Santa Beats the News

Atlanta radio ratings for the Holiday period showed Christmas music on Fish 104.7 beating WSB substantially. But according to RadioInsight.com that’s an annual phenomenon and not unique to Atlanta.

Other stations airing seasonal music also improved from the month before.

Both WSB, 8.3 to 7.4, and WABE, 3.9 to 3.3, were down.

That probably doesn’t say much overall given the Holiday factor and WABE emphasizes the rise in their streaming audience as terrestrial radio declines.

We’ll see what the ratings are in Jan. after political news picked up. Nationally, there’s less of a Trump bump than in 2016 or 2020 and an overall news fatigue regarding politics.

Both WABE and the AJC are counting on Georgia being another pivotal swing state in the 2024 election and related political news, such as the Georgia Trump trial, for their audience growth.

In the AJC’s case, investing in its political coverage is part of publisher Andrew Morse’s plan to vastly grow its digital subscribers by 2026 along with food and Black culture.

In Jan., the paper sent its political reporters to both Iowa and New Hampshire for on location coverage even as national outlets scaled back.

WRAS without Cox and Friends kicked back up from .6 to .8. That’s still far behind WABE and not necessarily enough to justify GPB losing money on radio every year, but it’s interesting to note.

I’d still like to think some of the ratings improvement for WRAS is due to new and reinvigorated student specialty shows that air after 7 pm each evening.