By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com
(In a former life, and for more than a dozen years back on the ’70s and ’80s before getting into TV news, I wrote about TV and radio as a columnist for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix and The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. Given that background, it’s only natural that this space should begin focusing on Media Matters.)
Hartford radio ratings for Holiday 2010 are out and the No. 1 station was no surprise - adult 
contemporary WRCH – “Lite 100.5.” Arbitron reports that the station’s wall-to-wall Christmas music during December lured a 16.0 percent share of audience. That was more than double the audience of the runner-up station, talker WTIC, which had a 7.8 share.
Rounding out the Top 5 stations were country outlet WWYZ with a 7.7 share, classic hits WHCN - “The River” with a 6.6 share and rhythmic CHR WZMX - “Hot 93.7″ with a 6.2. The next five stations were oldies WDRC-FM (5.6 share), hot AC WTIC-FM (5.5), CHR WKSS (5.4 share), NPR outlet WPKT (3.7 share) and rocker WPLR (3.3).
A notable loser was talker WDRC, which finished in 28th place with a 0.5 share. It finished behind two New York stations – sports outlet WFAN and news station WCBS, both of which had 0.6 shares.
While WRCH reached 535,200 listeners each week in December and WTIC reached 222,200, WDRC only attracted 23,000.
