The Ten Best Markets For Radio Listeners: #1 Chicago
Written Nov. 30, 2007 by Sean Ross in Content + Ten Best Markets with 18 Comments
When we put together the list of the Ten Best Markets For Radio Listeners--those that offered the best combination of quantity and quality on AM/FM radio--there was some discussion about whether our choice for the No. 1 market would surprise people. After all, it wasn't New York or Los Angeles, two places that get a lot more attention. But nobody who has ever been connected with Chicago radio will be surprised. This is a market where radio has always been taken very seriously and held to a certain standard.
Chicago is a great market for listeners because of the choice it offers. There are more head-to-head battles than you'll find in most markets (Top 40, Urban, Talk, Mainstream AC, Regional Mexican, Classic Rock, Urban AC, Sports, and even the Variety Hits battle between Jack-FM and Nine-FM). The city's diversity is matched in a wide variety of offerings--Catholic Talk, all-Polish, African-American Talk. There's also, seemingly, the most student-run radio per capita of any market, and more viable suburban radio than in most places.
Chicago is also still the morning show capital of the world. There's not quite the mega-tonnage of veteran morning talent that there was two years ago. There are more syndicated shows--although at least three (WGCI's Steve Harvey, WVAZ's Tom Joyner, WSRB's Michael Baisden, and WNUA's Ramsey Lewis) have ties to the market. But it's still a long, formidable list of familiar names: WLUP's Jonathon Brandmeier, WGN's Spike O'Dell, WJMK (Jack FM)'s newly arrived Steve Dahl, WBBM-FM (B96)'s Eddie & JoBo, WBBM-AM's Pat Cassidy & Felicia Middlebrooks, WSCR's Mike North, WXRT's Lin Brehmer, WLS's Don & Roma, WOJO's El Pistolero, WILV's Tommy Edwards, WUSN's Ramblin' Ray Stevens & Lisa Dent).
Chicago has what many consider to be the best male/female morning show in the country in WTMX (the Mix)'s Eric & Kathy, who still manage to animate what has become a cliché in other markets, and get more out of their callers than most. And lest anybody accuse us of rattling off a list of the same old big names above, there is also WKSC (Kiss 103.5)'s Dr. Drex, who survived the challenge of being an upstart in such a brand-name market and became a force in a relatively short time.
And the list of talent extends well beyond mornings: WDRV's Bob Stroud and Bobby Skafish, WZZN's Dick Biondi (on an Oldies station that is still more traditional in its focus than most), WXRT's Terri Hemmert, WGN's Steve Cochran, WGCI-FM's Tony Sculfield, WLS' Roe Conn, WVAZ's Herb Kent and WVON's Richard Pegue. You can also put WLIT's Melissa Forman in either this list or the previous one, since she's presently in the rare position of being heard in both mornings and afternoons. Public radio powerhouse WBEZ also deserves a mention as the homebase of both "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" and "This American Life"'s Ira Glass.
It's also a market with a lot of recent activity. WKQX (Q101) has segued from its more eclectic version of Alternative to the cusp of Active Rock, meaning that Heritage Rock sister WLUP has gone more Classic Rock. FM Talker WCKG has become CBS' second "Fresh FM," launching while longtime AC WLIT plays Christmas music. WILV (Love 100.3) has segued from Jammin' Oldies to a broader-based '70s/'80s party format. Progressive talker WCPT has moved frequencies.
The "what's missing" list here might be better described as the "who's missing" list: former WGCI morning man Crazy Howard McGee, WLS legend John Landecker, WCKG's recently displaced Garry Meier, and going back further, Mancow. As for formats, with WCKG gone, there's a hole for commercial Talk on FM. And with Q101's changes, the less rocking side of Alternative has to be pieced together from WTMX and WXRT. And even though it's never been a huge group, there are Dance fans who would like to hear that music before its current 9 p.m. start on Nine-FM.
In its totality, it's hard to dispute Chicago as the major-market where radio most matters, both to listeners, and to radio people themselves. (And as we ponder the daily fourth-quarter bad news in this business, being able to maintain enthusiasm for your own product can never be taken too lightly.) Congratulations to Chicago--the best market for radio listeners of 2007!
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
Sean-
I loved your build-up to the #1 city on your survey (only thing missing from the tease was the voice of Mr. Kasem...)
I'll go with Chicago - having grown up there; though I will argue that there's no "battle" between WJMK and 9FM...(if you look at either Arbitron or 9FM's midnight to midnight playlist in Mediabase there's no comparison)....
Where did Denver come in your survey??? I do believe there's room for lots of argument in the variety offered in that city.
Enjoyed it none-the-less...and thanks!
Sean -
I could not agree more with your #1 choice, a City that I love that embraced me 18 years ago!
