Washington DC's Top Music Stations

Music entertainment is essential to the radio business. According to a Radio Advertising Bureau study, 70% of people prefer music over other forms of radio. The D.C. area has over thirty music radio stations that serve a variety of musical tastes, but, for college students in D.C., popular music stations include WIHT Hot 99.5, WWDC DC101, and WRQX Mix 107.3.

Hot 99.5 ranks as the number one music station in D.C. and the number two overall station behind D.C.'s dominant radio station, WTOP 103.5. Because Hot 99.5 plays top 40 ranking contemporary music, the station can often be heard blasting from the windows of a teenager’s car.

Philip Ahn, student blogger, explains how the popularity of Hot 99.5 can be linked to D.C.'s urban culture.

DC101 plays music in the alternative-rock genre. The station's slogan “D.C.’s Rock Station” suits Arbitron’s ranking of DC101 as the top “alternative” music station in Washington D.C. The station places ninth in most-listened-to music stations and eleventh in overall radio stations.

For Mix 107.3, the slogan is “80s, 90s, and today’s best hits!” As the slogan says, listeners can tune in and hear adult contemporary music spanning the past 30 years. Nonetheless, Mix 107.3 seems to play more current music, due to the need to appeal to popular interest. According to Arbitron, Mix 107.3 is the fifth most popular music station and seventh most-listened-to overall station in the D.C. area. In fact, Mr. Ahn considers Mix 107.3 his favorite station because its variety in music selection allows listeners to enjoy several different music styles, rather than one specific genre.
 

Although country is the current number one radio format in the U.S., this is not the case for the D.C. area. According to Arbitron, country radio station WMZQ 98.7 ranks eighth among all D.C. music radio stations. Evidently, country radio cannot top the popularity of Hot 99.5's contemporary hits. Mr. Ahn speculates that the reason for this gap between preferences can be attributed to D.C.'s metropolitan culture.



For the D.C. area, Hot 99.5 still reins supreme in the realm of music radio. In fact, D.C.'s urbanized culture may be the reason why top 40 contemporary hits are so popular. With 70% of people preferring music radio over all other forms of radio, music entertainment remains a crucial element of radio business.