Stephen isn’t the king:

Country station WQCB (106.5 FM) gained market share, according to the latest Arbitron ratings for Bangor, easily retaining its number-one spot over classic rocker WKIT (100.3 FM), owned by author Stephen King. WQCB, a Cumulus Broadcasting station, earned a 14.8 average quarter hour share in the fall survey (in a fifteen-minute period, from 6 a.m. to midnight, an average of 14.8 percent of the people listening to radio in the Bangor market are tuned to WQCB), up from 11.4 last spring and 13.7 in the fall of 2008.

That’s not to say WKIT doesn’t have something to celebrate. It’s numbers grew from 8.7 in fall 2008 to 9.6 in fall 2009.

Blueberry Broadcasting stations took the next three spots. Talker WVOM (103.9 FM) finished in a virtual tie with WKIT for second at 9.6 (8.7 in fall ’08). WBFB (104.7 FM) grabbed a 6.7 share, a healthy two-point increase over its last two ratings books. At 6.2, hard rocker WTOS (96.7 and 105.1 FM) slipped significantly from both spring numbers (8.7) and the previous fall (6.8).

Pop station WBZN (107.3 FM) debuted strongly with a 4.8 share, good for seventh. Blueberry’s WAEI (97.1 FM), which recently dumped WEEI sports programming for sports shows from Fox Radio, pulled a meager 1.4.

Portland fall 2009 Arbitron ratings are due to be released on January 29.

The joke was only funny once: From two different stories, both by staff writer David Hart, in the same January 20 edition of the Original Irregular, a weekly newspaper published in Kingfield:

“Phillips has adopted a fiscal year beginning June 30 and ending July 1.”

“This is because Kingfield is transitioning to a June 30 to July 1 fiscal year from the traditional calendar year.”

There’s something to be said for tradition. For one thing, it has more days.

Al Diamon can be e-mailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.

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