PPM Pre-Currency Exclusive: Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit And D.C.

Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit And Washington, D.C. Analyzed

ALL ACCESS has seen the first round of PPM pre-currency data from ATLANTA, DETROIT, DALLAS and WASHINGTON, DC. We have asked radio/ratings specialists ANTHONY ACAMPORA and KEVIN MCCABE from RADIOCRUNCH to go through the data and give us this exclusive look inside the OCTOBER pre-currency results. Trends go from the SUMMER 2008 diary ratings -- the final for each of these major markets to the OCTOBER meter standings. 

Atlanta: Urban, Spanish Language Outlets Strong; Country Climbs; Q100 Tops STAR 94 

Urban and Spanish-language stations performed well in ATLANTA, while CBS Urban WVEE (V103) remained the #1 station across all demos -- Adults 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54. COX Urban AC WALR did close in 25-54 on V103. CITADEL Country WKHX and CUMULUS Top 40 WWWQ (Q100) also looked good.

25-54: V103 was #1, but it's margin of victory (62% in the diary) was reduced to 6% in the meter as WALR was a solid 2nd. AM News/Talk stations haven't necessarily seen spectacular results in the meter, but COX legendary News/Talk WSB-A saw significantly larger shares -- and remained #3 in the meter. CITADEL sees Country WKHX vault from 10th to 4th. COX AC WSB-F ranks 5th. CLEAR CHANNEL has been patient with their two Spanish-language entries -- and it finally paid off. Regional Mexican WBZY vaults from 24th in the diary to 6th in the meter, while Spanish Contemporary WWVA motors from 21st to 8th. COX Classic Rock was 7th (down from 4th in the diary). RADIO ONE Urban AC WAMJ tied with WWVA. CUMULUS sees a huge jump for Q100 -- rising from 17th in the diary to 10th in the meter. For the record, 5 of the top 10 stations 25-54 in the meter either target African American or Hispanic listeners. COX also looked strong in their hometown with three of the top 5 25-54.

SALEM Christian AC WFSH (THE FISH) was a respectable 11th. Tied for 12th are RADIO ONE Urban WHTA and sister Gospel WPZE -- rising from 15th and sliding from 5th, along with LINCOLN FINANCIAL Top 40 WSTR (STAR 94) -- which was flat to diary. COX Rhythmic WBTS was 15th, tied with CBS AAA WZGC (DAVE-FM). Smooth AC continues to take huge drops in the meter, and ATLANTA is no different as RADIO ONE's WJZZ plummets all the way from 8th in the diary to 17th in the meter. While Rock formats have done well in a number of other markets, ATLANTA is just not one of them. CLEAR CHANNEL Active Rock WKLS slides from 13th diary to 18th meter, just ahead of CUMULUS Rock WNNX, which is 19th. CITADEL Classic Hits WYAY (TRUE OLDIES 106.7) ranked 19th, off from 11th in its one diary book -- but keep in mind -- these are early results. Still out of the top 20: CLEAR CHANNEL Country WUBL, which ranked 21st.

18-49: V103 keeps its dominance 18-49, with WALR continuing to hold down 2nd place. A huge jump for WKHX -- which soars 18-49 from 9th diary to 3rd meter, tying them with WSB-A. Surging into the top 5 is Q100, which ranked 14th in the SUMMER book with shares nearly doubling. A meteoric jump (or should we call it meteroric) jump for WBZY (21st to 6th). WHTA slides from 5th to 7th. WBTS, WSB-F and WSRV all tie for 8th with WBTS flat and the other two down in rank from the diary. Also tied is WWVA, which soars from 17th. WKLS slides back to 11th (from 10th), while STAR 94 is 12th -- but now well behind Q100. WAMJ and WFSH tie for 13th. WPZE plummets from 5th to 15th. WZGC, WJZZ, DICKEY BROTHERS Sports WCNN, WNNX and LINCOLN FINANCIAL Sports WQXI round out the top 20.

