Nielsen begins its monthly release of PPM ratings with today’s Day 1 update including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston/Galveston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Long Island, Riverside/San Bernardino, San Jose, and Middlesex/Somerset/Union.

All the numbers can be found at RadioInsight.com/Ratings.

The January monthly marks the first with Nielsen’s new “Subscriber First” policy in place. Starting this month with PPM markets and expanding to diary markets in April, stations that do not subscribe to Nielsen will no longer be listed in the data given to the summary data used by ad buyers. Exceptions will be made for minority and female owned stations as well as non-profits. Another change sees stations that subscribe in one market once again appearing in the public numbers in other markets. For example all of the big Los Angeles signals now show up in the Riverside/San Bernardino market and stations from New York and Philadelphia show up at the bottom of each other’s.

With the insurrection in Washington DC taking place the day before the monthly started and the inauguration later in the month, Public News/Talk was the big winner for the January monthly. No station surged greater than Chicago Public Media’s 91.5 WBEZ Chicago rising from a 4.3 share in the Holiday monthly to 6.7 in January. Ratings Expert Chris Huff notes that broke the station’s record rating set last April by a wide margin when it had a 5.4 share.

Huff notes that three other Public News/Talk stations set all time records this month. 89.3 KPCC Los Angeles rose 2.7 to 3.6, KQED-FM San Francisco rebounded 9.0 to 10.9 (while rising 10.4 – 12.8 in San Jose), and WHYY-FM Philadelphia surged 4.6 to 6.3. Other big gains were seen by 93.9 WNYC-FM New York (4.1 – 4.9) plus 2.0 – 3.1 on Long Island, KUHF Houston (1.4 -2.7) and WABE Atlanta (3.1 – 4.3).

iHeartMedia AC “106.7 Lite-FM” WLTW led New York with a 6.5 down from its Christmas music fueled 12.8 in the Holiday monthly. SBS Spanish Tropical “Mega 97.9” WSKQ placed second at 5.8. MediaCo Adult R&B 107.5 WBLS placed third at 5.2 followed by Entercom Classic Hits 101.1 WCBS-FM up 4.2 to 5.1 and WNYC-FM fifth with its 4.9 share.

iHeartMedia AC 103.5 KOST leads Los Angeles at a 5.7 share with Entercom Classic Hits “K-Earth 101.1” KRTH right behind at 5.6. iHeartMedia News/Talk 640 KFI places third at a 5.0 followed by Entercom Rhythmic AC “94.7 The Wave” KTWV at 4.6 and Univision Spanish AC “K-Love 107.5” KLVE up 3.3 to 4.0.

Meruelo Media Rhythmic CHR “Power 106” 105.9 KPWR Los Angeles slips 1.5 to 1.3 for what Huff notes is its lowest share for the frequency since it was AC “Magic 106” in Spring 1983. Also tying at 1.3 were Entercom CHR “Amp 97.1” KAMP and Stevie Wonder owned Adult R&B 102.3 KJLH. The lowest rated full-powered FM in the market was Meruelo’s Spanish Rhythmic “Cali 93.9” KLLI at a 1.2.

Entercom News 780 WBBM/105.9 WCFS rises to the lead in Chicago with a 7.3 share. iHeartMedia Adult R&B “V103” 102.7 WVAZ slides 8.0 to 6.8 to stay in second. WBEZ’s big surge places it third. iHeartMedia AC “93.9 Lite-FM” WLIT places fourth at a 5.1, while Hubbard;s Classic Rock “97.1 The Drive” and Hot AC “101.9 The Mix” WTMX round out the top 5 with a tie at 4.4.

KQED-FM’s 10.9 share places it well ahead of Entercom News 740 KCBS/106.9 KFRC’s 8.5 share. Well behind in third is Bonneville AC 96.5 KOIT at a 4.7.

Salem Christian AC 94.9 KLTY leads Dallas with a 6.1 share, while iHeartMedia AC “Star 102.1” KDGE places second at 5.6. Cumulus Media’s “New Country 96.3” KSCS surges up 3.9 to 5.1 to place third.

iHeartMedia’s pair of AC “Sunny 99.1” KODA and News/Talk 740 KTRH (up from 5.5) at a 7.5 share lead Houston. Cox Classic Rock “107.5/106.9 The Eagle” KGLK/KHPT rebounds to third with a 6.2 with Hope Media Christian AC 89.3 KSBJ just behind at a 6.1.

Cox Media Group News/Talk 750 WSB/95.5 WSBB Atlanta remains on top of the market with a 9.0 to 11.8 jump. Cox’s Classic Rock “97.1 The River” WSRV follows at a 6.3 share. Third is Cox’s Adult R&B “Kiss 104.1” WALR despite a 7.5 – 6.4 – 5.1 downward trend. Entercom Hip Hop/R&B “V103” 103.3 WVEE is fourth down 5.5 to 4.8. Trending upward to fifth is Radio One Gospel “Praise 102.5” WPZE up 3.6 – 4.1 – 4.5.

Following the termination of its previous local airstaff and yesterday’s completion of its new lineup, iHeartMedia CHR “Power 96.1” WWPW Atlanta fell 2.9 to 1.8. Cumulus CHR “Q99.7” WWWQ was up 2.8 to 3.1 after making lineup adjustments of its own, while Entercom’s relaunched Rhythmic AC “Star 94″ WSTR is starting to trend upwards with a 2.2 – 2.5 – 2.9 gain. Also sliding this month is Radio One Hip Hop “Hot 107.9” WHTA down 3.1 to 2.4.

iHeartMedia Adult R&B 105.3 WDAS-FM leads Philadelphia with a 8.6 share. The addition of 103.9 WPHI to simulcast News 1060 KYW is starting to pay off for Entercom as the station moves up to second with a 6.4 share. The aforementioned WHYY-FM and Beasley Media Rock 93.3 WMMR tie at a 6.3 share with Entercom Sports 94.1 WIP fifth at a 6.1.

WIP’s webstream added an additional 1.6 share as the emphasis on Radio.com/sports may be starting to pay off for the company. WFAN’s stream added a 0.6 share in New York and a whopping 1.9 share in the Long Island book. WSCR Chicago’s stream showed for the first time with a 0.5 share.

iHeartMedia Soft AC “106.1 The Breeze” WISX surged up 2.9 to 4.1, while sister CHR “Q102” WIOQ was one of the few in that format to have a noticeable rise this month as it moved 2.8 to 3.4.

The move of Hip Hop from 103.9 WPHI to 100.3 WRNB in November has not paid off yet for Radio One as WRNB continues to slide down to a 0.9 share this month.