Arbitron's survey month of August ran from July 21 to August 17, which is hardly a measure of the soft-launches of Merlin Media in New York on WEMP (101.9) or in Chicago (WWWN at 101.1). But consider them as baselines: New York's "FM News 101.9" shows with a 1.1 share of the age 6+ AQH listening for "August", compared to a 2.6 share in June for predecessor rock WRXP. Arbitron estimates WEMP's August cume at 1,574,300, versus about 2.3 million for WRXP, two months before.

In Chicago, "FM News 101.1" WWWN, which started off July 29, has a 0.5 share of the 6+ listening, with an estimated cume audience of about 515,000. Predecessor alternative rock "Q101" WKQX has a 1.9 share and a cume of about 1,140,000 for June.

Check the just-released August PPMs for New York (#1 "Lite" WLTW moves 6.6–6.0–6.2 since June); Los Angeles (where the two CHRs now rank #1 and #3); Chicago (where all-news WBBM-AM and talk WGN are neck-and-neck at the top, 5.5 to 5.4); San Francisco (public radio's KQED returns to #1); Dallas (CHR "Kiss" KHKS wins again); plus Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Nassau-Suffolk, Riverside-San Bernardino, San Jose and Middlesex-Somerset-Union, on the Ratings Page of Radio-Info.com.