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Retro Ratings

G

gr8oldies

David Eduardo, who is loved and hated on Radio-Info, has a radio history website which has a lot of archived old radio publications. This includes the Radio and Records annual ratings reports from 1997 until R&R ceased publication. I pulled up 1997's edition and it was interesting. I had forgotten about some of the short time ownerships of our Cinncinati and Dayton stations.

http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive R&R/R&R Spring 1997.pdf

For example, Combining all the books from Spring of '96 to Spring of '97, the 12 plus rankings were

1. WLW (Jacor ownership)
2. WUBE (Chancellor)
3. WEBN
4. WKRQ
5. WGRR (both American Radio Systems)

At the time, WGRR's demo rankings were great, no. 1 in 35-64, 3 in 25-54 and #4 in 18-49

Ads in this edition included the rollout of Radio Disney and Rick Dees short lived syndicated morning show.




In Dayton
Again combining all the books from Spring of '96 to Spring of '97, the 12 plus rankings were

1. WHKO
2. WMMX (owned by Jacor, though I thought it was still American Radio Systems in 1996)
3. WLQT and WTUE tied
4. WHIO
5. WGTZ (listed as Regent, while WING-FM was Capstar)


Interesting to see Z93 with close to an 8 share, running neck and neck with the then locally owned WROU.

There are also demo breakdowns.
 
AWESOME stuff! Thanks for the link gr8! Looks like Z-93 started to crash in early 1997. If memory serves me correct they stayed in the 5 range until Hot took some of their audience away with a similar format, and ran them into 3 territory for the last six years of their existence(Although I THINK Z might've gotten a low 4 share once sometime in '02 or '03). I'm still shocked that Radio One didn't blow up Z back in 2001 and put Hot on 92.9 since Hot was Radio One's baby. Also didn't know that Z was owned by Regent back in '97 either. They switched hands so frequently from '97-'99, from Great Trails to whomever until Blue Chip finally bought them in '99, it was hard to keep up with who owned them.
 
Does David have any 1960's ratings data available? Back in the day, I heard stories of Top 40 legends having 40, 50, 60 even 70 shares. Of course, there were only 4 or 5 24 hours stations in many large markets back then. I would love to see some of those huge ratings in print.
 
Apparently the ratings report editions only came out fgrom 1997 until R&R folded. He really has tons of material on this site that can keep a radio geek occupied for hours, includinfg station lists going back to the 1920s.

http://www.davidgleason.com/Radio_Archives.htm


Does seem that 1997 was about the last year of Z93 having great numbers. As I recall the old Clear Channel (pre Jacor merger) owned WING, WING-FM and Z93 and they had to sell them off because of the Jacor merger (Jacor owning what is now Clear Channel Dayton). Thus the Blue Chip purchase and conversion of WING-FM to Hot 102.9, which took away all of WROU's young end, and of course the rest is an ugly chapter in Dayton radio history..
 
gr8oldies said:
Apparently the ratings report editions only came out fgrom 1997 until R&R folded. He really has tons of material on this site that can keep a radio geek occupied for hours, includinfg station lists going back to the 1920s.

http://www.davidgleason.com/Radio_Archives.htm
Click to expand...
R&R started printing their twice annual ratings directories back in the late 70s. Unfortunately very few from that era survive - thank goodness David is scanning as many as he can find and posting them for the rest of us to enjoy.

Arbitron did not begin surveying local radio markets until 1966, and did not rise to become the preeminent ratings service until the early 70s. So magazine or newspaper articles about radio ratings, specifically Arbitron ratings are very sparing at best. The only place I am aware of that has any of these Arbitron ratings from the 1960s and early 70s is the University of Georgia library in Athens, GA. For a modest fee you can order copies from the Arbitron books if you know what exactly you are looking. Just google "Hargrett Library".

There are no archives for Pulse or Hooper ratings, so finding ratings information for local markets from the 1950s and 60s is next to impossible.
 
gr8oldies said:
Apparently the ratings report editions only came out fgrom 1997 until R&R folded. He really has tons of material on this site that can keep a radio geek occupied for hours, includinfg station lists going back to the 1920s.

http://www.davidgleason.com/Radio_Archives.htm


Does seem that 1997 was about the last year of Z93 having great numbers. As I recall the old Clear Channel (pre Jacor merger) owned WING, WING-FM and Z93 and they had to sell them off because of the Jacor merger (Jacor owning what is now Clear Channel Dayton). Thus the Blue Chip purchase and conversion of WING-FM to Hot 102.9, which took away all of WROU's young end, and of course the rest is an ugly chapter in Dayton radio history..
Click to expand...

Actually, wasn't it Radio One that decided to flip 102.9 from WING to HOT? Yes, the rest is an ugly chapter in Dayton radio history...we lost two great stations over the course of the last decade(WING-FM on August 3, 2001 and Z-93 on Nov. 1, 2007). At least when Z flipped there was a warning that a change was coming. From what I heard, WING-FM went from playing "Stairway To Heaven" or "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" to going straight into the HOT launch with Juvenile's "Set It Off". Radio One's plan all along was to destroy WROU so they could buy it for pennies on the dollar since Ronita Saunders refused to sell it and at the same time programming a similar format on 102.9. Looks like Radio One's dirty trick worked. :'(
 
I've definately slept since that flip but yes, Radio One was the culprit. From what I can remember this happened within a week of WING-FM losing Bob and Tom to WTUE. I was working at the Metro office in Dayton at the time so I had a little bit of a heads up that the change was happening..just a little less than the local staff had (apparently local management had been talking to Howard Stern's people to replace B&T..that's just what I had heard at the time, not knowing that the format was about to be blown up). We at Metro knew that the change was about to be made, apparently the new format wasn't quite ready by what we had heard was going to be a 5pm flip...then at 6..at 7... I can remember WING-FM playing a number of "goodbye" type songs throughout that afternoon and evening (several times we thought "this must be the last song"). I didn't hear that actual flip, which happened sometime that evening (which IIRC was a Friday). I drove by the studios on David Road and the offices were all lit up.
 
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