If you take them as a group, the various shadings of AC stations made it the top format in America’s top markets, going more or less through about 50 of them. But break them into the shadings and Country gets the nod. Here’s a tally from Clark Smidt.
Classic Hits and CHR round out the top three.
The ACs combined would easily beat any one of them.
The Rock group would appear to be in major distress, and without the old-timers heard on Classic Rock it would barely register.
Urban and Urban AC combined would rank alongside News/Talk on the chart.
Here, from Mr.Smidt, are the results:
The Top Formats: June Nielsen Audio
By Clark Smidt, Broadcast Connector
PPM Market Trends showing leading formats.
Based on Top 5 ranking stations: 46 PPM Markets #1-#52 *
Rank | Format | # Stations in Top 5 | Markets at #1 | Total Points |
1 | Country | 29 | 8 | 99 |
2 | Classic Hits | 26 | 8 | 91 |
3 | CHR | 30 | 5 | 81 |
4 | A/C | 21 | 7 | 67 |
5 | News/Talk | 19 | 2 | 58 |
6 | Hot A/C | 17 | 2 | 53 |
7 | Soft A/C | 10 | 6 | 41 |
7 | Urban A/C | 14 | 3 | 41 |
9 | Classic Rock | 14 | 3 | 33 |
10 | Sports | 6 | 1 | 20 |
11 | Adult Hits | 7 | 1 | 18 |
11 | Rock | 7 | 0 | 18 |
13 | Urban | 5 | 1 | 11 |
14 | Spanish/Tropical | 7 | 2 | 16 |
15 | Inspirational | 5 | 0 | 12 |
16 | Rhythmic-CHR | 6 | 0 | 11 |
17 | Modern Rock | 2 | 0 | 4 |
17 | Adult Alt. | 1 | 0 | 4 |
Total Points based on 5 for #1 rank, 4 for #2, 3 #3, 2 #4, 1 #5.