Super Bowl Update

The Indiana Broadcasters Association will dole out its 2012 Spectrum Awards on Nov. 10 in Indianapolis, and several Southwestern Indiana radio stations are among this year's finalists.  However, in what's becoming something of a sorry trend, Evansville's TV stations were once again not represented.

Among the radio stations on the list are stations from Evansville, Huntingburg, Jasper and Vincennes.  WVUB-91.1 FM and WIKY-104.1 FM received the most nominations, with Blazer 91.1 getting six nominations and WIKY five.

On the TV side, Terre Haute TV station WTWO-NBC 2 received seven nominations, and WTHI-TV has eight.

UPDATE, 10:17 a.m.:  See below.

The University of Evansville athletics department announced Wednesday evening that Tommy Mason will assume public address duties for Purple Aces men’s basketball this season.

Mason, who is the midday host on Evansville country station 93.5 The Wolf (WLFW) and PA announcer for the Evansville IceMen, takes over for the late John MacCauley, who died unexpectedly in August.  MacCauley had been the Aces' announcer for 27 years.

"It is an honor for me to be able to assume this position,” Mason said.  “There is a reason John was doing this for 27 years and I want to do my best to continue the legacy that he has started.”

Mason is no stranger to UE athletics; he's handled PA duties for other sports since 2006 and has been the men's basketball team's on-court announcer for the past five years.

"Tommy has a strong interest in the success of the Aces teams and the individual student-athletes," said UE athletic director John Stanley. "This is an important role that had been ably handled by John MacCauley for years and we believe that Tommy will work very hard to continue making the experience at the Aces games enjoyable."

Congratulations, Tommy!

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.