SYRACUSE -- No big surprises at the top of the Syracuse radio ratings chart, with iHeart Country B104.7 (WBBS) leading the way. But there's some notable movement among "the best of the rest" in the latest audience estimates released today by Nielsen. The survey covered the months of January, February and March.
Taking the #2 spot is locally-owned The Dinosaur (WSEN-FM). The classic top 40 station owned by Craig Fox's WOLF Radio, Inc. pulled a 6.4 share, just barely a point behind the 7.6 posted by WBBS. It's notable that this is both The Dinosaur's best book and B104.7's lowest out of the past three Nielsen surveys. In the previous book, which averaged December through February, The Dinosaur had a 5.6 share, with at least four other stations doing better. In the previous report, B104.7 had an 8.3.
Back to the latest numbers: taking 3rd and 4th place, respectively, is the ongoing battle between the Salt City's competing CHR stations. This time around, iHeart's Hot 107.9 (WWHT) posts a 6.2 share, edging out the 5.8 earned by Cumulus-owned 93Q (WNTQ). A month earlier, 93Q's 6.6 was enough to not only beat Hot's 4.8, but also The Dinosaur and iHeart's WSYR duo.
Speaking of which, the news/talker that's simulcast on 570 AM and 106.9 FM rounds out the top 5 in the latest book, dropping to a 5.6 share.
Its followed by sister station Y94 (WYYY), which also took a hit, dropping to a 5.2 share in the first post-holiday book that doesn't include December, when Y94 was playing wall-to-wall holiday tunes.
Next on the list, WOLF Radio's 96.5 The Beat (WMVN) pulls a 4.8 share. That's followed by a three-way tie between the NPR fare on Syracuse University's 88.3 WAER, Cumulus alternative rocker 95X (WAQX) and WOLF Radio's New Country WOLF 92.5, each garnering a 2.8 share of the audience.
As usual, we need to mention that the data publicly released by Nielsen is an estimate of overall average of radio listening amongst all persons ages 12 and above, every day between 6am and midnight. This does not necessarily reflect a station's performance within specific target demographics, which may be more important to a station than these "overall" numbers.
The report released to the public only includes stations that subscribe to Nielsen's full ratings report. Nielsen does not freely release the ratings for non-subscribing stations, which notably include the locally-owned Galaxy Media cluster. Although Nielsen does tabulate ratings for these stations, the data is only provided to those who hold a paid subscription to Nielsen's full reports.