WERQ regains top ratings spot

The Baltimore Sun

WERQ 92 FM, the urban radio station specializing in hip-hop and R&B;, has reclaimed its top spot in the metropolitan Baltimore market, according to spring ratings released yesterday.

WERQ frequently swaps its top ranking with WPOC, 93.1 FM, a country-music station that came in second this time but first in the winter ratings book. Last fall, the positions were reversed once more, with WERQ - more commonly known as 92Q - on top.

WERQ headed the list of 33 stations surveyed between April 5 and June 27. It had a 9.4 share, which means that an average of 30,500 people age 12 and older tuned to the station in any given quarter-hour between 6 a.m. and midnight. WERQ's cumulative rating indicated that 375,900 people listened to the station for at least five minutes during any one week.

"We're thrilled with the ratings," said Howard Mazer, the station's general manager. "You're always trying to get to No. 1."

The ratings report also showed WBAL, 1090 AM, continuing to lag in sixth place, after dominating the market just a few years ago. The talk-radio station had an average of almost 70,000 fewer listeners now than it did early last year, before it dumped Rush Limbaugh's syndicated program and lost its contract to broadcast Orioles games.

After WERQ and WPOC, the top six stations in the field were rounded out by WLIF, known as 101.9 Lite FM, which plays soft rock; WWIN, 95.9 FM, an urban adult contemporary station that, like WERQ, is owned by Lanham-based Radio One Inc.; WIYY, 97.9 FM, known as 98 Rock; and its sister station, WBAL.

Next Friday, WBAL will lose one of its better-known on-air personalities, Chip Franklin. Another host, Rob Douglas, has recently left. In addition, this baseball season marks the first time in 18 years that WBAL has not broadcast Orioles games.

In the spring ratings "book" a year ago, WBAL had a 6.9 share, a 22,000 average-quarter-hour head count and a cumulative audience of 320,000. This spring, the numbers have fallen to a 4.5 share, a 14,600 average-quarter-hour head count and a cumulative audience of 250,400.

"This was not the best ratings book we ever had," said Ed Kiernan, WBAL's vice president and general manager. "A year ago, we had baseball. It gave the whole station a lift."

Predictably, WHFS, 105.7 FM, which picked up the Orioles contract, saw a boost to its numbers. In the 7 p.m.-to-midnight time frame, the station went from 16th in the rankings in the spring 2006 book to sixth in the ratings just released. Its cumulative over-12 listenership during those hours went from 29,200 before it had the Orioles to 79,500 this season, although WHFS' audience is still not as high as WBAL's was a year ago.

WBAL's average figure of 90,200 listeners during Orioles games in the spring 2006 book has now, without the games, been cut in half, to 45,400.

nick.madigan@baltsun.com

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