New York Radio Ratings Signals Gains for 107.5 WBLS

The Steve Harvey Morning heads up the WBLS lineup
Now the only daily syndicated urban radio show in NYC

 WBLS is now the Number 3 ranked radio station in New York City according to preliminary Arbitron PPM ratings for May; Full ratings will not be released until June 

Despite better ratings, which should mean higher revenues for the station- Urban radio stations still bill less per ad compared to other mainstream formatted radio stations. Fair or unfair- It is what it is...

If 'BLS continues to do well however, at some point a current radio owner may want switch to an Urban Adult Contemporary format in NYC to compete with WBLS for the radio ears of the 25 to 54 African American adults in the city. WBLS hit the airwaves as New York's first Black owned station in 1970 but is now corporately owned. YMF Media, acquired 'BLS from the Sutton family owned Inner City Media Holdings earlier this year. They also purchased the "Kiss FM" intellectual property from Emmis Communications for $10 million. However "KISS FM" imaging is not used on the 107.5 WBLS airwaves. But at that hefty price, it prevents any other owner of reviving or using the "Kiss FM" brand on another station in the tri-state area.    

Here's a look inside the numbers...

(From NEW YORK TIMES) Last month, the New York radio market was rocked by a three-way deal that merged two venerable R&B stations, WRKS and WBLS, and brought ESPN to the FM band. It may be too early to get a solid reading on ratings, but preliminary data suggests that the newly changed stations are enjoying better numbers.

Michael Baisden, along with Tom Joyner lost the
New York City market with the demise of 98.7 Kiss FM

Arbitron, the standard radio-ratings service, releases its most thorough audience figures monthly, but its weekly updates give a rough indication of listening habits. In its latest weekly report, covering April 26 to May 2 — which includes only three days under the new formats — WBLS had about 350,000 more listeners than it had on average during the month of April and rose in the rankings.

The rating for WBLS, which absorbed its competitor, WRKS, known as Kiss FM, was a 5.0 share for the first week of May; it had a rank of No. 4 in the market. Those results were up from a 3.5 share and rank of No. 7. Among the station’s most prized audience segment, adults 25 to 54, WBLS was ranked No. 3.

Read more at Media Decoder NYTimes