Patrick Kampert looks at Arbitron Winter Ratings

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: WGN remains radio king; morning battle intensifies : By Patrick Kampert | Tribune reporter : April 29, 2008 : WGN-AM 720 held off WGCI-FM 107.5 by a slim margin to remain Chicago's top radio station among listeners 12 and older in the Arbitron winter ratings released Monday. : But a more intriguing story can be found in morning-drive period, which is increasingly the all-or-nothing battleground for stations. : • Listeners followed former afternoon-drive king Steve Dahl to his latest stop, WJMK-FM 104.3, after the demise of WCKG-FM 105.9. Among men 25 to 54, Dahl scored a 5.8 share, good for third place and more than doubling Jack FM's showing of a year ago. He also pulled listeners away from WLUP-FM's Jonathon Brandmeier, who dropped to 3.7 from 4.6 last fall and 5.3 a year ago. : "Steve Dahl was better than we even expected with his first full book," said Rod Zimmerman, senior vice president and market manager for CBS' Chicago stations. "He absolutely knocked it out of the park. Moving from where the station was a year ago, in [15th] place, to the Top 5 is a huge move." : • The syndicated morning show of Eddie Sotelo, who goes by Piolin (Tweety) on the air, has paid huge dividends for WPPN-FM 106.7, an adult-contemporary Spanish station. Among listeners 18 to 34, he leads the market with an 11.1 mark, almost double from 5.9 last winter. He is tops in the morning among men 25 to 54, beating news station WBBM-AM 780 and Dahl, with a 6.5 share. : "It's something we've seen in other markets," Cesar Canales, operations manager for Univision's Chicago stations, said of Piolin's Los Angeles-based show. "He's been gradually growing, sometimes double the ratings from one year to the next. We haven't seen the top ratings of that morning show yet." : • A year ago, WGCI surprised many listeners by dumping local morning personality Howard McGee in favor of Steve Harvey's syndicated show. After some initial stumbles in the ratings, Harvey is No. 1 in the teenage market (listeners 12 to 24) with a 12.8 share, besting a still-impressive 10 mark by WBBM-FM 96.3's Eddie, JoBo and Erica. Harvey is also second in mornings among adults 18-34 and 25-54. : • WTMX-FM 101.9's morning duo of Eric Ferguson and Kathy Hart continued their reign among women 25 to 54, jumping 2 full points since the last ratings period, to 8.7 from 6.7. : • WGN's staying power got a lift as well from morning man Spike O'Dell, up to 8.1 from 7.6 a year ago among listeners 12 and older. O'Dell slipped in the 25-to-54 demographic, and program director Bob Shomper attributed that to the Dahl factor. : "There's going to be some ups and downs," he said. "This book happened to be Steve's, and I congratulate him for it. Hopefully, we'll get the next one." : Overall, Shomper was happy to see WGN win a ratings period without help from the Chicago Cubs. WGN, like this newspaper, is owned by Tribune Co. : "This is the first winter book since [2003] that WGN has been No. 1," he said. "One of things I've always encouraged people to do the last couple years is not let the Cubs always propel us to No. 1. We should be No. 1 year-round, and we were this year."

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