B98.5 enjoys Christmas kiss in late December ratings

The soft rock station leapt to the top of the latest Arbitron ratings book over R&B/hip-hop  V-103 in the overall ratings, drawing a 12 share. It also beat V-103 among 25-54 year olds. This was a similar trend in other cities as well for stations that focused on Christmas.

This holiday ratings period covers December 10 to January 6. B98.5 played Christmas songs for just over half of that four-week period so it’s likely during the first two weeks, B98.5’s numbers were even higher.

104.7/The Fish, which played all Christmas as well, saw a more modest jump, finishing sixth overall, up from eighth the previous four weeks. Morning hosts Kevin & Taylor jumped to No. 6 among 25 to 54 year olds, up from 11th and an impressive third among 18 to 34 year olds.

I’m not going to take these numbers very seriously for two reasons: the holiday season throws people’s schedules off and changes listening habits. Plus, the Christmas formats skewed the numbers. Stations that focus on news/talk suffered, especially WSB-AM, which dropped to fourth place.

B98.5 also took listeners away from country, oldies and pop stations.

Otherwise, this book isn’t worth analyzing too deeply. Here are some rankings:

Overall:

1. B98.5

2. V-103

3. Kiss 104.1

4. 750/WSB-AM

5. Praise 102.5

6. Fish 104.7

7. Kicks 101.5

8. Hot 107.9

9. 90.1/WABE-FM

10. Q100

11. 95.5/The Beat

12. Majic/The River (tied)

14. True Oldies 106.7

15. 105.3/El Patron

16. Star 94

17. 94.9/The Bull

18. Project 9-6-1

19. 92.9/Dave FM

20. Groove 105.7

21. Rock 100.5

22. 680/The Fan and 640/WGST-AM (tied)

24. 790/The Zone

25. J93.3

25-54

1. B98.5

2. V-103

3. Kiss

4. Q100/Fish (tie)

6. Praise

7. Kicks

8. Majic, WSB-AM, El Patron (tie)

11. Hot

12. River/Star (tie)

14. Bull

15. The Beat

16. Dave

17. Project

18. True Oldies

19. WABE

20. Groove, Rock 100.5(tie)

18-34

1 V-103

2. B98.5

3. Hot

4. El Patron

5. Q100

6. Fish

7. Beat

8. Project

9. Kicks

10. Praise

11. River

12. Kiss

13. Majic

14. Groove, Star (tie)

16. Bull

17. Rock 100.5

18. Dave

19. True Oldies

20. J93.3

25-54 mornings

1. Frank & Wanda, V-103

2. Steve & Vikki, B98.5

3. Bert Show, Q100

4. Scott Slade, WSB-AM

5. Tom Joyner, Kiss

6. Kevin & Taylor, Fish

7. Regular Guys, Rock 100.5

8. Cadillac and Dallas, Kicks

9. Patrones de la Manana, El Patron; Morning Edition, WABE

11. Yolanda Adams, Praise

Top morning shows 18-34

1. Frank & Wanda, V-103

2. Bert Show, Q100

3. Kevin & Taylor, Fish

4. Patrones de la Manana, El Patron

5. Rickey Smiley, Hot 107.9

6. Steve & Vikki, B98.5

7. The Regular Guys, Rock 100.5

8. CJ and Murph Dawg, Beat; Cadillac and Kristen, Kicks

10. Schaffee and El Hefe, Project

11. Yolanda Adams, Praise; Kaedy Kiely, River (tie)

SOURCE: Arbitron

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