18-34: V103 continues to hold a large lead in this cell -- but a stellar start in the meter for Q100, which was 6th in the summer book and climbs all the way to #2 -- with almost double the share. They also beat STAR 94 by 77% in this demo. WHTA and WKLS tie for 4th, with the latter appearing to perform much better in the younger cell. WBZY vaults from 15th diary to 6th meter. WBTS slides from 3rd down to 7th. However, their shares are pretty flat. The shares have compressed tremendously between 2nd and 7th 18-34, so expect these rankers to change as it is VERY tight. WFSH, WWVA and WSB-F round out the top 10. 

Dallas: Recuerdo Grabs Stunning Sweep; The Wolf Howls; Clear Channel Rocks 

A lot of change in DALLAS-FT.WORTH as the PPM results were dramatically different than the diary in the METROPLEX. UNIVISION saw Spanish Adult Hits KLNO (RECUERDO) soar to the top spot among adults 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 -- claiming the clean sweep that usually happened for sister Regional Mexican KESS. Country looked very strong in DALLAS as well -- with CUMULUS's KPLX (THE WOLF) and CITADEL's KSCS both seeing sharp gains. For KPLX, they scored the largest 12+ weekly cume of any Country station in the nation so far. Meanwhile, CLEAR CHANNEL repositioned their cluster to feature a trio of rockers: Alternative KDGE, Classic Rock KZPS (LONESTAR 92.5) and Active Rock KEGL -- and all saw upward trends. Spanish-language shares looked healthy here -- especially for LIBERMAN's cluster -- which saw gains across the board. CBS Rhythmic AC KMVK (MOVIN' 107.5), unlike SAN FRANCISCO's KMVQ, did not move in the meter.

25-54: KLNO got some help when CLEAR CHANNEL switched KEGL from Spanish Adult Hits (LA PRECIOSA) back to Active Rock -- and now they see another boost here in the meter as the station takes the top position. Coming in 2nd is KPLX, which ranked all the way down at #13 this summer. It also makes KPLX the #1 English station in the cell. But the biggest growth comes for CLEAR CHANNEL's KZPS. The station, which went from Classic Rock to a format which had AMERICANA and TEXAS rock elements in it, eventually moved back to a more traditional Classic Rock approach. The station was 20th 25-54 in the SUMMER book, and vaults all the way to 3rd in the first PPM pre-currency monthly. CLEAR CHANNEL Top 40 KHKS rises from 7th diary to 4th meter, putting it in a three-way tie with CBS Classic Hits KLUV and CITADEL Country KSCS. KLUV follows Classic Hits outlets in NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, CHICAGO and RIVERSIDE to big meter gains (rising from 17th in the diary). KSCS is all the way up from 14th. CBS AC KVIL holds in 7th. RADIO ONE Urban AC KSOC inches up from 9th to 8th -- but now takes the lead among Urban competitors with adults. SALEM Christian AC KLTY slides from 4th to 9th. Tied for 10th is KDGE (up from 14th) and SERVICE Urban KKDA-F (K104) -- which drops all the way from 2nd.

CLEAR CHANNEL Hot AC KDMX dips from 6th to 12th -- but again there's tremendous compression here. Less than a share separate #4 from #13, where we find KEGL, all the way up from 20th in the diary. CBS Adult Hits KJKK slides from 11th to 14th, tying it with CITADEL News/Talk WBAP. CUMULUS Sports KTCK dips from 4th all the way to 16th (Sports results have been mixed). KTCK is tied with UNIVISION Regional Mexican KESS. 'TCK was #1 in the diary and now falls all the way to #16. What happened was not necessarily the decline of Spanish-language shares as sister KLNO and a pair of LIBERMAN rivals saw share gains in the meter (more on that in a moment). RADIO ONE Rhythmic KBFB (THE BEAT) slides from 9th to 18th. LIBERMAN sees Spanish Contemporary KTCY claim 19th place -- with Regional Mexican sister KNOR up from 25th to 20th, but with almost double the diary shares. The decrease in shares for KESS was equal to the share growth for KLNO, KNOR and LIBERMAN's other Regional Mexican outlet KBOC. Out of the top 20: SERVICE Urban AC KRNB (dropping from 11th to 22nd). CBS Talk KLLI (which dips from 16th to 22nd) and sister KMVK (which ranked 25th) is still struggling. FM Talk, for the most part, isn't looking good in LOS ANGELES or DALLAS. While only ranking 28th, CITADEL Classic Hits KPMZ doubles their share and appears to be trending up.

