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Tampa Ratings November 2025 - Joy Dethrones The Dove, Which Is In 3RD PLACE

Not only did Joy have a HUGE almost 2-share gain, but The Eagle had a big gain, pushing The Dove to 3rd place. So let's see: 8.8 for Joy, 7.0 for The Eagle and 6.8 for The Dove. When was the last time The Dove finished 3rd in a book? Ever?

For those wondering about Joy's competitor, it looks like 98.7 K-Love isn't subscribing in this market because they have no rating. My question is, why? Don't you want to eat away at the market leader? (Well, we know the Dove will resurface to No. 1 in the next couple of books, but still...)

The biggest dropper in the book is WUSF though it is still in 13th place. Is Tampa not an NPR market?

 
It looks like The Shark listeners have found The Eagle. As for K-Love, since they are non-commercial, they don’t need to subscribe to show in these 6+ numbers. So either their listenership is really low or they are not encoding the signal for PPM.
 
For those wondering about Joy's competitor, it looks like 98.7 K-Love isn't subscribing in this market because they have no rating. My question is, why? Don't you want to eat away at the market leader? (Well, we know the Dove will resurface to No. 1 in the next couple of books, but still...)
The K-Love folks don't program each station locally, so they do not need local ratings everywhere. In the past, they have just bought a small assortment of markets, enough to judge their overall performance.
 
Not only did Joy have a HUGE almost 2-share gain, but The Eagle had a big gain, pushing The Dove to 3rd place. So let's see: 8.8 for Joy, 7.0 for The Eagle and 6.8 for The Dove. When was the last time The Dove finished 3rd in a book? Ever?

I can't remember The Dove not being in first or second place, ever. I'm even going back to when WDUV was an automated easy listening station. Joy did hit #1 with The Dove at #2, but that happened only once that I can remember, maybe about 5 years ago. From that point, WDUV could still say it is Tampa Bay's #1 commercial station.

For a time, WDUV didn't switch to Christmas music, its sister station WWRM did. I assume that hurt WDUV but I think during past Christmas seasons, WWRM would be #1 and The Dove #2? When WWRM started aiming younger, it gave the Christmas music title to WDUV.

Maybe as it transitioned to Soft AC from Easy, or it switched frequencies, WDUV may have dropped out of the top two. But I don't remember ever seeing WDUV at #3.
 
I can't remember The Dove not being in first or second place, ever. I'm even going back to when WDUV was an automated easy listening station. Joy did hit #1 with The Dove at #2, but that happened only once that I can remember, maybe about 5 years ago. From that point, WDUV could still say it is Tampa Bay's #1 commercial station.

For a time, WDUV didn't switch to Christmas music, its sister station WWRM did. I assume that hurt WDUV but I think during past Christmas seasons, WWRM would be #1 and The Dove #2? When WWRM started aiming younger, it gave the Christmas music title to WDUV.

Maybe as it transitioned to Soft AC from Easy, or it switched frequencies, WDUV may have dropped out of the top two. But I don't remember ever seeing WDUV at #3.
Let's ask @Huff
 
The last time WDUV was not in the top 3 was Spring 1998:
View attachment 10950
So my memory is not as accurate as I thought. There were some years that The Dove was transitioning out of Easy and into Soft AC, and switched from the better 103.5 signal to its current 105.5, that it fell to #3 or even #4.

Interesting to look at the demographics in that Spring 1998 R&R Ratings Report. The Dove was #4 overall and in the last few ratings books it was either at 2, 3 or 4. Great ratings, right? But its demographics were bad, #15 among 25-54 listeners and worse among younger listeners. Even though Jacor kept it as an Easy station longer than just about any other sizable market, it was likely surviving on long-time advertisers who didn't mind the older demos.

You can see that Tampa was a retirement market in those days. In addition to The Dove's Easy format, you had WGUL-AM-FM in 6th place with even worse demographics, #26 among 25-54 listeners. It's listed as MOR but it was really Adult Standards. Never the less, if you were in a market filled with retirees, airing these formats was not crazy. Of course, today Tampa like Miami is no longer dominated by seniors. No more Standards stations, even on AM. And The Dove isn't that much different than other Soft AC stations.
 
Interesting to look at the demographics in that Spring 1998 R&R Ratings Report. The Dove was #4 overall and in the last few ratings books it was either at 2, 3 or 4. Great ratings, right? But its demographics were bad, #15 among 25-54 listeners and worse among younger listeners. Even though Jacor kept it as an Easy station longer than just about any other sizable market, it was likely surviving on long-time advertisers who didn't mind the older demos.
Those who had the BIA services back then saw that The Dove might have been, consistently, the top 12+ station but it was around 15th in billing.
 
So my memory is not as accurate as I thought. There were some years that The Dove was transitioning out of Easy and into Soft AC, and switched from the better 103.5 signal to its current 105.5, that it fell to #3 or even #4.

Interesting to look at the demographics in that Spring 1998 R&R Ratings Report. The Dove was #4 overall and in the last few ratings books it was either at 2, 3 or 4. Great ratings, right? But its demographics were bad, #15 among 25-54 listeners and worse among younger listeners. Even though Jacor kept it as an Easy station longer than just about any other sizable market, it was likely surviving on long-time advertisers who didn't mind the older demos.

You can see that Tampa was a retirement market in those days. In addition to The Dove's Easy format, you had WGUL-AM-FM in 6th place with even worse demographics, #26 among 25-54 listeners. It's listed as MOR but it was really Adult Standards. Never the less, if you were in a market filled with retirees, airing these formats was not crazy. Of course, today Tampa like Miami is no longer dominated by seniors. No more Standards stations, even on AM. And The Dove isn't that much different than other Soft AC stations.
I thought the Tampa Bay area is STILL a retirement area today. I know when I was born down there, they kicked me out and said not to come back till I was 80.
 


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