UTICA-ROME -- No big surprises in the latest Utica-Rome radio audience estimates released by Nielsen. As usual, Townsquare Media's entire cluster enjoys a solid lock over the rest of the market -- at least among those stations Nielsen includes in the publicly-available numbers.
We have to include the usual disclaimer that Nielsen only releases overall estimates for "Persons 12+" across the entire week, excluding the overnight hours of midnight to 6am. We also need to mention that Nielsen's public numbers exclude stations that don't subscribe to the "full book" that Nielsen produces. In the Utica-Rome market, notable non-subscribers include Galaxy Media and Arjuna Broadcasting.
Country formatted Big Frog 104 (WFRG) continues its reign as the market leader, with a 13.7 share, it's second best of the last four books in this semi-annual diary market. It's a 5½ point drop to second place, held, as is often the case, by mainstream AC Lite 98.7 (WLZW).
Down in to the fives and you get the rest of Townsquare's properties: news/talker WIBX 950, classic hits 96.1 The Eagle (WODZ) and heritage classic rocker 96.9 WOUR.
At 6th place with a 4.8, we finally reach our first non-Townsquare station. It's Roser's 97.9/105.5 Kiss-FM simulcast on WSKS and WSKU. Fellow Roser talk station WUTQ is next with a 2.2.
Oddly, Oswego-based NPR affiliate WRVO is listed separately from Utica's WRVN, even though the latter is a simulcast of the former. If you combine them, the 3.6 is good enough to edge out WUTQ.
Roser's Bug Country 99.7 / 101.1 simulcast (WBUG / WBGK) garners just a fraction of a share point, tying with out-of-market New Country Wolf 92.1 from Syracuse and Albany-based Northeast Public Radio's Remsen repeater WRUN-FM 90.3.