On Friday, the Tom Taylor NOW newsletter released the Nielsen rankings of radio stations in our market, including the numbers for December, and the holiday period, where some stations switch formats to play Christmas music.

Two other outlets that cover this market, and I’m not sure if they are still one outlet because they work together part of the time … I digress.

The two other outlets both pointed to the success that WRIT-FM 95.7 had, almost doubling its regular audience, for switching over to holiday music. The 12 rating was so strong, it knocked traditional top station, WMIL-FM 106.1 down to No. 3.

A present, even in the radio ratings game, this isn’t something that is ignored or put under too much scrutiny. There’s a reason people say to not look a gift horse in the mouth. However, I’m willing to guess there were a couple more reasons that WRIT was successful at switching formats than just the audience wanted to hear more Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby at this time of year.

I also know that the other two outlets that cover radio media in this market may not have picked up on this because one would have to actually listen to the signal from the station and do more than (gasp) repeat what was printed on a press release. This part is called the analysis.

WRIT, known as the top oldies station in the market, has a couple of things going for it:

No. 1: The station is well-listened to on a regular basis. Taking a look at the ranking from 2014, the station is traditionally among the top rated ones in the market.

No. 2: The Clear Channel deal for Wisconsin Badgers coverage, that the station group recently gained when WTMJ-AM 620 passed on going after the broadcast rights, was a factor in bringing in more people to WRIT. Clear Channel, now known as iHeartMedia, changed the landscape with taking WOKY-AM 920 and making it the third sports station in the market. iHeartMedia won the broadcast rights to Badgers football games, and women’s and men’s basketball. When the football team was playing this fall, WOKY ran the games on the AM signal and WRIT was used to broadcast on the FM side of the dial.

Badgers football provided a wonderful promotional space for the station as a whole, and for the first time, the oldies station may have found a preset location among a younger generation. Then, when the station made the switch to Christmas music in December, more people overall knew where to find the station.

So, yes, did the format change help? Absolutely. But WRIT-FM was in a better position than they were in past years to take advantage of a promotional platform – its own signal.

Here is how the rankings shook out for the holiday period at the end of 2014:

WRIT-FM, Oldies: 12.2
WTMJ-AM, News Talk Info.: 9.8
WMIL-FM, Country: 8.8
WKKV-FM, Urban: 5.2
WMYX-FM, Hot AC: 5.0

WXSS-FM, Pop CHR: 4.4
WISN-AM, News Talk Info.: 4.3
WLUM-FM, Alternative: 4.3
WLDB-FM, AC: 4.0
WLWK-FM, Adult Hits: 3.6

WRNW-FM, Pop CHR: 2.7
WHAD-FM, Talk/Personality: 1.9
WUWM-FM, News Talk Info.: 1.8
WSSP-AM, All Sports: 1.4
WZTI-AM, Adult Stand./MOR: 1.3

WYMS-FM, AAA: 0.8
WMSE-FM, Alternative: 0.3
WOKY-AM, All Sports: 0.2