alternative rock revives WRXP

In NYC radio ratings, alternative rock revives WRXP 

Rock music brought WRXP back to life in the August Arbitron radio ratings released Tuesday, while WBLS continued its recent surge toward the top.

WRXP (101.9 FM) was resurrected this summer from the ashes of WEMP, an ill-fated attempt to launch an all-news station on FM.

WRXP had been an alternative rock station before it switched to WEMP last year and now it has switched back, playing male-targeted rock like Foo Fighters, Green Day, Weezer, Foster the People and Silverchair.

Its share of the audience, which had hovered around 0.6% as WEMP, almost tripled in August to 1.7%.

Among 18- to 34-year-olds, WRXP is close to the top 10 with 3% of the audience, even though at this point it’s using an automated format programmed in Chicago.

WRXP’s current ratings are a bit below the ratings it drew in its first go-round as an alternative rock station, when it had a full deejay staff.

The return of WRXP was presumably responsible for a drop in the ratings at classic rock WAXQ, which fell from 4.5% of the audience to 3.8%.

At the same time, all-news WINS (1010 AM) gained almost the exact share of the audience that WEMP had been drawing.

WBLS (107.5 FM), the survivor of a quasi-merger with its longtime rival WRKS earlier this year, has leapt to second place both in the overall ratings and among advertiser-coveted 25- to 54-year-olds.

It’s No. 1 among men 25-54, one of the hardest groups for advertisers to reach.

Elsewhere in the ratings, WLTW (106.7 FM) continued to rule, finishing first both overall and among 25-54s. WCBS-FM (101.1 FM) also stayed strong, as did WHTZ (100.3 FM). WABC (770 AM) has yet to see a big election bump.

Here are the top 15 overall. The number in parentheses is the percentage of total audience listening to that station in an average quarter hour.