Winnipeg’s radio stations held the line, for the most part, in the latest Fall ratings book released by Numeris.

The top three stations in the city continue to be CBC Radio One, 680 CJOB and QX 104, as listeners crave news talk radio, mixed with a little bit of country.

“No surprise that CBC had a strong ratings book with both a provincial and federal elections falling inside the ratings survey, which started August 12 under the new continuous ratings survey,” said Matt Cundill, president of the Soundoff Media Company and former Power 97 program director.

“On the music side, the new sampling methods likely had an effect on stations whose audiences were still at the lake in mid-August, or who had a poor outing in the Spring, as this survey was made up of 50 percent new sample and 50 percent from the Spring 2019 sample.”

QX 104 (Jim Pattison Broadcast Group) remained the top FM-only station in Winnipeg, followed by 99.9 BOB FM (Bell Media) and 94-3 The Drive (JPBG) to round out the top three FMs.

103.1 Virgin Radio and TSN 1290 (Bell Media) both dipped in the charts, while 92.1 CITI (Rogers) jumped and competitor Power 97 (Corus Entertainment) held steady at 4.6.

Peggy @ 991 (Corus) was up nearly a full point, while both Energy 106 and Hot 100.5 (Evanov Radio Group) decreased slightly.

Cundill says the new measurement method was announced last May and was brought in to alleviate the difficulty cities are having in recruiting people to participate in the surveys. Winnipeg is now measured 24 weeks of the year — with measurement taking place on alternate weeks, outside of mid-December through to Mid-January.

The below data is for the 12+ demographic, with the Spring 2019 ratings in parentheses for comparison.

Fall 2019 radio ratings

1. CBC Radio One — 14.3 (14.1)
2. 680 CJOB — 10.6 (11.3)
3. QX 104 — 8.0 (8.2)
4. 99.9 BOB FM — 6.9 (6.7)
5. 94-3 The Drive — 6.1 (5.8)
6. 103.1 Virgin Radio — 5.9 (6.3)
7. 92.1 CITI — 5.9 (5.1)
8. Power 97 — 4.6 (4.6)
9. TSN 1290 — 4.2 (5.2)
10. KiSS 102.3 — 4.0 (4.2)
11. CBC Radio 2 — 4.0 (3.8)
12. Peggy @ 991 — 3.4 (2.6)
13. Energy 106 — 3.1 (3.3)
14. Hot 100.5 — 2.2 (2.4)

Source: Numeris

The next radio ratings release is May 28, 2020.

Listen: Ross Davies, formerly of Numeris, speaks to Matt Cundill about the changes to radio ratings: