http://www.robertfeder.com/2018/06/12/chicago-radio-ratings-eric-morning-reigns-supreme/
Quote:
The reception wasn’t nearly as warm for Kevin “DreX” Buchar, who returned to Chicago radio in April after an eight-year absence. In place of Jamar “J Niice” McNeil and Michelle “Showbiz Shelly” Menaker on Entercom Top 40 WBBM 96.3-FM, Buchar and co-host Nina Hajian debuted in 22nd place. Overall B96 fell to 20th, widening the gap with iHeartMedia Top 40 WKSC 103.5-FM, which tied for seventh.
Todd Cavanah, program director of B96, attributed the downturn to the morning reboot, but expressed confidence the show will succeed. “It just takes time for people to catch on,” Cavanah said. “We will get there.”
Another underperformer was Ed Lover, who signed on in April as morning host at WBMX 104.3-FM, the Entercom classic hip-hop and R&B station. Lover and co-host Jennifer “Jen BT” Farina dropped from 13th to 19th in their first month on 104.3 Jams.
Bad month for Entercom: BMX is hemorrhaging listeners and B96 is 13 spots behind Kiss FM. Out-of-the-box solution: merge the stations by deep-sixing B96 as a top 40 station, given that it obviously can't compete with Kiss FM anymore (Chicago hasn't been a top 40 town since the days of WLS versus WCFL: for most of the '90s, Chicago didn't even
have a top 40 station) and run B96 as classic hip-hop/R&B/dance, given that the heritage branding is all they seem to have in their favor these days. It would basically be another generation of WLS-FM wearing the skin of the music-formatted WLS-AM. Then make 104.3 a simulcast of the Score.
And one more time for the world: Drex is terrible.
Agree with your suggestion. When I think of B96, its 90s hip-hop/r&b/Dance. The music they play now is shit; even their overnight remixes are terrible now.