18-49: KLNO climbs from 4th to 1st. KPLX vaults from 14th diary to 2nd meter, but it's the CLEAR CHANNEL cluster which is the clear winner here -- with four of the top seven stations. KHKS rises from 5th to 3rd, KDGE surges from 9th to 5th, KZPS explodes from 25th to 6th and KEGL from 17th to 7th. K104 was still a solid 4th. KESS dips from 2nd to 8th, tying it with KSCS (which surges from 17th diary). KNOR explodes as well -- leaping from 21st diary to 10th meter. KESS beat KNOR by 258% in the diary but 3% in the meter -- so the gap was severely closed. The issue seems to be with KESS in the afternoon, where the EL PISTOLERO Y MEMIN are underperforming the station. The PM drive show is heavily talk. KBFB falters from 3rd to 11th, where it ties with two CBS stations: KLUV (up from 19th) and KVIL. CBS did not have a station in the top 10 18-49. KDMX drops from 6th to 14th -- ahead of 15th place KSOC. KTCY slides from 14th to 16th. KBOC leaps from 23rd diary to 17th meter, to tie with KJKK, which dips from 11th diary. KLTY sees a big drop 18-49 -- all the way from 7th diary to 19th meter. WBAP rounds out the top 20. KMVK ranks 24th and KRNB slips from 9th to 26th.

18-34: KLNO soars to the top spot here -- winning pretty handily. It is a CLEAR CHANNEL station in the #2 spot, but it's not usual fave KHKS -- but sister KDGE -- which rises from 6th diary. K104 dips from 1st to a still strong 3rd. KNOR soars from 12th to 4th, just ahead of KHKS and KPLX. KESS, who was 2nd diary slides all the way to 7th and loses to KNOR 18-34 for the first time ever. KBOC rises from 15th to 8th, ahead of KBFB. KEGL rounds out the top 10. LIBERMAN sees Latin Urban KZZA rank 11th. With 18-34, an overwhelming 7 of the top 11 stations are targeted to Hispanics and/or African Americans.

Detroit: Trio Of Stations Share October Honors; AC, Rock Look Strong 

Of all the markets, DETROIT had the least dramatic change -- although AC and Rock formats, which have faired well in other markets, saw growth here. Unlike DALLAS and ATLANTA, there was no clear cut winner in the MOTOR CITY as a trio of stations shared demo crowns. Urban rankers moved around a bit as RADIO ONE's stations fell farther back.

25-54: CITADEL Hot AC WDVD takes 25-54 honors. The station has always been a solid performer in the cell, but achieves the #1 position in OCTOBER (it was 5th in the SUMMER book). 'DVD edges out GREATER MEDIA Active Rock WRIF, which was a solid 2nd (up from 4th in the diary). CLEAR CHANNEL Top 40 WKQI rises from 7th diary to 3rd meter -- a rise that sister outlets in NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES have seen in the meter. GREATER MEDIA sees Classic Rock WCSX fly from 9th to 4th giving GREATER MEDIA two of the top 4 stations. Meanwhile, high fives over CBS Sports WXYT-F -- which ranks 5th in the meter -- positive news for proponents for Sports on FM. CLEAR CHANNEL Urban WMXD ranks 6th (off from #1 in the SUMMER). CITADEL Adult Hits WDRQ (DOUG) ranks 7th, ahead of CBS Country WYCD, which came in 8th. Growth for AC all around as CLEAR CHANNEL heritage AC WNIC motors from 15th diary to 9th meter, ahead of sister Urban WJLB, which was 10th.