I would like to add that Chicago has the finest sounding Smooth Jazz station in the Country with WNUA. It is just a pleasure to hear the consistency from talents the likes of Ramsey Lewis, Dave Koz and the amazing Danae Alexander. Just one fine produced and well oiled machine!
Also, props to Drex on KISS FM, an incredibly consistent and entertaining morning show and the Mayor of Bronzeville on WVAZ weekends, Herb Kent, the Cool Gent, a Chicago living legend.
And I also believe that WDRV is one of the best Classic Hits/No Hype stations of its kind, just a pleasure to listen to.
Lastly, it is amazing to have Steve Dahl back in mornings where he belong on JACK FM. Coming up on his 30th year on Chicago airwaves next year, he is still THEE MASTER.
Can you tell I love Chicago?
David Gariano
SuperSpots-Chicago
Indeed...I love Chi-Town's diversity of radio stations. No doubt. I just question your criteria. Quantity? That eliminates smaller cities. Quality? You equate the number of formats available to "quality". Neither quantifies what "listeners" want. Is there a study that says the people of Chicago love listening to their abundance of stations more than other city's dearth of radio choices? In other words, is Chicago Radio Listeners more or less excited or more or less apathetic to listening to their radios compared to other cities? I get 500 TV channels, but does that make me happy with what is being offered on television? If a city has 6 stations....And all 6 have the same format, but that city's listeners are more engaged with radio listening...then I would put that city as #1. I'm curious…What city (or cities) has the largest percentage of their population devoted to listening to radio?
Great market, you didn't mention the DRIVE, excellent station, specific design, consistent performer
How could you list WBEZ, the public radio station, without mentioning its finest, best produced, acclaimed, award-winning and ear-splitting program? --"The Annoying Music Show!"?? with Jim Nader??
What kind of research do you do over there? Did
you grow-up using Cliff-Notes & Classics Illustrated?
Julie M
Sean:
Great list/series... With Louisville being my hometown (I also worked there in the early 90's) and my time at WLUP, I know you certainly did your homework (as usual). And among the 7 markets I did time in over my career, I can also attest that Chicago listeners are more passionate about their stations/personalities than any other market I'm familiar with. Yes, that passion has decreased as consumers have become more "consumed" themselves in things that compete for their attention (new media as well as their families, jobs, etc.), but Chicago still is above average in that regard.
Your comment about Chicago being "the morning show capital of the world" reminds me of an occasional conversation that takes place here among radio-types... almost a "chicken or the egg" comparison: do listeners engage more here because Chicago radio has had so many more big names over the years (like Brandmeier), or have radio operators been more willing to bring great talent to Chicago because listeners are more likely to bring a good return on that investment?
Tim Dukes
Chicago
GetDukes@aol.com
I'm not here to disagree with Chicago as the top city.
But I think any city in the top 10 MUST have a few benchmarks that many of your cities do not have.
First is an All-News radio station. I know All-News is an expensive format to run. But there's no excuse for not having at the push of a button a station broadcasting news updates around the clock or "Traffic and Weather Together" every 10 minutes. There's no excuse to be stuck in traffic and have NO radio station telling us what's going on. But that's what you get in Atlanta, Kansas City, Louisville, etc., outside of drive time. I'm not even sure these cities do frequent traffic and weather updates in PM drive.
Second, there has to be a credible choice of talk stations. I can't expect to have local talk in all top 10 markets, but there's got to be at least a few choices for talk. That means there should also be an NPR talk station, as well as the commercial conservative talkers. It may be too much to ask all 10 cities to have a progressive talk station.
Third, each market should have a commercial Smooth Jazz station and, if not commercial, then a non-commercial Classical station.
For this reason, I think Seattle should have placed in the Top 10. It fits the bill on all these criteria, as well as having an incredible diversity of formats. Does any market have more rock stations of different stripes than Seattle? Now it also has country competitors. And it has a Soft AC that does well even with healthy Smooth Jazz and Classical stations in the market.
And it has FOUR talk stations, including KIRO that carries almost no syndicated programming. Plus an all-news station that' often the market's #1 AM, and a Sports station that's local most hours of the day and night.
Maybe it's one shortcoming is in minority programming, with only a hip hop Top 40 to serve the small African-American community, and one rimshot Mexican FM station. But on the other hand, in the northern suburbs, you can pick up Canadian stations from Vancouver & Victoria, including the CBC.
So there's my 2 cent for Seattle.
I will second that-Chicago will always be a second home to me...I spent 7 years at B96 doing afternoon drive with the best radio people ever-including current VP Programming Todd Cavanugh...My best years on the radio where spent in Chicago...The listeners are the best that I've found anywhere...
