Portland: The new radio ratings from Arbitron for the Portland market were released on Jan. 25, but weren’t made public, apparently to make it more difficult for non-subscribing stations (primarily those owned by Saga Communications) to get all the juicy details. Nevertheless, broadcasters who do well aren’t shy about sharing the information, so here it is.

In the nation’s 168th largest market, contemporary hits WJBQ-FM dominated the Fall 2010 survey with a 10.1 share (that figure represents the average percentage of the radio audience listening in any given quarter-hour). The “Q” beat out public station WMEA-FM, which held the top spot in the last rating period. The Maine Public Broadcasting Network station finished second this time with a 9.1 share.

The rest of the market leaders: 3. classic rock WBLM-FM (7.8 share), 4. news-talk WGAN-AM (7.2), 5. (tie) country WPOR-FM and oldies WYNZ-FM (both with 6.2), 7. country WTHT-FM (5.5), 8. (tie) alternative rock WCYY-FM and adult contemporary WHOM-FM (4.9) and 10. (tie) classic hits WFNK-FM and hot adult contemporary WMGX-FM (4.6).

The also-rans: WCLZ-FM (2.6), WHXR-FM (2.3), WJJB-FM (2.3), WPEI-FM (1.6), WBQW-FM (1.3), WBQX-FM (1.3), WJTO-AM (1.0), WMSJ-FM (1.0), WZAN-AM (1.0), WABK-FM (0.7), WARX-FM (0.7), WBZ-AM (0.7), WLOB-FM (0.7) and WXTP-FM (0.7).

Bangor: Market number 224 is owned by another “Q,” WQCB-FM. The country station swamped the competition with a 16.6 share, leaving rocker WKIT-FM, the second-place finisher, in its dust with a mere 10 share.

The rest of the field looks like this: 3. WBZN-FM (contemporary hits, 8.5), 4. WVOM-FM (talk, 7.1), 5. WBFB-FM (country, 6.6), 6. WWMJ-FM (classic hits, 6.2), 7. WTOS-FM (hard rock, 5.7), 8. (tie) MPBN (public), WEZO-FM (classic hits) and WKSQ-FM (hot adult contemporary) (all at 4.3). The only other stations to earn more than a 1 share were WHCF-FM (religious, 1.9) and WAEI-FM (sports, 1.4). The Bangor market’s former sports leader WZON-AM tumbled to a tie for fourteenth place with a 0.9 share.

As with the Portland numbers, Arbitron didn’t make the Bangor ratings public.

Lewiston-Auburn: The nation’s 278th largest market is again dominated by stations from Portland, according to Arbitron. Portland-based radio outlets took the top six spots in the ratings and more than half the listeners.

WTHT-FM was a repeat winner with a 16 share of the audience, followed by WJBQ-FM (13.4 share), WFNK-FM (10.9), WBLM-FM (8.4), WHOM-FM (6.7) and WPOR-FM (4.2). These powerhouses showed only slight changes from the numbers they posted last spring and a year ago.

A footnote: The numbers Arbitron released for the L-A market don’t include noncommercial stations. If they had, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network probably would have been close to the top spot, since 17.2 percent of listener share is unaccounted for, and MPBN likely got most of that.

Augusta-Waterville: Arbitron released these figures only to subscribers. Unlike in the Portland and Bangor markets, I haven’t yet found anybody willing to leak them to me.

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

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