All Access Exclusive: Holiday Music Drives Huge December

Radio Crunching Holiday Listening

RADIOCRUNCH principals ANTHONY ACAMPORA and KEVIN MCCABE have crunched the numbers of the DECEMBER PPM results with ARBITRON now at currency in 14 markets. The full report can only be seen on ALL ACCESS next MONDAY, but there's a sneak preview:

Holiday Music, The Gift That Keeps On Listening

KODA/HOUSTON and WBEB/PHILADELPHIA originally served as our the test monkeys for holiday music in PPM. Now there's a plethora of stations to choose from. Here is the change for each station from NOVEMBER to DECEMBER among adults 25-54 in PPM. The DECEMBER PPM monthly covers NOVEMBER 13th-DECEMBER 10th. As expected, AC outlets in NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, CHICAGO, SAN FRANCISCO and PHILADELPHIA took the 25-54 crowns in DECEMBER.

WBEB/PHILADELPHIA definitely had its momentum slowed, however, as GREATER MEDIA flipped new AC rival WNUW to holiday music in early NOVEMBER. WNUW scored a gain of nearly 124% from NOVEMBER to DECEMBER and surged all the way to #6 in the market.

CLEAR CHANNEL AC WLIT/CHICAGO saw the largest growth, moving from 12th to 1st, with a gain of 153% from NOVEMBER to DECEMBER. Midwest sister WNIC soared as well; it enjoyed a boost of 13.7% as it went from 11th in NOVEMBER to #1 in DECEMBER. On the West Coast, CLEAR CHANNEL AC KOST/LOS ANGELES rose 46.2% and moved to #1. KOST did not flip until 11/21, so only had three weeks of yuletide delights.

In NEW YORK, however, the results were fair, but far from spectacular. WLTW reclaimed the #1 position, but saw only a 14.8% increase. Meanwhile, CBS Classic Hits WCBS-FM, which switched on 11/21, declined 7.7%. 

                                             Nov     Dec     Change
WLTW/NEW YORK           #2       #1         +14.8%
WCBS-FM/NEW YORK    #9       #10         -7.7%
KOST/LOS ANGELES      #7       #1         +46.2%
WLIT/CHICAGO                 #12     #1        +153.3%
KOIT/SAN FRANCISCO   #1        #1        +15.8%
KVIL/DALLAS                     #9        #2        +51.4%
WBEB/PHILADELPHIA    #2         #1        +4.3%
WNUW/PHILADELPHIA  #21      #6         +123.8%
KODA/HOUSTON             #3        #3         +7.5%
WSB-FM/ATLANTA           #7        #4         +70.7%
WASH/WASHINGTON     #2        #2         +20.5%
WNIC/DETROIT               #11      #1          +135.7%

Check in WITH US on MONDAY for full details. You can reach ANTHONY at Anthony@radiocrunch.com and Kevin at Musicrunch@rocketmail.com.

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