Radio Ratings Are In

Yes, I know this is the "Television" blog… but it’s also my blog, and today we’re gonna talk radio. I can tell from your postings that many of you are interested in local radio. Arbitron ratings for spring quarter have arrived, and delivered a big kiss to WARM98, WUBE-FM and Dusty Rhodes’ new WDJO-AM.

WLW-AM again was No. 1 for all listeners (ages 12 and older), as it has been since January 2000. It also was No. 1 in the 25-54 demo that advertisers want.

Soft rock WRRM-FM (WARM98.5) was No. 2 for all listerners and 25-54. It was No. 7 a year ago, and No. 5 the previous (winter) quarter.

Country WUBE-FM (B105.1) was No. 3 for all listeners and 25-54, as it was a year ago.

Rocker WEBN-FM (102.7) dropped to No. 5, from No. 2 a year ago.

On the other end of the list – and we mean the bottom – was WCKY-AM (1530). The Air America liberal talk format was No. 24 of No. 27 stations in the market, with a 0.6 audience share – less than half of the format’s high-water mark (1.3) last summer and fall. Dayton and Middletown stations beat liberal talk in the rankings. That explains why Clear Channel moved Jerry Springer and liberal talk to weaker WSAI-AM (1360) earlier this month, and put the Homer sports talk format on 50,000-watt 1530. Homer drew a 1.3 share (tied for 15 with WAQZ-FM), up slightly from 1.1 a year ago.

So far, Dusty Rhodes gets the last laugh. Clear Channel ditched the oldies format for Springer and liberal talk in January 2005. Well, Rhodes took the format last February to little WDJO-AM (1160), and it’s doing OK. It scored a 1.2 share in spring, its first full quarter on the air – nearly matching the best that liberal talk ever did on WCKY-AM.

Haven’t had time to look at all the ratings breakout, but did see one thing interesting: In morning drive 25-54, the syndicated Bob & Tom show WOFX-FM (FOX92.5) was No. 1, followed by Bill Whyte and Amanda Orlando on country B105, Dean and Randi on WARM98 and Jim Scott No. 4 (after being 1 or 2 for the past two years).

Here are the 12+ rankings for the top 25 stations:

1. WLW-AM, 9.9

2. WRRM-FM, 7.0

3. WUBE-FM, 6.7

4. WKFS-FM, 6.5

5. WEBN-FM, 5.6

6. WGRR-FM, 5.2

7. (tie) WIZF-FM, WOFX-FM 4.9

9. WMOJ-FM, 4.0

10. WKRC-AM, 3.7

11. WKRQ-FM, 3.6

12. WYGY-FM, 3.5

13. WVMX-FM, 3.1

14. WAKW-FM, 1.8

15 (tie) WSAI-AM, WAQZ-FM, 1.3

17 (tie) WDBZ-AM, WDJO-AM, 1.2

19. WPFB-FM, 1.1

20. WTUE-FM, 0.9

21. (tie) WCIN-AM, WHKO-FM, 0.8

23. WOXY-FM (simulcast with Georgetown FM stations), 0.7

24 (tie) WCKY-AM, WGTZ-FM, 0.6\

I'm interested in your take on the ratings. Fire away!

Colbert reports on The Enquirer

Caught this one on the repeat Tuesday night of Monday’s "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central. Stephen Colbert cited an Enquirer story last week about Camp Quest in St. Clair Township, north of Hamilton, for atheists and agnostics.

Joked Colbert: “The campers are also given other untenable philosophical challenges, like proving tetherball is fun…. How about canoeing on a lake of Hell fire for eternity?”