulled the encoder from WPRK.

 

[DJ Mo]

The word is that WPOZ stopped encoding for PPM altogether when they stopped subscribing. I know @DJ Mo knows more about it than me since the same engineer also pulled the encoder from WPRK.

All I know is that the encoder at WPRK is probably collecting dust in storage. I know that at some time about a decade ago, WPRK was actually encoding, but not subscribed for at least a couple of years. When I was interning for XL106.7 as "Dr. No" in 2014, I asked the PD back then if he could show me WPRK's numbers. That's the only official ratings data that I know of.

Those unaccounted shares (a total of 16 after doing the math) probably includes a good chunk with the Z family of stations that still encode & installed, but not subscribed (Z, Hot, G Praise, etc.).

The stations that I think accounts for other hidden shares are: WUCF, Party FM, WPCV, Viva FM, a few LPFMs like Smooth Jazz Destination WRXW on 92.7 & WHPB The Wire on 98.5, other religious stations on the left side of the dial, AM stations, translators, & HD channels not subscribed, 99.3 Lite FM from Cocoa & 107.1 A1A comes in well on the east side, 93.7 K-Country from Ocala & Q92.9 comes in well in the northwest side around Apopka, & some full-powered Tampa stations for the meters around Disney & to the west.

Nothing major to officially dethrone Magic at #1, except for maybe Z88.3. So hypothetically, if Z family of stations does have about 10 total shares, & we know WUCF regularly registers about 2 shares, that leaves only about 3-4 shares left for the rest of the list in the last paragraph. Alas, nothing major to report, & I just saved money being a non-subscriber. 😁

 

[vw86]

If Z88.3 is encoding, the 18 share for unsubscribers makes total sense. But there have been several reports here saying that they have turned their encoder off entirely since unsubscribing. So even if they are getting thousands of quarter hour exposures from panelists, it's all for nothing as far as Nielsen goes. I know David had mentioned that they are doing the market a disservice since any P1s exclusive to the station wouldn't even be counted as PUMM for Orlando.

I also don't know if the Space Coast monster signals like A1A or Lite Rock 99.3 encode. Again, you could have significant exposure to 99.3's signal, but if it's not encoded since it's in a diary market, those unsubscribed share numbers wouldn't include it.

That's why I wonder if WPOZ is at least encoding again. Without Cumulus in the market, it's hard to imagine that WPCV and the stronger Tampa signals are all pulling a combined 18 share. Unless some panelists are streaming a ton of out of market content and/or went on vacation and listened to a lot of radio.

 

[ron772]

I don't think the "non-subscribers" would include WPOZ. They'd be a non-encoder.

I'm looking at Orlando numbers right now for a specific daypart and it's over 100 stations deep. Nielsen provided the encoders in PM adjacent diary markets for free, so there's not a big reason to not encode. There are dozens of stations getting tiny fractional listenership, including A1A, WRMF, WHTZ, WLTW, WQSR, WBEB, etc. WUCF was less than a 1 share. PCV was about a 1 share. None of the LPFMs listed above showed up, but they might not get the encoders for free. It's not WPOZ but all the tiny shares of out of market stations that are counting for non-subscribers.

 

[radiofan2023]

If you want to know for a fact whether Z88.3 is encoding or not, ask Ellis B. Feaster, he works there and would know.

 

[ron772]

If you want to know for a fact whether Z88.3 is encoding or not, ask Ellis B. Feaster, he works there and would know.

I'm looking at the Orlando Tapscan and they are not showing up, so they are not encoding.

 

[vw86]

@ron772 That also answers the question I've always wondered about stations not meeting minimum reporting standards showing up on Tapscan. It sounds like you can see exposure to any encoded station if you want with that.

 

[DJ Mo]

I'm looking at Orlando numbers right now for a specific daypart and it's over 100 stations deep. Nielsen provided the encoders in PM adjacent diary markets for free, so there's not a big reason to not encode. There are dozens of stations getting tiny fractional listenership, including A1A, WRMF, WHTZ, WLTW, WQSR, WBEB, etc. WUCF was less than a 1 share. PCV was about a 1 share. None of the LPFMs listed above showed up, but they might not get the encoders for free. It's not WPOZ but all the tiny shares of out of market stations that are counting for non-subscribers.

Good to know that they also provided encoders for out-of-market stations that cover parts of Orlando. My assumption about the Z family of stations have been proved wrong. The last time I saw the engineer in the building was at least a few months ago, & about a week before the encoder was taken out. All I can confirm is that WPRK has not been encoding for the past few years, because it was inside the studio right above the EAS system on the rack.

That's pretty crazy that stations not even in the listening area are getting listenership that shows up in ratings. They shouldn't even be counting them in the official stats, but I guess it's good to see the listener behavior. What would be cool to see is how many of them listen to XM/Sirius satellite radio, along with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc. in comparison to FM radio listenership. That should be a confirmation to see if FM radio is on its decline or not. I've only read articles that debate whether FM radio is still relevant or not.

 

[davideduardo]

. What would be cool to see is how many of them listen to XM/Sirius satellite radio, along with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc. in comparison to FM radio listenership. That should be a confirmation to see if FM radio is on its decline or not. I've only read articles that debate whether FM radio is still relevant or not.

If you look at rating and not share you can see the decline of over the air radio.

In 2000, the equivalent of PUMM (PUR back then) showed markets between 18 and 21... meaning that in the 6 to midnight period about one out of every 5 persons was listening to the radio on average.

When the PPM hit the roughly top 50 markets, PUMM declined to around 12 because the meter showed more exact listening times and showed all the coffee and bathroom breaks and the like that people did not note in the diary.

Then, as the smartphone and streaming took more and more listeners, the average market has a PUMM of 5 which means that one out of every 20 persons is listening to the radio. That is a decline of around 75% in 26 years.

 

[vw86]

That's pretty crazy that stations not even in the listening area are getting listenership that shows up in ratings. They shouldn't even be counting them in the official stats, but I guess it's good to see the listener behavior.

From what I understand (as an outsider) these random stations with exposure are not part of the actual ratings. There is no share/rating assigned to them and they don't show up on official subscriber reports. They are only visible if you get into the granular data on software like Tapscan. I know there are folks on here that can clear that up.

I'm sure it's interesting/cool to see if you're a radio person with access to the data, but I doubt it's beneficial for much.

 

[ron772]

From what I understand (as an outsider) these random stations with exposure are not part of the actual ratings. There is no share/rating assigned to them and they don't show up on official subscriber reports. They are only visible if you get into the granular data on software like Tapscan. I know there are folks on here that can clear that up.

I'm sure it's interesting/cool to see if you're a radio person with access to the data, but I doubt it's beneficial for much.

Though small, these stations did record Cume and are as much as part of the ratings as any other station statistically. It's not beneficial for much other than the NRD (National Regional Database) where any station can see its total AQH and Cume on a national level for the "Big Picture".