Radio Market Chain Game

[EvanJ]

Thanks in part to the wide reach of WFAN, you can make a chain of radio markets from Bangor, ME to Cleveland (871.2 miles on roads according to Yahoo! Driving Directions). A chain consists of radio markets where using at least one station in common (in both market's ratings), you can eventually get from one market to another. Unfortunately I was unable to find a link from Cleveland to Toledo. WPZZ-FM (Gospel station in Richmond) doesn't usually appear in the Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville, NC ratings but currently it does. That allows me to connect Bangor to Greenville, SC (1,195.5 miles according to Yahoo!) and to connect Bangor to Charleston, SC (1,218.7 miles according to Yahoo!). You can also connect San Diego and Medford, OR (815.7 miles). Using maps.yahoo.com/dd for distances between cities, let's play a game finding the longest chains. The game involves knowledge of geography and can be done quicker if you have looked at the market's Arbitron ratings before and know what markets have at least one station in common.

[tico]

I wanna play, but I'm confused. What does WFAN have to do with Cleveland?

[EvanJ]

New York City's WFAN can be heard in New London, CT, a market which can also get stations like WAAF Worcester, MA that can eventually be used to connect to Boston and to Bangor in the far northeast part of the country.  On the west end of chain, WFAN can be heard in some of Pennsylvania and using markets like Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Altoona, State College, and Johnstown (all in Pennsylvania), I can eventually connect the chain to Pittsburgh and using Country simulcast WOGF/WOGH and another market I can connect the chain to Cleveland and other markets near Cleveland (Youngstown-Warren, Akron, and Canton).  I was unable to expand the chain from Cleveland to western Ohio.  I was also unable to connect the chain from Greenville or Charleston (both in South Carolina) to Columbia, SC or to a market in Georgia (but it may be possible).
You may have more knowledge of geography of the southeast than I do and be able to create a long chain there.
I recently read a topic on another board about what stations appear in the most markets' ratings.
www.stationratings.com/Default.asp has a page for each state listing all the markets in that state and may be useful for doing this.

I connected:
Lafayette, LA to Bryan, TX (313.9 miles)
Texarkana, TX to San Antonio, TX (452.8 miles)

[EvanJ]

With Bangor at the northeast endpoint, Cleveland and nearby markets as the western endpoint, and markets in South Carolina as the southern endpoint, I made a chain connecting 69 radio markets (including some markets that are embedded in other markets). 69 is 23.23 (repeating 23s) percent of the 297 radio markets there are.

[tico]

WWL-AM New Orleans shows up in Baton Rouge, Biloxi-Gulfport and Mobile. Where do I go from there?

[EvanJ]

I figured WWL could be a good station to be in a chain.  Mobile has a lot of stations in common with Pensacola, FL and Baton Rouge has a lot of stations in common with New Orleans.  Baton Rouge also has stations in common with Lafayette and Alexandria.  It turns out you can make a chain from Fort Walton Beach, FL (near Pensacola) to Bryan, TX which is 663.0 miles.

Another chain could be made through Alabama.  Florence-Muscle Shoals gets stations from Huntsville such as WZYP and also gets WRAX from Birmingham.  Montgomery and Tuscaloosa both get stations from Birmingham. That's a five market chain.

[EvanJ]

I lost my computer file on this, but I remember this topic I had posted when in the Fall 2007 ratings released today WJR-AM Detroit made a rare appearance in the Cleveland ratings. This will allow me to extend the Bangor to Cleveland chain west of Cleveland, and I wouldn't be surprised if I could connect it through the midwest to Iowa. West of Iowa the chain may end because of how few people there are in North Dakota and South Dakota. For starters, WJR also appears in the ratings in Lima, OH, and Lima connects to Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati (which connects to Fort Wayne), and Toledo. Detroit connects to Ann Arbor through many stations and WJR is also in the Lansing-East Lansing ratings. Lansing-East Lansing connects to Saginaw-Bay City-Midland (which connects to Flint), Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo. I had to make multiple attempts to connect western Michigan to Chicago, but I suceeded using Christian AC WFRN to connect Kalamazoo to South Bend. South Bend connects to Chicago and Chicago connects to many markets.