Fresh Listen: PPM’s Highest-Rated Stations

I’ve just finished listening to the four highest-rated music stations in PPM markets, as well as America’s most-listened-to radio station. All five of them had some level of personality in PM drive, even the Mainstream AC stations. A few of them even paused to talk during music sweeps. All of them had traditional imaging, as opposed to two-second “calls-only” sweepers. None of them did “coming up in six minutes” teasers, although one did mention the national contest coming up next hour.

It might seem unfair to dredge up the programming rules of PPM’s early years; many stations have backed away from them over the last decade. But some broadcasters were really strict about enforcing them at the expense of personality and stationality. Now, if you’re wondering what the highest-rated stations in PPM have in common, it’s some level of personality and companionship at this moment when it’s most needed from radio. In all but one case, I heard significant local content that let me know what market I was hearing; the fifth was a rock station talking about Van Halen, so I think that counts.

Radioinsight.com recently partnered with veteran programmer and ratings historian Chris Huff to improve and expand its ratings pages. This week, RadioInsight added the “Ratings Top 50” — the 50 stations with the highest PPM shares, and the 50 with the highest cume. Those rankings were a signature of Radio & Records’ twice-yearly ratings reports — still missed more than a decade after that publication shuttered. They also served to remind you of the impact of some of the stations listed, particularly those that weren’t typically trade-publication success stories, but always had large cumes.

The new rankings were an impetus to take a “Fresh Listen” to the four top-rated PPM market stations in September, as well as the national cume leader. There were two Entercom stations, two iHeart outlets, and one Hubbard station. There were two Classic Rock stations, two Mainstream AC stations, and one Adult R&B outlet. As we discuss CHR’s recent travails, it is worth noting that there is not a single Top 40 station among the 50 highest PPM shares (CHR is better represented on the cume list, as you’d expect). The most current station I heard was one of the Mainstream ACs with three new songs an hour, although that allows for the blurred lines between current and recurrent at AC.

All five of the stations I listened to were heritage outlets; the newest celebrates its 20th anniversary next January. None talked about its longevity in the format, but it was pretty clear listening to the highest-rated station:

KSHE St. Louis

#1 Overall Share Nationally, 12.3 6-plus

In my hour with “the Rock of St. Louis,” PM driver Lauren “Lern” Ewell stopped the music about every other song. She shared stories about Elton John starring in a Gorillaz video, about the Foo Fighters’ 25th anniversary “merch capsule,” and a “dinner with Rush” charity auction. She read a request from a listener who thanked her for bits like these. Then the listener mentioned morning co-host John “U-Man” Ulett, also the PA announcer for the Cardinals. Lern hoped that Ulett didn’t retire anytime soon, but that the Cardinals should be prepared to erect a statue to him. Also, it’s Rocktober on KSHE. Also, the KSHE Klassic car show is coming up — albeit virtually this year.

Here’s Hubbard’s KSHE just before the 3 p.m. hour on October 5:

• Elton John, “Bennie and the Jets”
• Foo Fighters, “Learn to Fly”
• Eagles, “Take It Easy”
• Def Leppard, “Rock of Ages”
• Rush, “Working Man”
• Poison, “Nothing but a Good Time”
• Queen, “Somebody to Love”
• Motley Crue, “Home Sweet Home”
• Led Zeppelin, “Fool in the Rain”
• Aerosmith, “Crying”
• ZZ Top, “Tush”
• Clash, “Train in Vain (Stand by Me)”
• Guns N’ Roses, “Paradise City”
• Billy Idol, “Rebel Yell”

WHJY (94HJY) Providence, R.I.

#3 Overall Share Nationally, 12.2 6-plus

There’s no question that KSHE is a Classic Rock station, but it’s very accessible texturally (and was surprisingly ballad-driven in the hour I listened to). WHJY is more aggressive sonically. On the day I listened, it was premiering the new AC/DC single once an hour. The station was also saluting Eddie Van Halen with several cuts an hour. 

Afternoon hosts Doug & Scarpetti began that afternoon by acknowledging the listener who had complained that playing Van Halen’s “Drop Dead Legs” and “D.O.A.” (among many, many others) was tone-deaf. There was no intent to be irreverent, they said; “all of us here are pretty much devastated.” The next break was a story about how, despite society’s divisiveness, most Americans regarded themselves as having no enemies. WHJY was also the first station where I’d heard iHeart Radio’s Sports Net updates at the beginning of a stopset.

