Holiday PPMs, Day 1: All-Christmas ACs Continue Their Dominance.

No surprises here: adult contemporary stations making the annual switch to all Christmas music dominated in seven of the eight non-embedded markets reporting on Day 1 of Nielsen’s Holiday survey PPMs, covering Dec.11-Jan. 7.

In that other market, Atlanta, Cox Media Group news/talk WSB-AM/WSBB-FM continued its run at No. 1, although Audacy’s hot AC “Star 94” WSTR, which flipped to all-Christmas, came in a respectable third.

The nine all-Christmas stations ranking in the top five in these eight markets averaged an 11.2 persons 6+ share, vs. their 9.3 average in December’s survey. Those numbers are both up compared to a year ago, when 10 top-five-ranked all-Christmas stations averaged a 7.7 share for December 2024 and a 10.7 share in the Holiday 2024 survey.

iHeartMedia AC and all-Christmas flipper “Lite FM” WLTW not only posts its usual Holiday double-digit share, but does so while marking its 41st consecutive survey as New York’s No. 1 station. The station’s 12.5 share puts it up 26.3% from December’s survey period, while off 4.6% from Holiday 2024, as its lead over Audacy all-news WINS-AM/FM moves from 3.4 share points in December to 6.3. Both Spanish Broadcasting System Spanish tropical “Mega 97.9” WSKQ and iHeartMedia CHR sister “Z100” WHTZ, ranked third and fourth, see share gains from December.

It’s the highest Holiday survey delivery for iHeartMedia AC-turned-all-Christmas KOST since 2021, with a 13.3 share that’s an 18.8% improvement over December and 7.3% than a year ago. With that share growth, KOST extends its lead to 7.7 points over Audacy classic hits “K-Earth 101” KRTH.

iHeartMedia AC-gone-Christmas “93.9 Lite FM” WLIT notches a fourth win in a row, while up 7.8% from the December book and off just 0.8% from a year ago. WLIT is 7.3 share points up on Audacy news WBBM-AM/WCFS, with Nexstar talker WGN ranked third, up from sixth.

With its annual all-Christmas format, iHeartMedia AC “Star 102.1” KDGE has matched last year’s 10.1 Holiday share, while up 17.4% from December. KDGE is 4.8 points ahead of Cumulus country “99.5 The Wolf” KPLX, with Cumulus “New Country 96.3” KSCS placing third.

It’s a second straight double-digit survey for iHeartMedia AC “Sunny 99.1” KODA, also in all-Christmas mode, although its share is down 18.9% Dec.-Hol. and 9.5% year-over-year. That may be because the other significant all-Christmas station in the market, Hope Media Group contemporary Christian KSBJ, ranks third with a 19.1% lift from December, although also down from Holiday 2024, off by 11.1%. In between the two stations is Urban One urban AC “Majic 102.1” KMJQ, which has been the runner-up behind KODA for the past five surveys.

For the first time since last year’s Holiday survey, Bonneville AC-to-all-Christmas KOIT tops the market, albeit with a slim 0.7 lead over news/talk pubcaster KQED, which led for 12 consecutive books — not to mention the six books prior to KOIT taking over for that one survey, a year ago. KOIT’s up 41.4% from December but down 14.7% year-over-year, while KQED actually gains a tenth of a point from December.

It’s a fifth straight win for Cox Media Group news/talk WSB-AM/WSBB-FM, just 0.3 ahead of urban AC “Kiss 104.1” WALR, which moves up from fourth place in the December survey. Audacy hot AC-gone-all-Christmas “Star 94” WSTR leaps from eighth to third with a 2.1 share gain, up 50% from December, while urban contemporary sister “V103” WVEE adds a share point to move from sixth to fourth.

Audacy AC-to-Christmas “B101” WBEB posts its highest Holiday numbers since 2019, with a 17.0 share that’s up 8.3% year-over-year and 68.3% from Nielsen’s December book. That gives “B101” an 11.1 lead over Beasley Media Group’s classic rock WMGK and heritage rock WMMR, which tie for second. Just fourth-tenths of a point behind both is the Eagles’ flagship station, Audacy sports WIP-FM.