Super Bowl Update

For the fifth straight year, WIKY-104.1 FM is the favorite of readers of the Evansville Courier & Press.  The station won the paper's Platinum Readers' Choice award for Best Local Radio Station.

Also honored this year when the awards were published earlier this week were Hot 96 WSTO-96.1 FM and WKDQ-99.5 FM, which won Gold awards.

Among local radio and TV personalities chosen by the readers, WIKY news anchor Randy Wheeler and Eyewitness News Daybreak anchor Randy Moore won Platinum awards.

Receiving Gold awards were Hot 96 morning man Atom Smasher, WIKY Friday Night Request Show host Amy Adams, Eyewitness News lead anchor Brad Byrd and Eyewitness News chief meteorologist Wayne Hart.

Congratulations to this year's winners!

Regular listeners of both WKDQ-99.5 FM (Henderson) and WBKR-92.5 FM (Owensboro) may have noticed a new show on both stations from 7 p.m. to midnight.

Taste of Country Nights, which made its nationwide debut last month, was recently added to both stations and replaces Lia on WKDQ and The Big Time with Whitney Allen on WBKR.

The new program, which features today’s best country hits, the latest country music news, phone calls from listeners, interviews and in-studio performances with the hottest country acts, is produced by Townsquare Media, which owns and operates both stations, and is hosted by Jeremy Robinson.  Robinson "brings an energy to this show we've needed for some time," said Jon Prell, morning host on WKDQ and Townsquare's operations manager.

Prell explained that Taste of Country Nights, unlike so many shows on radio today, is family-friendly and appeals to all ages. "It's the type of show anyone can listen to," he said.

UPDATE #2, 6:30 p.m.:  The previous update takes into account that WEJK-107.1 FM is owned by Boonville Broadcasting Co.  WEJK, as most know, is operated by South Central, so if you add in 107.1's share, South Central gets a razor-thin victory.  However, other publications (such as AllAccess.com) do NOT count WEJK toward South Central's total. I will leave it for you, the reader, to decide.

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PREVIOUSLY: Arbitron released the Spring 2012 ratings for the Evansville market late Thursday afternoon, and it should come as little surprise that the top three stations are the same as they've been for the past few years.

South Central Media's AC WIKY-104.1 FM, Townsquare Media's country WKDQ-99.5 FM and South Central's CHR WSTO-96.1 FM continue to be ranked 1-2-3, and while both WIKY and WKDQ saw their numbers drop ever so slightly compared to the same period in 2011, WSTO saw a bit of an uptick.

Tied for fourth are South Central's classic rock WABX-107.5 FM and Townsquare's classic hits WJLT-105.3 FM.  The move to fourth is a two-place jump for 107.5 compared to last year.  WJLT saw a slight bump overall but remains in the same place, although no longer on its own.

Townsquare's news/talk WGBF-1280 AM also saw a sizable increase in listenership this past spring, moving up from ninth place a year ago to sixth this time around.

WDKS-106.1 FM, Townsquare's CHR station, slipped from fifth to seventh this year, and its classic rock station, WGBF-103.1 FM fell from a tie for sixth in the spring of 2011 to eighth this year.  On the upside, however, country WBKR-92.5 climbed from thirteenth to tenth place.

South Central's other stations also lost ground or held steady.  The company's country WLFW-93.5 FM dropped from eighth to ninth, while Jack FM-formatted WEJK-107.1 FM (which is owned by Boonville Broadcasting and operated by South Central) held its place at #11.

It should be noted that Arbitron now only releases ratings for stations which subscribe to its services.  A good many stations once listed in the Evansville market are no longer listed, such as WEOA, WSON and WRAY-FM, just to name a few.  South Central and Townsquare, as you'd expect of larger operators, subscribe to Arbitron, but a number of smaller station groups and single stations do not.