GREATER MEDIA AC WMGC moves from 13th to 11th, just ahead of CBS News WWJ. CBS Classic Hits WOMC did not do as well as sisters in NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES and DALLAS, but did rank 13th (up from 16th diary). The big drop belongs to Smooth AC WVMV -- which falls all the way from 2nd in the SUMMER to 14th meter (although they were usually around the top 5 and not #2). Nevertheless, not a good look for a format that has seen its shares decline rapidly in markets like CHICAGO, SAN FRANCISCO, ATLANTA and now DETROIT after disappearing in PHILADELPHIA, WASHINGTON and NEW YORK. CITADEL News/Talk WJR is 15th. MASONS Urban AC WGPR actually moved into the #2 position in the format, seeing a nice gain in share and moving 19th diary to 16th meter. CTV Alternative CIMX (89X) and CLEAR CHANNEL Country WDTW tie for 17th. Now trailing WGPR is RADIO ONE Urban AC WDMK -- which ranks 19th meter (down from 14th diary). CTV AAA CIDR (THE RIVER) posted a nice gain 25-54 to 20th. Out of the top 20: RADIO ONE Urban WHTD.

18-49: WRIF takes the top spot here (they were 4th in the diary). WKQI is a solid 2nd, with WDVD a very impressive 3rd. The big jump is for WCSX -- which leaps from 12th diary to 4th meter. WJLB is fairly close -- moving from 3rd to 5th. WXYT-F looks stellar in this demo -- rising all the way to #6 (they were 10th in diary). WDRQ sees a rise here too from 9th to 7th. WMXD slides from 1st all the way down to 8th, just ahead of WYCD which is off from 7th to 9th. WNIC posts a nice jump from the diary, rising 14th to 10th. CIMX is flat in share but dips from 6th to 11th. WMGC is steady in 12th, with a big jump for WOMC surging from 20th to 13th. WVMV dips from 7th diary to 14th meter, while WDTW is 15th. None of the big AM stations were top 15 18-49 -- with WWJ and WJR 16th and 17th respectively -- although that was parallel with their diary results. WDMK sees a drop in rank (from 11th to 18th), but their share was off only about 20%, tying them with a rising WGPR. WHTD rounds out the top 20.

18-34: WKQI retains the top spot it had in the diary, but we have a new #2 as WRIF leaps all the way from 6th in the diary. WDVD inches up from 4th to 3rd, with WJLB sliding back from 2nd to 4th. CIMX slides from 3rd to 5th, tying them with WXYT -- which performed extremely well on the young end. WNIC and WYCD tied for 7th. WCSX surges from 14th to 9th and WMXD rounds out the top 10. A big drop for WHTD -- which falls out of the top 10 and is now 12th.

Washington: 'TOP On Top in DC; WAMU Is PPM Money; WIHT Is 'Hot'

We expected a shift in power in WASHINGTON and that's what we got. With the election and the economy on everyone's mind -- especially in the Nation's Capital, it's no surprise that BONNEVILLE News WTOP-F took the top spot with Adults 25-54, while also ranking 2nd 18-49 and 4th 25-54 -- all sharp gains from the diary. Perhaps it also bodes well for companies considering moving a proven AM News/Talk brand over to FM. There were some other notable shifts in D.C. within some of the demos.

