Hot AC, Country Among Winter Winners

Sales and marketing company Interep is out with an analysis of winter Arbitron data.
It said the news/talk format generated its highest shares in over a year, but its book-to-book increases were “not particularly dramatic.” The company pointed out that the operational phase of the war in Iraq came only at the very end of the winter sweep period.
“The format gains, particularly in the North and East, may be as attributable to severe winter weather as much as to any other factor,” it stated.
Other findings:
Winter was strong in country; shares rebounded to the levels of a year ago. Hot AC also did well; Interep said “incremental gains pushed the format to its best position in over five years.”
Spanish and urban remained “solid … though slightly lower than was the case last fall.” Spanish shares were still close to their record highs.
AOR continues to decline. Interep cited the aging of the baby boom and fragmentation of formats. Classic rock, new rock and oldies held steady.
CHR dropped from a fall peak; this represented “continuing erosion in the ‘mainstream’ portion of the format,” it stated. Dance CHR numbers were off a bit but still well ahead of a year ago. AC was down from the fall.