AC, Classic Hits Dominate Days 1-2 Of July PPMs.

Where do the top radio formats stand when it comes to total share delivery, in the 20 non-embedded markets reporting on the first two days of Nielsen's PPMs for July 2025 (covering June 26-July 23)?

Here’s a quick look, based on total persons 6+ shares of the stations ranking in the top five of these markets:

Adult contemporary – 101.5

Classic hits – 87.1

News/talk – 58.1

Urban AC – 58.0

Classic rock – 49.2

Country – 48.4

Contemporary Christian – 33.5

Sports – 32.3

Hot AC – 31.9

News – 31.6

Soft AC – 23.4

Rock – 22.7

For Days 1 and 2, the leaderboard shows five crowns for AC, four for classic rock, three for classic hits, two each for news/talk, sports and soft AC, and one each for country, news, rock, and urban AC.

Below, summaries of Nielsen’s Day 1 markets. Day 2 markets will be reviewed in tomorrow’s Inside Radio.

It’s now 35 straight victories for iHeartMedia AC “Lite FM” WLTW, up 0.9 from June with a commanding 2.6-share-point lead over Audacy all-news WINS-AM-FM. WINS and the other three stations ranked second through fifth are separated by just 0.7, with Spanish Broadcasting System Spanish tropical “Mega 97.9” WSKQ and Audacy classic hits sister WCBS-FM a close third and fourth, and iHeart classic rock “Q104.3” WAXQ and CHR sister “Z100” WHTZ tied for fifth.

Repeating at the top is Audacy’s “K-Earth 101” KRTH, a distinctly-L.A. classic hits station where 2Pac’s “California Love” and Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” are among the most-spun songs in 2025. K-Earth widens its lead over iHeart AC KOST, from 1.0 in June to 1.3 in this survey. iHeart and Audacy again claim the entire top five, with iHeart hot AC sister KBIG third and Audacy’s all news KNX-AM-FM and urban AC “94.7 The Wave” KTWV tied for fourth.

It’s a four-station battle royal in the Windy City, where Hubbard classic rock “The Drive” WDRV barely hangs onto the top spot, off 0.9 as it ties with iHeart soft AC “93.9 Lite FM” WLIT, which led in the April and May surveys, for the lead. Those two are just a tenth of a point in front of the two stations tied for third, Cumulus Media classic hits WLS-FM and Audacy adult alternative WXRT, the latter up from seventh-ranked in its return to the top five. Not to be outdone, placing fifth, just 0.2 behind WLS-FM and WXRT, is Hubbard hot AC “101.9 The Mix” WTMX.

While news/talk pubcaster KQED notches a seventh straight win, its lead over Audacy all-news KCBS-AM/KFRC-FM slims down from 4.1 to just 1.6 in the July survey. Just below, Bonneville AC KOIT and USC classical KDFC stay at third and fourth, respectively, while iHeart soft AC “98.1 The Breeze” KISQ and Audacy hot AC “Alice@97.3” KLLC tie for fifth.

For a second straight survey, Cumulus Media owns Big D’s top three, this time with its country stations — “99.5 The Wolf” KPLX, and “New Country 96.3” KSCS — ranked first and second, followed by sports “The Ticket” KTCK-AM-FM. Making a rare top-five showing is Audacy Spanish regional Mexican “La Grande 107.5” KMVK, leaping from 10th to fourth, while iHeart classic rock “Lone Star 92.5” KZPS returns to the top five for the first time since April 2023.

The top five stations in Space City hold in their places from June, as iHeart AC “Sunny 99.1” KODA makes it an even dozen consecutive wins in another close race with Hope Media Group contemporary Christian KSBJ. Urban One again claims the rest of the top five with urban AC “Majic 102.1” KMJQ, classic rock “The Eagle 106.9/107.5” KGLK/KHPT, and country “93Q” KKBQ.

CMG classic hits “97.1 The River” WSRV grabs its fifth win in a row, although it’s now in a tighter race with news/talk sister WSB-AM/WSBB-FM, with just a half-point advantage. Urban One urban AC “Majic 107.5/97.5” WAMJ and CMG urban AC “Kiss 104.1” WALR, which tied for third in June, are now separated by just 0.4, with the former ranked third and the latter fourth. Making a rare top five appearance, with a 1.2-share gain to place fifth, is Educational Media Foundation contemporary Christian “KLove” WAKL.

Philly’s top five remain in the same order as in June’s survey, with Beasley Media Group classic rock WMGK winning its fifth straight, ahead of rock sister WMMR by 1.3. As the Phillies rolled on in July, so did its flagship, Audacy sports WIP-FM, still ranked third, with iHeart urban AC WDAS-FM and Audacy AC “B101” WBEB sticking at fourth and fifth.