Although we're just a 250 watt college FM, WKKC 89.3 FM has radio "legends" such as Harold Lee Rush (former side-kick to WGCI's Bob Wall,WJPC-FM and WGCI-AM 1390), Ladonna Tittle (formely of WJPC and WBMX), Wali Muhammad (formerly of WBEE,WBMX,V-103 and Soul 106), Richard Pegue (formerly of WVON, WJPC, WGCI AM/FM and WOPA), F.J. Bailey (formerly of WXOL,WVON and WGCI-AM) Al Greer (formerly of WLTH-Gary, WJPC-FM and WGCI AM/FM). Not bad for a college radio station on Chicago's South Side.
As someone who has been toiling away in Chicago radio since 1975, I have to agree with your ranking of Chicago as the number one radio market. I’ve always had this theory as to why we take our radio so seriously here. First, as they say, all politics is local and we never seem to have a shortage of political goofballs from both sides of the aisle. Second, Chicago’s less that stellar weather and bumper-to-bumper traffic, have made radio a very valuable resource. Of course that can be said about any market. However, the third, and most important reason really makes Chicago radio great. Chicago radio air personalities can be and are stars in this town. Yes, I did say town because when you boil it all down, Chicago is a very very big small town. We don’t have movie stars here (L.A.) and we are not the center of the business universe (NY). Thus, our default stars are in Radio, TV and sports. Even our rotten winters can’t keep some of the very best talent anywhere from calling Chicago their home.
Harvey Wells
Vice President & Group Station Manager
Newsweb Radio Company
But still, when WCKG flipped to Fresh and when Q101 dropped the "Morning Fix" show (a very risky venture into mixing "Daily Show"-style fake news with an all-news radio clock), the radio boards and newspaper comment boards had the predictable complaints about how much "radio sucks" and the equally-predictable pitches for satellite/Internet/iPods. Are people going to complain about radio no matter what, or does everything look better from another perspective?
As a one-time WNUR general manager, I love that you mentioned the market's student-run powerhouses. And you could definitely make a case for Chicago as the best market in the country. But best crop of morning shows? Compare the turnover there to the relative stability and quality of shows in Los Angeles. For starters, KROQ's Kevin & Bean Show could possibly be one of the smartest morning shows in commercial radio; it's also a market that boasts Mark & Brian, Ryan Seacrest, Rick Dees, Piolin, El Cucuy, etc. L.A.'s KROQ and KIIS have been models for the rest of the country for decades. (KOST too. The Wave. KCRW. These are all stations that are regularly copycatted elsewhere.) Chicago is also lacking a real daring, out-there commercial FM in the vein of L.A.'s Indie 103.1. And Chicago may have a booming student radio culture, but it somehow only has one full-fledged NPR affiliate.
You say that "Chicago is a great market for listeners because of the choice it offers." However, you left out the radio stations of the Moody Bible Institute - WMBI (AM 1110) and WMBI-FM.
These stations have been leaders in Christian broadcasting not only in the Chicagoland area but around the world since WMBI began in 1926. They too are part of the great legend of Chicago radio.
As a previous manager of these stations I was surprised they weren't mentioned.
Tom Sommerville
Chicago radio does have variety but I feel that it is missing something that it had in the early 70's. At that time there were more stations playing more than top 40 of their particular format. There was more of the album oriented music, and that was during prime hours. Now you need to have good talent to make up for the poor playlists. Maybe the short playlists have to do with the short attention span people have today...Now what was I saying?
Yeah, I bunch of rotten huge groups like CBS- the best AAA is like 15th in the market thats real effin good- I can't get enough talk radio... Radio has been killed- get real you morons!
Dave Lee
NOT WCCO's
I was hoping that Chicago would be #1. From my travels, it did seem indeed a cut above the rest as far as radio goes. I would have been vastly dissapointed if NYC got the top slot.
I would agree that Chicago WAS always a leader, but with the same homogenization happening here that is happening all across the country, it's like saying rotten red apples are better than rotten green apples. At the end of the day, they all make your stomach sour. Radio has been rotting and stinking pretty bad for a good 15 years.
WCKG was bad when boring Dahl and his even more boring son were wasting air time. I didn't think it could get worse for them - but then they made it FRESH. What a bunch of crap.
How I long for the days when djs were the taste makers and that made great radio. Car salesmen posing as radio execs pushing "units" of time...thank you so much for ruining radio. Fortunately, it looks like the suits are starting to become victims of their own success.
Radio gods, if you are listening, send your wrath!
I live in the Portland,OR radio market.And I think it is one of the worst markets. Everything is oldies except for the 99 the wolf. I like Rock n Roll. However the classic rock station KGON plays the same playlist every day. I can listen to all of that in my own library. I like the idea of radio stations playing new material to keep the air waves fresh. I have been in several conversations with the KGON program director about their playback. And his remark was that's what people want. I disagree. I can remember when radio stations were hungry to play new material.Not any more. Radio to me seems like it's running on life support.We need to pull the plug and start over.Thanks