Here’s WHJY at 2:45 p.m., October 7:

• Jet, “Cold Hard Bitch”
• U2, “New Year’s Day”
• Red Rider, “Lunatic Fringe”
• AC/DC, “Shot in the Dark”
• Candlebox, “Far Away”
• Offspring, “Gotta Get Away”
• Van Halen, “Take Your Whiskey Home”
• Collective Soul, “Shine”
• Scorpions, “Rock You Like a Hurricane”
• Van Halen, “Runaround”
• Led Zeppelin, “Ramble On”
• Green Day, “Basket Case”

WRCH (Lite 100.5) Hartford, Conn. 

#2 Overall Share Nationally, 12.2 6-plus

When soft AC took hold in the ‘80s, the goal was to sound more low-key than the Top 40 of the time. When I heard Entercom’s Lite 100.5, it declared itself “proud to serve New England” at the top of the hour. It has a big-voiced afternoon host in Chuck Taylor. It still plays “Hotel California,” the 1977 version; it now plays Dua Lipa. It has, in other words, successfully updated just enough over the years. And as other format presentations change, WRCH was a reminder that AC has become a place for “radio that sounds like radio.” 

Here’s WRCH just before the 3 p.m. hour on October 5:

• George Michael, “Faith”
• Pink, “Who Knew”
• Boyz II Men, “End of the Road”
• Justin Timberlake, “Can’t Stop the Feeling”
• Heart, “Alone”
• Maroon 5, “Memories”
• DHT, “Listen to Your Heart”
• Berlin, “Take My Breath Away”
• Dua Lipa, “Don’t Stop Now”
• REO Speedwagon, “Keep On Lovin’ You”
• K-Ci & Jojo, “All My Life”
• Lewis Capaldi, “Someone You Loved”
• Taylor Swift, “Style”
• Eagles, “Hotel California”
• Alicia Keys, “Girl on Fire”
• Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

WLTW (106.7 Lite FM) New York

Cume leader, 3,174,300 listeners weekly

New York’s Lite FM was at the other end of the format spectrum, pushing the textural boundaries of the format. Then iHeart’s co-owned Soft AC KISQ (The Breeze) San Francisco and others arrived just as recent music was getting edgier. WLTW began acknowledging some of the Breeze’s signature records, but it didn’t tamp down its contemporary edge. 

The result is that the station has been successfully negotiating a wide variety of what PM driver Rich Kaminsky positioned here as “different songs from different kinds of artists.” There weren’t a lot of breaks on any of the stations here that acknowledged COVID directly, but Kaminsky did talk about how his family had made one of its first outings this weekend to a Halloween exit and appreciating how “it takes your mind off things.”

Here’s WLTW just before 3 p.m., October 5:

• Camila Cabello, “Havana”
• Sheriff, “When I’m With You”
• Usher, “Yeah!”
• Toto, “Africa”
• Dua Lipa, “Break My Heart”
• Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”
• Halsey, “Without Me”
• Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”
• Gotye, “Somebody I Used to Know”
• Deniece Williams, “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”
• Miley Cyrus, “Party in the U.S.A.”
• Lionel Richie, “Hello”
• Pink, “Raise Your Glass”
• Pretenders, “I’ll Stand by You”

WVKL (95.7 R&B FM) Norfolk, Va.

#4 Overall Share Nationally, 12.2 6-plus

Entercom’s Adult R&B WVKL positions itself as “smooth R&B from yesterday and today,” but over the last decade, 95.7 R&B FM has successfully hewed to the “millennial AC” model that has eluded its counterparts. In that time, it has held off more traditional Adult R&B challengers and now the Throwback R&B format. It has also continued to keep some R&B Gospel in the format, something which disappeared from many counterparts around the time PPM took hold.

PM driver Charles Black was the first personality I heard talking directly about COVID-19. Because this was a military market, he was reporting the reported cases among the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There were also promos for his “Black Book” of locally black-owned businesses, and Black also mentioned that he was going to put local businesses on the air later that afternoon. 

Here’s 95.7 R&B FM just before 3 p.m., October 6:

• Ella Mai, “Trip”
• Shai, “If I Ever Fall in Love”
• Lonr. f/H.E.R., “Make the Most”
• Tamia, “So Into You”
• Marvin Sapp, “Never Would Have Made It”
• Mary J. Blige, “Mary Jane”
• Bruno Mars & Cardi B, “Finesse”
• Maze f/Frankie Beverly, “Before I Let Go”
• Jazmine Sullivan f/Missy Elliott, “Need U Bad”
• Usher, “Bad Habits”
• Aaron Hall, “I Miss You”
• K’jon, “On the Ocean”
• Chris Brown, “Back to Sleep”
• John Legend, “Ordinary People”
• Queen Najia, “Butterflies Pt. 2”

Check out RadioInsight’s expanded ratings section. See the Ratings Top 50 here.