25-54: WTOP-F was the leader here (they ranked 3rd in the diary), but it had a strong margin of victory over 2nd place CLEAR CHANNEL AC WASH -- which rises from 5th in the diary. We also saw some solid shares in D.C. for non-commercial stations. Most notable is AMERICAN UNIVERSITY News/Talk (and NPR affiliate) WAMU-F, which tied for 3rd with HOWARD UNIVERSITY Urban AC WHUR. 'HUR held up nicely -- dropping only slightly from 1st in the diary. It was CLEAR CHANNEL Top 40 WIHT that saw gains across the board -- and rises all the way to #5 25-54 -- more than doubling their diary share (where it ranked 10th). CLEAR CHANNEL also sees Alternative WWDC (DC101) rank 6th -- giving the cluster three of the top six stations 25-54. CBS Urban-leaning Rhythmic WPGC-F slips from 4th diary to 7th meter. CITADEL Hot AC WRQX (MIX 107.3) was fairly steady (7th diary to 8th meter). Another non-commerical outlet, COLUMBIA UNION Christian AC WGTS ranks 9th. RADIO ONE Urban WKYS ranks 10th. The good news here is that three African American targeted stations (WHUR, WPGC and WKYS) placed in the top 10, and five of the top 13 with RADIO ONE Gospel WPRS 12th and Urban AC sister WMMJ 13th. The only downside was the big drop for WMMJ -- which was always a solid performer in the diary (2nd this summer) -- all the way down to 13th. There was some good growth for recently flipped CBS Classic Rock WTGB (formerly AAA). The outlet doubled their demo shares from diary and placed 11th. Tied with WMMJ for 13th is CLEAR CHANNEL Sports WTEM. One format that didn't fare as well in D.C. as other markets is Classic Hits. CLEAR CHANNEL 70's-based WBIG ranks 15th, while CITADEL's WJZW (TRUE OLDIES 105.9) ranked 21st. While DALLAS and ATLANTA were good to Country -- and DETROIT held steady -- we can't say the same for CLEAR CHANNEL's WMZQ. The legendary Country station was 8th in the diary, but fell to 16th in the meter. CBS Tropical WLZL dips from 10th diary to 17th meter. The FM Talk troubles continue for CBS. KLLI/DALLAS and KLSX/LOS ANGELES have both had their issues in the meter and WJFK is no different here in D.C. -- slipping all the way to 18th. While heritage News/Talk stations have made the conversion well (like WTOP-F), WJFK has not. CITADEL News/Talk WMAL slides from 14th diary to 19th meter.

18-49: A huge coup for WIHT as they surge to the top of the demo -- rising from 5th in the diary. WTOP-F also climbs from 6th to 2nd. WASH -- as most AC's have done in PPM -- sees some growth on the younger end and motors from 10th to 3rd. Big news on the younger end Urban battle as WKYS holds steady in 4th place 18-49, tied with DC101. WRQX rises from 10th to 6th, while WKYS bests WPGC-F -- which was tied for #1 in the diary and falls to 7th in the meter. WHUR also dips in the meter on the younger end, sliding from 1st to 8th. WAMU and WGTS both rank top 10 in this cell. WPRS rises in this demo -- moving from 13th diary to 11th meter. WTEM improves from 18th to 12th, tied with WTGB. WMMJ suffers here as well -- falling all the way from 3rd to 14th. WBIG is 15th, ahead of WMZQ, which appears to be skewing older. WMZQ slides all the way to 16th. WLZL, WJFK, WMAL, and WETA round out the top 20.

18-34: WIHT surges to the top 18-34, just ahead of WKYS. The latter sees a significant jump in share in the meter -- as does DC101, which rises from 4th to 3rd. WTOP-F is strong across the board, and moves from 12th diary to 4th meter. WRQX is now 5th, ahead of diary champ WPGC-F, which slips to 6th. WGTS, WASH, WLZL and WAMU round out the top 10.

With 14 markets now commercialized, we have seen some trends. RADIOCRUNCH partners ANTHONY ACAMPORA and KEVIN MCCABE will be delivering some new analysis in the coming weeks as to where they see the trends going formatically. You can reach KEVIN at musicrunch@rocketmail.com or ANTHONY at anthony@radiocrunch.com or visit  www.radiocrunch.com.

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