We’ve been focusing on Nielsen Audio PPM data for several
weeks. Now it is time for results in Diary markets for the just-completed Winter Quarter. I will be aggregating
and examining the info by format. Today
we look at three interesting cities and a couple of pleasant surprises.
OKLAHOMA CITY • NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET 48
STATION
|
FORMAT
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
KGOU
|
NPR News
& Jazz
|
1.8
|
61,500
|
KGOU
Repeater
|
NPR News
& Jazz
|
0.5
|
24,200
|
KOSU
|
NPR News & The Spy*
|
1.3
|
41,000
|
KUCO
|
Classical
|
1.0
|
33,400
|
KGOU is doing pretty well but they have spotty coverage in
some parts of very large metro area. KOSU takes a pretty good chunk of the NPR
News listeners. KOSU also has a presence
in the Tulsa metro.
*PLEASANT SURPRISE #1: THE SPY
For many years KOSU has aired College Rock during the late
night hours. Now they’ve bundled all of
rock hosts together under a very appealing brand name: The Spy. The Spy creates
a narrative that pulls all of hosts together.
The brand works excellent online and mobile. [LINK] I am sure Rachel
Hubbard had a lot to do with this innovative way of showcasing college talent.
TUCSON • NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET 62
STATION
|
FORMAT
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
KUAT
|
Classical
|
1.7
|
42,000
|
KUAZ AM/FM
|
NPR News
|
5.1
|
91,200
|
KXCI*
|
Triple A+
|
1.6
|
33,900
|
*PLEASANT SURPRISE #2: KXCI
KXCI [LINK] is one of my favorite noncom community station success.
A decade or two ago, KXCI was another aimless sandbox following the advice of Chairman
Milam. Now KXCI is a focused community convener and curator. KUSP should
emulate KXCI. The station board turned a lemon into a tequila sunrise – my favorite
drink when I am in Tucson.
SYRACUSE • NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET 89
STATION
|
FORMAT
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
WAER
|
NPR News
& Jazz
|
2.4
|
33,200
|
WRVO
|
NPR News
|
3.7
|
47,800
|
WRVO
Repeater
|
NPR News
|
0.4
|
3,900
|
WRVO is a very good station but I’ve always expected more
from WAER. Look at who owns them:
Syracuse University – home of the Newhouse School of Communications. Newhouse has launched the careers of hundreds
of the best journalists and sports broadcasters. In a perfect world, WAER could
be the Sports Anchor for public
radio.
ARBITRON WINTER 2015 TOP-LINE ESTIMATES FOR 04/30/2015
Monday-Sunday 6AM-Midnight Persons 12+
These data are provided for use by Nielsen Audio/Arbitron subscribers ONLY, in accordance with RRC's limited license with Arbitron Inc. Format distinction is soley the responsibility of Ken Mills Agency, LLC.
Ahhh, WAER. Now here's a situation I actually can comment semi-intelligently on! :)
ReplyDeleteWRVO has always embodied the idea of the scrappy underdog who works hard to earn every listener. I haven't always agreed with their programming decisions, and they certainly were a competitor to us at WEOS so I'm a little biased, but you can't ever argue that they didn't hustle.
WAER always seemed to be on top of the ivory tower. But they did their thing and the rest of us in the region weren't sorry they did. After all, the jazz they played WAS pretty good jazz, and it meant more NPR news listeners for the us! :)
I think the idea of them being a sports station, but in a public radio vein, is an interesting idea but the devil would be in the details. First off is that while Syracuse sports is very popular in the region, it's not what regional listeners turn to public radio for. It would take an awful lot of time, money and effort (marketing) to change that perception.
Second is that it would put WAER into direct competition with several major commercial outlets. That's problematic enough, but it would also mean wresting away the rights to the games...not a trivial task as these aren't directly controlled by Syracuse University; they're controlled by whomever buys the rights for all D1 sports coverage (ESPN, I think) from the NCAA. This would be most important for basketball, but it's also true for football.
Third is also the politics of WAER stomping on WJPZ, the 100 watt student station at Syracuse which has a long and storied tradition of being the starting place of many very famous broadcasters. They are a formatted Top 40 station (or at least they were) but they also cover a lot of the "lesser" SU sports that WAER would have to claim in order to be "the SU sports station." That wouldn't be impossible, but it would likely raise some hackles amongst faculty and staff.
There's another factor to consider here: at WEOS we aired a lot (100+ games/yr) of HWS sports. Now unlike SU sports that have regional appeal, HWS sports are just not that popular outside of alumni and parents. Invariably we'd get complaints from NPR News fans about our football & lacrosse game coverage, and the webcast stats indicated that the biggest draw (by a wide margin) was when Hobart played Syracuse lacrosse because our webcast was the only one that wasn't PPV and all the SU fans flocked to it. :)
This is not quite analogous to the idea of WAER becoming all-sports/talk, but it still would give me pause: public radio listeners don't look to public radio for sports/talk. And judging from the qualities of the callers to my local sports station, I'd say an awful lot of sports/talk listeners aren't interested in public radio; the quieter, reasoned analysis that's a hallmark of public radio is the antithesis of what I typically hear on my local sports/talk stations. As I said, it would take an awful lot of effort to change that perception on either side.