May PPMs, Day 1: AC Holds Steady, Classic Hits Shows Growth.

In the eight non-embedded markets reporting on Day 1 of Nielsen's PPM monthly surveys for 2025-to-date, adult contemporary has literally been the top story, with AC stations leading in three of those markets in every month since January.

While that's still the case for May's survey period, covering May 1-28, AC's collective share in these eight markets is actually down by four-tenths of a share point from April. The music format that's up April-to-May in the Day 1 markets is classic hits, which has gone from claiming no market-leading stations in January or February to two in the May survey, with collective share up 0.7.

For Day 1, the leaderboard shows three crowns for AC, two for classic hits, and one each for soft AC, news/talk, sports, and classic rock.

The march to 40 straight Nielsen survey wins continues for iHeartMedia AC “Lite FM” WLTW, now at 33 and with a wider lead over Audacy all-news WINS-AM-FM – from April's 1.8 to 2.2 – as WINS ties for second with Spanish Broadcasting System Spanish tropical “Mega 97.9” WSKQ. Just below, Audacy classic hits sister WCBS-FM ties with iHeart CHR sister “Z100” WHTZ, the latter up half a share point from April.

For the first time since February 2024, iHeart AC KOST and Audacy classic hits “K-Earth 101” KRTH tie for the L.A. lead. They've been the market's top two stations consistently since December 2024, and the top two in 17 of Nielsen's 20 surveys since December 2023. Not only is it an all-iHeart-and-Audacy top five, but another of each company's stations is in a second tie, as iHeart CHR KIIS-FM and Audacy news KNX-AM-FM share fourth place, right behind iHeart's hot AC KBIG.

iHeart soft AC “93.9 Lite FM” WLIT hangs on at the top, its lead over Hubbard Radio classic rock “The Drive” WDRV now down to a tenth of a share point. Below Audacy all-news WBBM-AM/WCFS, the company's country and adult alternative stations, “US99” WUSN and WXRT, both move back into the top five.

Since January, the top three have stayed in same order, with news/talk pubcaster KQED ranked first, ahead of Audacy all-news KCBS-AM/KFRC-FM second and Bonneville AC KOIT third. University of Southern California classical KDFC, which moved out of the top five in April's survey, bounces back in May, while iHeart soft AC “98.1 The Breeze” KISQ and Bonneville CHR sister “99.7 Now” KMVQ tie for fifth.

The margin between Cumulus Media's sports “The Ticket” KTCK-AM-FM and “New Country 96.3” KSCS moves from April 0.3 to 0.2 in this survey, while Cumulus' other country station, “99.5 The Wolf” KPLX, moves from third to fourth, switching spots with iHeart CHR “106.1 Kiss FM” KHKS. Moving back into the top five after a one-survey absence is Audacy adult hits “100.3 Jack-FM” KJKK.

iHeart AC “Sunny 99.1” KODA marks its 10th straight victory, keeping a one-point lead over Urban One urban AC “Majic 102.1” KMJQ, while Hope Media Group contemporary Christian KSBJ stays at third. Urban One country sister “93Q” KKBQ returns to the top five, as iHeart modern/alternative rock sister “94.5 The Buzz” KTBZ remains in fifth place.

For the first time since the December 2024 survey, CMG takes control of the top three, with classic hits “97.1 The River” WSRV repeating at the top – 0.2 ahead of news/talk WSB-AM/WSBB-FM, up from fourth – and urban AC “Kiss 104.1” WALR still third. Urban One's urban AC “Majic 107.5/97.5” WAMJ and Audacy urban contemporary “V103” WVEE finish fourth and fifth.

For a fourth consecutive survey, Beasley Media Group owns Philly's top two, with classic rock WMGK and rock WMMR again first and second, respectively. iHeart urban AC WDAS-FM and Audacy sports WIP-FM swap places from April, while Audacy news KYW returns to the top five.