Star 104 regains top spot in Fall book

“Erie’s Number One Hit Music Station” is #1 again. CHR “Star 104” (WRTS 103.7) has regained it’s top spot in the Fall ratings period. (Numbers at www.radioandrecords.com). After taking the top spot in the spring, Adult Hits “Bob FM” (WXBB 94.7) drops slightly to second with AC “Classy 100” (WXKC 99.9) right on Bob’s heels. Classy’s boost was probablty due to the station going wall to wall Christmas for a month from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Classic Rocker “Z-102.3” (WQHZ) takes 4th with “Rocket 101” (WRKT 100.9) right behind in 5th. “Z” decided to pick up NFL games from Westwood One, including several Pittsburgh Steelers contests which was promoted heavily on the station & website. An even better move for the station would be to pick up the Steelers radio network from WJET 1400, plus carry the WW1 games at other times. For a while, it appeared that “Country 98 WXTA” (97.9) was in trouble after falling to younger skewing country station “93.9 The Wolf.” Both stations are now in a tie for 6th. Could the recent firing of Wolf midayer Johnny Marx help “Country 98” overtake “The Wolf”? Meanwhile, News Talk WJET 1400 is 7th with Contemporary Christian WCTL 106.3 & ESPN Sports Radio WRIE 1260 “The Score” tied for 8th. Another ties follows with Standards / Oldies CHWO “AM 740” sharing 9th with Country croakers “Froggy 100.3 / 98.5” (WGYY Meadville / WGYI Oil City). Rounding out the book is Fox Sports Radio affiliate “The Fan” WFNN 1330. The station flipped back to sports a few months after flipping to oldies to fill the void left by “Froggy 94.7” changing over to “Bob FM.” That hole is now being filled by daytimer WYNE 1530 from North East. It will be interesting to see the impact of “Captain Dan” moving to WYNE (and back to his comfort zone with oldies) will have in the spring book. The station will broadcast longer with more daylight during the warmer months, which could help the Captain gain some listeners. One Final Note: The Meadville – Franklin market is no longer a ranked market for Arbitron. I checked for the latest numbers & found this out on various sites. This usually occurs due to population changes.