WRIT still No. 1 in radio

Top ratings streak reaches 2 years

WRIT-FM (95.7) remained solidly at the top of the radio ratings scorecard in February, as it has for the previous 23 months.

After No. 1, however, the lineup changed quite a bit, with Milwaukee’s two top talk radio stations showing opposite-direction results.

In the period covering Feb. 2 through March 1, classic-hits WRIT had a 8.7 rating among overall listeners, according to Nielsen Audio data posted Thursday by industry newsletter Tom Taylor Now. That was down, barely, from an 8.8 rating in January.

News-talk WISNAM (1130) came in second in the ratings horse race with a 7.1 rating, up from a fifth-place 5.8 the month before. News-talk-sports rival WTMJ-AM (620), which had finished third in January, slid to ninth in February, with a 5.0 rating vs. a 6.4 the previous month.

Urban-format WKKV-FM (100.7) had a 6.5 rating, up from 5.7, and urban-adult-contemporary WJMR-FM (98.3) had a 6.3, up from 4.9.

Classic rock WKLHFM (96.5) had a 5.9 rating in February, vs. a 6.5 the month before.

Nielsen’s monthly ratings reports are just data snapshots, but sometimes they capture trends in the making. In some large radio markets around the country, Tom Taylor Now reported this week, the political changeover in Washington has given a boost to news-talk stations in general.

Rounding out the top 10 in Milwaukee:

WMYX-FM (99.1), a 5.7 rating, unchanged from the month before; WHQG-FM (102.9), 5.4, down from 6.1; WMILFM (106.1), 5.4, down from 5.7; WTMJ; and WXSS-FM (103.7), 4.7, up from 4.6.