Ratings: Holiday Tunes Provide Lift For WLIT

No doubt about it: Chicagoans love their holiday music. And that unbridled passion for the traditional sounds of the season was great news for Clear Channel Radio Chicago’s adult contemporary WLIT-FM (93.9), which annually switches in early November to an all-holiday music format that abruptly ends shortly after Christmas Day.

According to Lewis Lazare, media and marketing columnist for suntimes.com, WLIT soared from ninth place in the November Arbitron radio ratings book to the top of the rankings in the key 25-to-54-year-old demo in the December book released Tuesday.

The December numbers show just how huge the city’s appetite for holiday music is. The station bested its nearest competitor, Clear Channel’s urban adult contemporary WVAZ-FM (102.7), by more than a full three share points.

What is even more remarkable is how dominant WLIT’s holiday music format is in demos where it might not be expected to perform quite so well.

WLIT wound up ranked first among men 25 to 54, and even bested all other stations in the somewhat more fickle 18- to 34-year-old demo. Radio execs say women control the radio dial more than usual during the holiday season, forcing their husbands or boyfriends to listen to WLIT’s holiday music — or else.

While WLIT can bask in its ratings glory for at least a few weeks, no one in the local radio business expects the station to remain at the top of the heap with the holiday music silenced.

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